UX IRL

We are back with a live edition of Help Desk featuring fresh questions from Reddit and… YOU!  Watch the recording: https://www.youtube.com/live/uwGn-N7I5bs?si=_uV6ZgozIdFhxOWB Join our livestream on YouTube and Twitch every month. We'd love to hear from you in real-time!

The Information Architecture Conference (IAC) recently wrapped up May 3rd, and we've got the inside scoop from the folks running what continues to be one of our favorite conferences. We spoke with Ashley Brewer, IAC25 co-chair, and Kyle Soucy, Career Center coordinator, on what to expect prior to the conference, why gathering in-person is critical in 2025, and how first-time attendees make the most of their experience. Watch the recording: https://www.youtube.com/live/LZBL5wtHqMk?si=j5qhFdotW44hH319 Join our livestream on YouTube and Twitch every month. We'd love to hear from you in real-time!

This is our 72nd episode of UX in Real Life, but our first episode in the new, live format! In this episode, we chat about one of our favorite places—Japan!

Hi friends, Michelle and Mary Fran are, in true UX fasion, iterating on UX IRL! In the new year, we've got some fun annoucements for how the podcast is going to change. We'll share more details soon! In the mean time, we're releasing an episode on how to tackle tough interview questions.

We are taking a break this month to get ready for the holidays, and what better time to revisit Goal Setting! Get ready for our hot takes on New Year's resolutions and learn more about how we set goals. Hope everyone has a relaxing holiday season, and we look forward to seeing you in the new year!

We had a fantastic time hosting our Unconventional UX Blueprints workshop at UX Y'all this year! In this episode, we recap the workshop and the experience of engaging and building community. It was a truly fun and heartwarming experience. Take a listen and we'll be making the guidance available online soon!

UX Y'all is still working on getting us audio from our workshop, so no new episode this week, BUT we have a special re-release! This one is all about speaking at conferences, specifically using our talk from UX Y'all 2 years ago. Hope you enjoy!

We're kicking of Season 4! We have some fun updates to share about the UX IRL podcast. And UX Y'all will be here soon! We also share more about the workshop we're facilitating. While the conference is sold out, there's a waitlist you can join. But we hope to see you there!

In our S3 finale, we talk about how to set boundaries at work and our personal lives, and why it's especially tough for UXers to do this. 

Michelle and Mary Fran are taking a break this week, so enjoy this re-release all about Modified Delphi Card Sorting!

As UXers, creating consistency is often a tenet for the experiences we create. But is there ever a problem with consistency? In this episode, we talk about scenarios when consistency can do more harm than good. Do you have any examples of when consistency was bad? We'd love to know!

In this episode, we explore the RACI matrix for project management and why we think it's the worst. Learn about RACI, how it falls short, and what might work better for UXers and product teams. What's your take? We'd love to know if you aren't a fan of RACI either and if you've tried other alternatives. Feel free to reach out to us on LinkedIn.

We're back with another installment of the UX Help Desk! Reddit continues to provide a plethora of great questions, so we pulled a few to break down that cover topics like how to transition from start up to eneterprise and red flags in in the interview process.

We look at the UX of something IRL - home automation! We cover the basics of home automation, some advanced experiences you can create, and how to design them using your UX skills. We'd love to hear from you, reach out to us on LinkedIn (michelletchin, maryfran-ux).

Hey friends! We're extending our break a bit longer than planned. In honor of International Women's Day, we're re-releasing our episode on Women in UX, which is all about the women in UX that inspire us. We also take some time to discuss how to talk about yourself professionally, (which can be harder than you think) as part of our career goals series.

Hey friends! We're taking a break this week and revisiting Keeping Current with UX. See you back in 2 weeks for a new episode :)

This is Part 2 of addressing the UX Research Reckoning. Definitely check out Part 1 (the last episode), where we unpack Judd Antin's thoughts and give our own hot takes on this topic. In this episode, we talk about what we can do about it. We'd love to know what you think. Feel free to comment below or contact us on LinkedIn.

