Voice of Design

We sit down with Max-Beverton Palmer, Head of Tech and Society at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, to discuss his work helping policy-makers address challenges around the world. Max wanted you all to know that the world has clearly changed a lot since this podcast was recorded, but the political and technology principles discussed haven’t. The Institute Max works for has pivoted to tackling the crisis. You can find more here, and two reports on how we use tech to get through the current crisis: Digital Policy for a Lockdown: How Tech Can Help Us Adapt to a Radically Altered World A Price Worth Paying: Tech, Privacy and the Fight Against Covid-19   EPISODE LINKS Max on Twitter Narratives of Hate: The Spectrum of Far-right Worldviews in the UK Diversify by June Sarpong The Bretton Woods Conference, 1944 Sky parental control design      

We get the band back together! Our lawyer Gabe Levine joins us to reminisce about contract negotiations past and discuss the fundamentals of negotiation for designers, or anyone, really.   ----more----EPISODE LINKS Gabriel Levine | LinkedIn Matchstick | Lawyers for creative business Matchstick | Service Agreement Field Manual Running From the Law Welcome to the age of surveillance capitalism | The Guardian    

Accessibility consultant and trainer Elle Waters joins us to talk about the importance of inclusive design, and why we aren’t there yet. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS Level Access Universal design - Wikipedia   There's also a transcript available here.    

Yonah Camacho Diamond, union organizer with the Communications Workers of America explains how unions works in the US. We discuss why tech workers might want to consider organizing and the process for doing so. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS    Communications Workers of America CWA District 9 AFL-CIO  

John Hanawalt, designer and co-founder of the Queer Design Club, returns to Mule to tell us about his work to celebrate queer contributions to the design industry and foster community, and especially the Queer Design Count. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS    John Hanawalt ​​John on Medium Queer Design Club ​​Stitch Fix Design Census 2019 The Queer Design Count Diversity at Dropbox tweet   

Kio Stark, author of When Strangers Meet, TED speaker, and person who by her own admission makes strange faces, joins us to talk about the benefits of talking to people you don’t know. We talk about ways to step out of your comfort zone to experience moments of ‘fleeting intimacy’ without coming across as a sociopath. And it turns out this is all connected to research. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS    Kio Stark Kio on Twitter Why you should talk to strangers | TED Talks When Strangers Meet: How People You Don't Know Can Transform You Glide.org Kindergarteners are choosing how they're greeted... BBC interviewee interrupted by his children live on air Just Enough Research, Second Edition    

Kristina Halvorson, founder of Brain Traffic and Confab: the Content Strategy Conference joins us to talk about content, and strategy, and why some people continue to be wrong on the internet. Also, what’s up with supervillain lairs? ----more----   EPISODE LINKS  contentstrategy.com Brain Traffic Kristina on Twitter Confab: The Content Strategy Conference What is Design Thinking? - IDEO U What Does a Content Strategist Do?    

  Design pioneer, entrepreneur, author, and longtime friend of Mule Nathan Shedroff joins us to talk about innovation, sustainability, and the Cats trailer. Nathan co-founded one of the first web services firms ever, went on to create the ground-breaking Design MBA program at California College of the Arts (CCA), and is now executive director of Seed Vault Ltd, building an independent, trusted bot economy on the blockchain. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS  nathan.com Nathan on Twitter Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction Cats (2019 film) Jupiter Ascending The US Navy will replace its touchscreen controls with mechanical ones on its destroyers Secrets of the Dead | World War Speed Banned TED Talk: Nick Hanauer "Rich people don't create jobs” Business Today Needs Deanna Troi Hot desking Design is the Solution    

Mike wrote a book about ethics. We also talk inexpertly about equines and touch on the stupidity of gender reveal parties and Ayn Rand fans. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS  Mike on Twitter ruinedby.design "Ayn Rand was a dick." shirt by Mule Design    

Jeff Tidwell, entrepreneur and long-time friend of Mule joins us to talk about his latest project. Next For Me is a resource for people 50+ as they navigate new work and social contributions. We discuss ageism, opportunities to build a better society, and the relationship of kids these days to our lawns. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS  Jeff on Twitter Jeff on LinkedIn Next For Me encore.org    

We are joined by Lynne Polischuik, a veteran researcher, founder of LynneUX, and Canadian with a small weird dog. She shares what she’s learned over her career moving from marketing and analytics to the qualitative side of things working with organizations like Google, Automattic, and HealthCare.gov. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS  Lynne on Twitter Clement Mok On Surveys    

Mike, who makes better coffee than Larisa, and Larisa, who is better at math than Mike, are joined in the studio by David Dylan Thomas to talk about cognitive bias. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS  daviddylanthomas.com David on Twitter David on Medium Cognitive bias - Wikipedia Hawthorne effect - Wikipedia Clever Hans - Wikipedia Orchestrating Impartiality: The Impact of“Blind” Auditions on Female Musicians Rhyme-as-reason effect - Wikipedia Plain Language Act 18F When It Comes to Gorillas, Google Photos Remains Blind The Cognitive Bias podcast Think Company Letter from Birmingham Jail - Wikipedia The Lobster The Favorite Rizzo statue will remain at Thomas Paine Plaza for now      

