Podcasts about aarron walter

Our podcast network, The Curiosity Department, has a new show called Reconsidering. Though design and your work are a big part of who you are, you are so much more. Reconsidering is a show hosted by designers that aims to bring fresh eyes to the important things in life. Co-hosts Meredith Black, formerly at Pinterest and Figma, Bob Baxley, formerly at Apple and Thoughtspot, and Aarron Walter explore topics like how to build a fulfilling career, navigate big life changes like illness and death, and we talk with experts about the skills you need to cultivate to become the healthy, well adjusted adult we all want to be. You can learn more about Reconsidering and subscribe to the show at Reconsidering.org. But to give you a taste, we're sharing an episode here. Bob, Meredith, and Aarron talked to Brad Stuhlberg, who writes about excellence, resilience, performance, and well-being. His latest book, Mastering Change, is a New York Times best-seller and a great read as we enter the new year with big goals for ourselves. Brad's in depth research and lucid guidance made an impression on us, and we know it will do the same for you.  --- Like it or not, change is inevitable. Your career, relationships, body, health, mood are all in constant motion. We can fight it but it's unproductive and leads to suffering.  Our pal Brad Stulberg is back on the show to help us look at change differently. His new book Master of Change: How To Excel When Everything Is Changing - Including You is full of deeply researched wisdom from science and philosophy that will help you become more resilient and adaptable. About Brad Stulberg Brad Stulberg researches, writes, and coaches on health, well-being, and sustainable excellence. He is the bestselling author of The Practice of Groundedness and co-author of Peak Performance. Stulberg regularly contributes to the New York Times, and his work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Outside Magazine, Forbes, and other outlets. He also serves as the co-host of The Growth Equation podcast and is on faculty at the University of Michigan's Graduate School of Public Health. In his coaching practice, he works with executives, entrepreneurs, physicians, and athletes on their mental skills and overall well-being. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

In this special, live episode from the Config conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Jesse James Garrett recounts his significant career co-founding Adaptive Path, pioneering foundational processes in software design, and navigating strange waters as his company was sold to Capital One. Just as he was finding his footing as a design executive coach, he got a cancer diagnosis that reshaped his view on work and life. Now on the other side of cancer, he shares what he learned. Transcript and show notes: http://reconsidering.org

Design Better co-hosts Eli Woolery and Aarron Walter explore the intersection of design, technology, and the creative process through conversations with inspiring guests across diverse creative fields, to help you hone your craft, unlock your creative potential, and learn the art of collaboration. Whether you're design curious or a design pro, Design Better is guaranteed to inspire and inform. Vanity Fair calls Design Better, “sharp, to the point, and full of incredibly valuable information for anyone looking to better understand how to build a more innovative world.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I've spent 14 years leading teams to success at organizations like Mailchimp, InVision, and Resolve to Save Lives. I'm also a trusted voice in the design industry as an author, consultant, and co-host of one of the most popular design podcasts.

Being nice is a virtue—until it's not. Compulsively helping and staying positive to the detriment to your sanity and needs can lead to resentment and broken relationships. Dr Aziz Gazipura, author of Not Nice: Stop People Pleasing, Staying Silent, and Feeling Guilty... And Start Speaking Up, Saying No, Asking Boldly, And Unapologetically Being Yourself (https://bookshop.org/p/books/not-nice-stop-people-pleasing-staying-silent-feeling-guilty-and-start-speaking-up-saying-no-asking-boldly-and-unapolo-aziz-gazipura/14231194?ean=9780988979871), wants to help us rethink what it means to be "nice". In this episode, we talk with Dr Aziz about his personal journey from habitual people pleasing to setting boundaries and learning to communicate honestly. He shares practical guidance about how you can be kind, which is different than being nice, while still being true to yourself and your needs. Show notes and transcript: http://reconsidering.substack.com

Americans love a hard worker. The employee who toils eighteen-hour days and eats meals on the run between appointments is usually viewed with a combination of respect and awe. But for many, this lifestyle leads to family problems, a decline in work productivity, and, ultimately, physical and mental burnout. Bryan Robinson, author of Chained to the Desk in a Hybrid World, knows a thing or two about work addiction. He spent years hiding and repressing destructive addition to his work, which took a toll on his relationships. Today, he's helping other break the chain including Allanis Morriset who has “greatly benefited from his guidance, experience, knowledge and wisdom on the topic of healing from what I consider to be the quietest and most insidious (and often praised) addiction in today's times.” Shownotes and transcript: https://reconsidering.substack.com/p/work-addiction-with-bryan-robinson

It's the Thanksgiving holiday break in the US, so we're re-broadcasting one of our favorite episodes about friendship and community, which is very timely as we approach the holiday season. Living in isolation for two years without the support of community clarified for many of us just how nourishing and essential relationships are to us. Now that we're starting to re-enter the world, how might we be more intentional about cultivating community? Tina Roth-Eisenberg—Swissmiss to her hundreds of thousands of followers on the web—has thought about this deeply. She's the founder of Creative Mornings, a global creative community in 224 cities and 67 countries that welcomes thousands of people each month to inspiring events. She's also a master at bringing small groups together for support, and as you'll hear in this episode, pretty clever at building new friendships. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/15

Katherine May first joined us on Reconsidering in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, to talk about her book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times (https://bookshop.org/p/books/wintering-the-power-of-rest-and-retreat-in-difficult-times-katherine-may/16519711?ean=9780593189481). It was a timely topic and a memorable conversation as most of us were confronting one of the most challenging and isolating holidays seasons of our lifetimes. With that moment now thankfully behind us, Katherine has returned with a new book, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age (https://bookshop.org/p/books/enchantment-awakening-wonder-in-an-anxious-age-katherine-may/18582677?ean=9780593329993). This time around, she turns our attention to fundamental questions about how else we might live and in particular how might we find a way to reconnect in a quiet and intimate way with the natural and immediate world that surrounds us all. It's an important question, a wonderful book, and a rich starting point for our conversation. Thanks for listening. Show notes and transcript: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/37