What's wrong with UX research today? According to Judd Antin, there's a lot, and he wrote an entire article on it. The heyday of research from the past 15 years is gone, and UX researchers are being let go. Presumably, because they don't provide business value. We unpack his thoughts and give our own hot takes on this topic. In Part 2, we'll talk about what we can do about it. We'd love to know what you think.

We're taking a break this week but thought it would be a great opportunity to revisit one of our favorite episodes: Portfolio Case Studies! 

Is the grass greener on the other side? Today, we talk about our experiences working at agencies and on in-house teams as designers. We cover what we liked and definitely didn't like and the benefits of working in each setup. What's been your experience? Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (zeroheight.com/slack), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

About a year ago (Ep. 34), we experimented with ChatGPT for fun. AI is such a big thing now, that we wanted to revisit what it's like for us as UXers - what we use it for, how you can use it for UX work, and more! Let us know how you've used AI in your work or outside of work. We'd love to hear your perspective.

We're back with the UX Help Desk! Michelle did a deep dive into the UX Reddit and pulled 3 great questions for us to talk through covering everything from designing with real data, recruitiers asking for figma links (!?), to examples of gamification. If you have any burning UX questions, feel free to reach out to us on LinkedIn and we can address it in a future episode!

UX Y'all is one of our favorite conferences! We discuss our favorite talks and our experience speaking at and volunteering with them. We hope you consider attending a future UX Y'all conference and maybe we'll see you there! As always, keep in touch with us on the zeroheight Slack community! (zeroheight.com/slack), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

We love trying new tools and we're giving Penpot a spin in this episode! Penpot is an open-source, browser-based design and prototyping tool. Sight unseen, we give it a shot. Try it out too and let us know what you think! 

In honor of ADHD awareness month, Michelle and Mary Fran talk about their experiences with ADHD IRL. Topics includ everything from how they got diagnosed, to how it's impacted their respective UX journeys, to advice for those with ADHD and those working with coworkers who have ADHD. 

 We're back with part 2 of our Information Architecture Conference recap! If you missed part 1, be sure to check it out. Today, we recap 3 more of our favorite talks PLUS share what we enjoyed most about the conference and what we would improve.

We are FINALLY getting to talk about the Information Architecture Conference! Part 1 of 2. Topics include what makes this conference special, what it is, why we were excited to go to it, as well as highlighting 3 of our favorite talks. Part 2 will include 3 more talks we loved, as well a little more about what we got up to in New Orleans!

It's Season 3! We're excited about the new season and are kicking it off with an update on our summer reading. What books did we read? We talk about reading essentials and books for fun. Do you have recommendations? Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (zeroheight.com/slack), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

Summer is upon us! We talk about their summer plans and some books we're excited to read. This wraps up Season 2 of UX IRL, and we're taking a break to recharge, brainstorm, and iterate for an exciting Season 3. We hope you have a great summer, and if you're reading any good books - design-related, fiction, or non-fiction, let us know! Have a great summer!

Mary Fran's team is navigating the world of design systems. She checks in with Michelle, whose primary focus is design systems, for advice and guidance. If you have questions you'd like answers to, reach out to us on LinkedIn or social media. We love nerding out about design systems, so we're happy to discuss it. Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

We had so much to say in our last help desk episode that we didn't get to everything! But that's OK, we're continuing in this episode. Picking up where we left off, we have three really interesting asks. If you have questions you'd like answers to, reach out to us on LinkedIn or social media. We might feature your question in a future episode! Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

The UX Help Desk is back! We love doing help desk episodes and we're back answering more questions. We tackle questions from Reddit - meeting culture, appropriate/ethic user research, and more! If you have questions you'd like answers to, reach out to us on LinkedIn or social media. We might feature your question in a future episode!

We're taking a break again this week to get some rest after IAC. We'll be back in 2 weeks with new episodes! To fill the void, we thought it'd be fitting to re-release our episode on IA in Product to celebrate our first time presenting at the Information Architecture Conference.