We sit down with the legendary Jen Simmons, currently Designer and Developer Advocate at Mozilla, to take stock of the web in 2019. Design, technology, platforms, ethics, operations, remix culture, CSS. It’s all in there. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS  Jen Simmons Jen Simmons on Twitter The Web Ahead CSS Grid Inspector Say hello, new logo | The Official Slack Blog The Experimental Layout Lab Cut the Bias | A Mule Workshop The Anatomy of Change | What we’ve learned from our own gender bias workshop The Little Book of Common Sense Investing In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell Layout Land This is Marketing | Seth’s Blog Everything You Know About Web Design Just Changed by Jen Simmons     

We catch up with John Mahoney, Vice President of Digital Products at National Audubon Society for the National Audubon Society. Four years after a successful launch, we reflect on what it took to create a flexible new design system and achieve lasting change for a complex organization. A big part was “soaking in the pain.” ----more----   EPISODE LINKS  National Audubon Society John Mahoney on Twitter The Audubon Bird Guide App Birds! American Animals A Rare Copy of Audubon’s ‘Birds of America’ Heads to Auction to Benefit Conservation    

We welcome Nate Bolt, the founder of Ethnio and author of Remote Research, to talk about talking to the right people, why so many businesses go about qualitative research the wrong way, and how powerful a simple conversation can be. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS    Ethnio General Magic Dementia & User Research    image: Casual Friday Gets *Really* Weird by Nate Bolt via Flickr    

Stephanie Lucas, Senior UX Designer at LinkedIn joins us to share how she incorporated principles from the Mule ethics workshop into her practice. Inspired by a comment from another participant, Stephanie created a Red Team/Blue Team workshop to uncover how bad actors might wreak havoc on the platform. We talk about using an ethical framework to make better choices. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS    Stephanie Lucas - Senior UX Designer, Member Trust, Privacy, and Help What Are“Ethics in Design”? Mule Workshop :: Design Ethics A Designer’s Code of Ethics Posters Madame Bovary HBO | Silicon Valley Black Mirror BoJack Horseman One of Us The Well Vice News | We posed as 100 Senators to run ads on Facebook. Facebook approved all of them. The Matrix  

It’s a new season of VOD, and the theme is design practice. After contemplating the tyranny of seaside pumpkins, Erika and Larisa talk about the promise and pitfalls of various approaches to design in the delivery-focused organization.  ----more----   EPISODE LINKS    Trader Joe’s pumpkin products Pumpkin Festival The Irish Coffee Story  

Is the problem with systems design that we’ve forgotten how to make good compromises? Strategic designer and co-founder of Dash Marshall Bryan Boyer talks about his work thinking about the future from the vantage point of Detroit and formerly, Finland. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS    Dash Marshall Civic Futures: Notes on Dash Marshall’s work at the intersection of architecture, technology, and society HDL Blog - Helsinki Design Lab Construction of Michigan's tallest building begins with underground demolition Six Powerful insights from the creative shape shifter, R. Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller, Furthering Humanity    

Scratch a follower of Ayn Rand and you’ll find someone who looks to the government for help in a hurricane. Pragmatic design leader and public sector champion Cyd Harrell joins us to talk about the practice of designing systems for citizens. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS    18F Space Camp The Legacy Museum & The National Memorial for Peace and Justice Why Disney World Has Its Own Government Get Into Government: An Insider's Tips for Breaking In California Government Operations Agency Web Standards and Design System for California Government U.S. Web Design System Code for America Brigade Network Tech for Campaigns Ragtag Menudo Hatch Act of 1939, An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities Slow Ideas EveryoneOn    

While we weren’t paying attention, software ate the world and barfed up a hellscape. By taking a broader set of perspectives, designers can work with informed intention to create ethical and profitable systems. ----more----   EPISODE LINKS    Thinking in Triplicate Facebook Ad Campaign John Elkington Triple bottom line Slaughterhouse-Five Too good to survive: The rise and fall of Rdio Basecamp Barber surgeon Womb Chair Ball Chair They Live    

We sat down with Dan Brown to talk about the joy and pain of facilitation, issues with various types of maps, and why designers have to get comfortable talking to people. Dan is a titan of Information Architecture, co-founder of EightShapes, and the author of several useful books and tools for doing better design work. Apologies to Boston. ----more----  EPISODE LINKS Dan Brown EightShapes Twitter Medium   Dan’s cards Information Architecture Lenses Twitter Medium   Dan’s book Practical Design Discovery   California Three States Initiative ballotpedia.org   #unicorn Vans They're real   IA Summit iasummit.org   Jared Spool Wikipedia Center Centre Medium    

Don’t call it gamification. Author, game designer, and CEO of Shufflebrain, Amy Jo Kim joins us to talk about her Game Thinking methodology, the joy of working independently, and getting clients to walk through the fire and accept criticism they might not want to hear.     P.S. Amy Jo has a podcast! Getting2Alpha        

Designer Khoi Vinh joins us to talk about his take on the job of a designer and his efforts to make the field more accessible.     EPISODE LINKS   In Defense of Design Thinking, Which Is Terrible Fiverr 99designs Apple Swift CodePen Design is a Job Juicero Adobe XD Designer News    

What is the job of a designer? This is our first episode and this topic will be the theme of our first season.