It's time to confront one of life's most certain yet most avoided topics: the end of life. While death eventually greets us all, most of us skirt around the topic and what it means for us and our loved ones. In this illuminating conversation, we aim to demystify this phase of life and empower you to approach it with a sense of preparedness and dignity. Our guest, Shoshana Berger, (https://www.linkedin.com/in/shoshanaberger/) serves as the Global Editorial Director at Ideo (https://www.ideo.com/) and brings a unique expertise to the table. She's worked on transformative projects with Zen Hospice (https://zencaregiving.org/) to improve end-of-life experiences and is also the co-author of the pivotal book 'A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death (https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-beginner-s-guide-to-the-end-practical-advice-for-living-life-and-facing-death-shoshana-berger/6690808?ean=9781501157219)' with Dr. BJ Miller (https://www.ted.com/talks/bj_miller_what_really_matters_at_the_end_of_life?language=en). Together, we'll explore why people are so hesitant to talk about facing death, arm caregivers with essential knowledge for this stage, and discuss how to articulate your own wishes for this profound chapter of life. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/36

In the bestselling book Radical Candor, author Kim Scott laid out a simple framework for how to create, foster, and thrive in a culture that effectively gives and receives feedback—direct, clear, concise, and actionable. However, when you write a book about feedback, well, you get a lot of feedback, and indeed she did. Rather than ignoring or hiding from it, however, Kim decided to do the hard work of internalizing and processing it with the result being her latest book, Just Work. We had the pleasure of talking with Kim about just work, as well as hearing about the personal journey and experiences that motivated her to write it. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/35

Think your job is stressful? Try being an emergency response physician at the Mayo Clinic, one of the top hospitals in the US that sees some of the most extreme emergencies. Dr Richard Winters has been responding under pressure in chaotic situations for a long time, and it's taught him valuable lessons about decision making and leadership. In his book, You're the Leader. Now What?, Richard distills his knowledge into simple frameworks and practical tactics that can help us lead colleagues and communities with confidence and make decisions with clarity. Show notes and transcript: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/34

An apology can mend old wounds, reunite people, and heal communities. Despite the potential power it can have, a good apology is hard to find. There's a simple structure to a good apology we should all have memorized along with the traits of a bad apology that will only lead us into pain and misery. In this episode, we're going to the apology experts for guidance, Marjorie Ingall and Susan McCarthy, authors of the book “Sorry Sorry Sorry: The Case for a good apology” and founders of SorryWatch.com. Marjorie and Susan teach us how to make a good apology and give examples of bad ones. Learning this essential skill will help you preserve and strengthen the most consequential relationships in your life. What could be more important?

Like it or not, change is inevitable. Your career, relationships, body, health, mood are all in constant motion. We can fight it but it's unproductive and leads to suffering. Our pal Brad Stulberg is back on the show to help us look at change differently. His new book Master of Change: How To Excel When Everything Is Changing - Including You is full of deeply researched wisdom from science and philosophy that will help you become more resilient and adaptable. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/32

Design Better co-hosts Eli Woolery and Aarron Walter explore the intersection of design, technology, and the creative process through conversations with inspiring guests across many creative fields. Whether you're design curious or a design pro, Design Better is guaranteed to inspire and inform. Episodes are released semi-weekly. Vanity Fair calls Design Better, “sharp, to the point, and full of incredibly valuable information for anyone looking to better understand how to build a more innovative world.”

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/bonus-episode-with-don-norman-panel In this special bonus episode, renowned scholar and author Don Norman (The Design of Everyday Things, Design for a Better World) leads a discussion with recognized design leaders about how design can and should play a role in solving the biggest challenges of humanity today. This conversation was recorded at a live online event August 17, 2023 produced by the UX Design Institute. Panelists who participated in the conversation with Don Norman include Brenda Laurel (researcher, writer, and consultant), Irene Au (Design partner at Khosla Ventures and former Design Better guest), and our own Aarron Walter. Gareth Dunlop is the MC of the event.In this hour-long conversation the panelists discuss: The role of design in understanding and navigating our current socio-economic challenges How to think about design and UX as humanity-centered versus human-centered How to harness the power of design in creating a better future for all of us Learn more about the UX Design Institute, the gold standard in UX education at: https://www.uxdesigninstitute.com/ Get Don Norman's new book Designing for a Better World at: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047951/design-for-a-better-world/

There's a point in our lives when we're told it's time to grow up and stop playing games. To move away from the trivial pursuits of childhood and get serious about how we spend our time. But what if that advice is wrong? What if games are actually one of the best ways to spend our time and one of our best opportunities to learn about our world and even ourselves? Why are games so embedded in the human experience and how should we think about them as part of our own lives? That's the topic of our discussion today with author Oliver Roeder. Oliver is a senior data journalist at the Financial Times who has also written for the Wall Street Journal, FiveThirtyEight, and the Economist. He is also the author of “Seven Games” – a book about the history and culture of seven of the most popular games in the world today: checkers, chess, go, backgammon, poker, scrabble, and bridge. Show notes, a transcript, and links from this episode are at: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/31

Friendship is something that's easy to take for granted. Meeting friends in our early years might have come easy but as we age friends move away, people couple off, careers and families start and suddenly making friends isn't as easy as it used to be. As many studies have shown, if you want to live a longer, more fulfilling life you'll need to invest in friendships now. In this episode we speak with friendship expert and author of We should get together: The secret to cultivating friendships, Kat Vellos. Kat shares practical guidance to jumpstart and strengthen your friendships. Show notes, a transcript, and links from this episode are at: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/30

Are you one of those people who thrives off a check-list? It feels satisfying to complete things, but the satisfaction only lasts for a fleeting moment as a cleared check-list invites more tasks. It's an exhausting treadmill that inevitably gives rise to guilt and shame when we can't keep up. Madeleine Dore, author of “I Didn't Do the Thing Today; letting go of productivity guilt” joins us to talk about giving yourself permission to let go to focus on what really matters. We'll talk about the difference between happiness and satisfaction, burnout and how to spot it, and how to create your own user manual so we can live a more energized and rewarding life that's tailored just for us. Show notes and links for this episode are at http://reconsidering.org/episodes/29

A few years ago, most of us were still heading into the office five days a week. But the pandemic changed the workplace dramatically. Most of us now work from home or are working in a hybrid environment, which has introduced challanges in our both our personal and professional lives. How do we navigate these changes? Annie Jarvis, Vice President of Product at Indeed, joins us to talk about the future of remote work, what she's seen working at Indeed during the pandemic, and her experiences as a leader working in a remote environment. Show notes and links from this show: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/28

