UX Design Community Archives - User Defenders®

021: Designing for Happiness with Drew Lepp

Creativity

021: Designing for Happiness with Drew Lepp

00:00 / 1:20:41

Drew Lepp encourages us to learn the business side of technology in order to achieve greater success with our designs. She encourages us to always know why we’re doing what we’re doing, and to be able to clearly articulate why every element on the page is there. She inspires us to fight on in our work especially when we grow weary because what we’re doing can make a world of difference in the lives of many. She also motivates us to be our authentic selves and to follow our values and what we think is important.

Drew Lepp (Pizazz) is the UX Director and Co-Founder at TimeKat which is a delightful time tracking, task and project management tool. She’s runs her own UX Design consulting biz where she designs incredibly beautiful and usable digital experiences. She believes in putting her heart into everything she creates while focusing on delivering thoughtfully simple experiences that are engaging, compelling, memorable and fun. She lives almost entirely on sugary snacks.

Secret Identity/Origin Story (2:27)
Biggest Superhero (12:02)
Second Career Choice (14:18)
Biggest Failure (17:38)
How Do You Measure Delight? (26:04)
Awkward Testing Story (30:38)
Design Superpower (36:05)
Design Kryptonite (38:30)
Fight For Users (49:10)
Design Superhero Name (52:55)
Future Of UX Design (54:10)
Habit Of Success (59:55)
Invincible Resource (1:02:30)
Book Recommendation (1:04:49)
Best Advice (1:08:00)
Advice On Color Usage (1:10:20)
Most Excited About (1:16:25)
Contact Info (1:18:26)

Continue reading 021: Designing for Happiness with Drew Lepp

020: Stay Enchanted with Jeffrey Zeldman (Part I)

Web Design

020: Stay Enchanted with Jeffrey Zeldman (Part I)

00:00 / 42:04

User Defenders "Zeld Man" Jeffrey Zeldman

Don’t miss Part II of this unforgettable interview with Jeffrey Zeldman.

Jeffrey Zeldman dives deep into his origin story to enlighten us on how he got started on the Web. He inspires us to not get caught up in the buzzwords, but to keep it simple and clear. He also gets vulnerable to reveal how overcoming his biggest failure has led to his greatest successes.

Jeffrey Zeldman is the Godfather of Web Design, and unquestionably the greatest friend of the Web. He’s a guy behind highly esteemed Web Design content initiatives such as A List Apart, An Event Apart and A Book Apart. He’s a prolific speaker and heavily influential blogger. He’s the Author of the our industry’s staple: Designing with Web Standards. He’s the host of The Big Web Show. He’s also the founder of renown Web Design studio Happy Cog. Back in the day, he played synth and Casiotone with The Insect Surfers, a DC post-punk techno-surf band.

LINKS
Jeffrey’s Twitter
Jeffrey’s Website

DESIGN SUPERPOWER
I think it’s my ability to talk and communicate. I never learn the buzzwords. As long as I’ve been in this field, I still speak in down-to-earth terms and I think it’s really helpful. I went through a period of extreme pretension in my early 20’s in the way I expressed myself. I wanted everyone to know how smart I was it was…like the one thing about myself that I was proud of I guess–and man it’s a big mistake. I’m able to listen, synthesize and feed-back what seems to be happening in a way that makes sense.

DESIGN KRYPTONITE
Bullying. People can steamroller me. I hire good people, let them do what they do, and try not to interfere. My worst characteristic is that I’m not always strong enough with my people. I’m better with clients. I’m not afraid of clients–it’s mainly people that I’m close to, and I don’t want to confront them.

SUPERHERO NAME
Zeld Man

HOW DO YOU FIGHT FOR YOUR USERS?
It’s a combination of listening, research, testing, and also just gut instinct. I don’t want to underrate gut instinct. I think you have to have a tremendous instinct as a designer, and say I wouldn’t do it this way. And then you have to test those assumptions because you’re often wrong. The longer we’re designers, the more we think differently about other people and therefore the natural way we would do something isn’t the way that everyone else would do it. You have to have a feeling for what things work, and then you have to test. I think we underestimate users a lot.

