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As a well-known agency founder and design leader, Andy helps companies like Virgin Holidays, John Lewis and Penguin Random House with issues of customer experience, product strategy, and digital transformation. Andy's role at Clearleft was to set strategy and vision, promote the value of design, and help their clients realise their digital potential. Andy was very active in the company's day-to-day running, managing the leadership team, setting company culture, and looking after the happiness and well-being of 30+ staff. Andy is a designer at heart, having spent over 20 years in the field. He loves using his design, technology, and human behaviour knowledge to influence product strategy. As such, Andy is in his element when working alongside board members and their management teams. In his early career, Andy helped pioneer the field of Web Standards through his work, his blog (one of the highest trafficked in the UK at the time), and the publication of his best-selling book, CSS Mastery. Later, Andy helped popularise the field of UX design, setting up the UK's first dedicated UX agency, along with its first and arguably best UX conference. When he's not running the company or managing our creative output, Andy can be found sharing his wealth of knowledge at conferences around the world like SXSW, An Event Apart and The Next Web. He also curates the UX London and Leading Design conferences. In 2011, Andy co-founded the Brighton Digital Festival, a citywide celebration of digital culture attracting 40,000 visitors and over 190 events. He currently runs an online community of over 1,500 Heads, Directors and VPs of Design, and is a founding member of Adobe's Design Circle. These are just some of the reasons his company has won Netmag Agency of the Year several times, and he's appeared on both the Wired 100 and BIMA 100 lists. Never happier than when he's diving some remote tropical atoll, Andy is a qualified PADI dive instructor and retired shark wrangler. With a degree in Aeronautical engineering, Andy is currently learning to fly. In this episode, Andy discusses the essential qualities and skills a successful design leader should possess. He also shares his insights on building and managing a design team, fostering collaboration and creativity, advocating for an organisation's design, and the importance of empathy in design leadership. Andy also provides tips on how to navigate through various challenges while growing on the ladder as a designer leader and how to approach feedback and critique to help your team grow and improve their design skills. Finally, Andy shared his vision for the future of design leadership and the most important skills or qualities for design leaders in the coming years. Thank you for listening to this episode of Nodes of Design. We hope you enjoy the Nodes of Design Podcast on your favourite podcast platforms- Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and many more. If this episode helped you understand and learn something new, please share and join the knowledge-sharing community Spreadknowledge. This podcast aims to make design education accessible to all. Nodes of Design is a non-profit and self-sponsored initiative by Tejj.
GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show was an early pioneer of Web Standards, writing a best-selling book on the subject of CSS. He then went on to found Clearleft, arguably the first dedicated UX consultancy in the UK. He also set up dConstruct, the UK’s first digital design conference, and UX London, the country’s first dedicated UX conference. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Andy Budd is a renowned Design Leader and agency CEO. He started his IT career working as a designer. During his early career, Andy became a pioneer in the field of Web Standards. At that point, he published his first book – CSS Mastery. Over 14 years ago, he co-founded Clearleft, one of the UK’s first dedicated User Experience consultancies. In 2015, he set up the dConstruct conference, which was held for 10 years. It was the first design conference to be run, in the UK. He is also the founder and curator of Leading Design. That annual conference improves design leadership and management. Andy speaks at these and many other conferences that are held across the world. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.09) – The first thing I wanted to ask you really was about how you transitioned from the web standards and the CSS aspect or your IT work to founding Clearleft. Andy as a natural transition, and goes on to describe how it happened. He started his working life as a flash coder, creating games. From there, he discovered CSS. When he did he realized almost immediately that separation of presentation and content was the way to go. Baked into this were standards around accessibility and usability. Andy was an early adopter of web standards. He had the 3rd table list website in the UK. He got together with two other early standards geeks to found Clearleft. At the time he was already creating controlled vocabularies, working with information architecture, usability testing and much more besides. So, he was one of the first people, in