Mentorship can be a powerful force that improves life but it's often hard to come by. Most of us struggle to ask, “will you be my mentor” and may not even know what kind of support or commitment we're asking for. Felix Lee, founder of a thriving community of mentors and mentees called ADP List, saw a lot of people losing their jobs and looking for guidance and support during the pandemic. He also recognized that the crisis had caused people to raise their hand to support those in need. At just 25 years-old, Felix founded an organization that's connecting mentors and mentees in the design and technology industry around the world and chaning the trajectory of thousands of careers. In this episode, Felix Lee shares the power of being a mentor, the rewards of receiving mentorship and how people can come together to enrich and improve their lives. This episode is brought to you by Indeed Design (http://indeed.design), a resource for designers, researchers, and all UX professionals who do design work that matters. Show notes and links: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/27

High school sucks. It's socially awkward, culturally confusing, and academically irrelevant. And though the first two might largely be an inescapable part of the teenage experience, the third is of critical concern to both the stability of society and the health of the economy. Which is why we wanted to spend some time learning more about what's happening in the world of primary education and the ways in which it's affecting the future of work. In this episode, we're joined by Connie Liu, founder of Project Invent – a non-profit who's stated mission is to “…empower students with the 21st-century skills to succeed individually and make an impact globally, through invention… creating a generation of fearless, compassionate problem solvers.” A graduate of both MIT and Stanford, as well as a former high-school teacher at the Nueva School in Silicon Valley, Connie has been a part of some of the most innovative educational institutions in the world. That's given her a unique perspective about both the current state and the future of high school education. Her insights and observations highlight the challenges, opportunities, and promise of where primary education is headed and what that means for us all. This episode is brought to you by Indeed Design (http://indeed.design), a resource for designers, researchers, and all UX professionals who do design work that matters.

As recently as a decade ago, most of Western culture dismissed meditation as a sort of “touchy-feely” pursuit with no real value. Thanks in large part to the rise of meditation apps like Headspace however, that attitude has dramatically shifted from one of skepticism to one of curiosity heading towards broad acceptance. And just in time too as the pandemic and lockdown revealed for all of us the perilous state of the mental health system and the importance of emotional self-care. Our guest today is Leslie Witt, the Chief Product and Designer Officer at Headspace. In this episode we'll touch on the importance of preventive mental health as well as the challenges of taking care of yourself when you're also struggling with the demands of being a business executive, a mom, and of course—your own full person. Show notes and transcript: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/25 This episode is brought to you by Indeed Design, a resource for designers, researchers, and all UX professionals who do design work that matters. Learn more at http://indeed.design

Design Operations, or “Design Ops,” is entering a new era. No longer the new kid on the block, it's becoming a required discipline in many design organizations. We wanted to catch up to see where design ops is now, so who better to chat with than Meredith Black, a guest from our second season back in 2018. After leaving Pinterest, where she was head of Design Operations, Meredith co-founded the DesignOps Assembly, which focuses on fostering community, offering educational opportunities, sharing resources, and generating best practices within the DesignOps Industry. We chat with Meredith about what's changed with design ops in the past four years, the skills that a person needs to be successful in a design ops role, and what she's hoping to accomplish with the DesignOps Assembly. Bio Meredith Black is the co-founder of DesignOps Assembly and now a consultant working with companies worldwide to implement DesignOps within their organizations. Prior, Meredith spent five years at Pinterest, where she started and grew the DesignOps team into an internationally renowned team while also being instrumental in growing and building the Pinterest Product Design Team. You can listen to her discuss DesignOps on an earlier episode of the Design Better Podcast, or check out “The DesignOps Handbook.” Meredith is also the co-host of the Reconsidering Podcast, along with our very own Aarron Walter.

John Maeda would rather be curious than afraid, despite the tectonic shifts in our world. AI—artificial intelligence—is reaching new milestones that foreshadow big changes in many careers. Some ignore what's on the horizon, others acknowledge what's to come but are paralyzed by fear. John Maeda takes a different approach: he just keeps reinventing himself. John jumped from MIT where he was a professor deeply invested in technology to the Rhode Island School of Design where he shook up the traditional notions of creativity. He then went on to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers where he brought design and venture capital closer together. In this episode, John shares why he's always starting over and reconsidering his assumptions and he lays out some of his principles for embracing career and life changes. Show notes and links: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/24 This episode is proudly sponsored by Indeed.design.

Life is hard. We want to think that isn't the case but again and again, the universe shows us we're wrong. We face loss, periods of illness and infirmity, and failure. Such is the human condition and there is no escaping these essential truths. Where better to turn for comfort, insight, and wisdom than the great minds of philosophy that came before us? Our guest, Kieren Setiya, professor of philosophy at MIT, has been on the show before and he's back to share what he's learned writing his most recent book, Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find our Way. Kieren's writings have appeared in London Review of Books, The New York Times, Aeon, and elsewhere. Kieren's unique and thoughtful writings and teaching won't necessarily make life any less hard but they will give you some tools, frameworks, and perspective to think differently about the challenges of life and in the end, what other kind of comfort is there? Show notes and links: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/23

“No regrets.” You've heard people proclaim it as a philosophy of life. That's nonsense, even dangerous, says Dan Pink in his latest book The Power of Regret. Everybody has regrets. They're a fundamental part of our lives. And if we reckon with them in fresh and imaginative ways, we can enlist our regrets to make smarter decisions, perform better at work and school, and deepen our sense of meaning and purpose. In this episode, NYTimes best selling author Dan Pink shares what he learned from his World Regret Survey that collected data from more than 16,000 people in 105 countries. Four core regrets emerged that most people have, and Dan breaks each one down. He also tells us how we can make better life decisions to avoid the most unforgiving of regrets. Show notes and resources mentioned in this episode: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/22

Now that season 2 has wrapped, the Reconsidering team is taking a break. Season 3 is already coming together with exciting new interviews that will further illuminate the elements of a satisfying life. Kieran Setiya will be back to talk about his new book, Life is hard, which explores philosophical insights that can set us on the right path. Dan Pink will share the power of regret and how it can actually help us live a more fulfilling life. And we're working on a special 5 episode series in partnership with our friends at Indeed that will feature inspiring people like Leslie Witt of Headspace and John Maeda. It's going to be an epic season and we're launching September 20. If you have any feedback that will help us improve the show or you just want to say hi, shoot us a message at http://reconsidering.org/contact. We'll be back on September 20 with season 3 of Reconsidering.