Michelle and Mary Fran are prepping for IAC (Information Architecture Conference) this week. We hope to see you there! We'll be presenting on Thursday, March 30th.  In lieu of a new episode, we're re-releasing a favorite of ours from season 1 all about our UX book toolbox!  

We're bringing back something we used to do during Studio Friday at Citrix - where we'd share UX/tech-related news that was interesting to us. Learning about new things and discussing their meaning from a UX perspective was fun. What have you been reading lately? Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

We're going on a rant! We have a few things that annoy us about work, outside of work, and just terrible UX. Here's what's been getting under our skin lately–does it resonate with you? What's been bugging you lately? We'd love to hear and sharing with us can be cathartic. Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

Burnout in tech is real. And it's important to talk about it and normalize it rather than feel ashamed. We talk about what burnout has been like for us, what you can do when you're feeling burnt out, and most importantly—ways to prevent it. We'd love to hear how you've navigated burnout and what you do to avoid it. Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.   

We're covering approaches to starting a new job (fast and slow) and we also learn more about Mary Fran's new job! What has starting a new job been like for you? Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

We talk about those tougher interview questions people ask! We provide approaches, example questions, and ways to prepare yourself to handle them. What are some questions you've been asked? Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

We hope you're enjoying the holiday season! We wanted to re-share one of our most popular episodes - Scrappy Research. We talk about what user research can really be like - scrappy! We'd love to hear how you've accomplished your research goals while being scrappy. Let us know in our show notes or on social media.

We're mixing it up this episode with a virtual guest, OpenAI! We're experimenting to see how good it is. Is it creative? Accurate? Hilarious? Tune in and find out! If you've experimented with OpenAI or ChatGPT, let us know! Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

In this episode, we're actually talking about UX in real life! We dive into some good and bad UX finds out in the wild. We hope this inspires you to find examples and please send them our way! Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

We can't believe Thanksgiving is almost here! In this episode, we discuss our plans, what we're thankful for, Thanksgiving food, our take on pumpkin spice, and organizations for Giving Tuesday. Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment in our show notes or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or  Instagram @ux.inreallife. 

This is a special rerelease of our very first episode to celebrate our 1 year anniversary! Get to know us a little better by hearing our background and paths to UX — because no two paths are the same! If you're UX curious, we hope you find some of our takeaways inspiring. For our more seasoned friends, we'd love to hear about your paths. You can reach out to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

In this episode, we talk about our childhood fears, what we were scared of in UX starting out, UX trends that frighten us, and UX horror stories. Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or  Instagram @ux.inreallife.

This is a special episode! Mary Fran and Michelle recorded this IRL in Durham, NC, the weekend after UX Y'all. We talk about our journey from applying to speak at a conference all the way to us presenting at UX Y'all. If you're interested in speaking at a conference, we hope this gives you some insight into what it's like and that it's nothing to really be afraid of! :) Are you interested in presenting at a conference? Let us know! You can reach out to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or on Instagram @ux.inreallife. 

The UX Help Desk is back! We are answering questions from listeners and Redditors. If you have a question, chat with us on the zeroheight Slack community (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below, or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

In this episode, we talk about World Design Systems Week and Wiretober! We're excited about both these things and hope you can participate in them. Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife. 

The UX Help Desk is back! We are answering questions from our listeners and Redditors. If you have a question, contact us or talk to us IRL at UX Y'all! If you can't make it to UX Y'all, you can chat with us on the zeroheight Slack community (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below, or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

In this episode, we talk about the music we're UXing to! We include what you, our listeners, are  playing for moments of focus, motivation, and more. Thanks to everyone who shared their favorite artists and playlists! We've included several links in our show notes so you can add some new ideas to your routine. Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

UX assessments seem to be a trend we're continuing to see. We have several questions about them, including their validity. So we took one to find out. Join us in this adventure to see what taking one is like. Have you tried one before? Did you try one after listening? Let us know what you think! Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.