FUTURE OF UX
I think all the principles we’ve been discussing are going to stay the same. We’re still going to be facilitating people uploading their own content and interacting with their friends’ content. We’re still going to be facilitating people watching professional content, and reading professional content. There’ll be a continual blurring of the the lines between both. More wearables, smaller screens like watches. They’re going to be more things we interact with using part of our bodies. Where we interact without looking at something. There will be many more sensors in place to make people’s lives easier, more convenient and more fulfilling. Those are the challenges. The other challenges are keeping it human. I think we’re going to have to be protecting people, and liberating and empowering, but not enslaving. And that’s always tricky.

HABIT OF SUCCESS
Writing. I would not know what I believed if I didn’t write it down and express it. I wouldn’t have design opinions. I love instincts and working on instincts, but I really need to use words to just step back from the trance of doing design as a physical practice.

BEST ADVICE
Don’t be discouraged. Don’t stop. And don’t settle.

USE YOUR SUPERPOWER OF SUPPORT
Here’s your chance to use your superpower of support. Don’t rely on telepathy alone! If you’re enjoying the show, would you take two minutes and leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts? I’d also be willing to remove my cloak of invisibility from your inbox if you’d subscribe to the newsletter for superguest announcements and more, occasionally.

SUPER-CRED
Artwork by Cesar Lemus | Editing by Chris Combs | Music by Wyman Gentry

012: You Can Only Keep What You Have if You’re Willing to Give it Away with KaL MichaeL

Empathy

012: You Can Only Keep What You Have if You’re Willing to Give it Away with KaL MichaeL

00:00 / 53:13

KaL MichaeL teaches us that empathy is less of something we practice and more of a result of patience and perseverance. He challenges us to remain humble enough to know that we do not know everything, and what we don’t know will always far surpass what we do know. He also encourages us to own our skill sets and to not do anything blindly like following trends for the sake of trends.

KaL is a passionate UI and Experience Designer and has been affecting change and improving lives through his design work for the past 14 years. Five and a half of those years were spent as Lead Creative at Apple improving the retail corporate site experience and building internal sites for enhanced communications. He’s utilized his expertise in iOS and Mac design solutions through his design of the award-winning PDF Expert app. He also has a meticulous attention to detail always remains open and teachable in advancing the tech industry. One way he’s doing that is through his work as a Mentor with Cascade SF.

LINKS
KaL’s Website
KaL’s Twitter
ODI
Spark
Plaaying for Mac

[RESOURCE] Draw everything.
[BOOK] What Customers Want

SUPER-CRED
Artwork by Cesar Lemus | Editing by Chris Combs | Music by Wyman Gentry

Continue reading 012: You Can Only Keep What You Have if You’re Willing to Give it Away with KaL MichaeL

005: Surround Yourself with People That Reflect Who You Want to Become with Andi Galpern

Mentorship

005: Surround Yourself with People That Reflect Who You Want to Become with Andi Galpern

00:00 / 36:57

User Defenders "Elle Faye" Andi Galpern

Andi Galpern inspires us to ask where do we want to go, and then encourages us to meet a mentor who can help take us there. She states that community is the key to becoming all we can be and that five minutes with the right person can change our lives.

Andi Galpern is founder of the design and technology organization Cascade SF. Located in the Bay Area, Cascade SF puts on events as a go-to space for designers to learn new skills, connect with industry leaders, mentor and stay relevant to the job market. She also is a fantastic designer and UX strategist who designs for human emotion.

LINKS
Cascade SF
Andi’s Twitter
CooperU

[RESOURCE] Your brain and the community. Pinterest is great for design inspiration. Revisiting 3rd grade and learning grammar, English and how to construct a really clean sentence. Because that’s the core of User Experience. You’re combining visuals and words and people have to be able to comprehend what you’re creating.
[BOOK] Just Enough Research
[BOOK] Mobile First
[BOOK] Lean Analytics

SUPER-CRED
Artwork by Cesar Lemus | Editing by Chris Combs | Music by Wyman Gentry

Continue reading 005: Surround Yourself with People That Reflect Who You Want to Become with Andi Galpern