In sports, the coach plays the important role of guiding players and delivering the feedback they need to operate at their best. But in our professional lives we almost never have the guidance and support of a coach, which makes it challenging to reach our full potential and at times leaves us trapped in negative behavior cycles. Ed Batista has spent years coaching senior leaders who are facing a series of challenges or seeking greater fulfillment in their role. He's distilled decades of guidance into a self-coaching course at Stanford as well as a book entitled The Art of Self Coaching. In our conversation with Ed, he unpacks the self-coaching methodology and how to shift our aggressive, self-interested warrior approach to work to that of a humble, curious sage. Show notes and a full transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/21

Starting early in childhood, creativity is slowly extracted from our lives. It becomes the domain of the select few of exceptional talent. But creativity can and should be an important part of everyone's life. In this episode of Reconsidering we're going to explore an entirely different way of approaching creative expression—one that sees it not as a destination that yields a singular artifact but rather one that imagines creativity as an essential tool for learning—one that not only tolerates but actually encourages mistakes, feedback, and unjudged curiosity. Our guest is Kaushik Panchal, a designer, writer, and creative director. Over the past few years, he's developed and delivered an amazing workshop that helps teams and individuals reconceptualize the act of creating into a journey of learning and discovery. It's a powerful message and one that we hope will resonate with you as you perhaps reconsider new ways of expressing yourself be that writing, cooking, painting, pottery, or any of other hundreds of forms of art that make life worth living. Show notes and transcript: http://reconsidering.org/episodes/20

If the past few years have taught us anything it is this: don't get too attached to your plans. Or as Patricia Ryan Madson might put it, “Life is something we all make up as we go along.” For many of us, the improvisational life can feel awkward, uncomfortable, and even frightening. But with some practice, reflection, and a slight shift in attitude, it can lead us to a life filled with YES! One where opportunities and adventures flow naturally into our lives—ones that we willingly embrace and follow just to see where they might lead us next. In this episode we're going to learn about the practice of improv from Patricia Ryan Madson, author of “Improve Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up”. Over a career that spans some four decades, Patricia has taught improv to thousands of students at Stanford, online, and at the storied Esalen Institute in Northern California. It's going to be a great conversation…wherever it might go. Show notes and transcripts can be found at: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/19

In this special rewind episode, we re-air one of our most popular interviews that guests on the show have often cited as a favorite. In it Brad Stulberg shares practical guidance to get out of the grind and build a more grounded life. Hustle culture keeps us grinding, busy, overcommitted, rushed, and subsequently ungrounded. It's a phenomenon Brad Stulberg calls “heroic individualism” and it's something he knows all too well from his own life and his performance coaching work with people doing their best to reach their peak. Brad wants to shake us out of the hustle mindset and help us find a more grounded, sustainable existence. His book The Practice of Groundedness provides the framework. In our conversation with Brad he shows us how to neutralize negative talk, be present in the moment, and recognize that how we spend our time day to day is ultimately how we spend our life. Transcript, links, and show notes: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/7

At some point we all struggle with stress, anxiety, and incessant overthinking. Meredith Arthur, author of Get Out of My Head, is on a mission to help us find strategies for defusing these emotional bombs. Meredith founded Beautiful Voyager, an online community where people discuss mental health challenges and support one another on their journey. In this episode we talk with Meredith about her own struggles with mental health and how to muster the courage to admit to our own limitations so we can find a more peaceful path. You'll find a transcript and links to all resources mentioned at http://reconsidering.org/episodes/18

In his New York Times bestselling book Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman writes, “The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short. But that isn't a reason for unremitting despair, or for living in an anxiety-fueled panic about making the most of your limited time. It's a cause for relief. You get to give up on something that was always impossible – the quest to become the optimized, infinitely capable, emotionally invincible, fully independent person you're officially supposed to be. Then you get to roll up your sleeves and start work on what's gloriously possible instead.” In this episode Burkeman presents us with an entirely different way of thinking about time management and our futile attempt to squeeze every ounce of productivity from our already short lives – telling us instead to relax and embrace what is possible, acknowledging and accepting the fact that doing it all was never really an option anyway. You'll find the show notes and a transcript of our conversation at https://reconsidering.org/episodes/16

Though most people pass through a midlife malaise or crisis, few have studied the phenomenon as closely as M.I.T Philosophy Professor Kieran Setiya. As Kieran shares in his book Midlife: A Philosophical Guide, people as far back as ancient Greece have written about midlife crises and searched for answers to life's big questions. In this episode, Kieran Setiya boils down what happens to us at midlife and exposes the wisdom of those who have come before us and found satisfaction as they entered the second half of life. Find the show notes and transcript at http://reconsidering.org/episodes/16

Living in isolation for two years without the support of community clarified for many of us just how nourishing and essential relationships are to us. Now that we're starting to re-enter the world, how might we be more intentional about cultivating community? Tina Roth-Eisenberg—Swissmiss to her hundreds of thousands of followers on the web—has thought about this deeply. She's the founder of Creative Mornings, a global creative community in 224 cities and 67 countries that welcomes thousands of people each month to inspiring events. She's also a master at bringing small groups together for support, and as you'll hear in this episode, pretty clever at building new friendships. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/15

Too often we've been told that the workplace is an arena of competition, a zero-sum game where the strong thrive and the rest barely survive. If we're going to reconsider anything, it's hard to imagine a better place to start than this outdated, outmoded, and destructive model of the workplace. In this episode, Scott Shute, the former Head of Mindfulness and Compassion at LinkedIn and the author of the book, “The Full Body Yes”, shares stories and insights from his experience leading a large-scale mindfulness initiative at a major corporation. We'll also learn about the power of compassion and hear some of his insights about how to start following our own path rather than being buffeted about by the demands and expectations of others. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/14

It's no secret that many of us feel pushed to the limit, rushed, overwhelmed, and perennially behind. We keep our heads down, focused on an endless to-do list without a moment to breathe. How can we break out of this vicious cycle of short-term thinking and create the kind of interesting, meaningful lives we all seek? Dori Clark, Duke University professor and author of The Long Game, wants to help us reorient ourselves towards big picture thinking that will help us make small changes today that will have enormous impact on our future success. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/13