the UK, to take care of user experience, rather than just making a site look pretty. For the first few years, it was hard to get clients. Nobody could understand why it took them twice as long to deliver a website and why the fees were higher. In time, that changed. Now, UX design is the norm. (4.48) – Phil comments that at the time Andy set up Clearleft, a lot of people would not have known much about UX. So, he asks Andy how big a part of educating people about education was to making Clearleft a success. Andy agrees educating potential clients about usability was important. But he goes on to say that the fact people had never really thought much about UX before was also a superpower. Nobody else was really doing it. As a result, as soon as firms began to wake up to the importance of UX Clearleft grew really quickly. This was especially the case when companies moved away from using websites solely for marketing. Once, they started to use their sites to sell things and transactions were involved the functionality of the website became far more important. (6.11) Phil asks if the introduction of new devices like iPads and SmartPhones has changed the approach to UX at all. Andy responds by saying that the tools have changed. But, the underpinning philosophy hasn’t really changed. The underlying problem-solving principles remain the same. However, the introduction of smartphones had an impact in another way. Mobile sites had to be slicker and better designed. At that point, a lot of companies woke up to how ugly, clunky and old-fashioned their main sites were. When they saw how good a website could look and what an effective sales tool that type of site was a lot of firms wanted to re-design their original websites. (7.44) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Andy explained that for him no single thing led to his success. His approach has to continually review what he is doing and make little course corrections. But, he does say that working in a company where you are not the best at what you do is a good idea. It ensures that you are continually challenged and stretched. You need to be a continual learner and have a beginner’s mindset. This ensures that you learn new tools. If you do not, your knowledge becomes stale. At some point, those tools are going to become obsolete. When that happens, you are stuck. (10.32) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Andy has been very lucky career-wise. So, could not think of anything he would categorize as a bad career moment (11.47) – What was your best career moment? Andy has had a lot of great moments in his career. His first speaking gig went really well, so that was a highlight. Meeting Jesse James Garrett from Adaptive Path was also a great career moment. He was sat next to him at a book signing at SXSW South by Southwest. His work has also led to him traveling the world, which Andy has clearly enjoyed doing. Plus, over the years, he has worked with some fantastic clients. Spending time in Copenhagen working with Nordic Region Banks was a highlight for Andy. Working with Zappos was also exciting. (13.38) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? Andy is fascinated by the rise of artificial intelligence. He believes that in the next decade or so, AI means that things are going to get really exciting. About two years ago, Andy realized he was a bit out of the loop when it comes to AI. Rather than read a bunch of books about it, he decided to pull a diverse group of people together to discuss where AI could take them. The result was really interesting. It is clear that the landscape is changing drastically. AI will lead to wide-scale automation. As that happens, jobs are going to disappear and be replaced by others. So, people are going to have 2 or 3, maybe 4, careers in a lifetime. That is why it is so important to be a continual learner. Some talk about there being a 4th industrial revolution. Regardless, these changes are going to create winners and losers, but it will also be exciting. Andy states that we are already moving away from hand coding using a traditional text interface. Coding is set to become more visual, with developers acting more like curators and editors than creators. (16.57) – What drew you to a career in IT? As a child, Andy enjoyed using the BBC Micro and Spectrum computers. While other kids were out playing football, he was learning to code. He thinks that his interest in sci-fi and love of reading gave him a curious mind, which is why he was drawn to all things tech. But, he did not realize that he could turn what he viewed as a hobby into a career. Nobody, in his family or circle, was involved in the IT industry. So, he was not exposed to the possibilities. After university, he did an aeronautical engineering degree. To do that he had to learn how to use CAD, which he really enjoyed and quickly became good at. Once he had finished his engineering degree, he went traveling for 6 to 7 years. During that time, he started to use internet cafes to communicate with friends at home and research his next destination. One day, while he was in one of these cafes he saw a guy building his own web page. He was creating a travel blog. Later, he met a web designer. He