Now that season 1 is wrapped, we're bringing you a special mini-episode to tide you over while we work on season 2. The tables are turned as Bob Baxley and Meredith Black interview their co-host Aarron Walter to uncover his origin story and why the themes of Reconsidering are important to his personal journey. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/12

Now that season 1 is wrapped, we're bringing you a special mini-episode to tide you over while we work on season 2. The tables are turned as Bob Baxley and Aarron Walter interview their co-host Meredith Black to uncover her origin story and why the themes of Reconsidering are important to her personal journey. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/11

Now that season 1 is wrapped, we're bringing you a special mini-episode to tide you over while we work on season 2. The tables are turned as Meredith Black and Aarron Walter interview their co-host Bob Baxley to uncover his origin story and why the themes of Reconsidering are important to his personal journey. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/10

Shanti Brien received a phone call from her husband that changed everything. Authorities started a criminal investigation into her own husband's company and he needed a lawyer to defend him. As a criminal defense attorney, Shanti knew how to navigate these situations but not when it was her own husband facing jail time that could tear her family apart. In this episode, Shanti shares how this moment of crisis and reflection helped her rethink her career as an attorney and inspired her to start a non-profit called Fogbreak Justice and write a book called Almost Innocent. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/9

Katherine May is a mother, nature lover, writing teacher, and a New York Times best selling author. She's also been knocked down many times in her life and found a way forward by embracing the coldest passages of life. Katherine's personal struggle is the subject of her most recent book Wintering, which has influenced many with wisdom about the power of rest and retreat to help us through difficult times. On this episode of Reconsidering, we talk with Katherine about work addiction, illness, guilt about not being productive, and how sometimes we have to accept a period of “wintering” to transform and come out the other side to a life you may not have anticipated. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/8

Hustle culture keeps us grinding, busy, overcommitted, rushed, and subsequently ungrounded. It's a phenomenon Brad Stulberg calls “heroic individualism” and it's something he knows all too well from his own life and his performance coaching work with people doing their best to reach their peak. Brad wants to shake us out of the hustle mindset and help us find a more grounded, sustainable existence. His book The Practice of Groundedness provides the framework. In our conversation with Brad he shows us how to neutralize negative talk, be present in the moment, and recognize that how we spend our time day to day is ultimately how we spend our life. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/7

We all have those moments of uncertainty where we don't know if we should stay put at our careers or jump ship. And sometimes we don't have a choice and are forced to jump. It can lead to an existential crisis. Who am I now? Do I have anything left to offer? What's next? These are all questions pop up in our conversation with our guest, Maria Giudice, who has navigated career change many times with grace.  Maria Giudice is a design executive who has had quite the career in Silicon Valley. She had her own design firm Hot Studio for over 15 years, sold it to Facebook and then went on to lead global design teams at Facebook and Autodesk. After all that time working with executives and championing design, she started to reconsider what her next career chapter was going to look like. Her journey is relatable and honest and full of twists and as you'll find out towards the end of the discussion, also a surprising turn. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/6

Aarron Walter is Director of Product on the COVID Response team at Resolve to Save Lives. Previously, he was VP of Content at InVision, and founded the UX practice at Mailchimp where he helped grow the product from a few thousand users to more than 10 million. He's the author of a number of books, the latest of which is a second edition of Designing for Emotion. In this episode, we talked about: the business case for emotional design, how healthy personal finance lead to better job performance, and Aarron learnings from his recently launched podcast Reconsidering.

Listening. It's a skill that is hard to perfect in a world filled with distractions. But cultivating a satisfying life filled with rich relationships, growth, and connection requires this foundational skill. Getting good at listening to others can also help you tune into your own inner dialogue and emotional state. In this episode, Ximena Vengeochea, author of “Listen like you mean it” explains the art of listening and why it makes us better thought partners at work and at home, provide us with some tips for cultivating the listening mindset, and shares how we can become more empathetic listeners. We also talk about how listening can change the way we build lasting relationships—handy for many of us after a pandemic has stunted our social skills. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/5

For many of us, time slips by mysteriously. It's gobbled up by email, social media infinity pools, and the flotsum and jetsum of life. At the end of the day we're left wondering, “uh, what did I do today?” John Zertasky, co-author of Make Time, wants us to be more aware of and intentional about how we spend our most precious resource—our time. John spent years working at Google and GV, the venture capital arm of Google. With that sort of background you might think John's perspective on time management slants towards productivity and optimizing output, but you'd be wrong. Years in the tech industry grind where attention is fragmented and speed is fetishized have given John clarity that a laser focus on what's important is the path to satisfaction and balance. John's perspective will help you reflect on what's most important in your life so you can allocate your time accordingly and find highlights every day. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/4

Careers, careers, is there anything else so central to our lives that is so ill-defined and largely misunderstood? Academic career, sports careers, college careers. It seems we're awash in careers, and yet when it comes to our professional career, the one that really matters, many of us feel somewhere between uncertain and confused. Unable to see or appreciate the common patterns or longer arcs that might allow us to understand, process, and position our own ambitions, successes, and disappointments. On this episode we talk with Judy Wert, co-founder of Wert & Company, an executive recruiting and search firm that specializes in creative and business leaders. Trained as a designer, Judy has a unique and powerful perspective— one that's been honed over her 25 years of talking to designers, building relationships, cataloging conversations, and coming to understand the journey, challenges and patterns many of us move through as we evolve in both our personal and professional lives. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/3

Nearly 50% of the US workforce is reconsidering their career and thinking about leaving their current job. Was the pandemic the driving force behind this? What does this mean for employees right now? We dive into this with Vipula Gandhi, Head of US Enterprise and Managing Partner at Gallup Inc and the author of a very popular article that some of you may have read called The 'Great Resignation' Is Really the 'Great Discontent'. We talk in detail with Vipula about why people are re-evaluating their current jobs, what employers need to do about it, and what the future of the workplace actually looks like. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/2

For most people the ingredients that go into a satisfying life are mysterious. Certainly career and relationships play a big role but they don't always go as planned which makes satisfaction and happiness mercurial. Bill Burnett, Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford, founder of Stanford's Life Design Lab, and co-author of two best selling books Designing Your Life and Designing Your Work Life, thinks of life as a design problem that can be prototyped and iterated upon using design thinking. Maybe you're the type of person who already has a life plan. Congrats, you're a rare breed. The problem with most life plans is that our pathway in life is ever changing. How do we plan for the unexpected? In our conversation with Bill he helps us see that change in life is a feature, not a bug. It creates opportunities for incremental improvements and growth. After a historic year of transformation we are all well positioned to rethink life and design something new for ourselves with clarity of convictions and a recognition of what's real. Bill's approach to life design will help you get started in your own process. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/1

In today's episode, I speak with Aaron Walter.  Aaron is Acting Director of Product at Resolve to Save Lives where he explores how design and technology can help fight COVID-19. Formerly, he was the VP of content at InVision with 20 years of experience running product teams and helping companies enact design best practices.  Aarron founded the UX practice at MailChimp and helped grow the product from a few thousand users to more than 10 million. His design guidance has helped the White House, the US Department of State, and many Fortune 500 companies, startups, and venture capital firms. He is the co-host of the Webby-nominated Design Better podcast and has been featured in major publications like Fast Company, TechCrunch, and Vanity Fair among others.We dive into what it means to practice seeking meaning in your career and life, how curiosity helps you to craft a more purposeful career, what it means to navigate a mission-driven profession that aligns with your values and beliefs, and how investing in your emotional intelligence can guide you to a more fulfilling career.  

The pandemic has forced many of us to step back and reflect on what's important. Reconsidering, a new podcast launching Sept 14 from Meredith Black, Aarron Walter, and Bob Baxley, explores how to navigate big transitions in your career, relationships, and values to help you learn how to make a life while making a living.

To celebrate our first podcast milestone, we flipped the script. NN/g UX Specialist Rachel Krause guest-hosts this episode, and interviews host Therese Fessenden about the concept of "delight" in user experience: what it is, why the pursuit of delight can often be a short-sighted and misunderstood endeavor, and how a more holistic approach to interpreting and anticipating user needs can more reliably lead to an experience that delights beyond a single interaction. Read more about the hosts: Therese Fessenden's Articles & Videos (NN/g bio) Rachel Krause's Articles & Videos (NN/g bio) Free resources cited in this episode: A Theory of User Delight: Why Usability Is the Foundation for Delightful Experiences (free article) Design for Emotion (by Daniel Ruston, UX Lead at Google Design) Principles of Emotional Design (Intuit case study by Garron Engstrom) How Delightful! 4 Principles for Designing Experience-Centric Products (Autodesk MLP case study by Maria Giudice) Research: Perspective-Taking Doesn’t Help You Understand What Others Want (HBR article by Tal Eyal, Mary Steffel, Nicholas Epley) Harvard Psychiatrist Identifies 7 Skills to Help You Get Along With Anybody (Inc. article by Carmine Gallo about Helen Riess' work) Other resources cited in this episode: Emerging Patterns in Interface Design (UX Certification course) Persuasive and Emotional Design (UX Certification course) DesignOps: Scaling UX Design and User Research (UX Certification course) Designing for Emotion by Aarron Walter (book)

In this episode of the variable, we get raw and real as we discuss the fundamentals of product design with Eli Woolery from InVision's The Design Better Podcast.  This episode we cover aspects of design, question the dogmatic culture of design-thinking, and uncover some of the underrated skills that set expert designers apart from the pack.  This episode is rich with applicable advice taken from Eli's years of experience working in the industry, interviewing experts as a podcast host, and teaching at Stanford University. About Eli WooleryElijah Woolery is an author, speaker, and designer, with a depth of experience in product, user interface, and user experience design. He currently works as the Senior Director of Design Education at InVision, where he writes, speaks, and runs workshops to help large enterprises adopt better design practices. His design career spans both physical and digital products, and he has worked with companies ranging from startups (his own and others) to Fortune 500 companies.He's the co-host, along with Aarron Walter, of the Design Better Podcast, which was nominated for a Webby in 2020, and has had the pleasure of interviewing creatives like John Maeda, Debbie Millman, Seth Godin, Jason C. Mayden, and the inimitable John Cleese. He wrote The Design Thinking Handbook for InVision, which is currently used in the curriculum at UC Berkeley's Jacobs Institute for Design, as well as USC's Graduate School of Business.In addition to his background in product & industrial design, he has been a professional photographer and filmmaker. He teaches the senior capstone class Implementation to undergraduate Product Designers at Stanford University.Links and other related content from this episode:The Design Better Podcast: https://www.designbetter.co/podcastThe Design Thinking Handbook : https://www.designbetter.co/design-thinkingGreyscalegorilla: https://greyscalegorilla.comErica Hall, Minimum Viable Ethnography:   https://medium.com/mule-design/minimum-viable-ethnography-a047e9358df0Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/thevariabledesign)

The Iowa Idea: Aarron Walter “It's about emotion. Our full range of emotions.” In this episode of The Iowa Idea Podcast, I sit down with Aarron Walter. Aarron is the VP of design publishing at InVision, drawing upon fifteen years of experience running product teams and teaching design to help companies enact design best practices. […]

> Mais d'ou vient cette expression ? Qu'est-ce que le Design émotionnel ? Quels sont les moyens pour déclencher une émotion dans une application mobile ? Qu'est-ce que permet le Design Émotionnel ? > Les références que je cite : les livres Designing for Emotion par Aarron Walter (la version française est : Design Émotionnel) ; "Expérience Utilisateur Mobile" par Amélie Boucher, articles et vidéos et NN Group https://www.nngroup.com/books/emotional-design/ ; la présentation de Carine Lallemand sur le Design Emotionnel https://bit.ly/37Fm8ap > Design + est disponible sur : - Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRMePLXDKVNIKIQaG3StjWO_tYPA3Obmk - Apple Podcasts : https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/design/id1470372088 - Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/7jKE9V0OhhZNlkKAcYmuyY - Google Podcasts : https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9jNWMzNTgwL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz - Deezer : https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/392792 - Overcast : https://overcast.fm/itunes1470372088/design - Pocket Casts : https://pca.st/DP32 - Castbox : https://castbox.fm/channel/Design-%2B-id2184146 - RadioPublic : https://radiopublic.com/design-G1JvDK - Stitcher : https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/Design/design-5 - Anchor : https://anchor.fm/designplus > Merci d'avoir écouté Design +, le podcast français sur le Design UX UI > LG Design UX UI est sur Youtube, pour vous abonner > https://bit.ly/2LSKGTB > Vous souhaitez en savoir plus sur Design + ou bien suivre les coulisses ... Design + est aussi sur Instagram, rejoignez-nous on s'amuse https://www.instagram.com/designplus_podcast/ Copyright © Laurent Gallen 2020 > RSS feed https://anchor.fm/s/c5c3580/podcast/rss #designplus #podcast #design #ux #ui #uxdesign #uidesign #userexperience #userinterface #lgdesignuxui #designingforemotion