worked for 6 months and traveled for 6 months. Andy decided that he wanted to do the same. In 1999, he arrived back in the UK, bought a Pentium 486 and learned HTML and how to code. To do this he turned to several sources. One of which was a website called Ask Dr. Web, which was run by Jeffrey Zeldman. In time, he became a friend on Andy’s. It was him that inspired him to learn CSS, which eventually led Andy to where he is today. (21.25) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? When Andy set up his IT business he read a book called E-Myth. It contained one great piece of advice which was to make sure that you are working on your business, not in it. That means you need to hire people to do the day to day tasks for you, so you can be free to grow your business. He also explains that you need to see your career as a journey. You have to see it as a business and treat it that way. (22.24) - Conversely, what is the worst career advice you've ever received? You need a business plan is no longer good advice. It is no longer necessary. (23.52) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Andy states that when he got started in the design industry the bar was much lower. The tools and sites were so basic that it was not that hard to compete. You could easily get in at the bottom end of the market building sites for local businesses. Now big providers like Shopify and SquareSpace make it possible for people to put together fantastic sites without employing a technical person. (26.52) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Andy’s focus is on helping others to unlock the power of the web. He is very appreciative of what IT pioneers have done to enable him to succeed. So, he wants to pay it forward and help others. (19.16) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Andy is a keen and experienced diver. In fact, he is a dive instructor. That role taught him the importance of becoming a good communicator. You are working in a dangerous environment, so you need to communicate effectively with your students. If you do not, it can be disastrous. Learning to be a good communicator has ended up helping his IT career in many different ways. (31.01) - What do you do to keep your own IT career energized? Andy works as a servant leader. He is a boss who is very focused on helping others to energize and progress their careers. Taking that approach has had a positive impact on his career too. It helps to keep him motivated and keeps his team engaged and contributing. (31.57) - What do you do in your spare time away from technology? Andy’s IT role takes him all over the world. Whenever he can, he incorporates a bit of leisure time onto his business trips. Doing this provides him with the chance to continue to explore new countries and cultures. Andy also loves good food. So much so, that he has made it his mission to eat at every one of the top 50 restaurants in the world before he is 50. He is really enjoying completing that mission. He still dives a lot and has recently tried cave diving. Andy has also got into bouldering, which is indoor climbing. He says it is a lot more fun than going to the gym. Participating in the sport has virtually cured the RSI he has picked up from his constant mouse usage. This is because climbing stretches and strengthens the muscles in the hands and arms. More importantly, it works the opposite muscle groups from the ones used while working with a keyboard and mouse. Bouldering is very popular with the IT crowd. A lot of it is about problem-solving. Planning your route and working out what techniques and hacks to use is all part of the fun. (36.02) – Phil asks Andy to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. If you work in the design industry, you need a killer portfolio. A CV that shows career progression also helps. But, when someone is hiring a designer they want evidence of what you are able to do. If you are claiming to be a UX designer you have to demonstrate that fact. For example, when hiring, Andy wants to see photos from user research sessions, as well as interactive, paper-based and animated prototypes. If someone claims they can do information architecture, he wants to see sitemaps, content audits and controlled vocabularies. BEST MOMENTS: (4.34) ANDY – "These days, saying you’re a UX designer is like saying you breathe air or drink water. It’s just what all of us do." (5.45) ANDY – "Our clients quickly realized the benefits of not just making a pretty website, but making something that actually delivered business results." (8.27) ANDY – "It's always better to work in a company where you are not the best at the thing you do." (15.31) ANDY – "We're moving towards a kind of visual coding. I think we're moving much more towards being curators, and editors rather than creators" (22.53) ANDY – "It's important for you to be working on your business, not just in it." (36.07) ANDY – "For the design industry, having a killer portfolio is everything." (37.34) ANDY – "A really good resume should be backed with a powerful portfolio that demonstrates that you can do these things." CONTACT ANDY: Twitter: https://twitter.com/andybudd LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andybudd/ Website: http://www.andybudd.com/