As we prepare for the last episode of Season 3, take a look back at some of the stories that have inspired us. In this short update episode, hear from hosts Aarron Walter and Eli Woolery about what they've enjoyed about this season of the Design Better Podcast so far and preview our upcoming episode with Diego Rodriguez, Executive Vice President, Chief Product and Design Officer at Intuit. There's lots more to come, so be sure to subscribe for updates at www.designbetter.com. ___ Design Better by InVision provides unprecedented access to the insights that power the world’s best design teams. ___ Download a library of free ebooks and audiobooks to propel your design team forward at https://www.designbetter.com/books.

In order to be respected as a designer you need to be able to show the value of design. But how do you do that? In this weeks episode Ian Paget interviews Aarron Walter to find out. In this interview we learn how designers can gain the respect of business owners, how to measure the success of a project, Aarrons approach to UX design, and how you can use emotion to create incredible user experiences. Aarron Walter is VP of Design Education at InVision, host of The Design Better Podcast, founder of the UX practice at MailChimp, and author of a number of publications including the book, Designing for Emotion. Books & Resources Mentioned Aarron Walters website. Design Better by InVision. The Design Better Podcast. Designing for Emotion – Amazon UK | Amazon US Universal Principles of Design – Amazon UK | Amazon US The User Experience Team of One – Amazon UK | Amazon US Just Enough Research – Amazon UK | Amazon US Typographie Web – Amazon UK | Amazon US Emotional Design – Amazon UK | Amazon US The Design of Everyday Things – Amazon UK | Amazon US Responsive Web Design A Book Apart Collection Enterprise Design Sprints – Free eBook usertesting.com To keep learning and improving, use SkillShare and the courses from The Futur. For show notes and episode transcription head here: https://logogeek.uk/podcast/aarron-walter/

This week on Digial Noir Presents, we're joined by Aarron Walter - VP of Design Education at InVision. Aarron draws upon 15 years of experience running product teams and teaching design to help companies enact design best practices. He emphasises that design isn't something to be applied to an end product in hopes of making it pretty, but a problem solving process.

Hello, and welcome to Power of Ten, a podcast about designing and operating at many levels, from thoughtful detail through to organisational transformation, to the changes in society in the world.  My name is Andy Polaine, a designer, educator, and writer, and currently group director of client evolution at Fjord. The meta-theme this year for the Fjord trends was 'value'. I was excited to see that InVision, a company whose tools and platform many of our designers use, published their report about the design maturity model.   It’s all about the value of design to business.  I caught up with Leah Buley, a veteran of the experience design industry and the author of the book: The User Experience Team of One.  She’s Director of InVisions’ Design and Education team and the main author of the report. And Aaron Walter, author of Design for Emotion.  Also, a veteran design leader, educator, and Vice President of InVision’s design education team. Leah, Aaron, welcome to Power of Ten.  Have a comment about this episode that you'd like to share? Now you can leave us a voicemail Have something to share about this episode? Leave us a voicemail now Show Links Design Better – InVision’s amazing learning resource InVision’s Design Genome Project – behind the scenes of design-forward companies InVision’s Design Maturity Model report Leah Buley is @leahbuley on Twitter Aaron Walter is @aarron on Twitter Connect with This is HCD Follow This is HCD us on Twitter Follow This is HCD on Instagram Sign up for our newsletter (we have lots of design giveaways!) Join the practitioner community on This is HCD Slack Channel Read articles on our This is HCD Network on Medium Other podcasts on This is HCD Network Power of Ten with Andy Polaine EthnoPod with Dr John Curran Bringing Design Closer with Gerry Scullion ProdPod with Adrienne Tan This is HCD is brought to you by Humana Design and The Academy.ie Support the show.

Hello, and welcome to Power of Ten, a podcast about designing and operating at many levels, from thoughtful detail through to organisational transformation, to the changes in society in the world.  My name is Andy Polaine, a designer, educator, and writer, and currently group director of client evolution at Fjord. The meta-theme this year for the Fjord trends was 'value'. I was excited to see that InVision, a company whose tools and platform many of our designers use, published their report about the design maturity model.   It’s all about the value of design to business.  I caught up with Leah Buley, a veteran of the experience design industry and the author of the book: The User Experience Team of One.  She’s Director of InVisions’ Design and Education team and the main author of the report. And Aaron Walter, author of Design for Emotion.  Also, a veteran design leader, educator, and Vice President of InVision’s design education team. Leah, Aaron, welcome to Power of Ten.  Have a comment about this episode that you'd like to share? Now you can leave us a voicemail Have something to share about this episode? Leave us a voicemail now Show Links Design Better – InVision’s amazing learning resource InVision’s Design Genome Project – behind the scenes of design-forward companies InVision’s Design Maturity Model report Leah Buley is @leahbuley on Twitter Aaron Walter is @aarron on Twitter Connect with This is HCD Follow This is HCD us on Twitter Follow This is HCD on Instagram Sign up for our newsletter (we have lots of design giveaways!) Join the practitioner community on This is HCD Slack Channel Read articles on our This is HCD Network on Medium Other podcasts on This is HCD Network Power of Ten with Andy Polaine EthnoPod with Dr John Curran Bringing Design Closer with Gerry Scullion ProdPod with Adrienne Tan This is HCD is brought to you by Humana Design and The Academy.ie Support the show.

Episode 20 highlights - What does a high functioning design team look like and how are they organized? - The three types of successful enterprise UX organization models - How companies like Target, Spotify, Netfilx, Google and more are doing designops and great UX design at scale - Creating and sharing user research findings across your organization

Ever wonder about the secret to great design? That one way of doing things that works better than others and always creates great products? Well, Aarron and Eli from InVision have been talking to lots of companies about that, and today they'll let the cat out of the bag. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Loop11’s co-founder Shefik Bey talks to Aarron Walter, who is currently the VP of Design Education at InVision and before that he was employee number four at MailChimp where he founded their UX practice. Shefik and Aarron dive into topics including common problems design teams face and the internal conflict designers often face when trust into positions of leadership. They also discuss what a VP of UX Education is and is it an internal or external facing role (1:29). The common themes surrounding problems design teams face and possible solutions (4:46). How UX research fits into designing for emotion (8:30) and whether organizations are doing enough research upfront to guide their direction (13:01). The discovery process behind MailChimp Snap and how the ethnographic research process lead to new feature development (15:00). Strategies for ensuring research happens in parallel and doesn’t hold up other areas of a team and is in turn shared with the team (20:21). How designers are often thrust into positions of leadership which often causes them internal conflict (24:40). What attributes are either required or often seen in a great design leader (28:26). How to create a successful UX team and how the process changes depending on a company’s level of maturity (31:11). Helping designers finding the balance between being thoughtful and considered versus productive and frequently shipping (35:20). How convergent and divergent thinking can work together to achieve an optimal result (37:54). How organizations should measure success (39:17).   Follow True North on Twitter or subscribe to be notified of new episodes.

What is design leadership? A new term that's swept through the industry, it's really just leadership. But now that design has a seat at the table, the issue becomes how does a design leader learn and cope when they are making huge decisions every day? From operationalizing design to creating a culture of continuous improvement, design leaders are tasked with defining the path for themselves and the design leaders of tomorrow. Aarron Walter joins us on the Bureau Briefing to talk about his journey and thoughts on how design leaders are approaching these challenges.

Aarron Walter knows plenty about scaling a design team and culture. Before joining InVision as VP of Design Education, he started the experience design team at MailChimp. In this episode, Aarron chats with Intercom's Adam Risman about hiring for soft skills, the benefits of cross-functional teams, how to design for empathy, and more.

Aarron Walter inspires us to always try and see the big picture. He challenges us to produce more grounded work by getting outside our bubbles, and feeling a bit more pain. He shows us how storytelling is central to the human experience and transcends our medium. He also inspires us to maintain plenty of inputs […]

Welcome to the second episode of our new show, DN FM. Through interviews, news and Office Hours community segments, DN FM aims to spark a meaningful conversation on design.

What does it mean to build a strong UX team and when should a company look to do that? With no formal education path, how should designers be cultivating their abilities? In this episode, Austin sits down with Aarron Walter (VP of Design Education at InVision) to discuss what it was like to build the UX Team at MailChimp and what his vision is for the future of education in design. "A lot of times, designers want to refine. They want to change the typeface, adjust the kerning, or tweak the button color. A lot of engineers will see that and think that's self-indulgent. That's another thing that designers really struggle with. And I'll be honest, designers kind of just suck at talking about the value of their work." — Aarron at 29:30 Aarron on Twitter: Twitter.com/aarron Aarron's Website: www.AarronWalter.com Check out InVision: www.InVisionApp.com Email us: Hello@UXandGrowth.com Austin on Twitter: Twitter.com/ustinKnight Geoff on Twitter: Twitter.com/dailydaigle Matt on Twitter: Twitter.com/mattrheault

Aarron Walter and Jeffrey Zeldman discuss launching a design education initiative at InVision, building a UX practice at MailChimp, putting design at the heart of strategy, managing teams, the secret life of Walt Disney, and more. Aarron is the VP of Design Education at InVision. He founded the UX practice at MailChimp and is the author of Designing for Emotion and other books about design. Brought to you by: Bushel (Visit the link to learn more). Meh.com (Visit the link to check out their awesome daily deals!).

Aarron Walter and Jeffrey Zeldman discuss launching a design education initiative at InVision, building a UX practice at MailChimp, putting design at the heart of strategy, managing teams, the secret life of Walt Disney, and more. Aarron is the VP of Design Education at InVision. He founded the UX practice at MailChimp and is the author of Designing for Emotion and other books about design.

In this interview, Aarron Walter explains the importance of research and designing for emotion. He also reveals how to build things people want and how to work effectively with other people.

I imagine if I told people in advance that I was talking to director of UX at MailChimp Aarron Walter and Founder of User Interface Engineering Jared Spool on Unfinished Business this week, they’d imagine we’d talk about user experience design and possibly education. Instead, they and I talk about action figures and Action Man and whether fighting Nazis is cooler than fighting aliens. It’s not all Smurfs and Stretch Armstrong though, because we also discuss the art of public speaking, how to prepare for a talk and tips for a successful presentation, whether you’re speaking at a conference or pitching an idea to a manager or a concept to a client.

Mailchimp CEO Ben Chestnut and User Expereince Lead Aaron Walter talk how they got where they are — and where Freddie the monkey came from.

It's Episode 21 and our book this time around was Design For Emotion by Aarron Walter. (http://www.pagebreakpodcast.com/podcast/21-design-for-emotion)

Discussing his book and many other things related to the design of products and business Aarron Walter joins us for this installment of the UMS Book Club.

Aarron has been building websites professionally since 1999, and taught interactive design courses at colleges including Temple University, The University of Georgia, and The Art Institute of Atlanta since 2002. In 2007 he joined The Web Standards Project, and for three years lead the development of the InterACT curriculum project – an open curriculum designed to bridge the gap between the Web industry and education. Aarron is the lead user experience designer at The Rocket Science Group – makers of MailChimp, and is the author of *Building Findable Website* and *Designing for Emotion*.

Jeffrey Zeldman and Dan Benjamin talk with Aarron Walter, lead user experience designer for MailChimp, about white-hat SEO strategies, user intent and content, usability, and more. Links for this episode:InterACT With Web Standards: A Holistic Approach to Web Design | The Web Standards ProjectBuilding Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and BeyondEmail Marketing and Email List Manager | MailChimpRanks Webmaster ToolsFree Personal Finance Software, Budget Software, Online Money Management and Budget Planner | Mint.comAarron Walter: Author, Speaker, Designer

Jeffrey Zeldman and Dan Benjamin talk with Aarron Walter, lead user experience designer for MailChimp, about white-hat SEO strategies, user intent and content, usability, and more.