Panel: Charles Max Wood Aimee Knight Cory House AJ O'Neal Joe Eames Aaron Frost Special Guests: Dave Geddes In this episode, the JavaScript Jabber panelists talk with Dave Geddes about CSS Grids. Dave quit his job about a year ago and has been living the entrepreneur and programmer life since then. Now, he builds mastery games to help people learn CSS. Dave discusses the differences between Flexbox and CSS Grid and how the games that he creates can help people learn CSS Grid in a fun and interactive way. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: CSS Mastery games FlexboxZombies.com GridCritters.com Uses spaced repetition and delayed recall to learn CSS Grid Flexbox CSS Grid as the cake and Flexbox as the frosting Edge spec What Flexbox can do Sub-Grids Geddski.com Nesting Grids Old Grid vs New Grid layout Why would you move from Flexbox to CSS Grid? CSS Grid tools GridByExample.com Education and Gamification Pick a UI that interests you For a discount on Grid Critters: enter JS Jabber for 20% off And much, much more! Links: Linode FlexboxZombies.com GridCritters.com Geddski.com GridByExample.com FreshBooks @Geddski Picks: Charles R Pods Earphones Aimee NEU Cleanse “At Age 6, Girls Are Less Likely to Identify Females As ‘Really, Really Smart’” Cory Cory Tweet AJ How to Start a Startup Made in America by Sam Walton Joe The Dungeoneers by John David Anderson NG Conf Aaron Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff Dave They Are Billions
Panel: Charles Max Wood Aimee Knight Cory House AJ O'Neal Joe Eames Aaron Frost Special Guests: Dave Geddes In this episode, the JavaScript Jabber panelists talk with Dave Geddes about CSS Grids. Dave quit his job about a year ago and has been living the entrepreneur and programmer life since then. Now, he builds mastery games to help people learn CSS. Dave discusses the differences between Flexbox and CSS Grid and how the games that he creates can help people learn CSS Grid in a fun and interactive way. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: CSS Mastery games FlexboxZombies.com GridCritters.com Uses spaced repetition and delayed recall to learn CSS Grid Flexbox CSS Grid as the cake and Flexbox as the frosting Edge spec What Flexbox can do Sub-Grids Geddski.com Nesting Grids Old Grid vs New Grid layout Why would you move from Flexbox to CSS Grid? CSS Grid tools GridByExample.com Education and Gamification Pick a UI that interests you For a discount on Grid Critters: enter JS Jabber for 20% off And much, much more! Links: Linode FlexboxZombies.com GridCritters.com Geddski.com GridByExample.com FreshBooks @Geddski Picks: Charles R Pods Earphones Aimee NEU Cleanse “At Age 6, Girls Are Less Likely to Identify Females As ‘Really, Really Smart’” Cory Cory Tweet AJ How to Start a Startup Made in America by Sam Walton Joe The Dungeoneers by John David Anderson NG Conf Aaron Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff Dave They Are Billions
Panel: Charles Max Wood Aimee Knight Cory House AJ O'Neal Joe Eames Aaron Frost Special Guests: Dave Geddes In this episode, the JavaScript Jabber panelists talk with Dave Geddes about CSS Grids. Dave quit his job about a year ago and has been living the entrepreneur and programmer life since then. Now, he builds mastery games to help people learn CSS. Dave discusses the differences between Flexbox and CSS Grid and how the games that he creates can help people learn CSS Grid in a fun and interactive way. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: CSS Mastery games FlexboxZombies.com GridCritters.com Uses spaced repetition and delayed recall to learn CSS Grid Flexbox CSS Grid as the cake and Flexbox as the frosting Edge spec What Flexbox can do Sub-Grids Geddski.com Nesting Grids Old Grid vs New Grid layout Why would you move from Flexbox to CSS Grid? CSS Grid tools GridByExample.com Education and Gamification Pick a UI that interests you For a discount on Grid Critters: enter JS Jabber for 20% off And much, much more! Links: Linode FlexboxZombies.com GridCritters.com Geddski.com GridByExample.com FreshBooks @Geddski Picks: Charles R Pods Earphones Aimee NEU Cleanse “At Age 6, Girls Are Less Likely to Identify Females As ‘Really, Really Smart’” Cory Cory Tweet AJ How to Start a Startup Made in America by Sam Walton Joe The Dungeoneers by John David Anderson NG Conf Aaron Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff Dave They Are Billions
Clearleft's Andy Budd and host Zeldman discuss the changing role design agencies must play to remain relevant; the rise of in-house design; working with pattern libraries (since 2008!); whether the “golden age” of web design and blogging is over; and much more. Andy Budd has been blogging about design and technology since 2003. He was one of the leading lights of the web standards movement and his book, CSS Mastery, sold over 60,000 copies and has been translated into a dozen languages. Andy is a founding partner at UX design consultancy Clearleft; the curator of dConstruct, one of the UK's most popular design conferences; and the force behind UX London, the UK's first dedicated usability, IA, and UX design event. Links for this episode:Homepage | ClearleftCSS Mastery: Amazon.co.uk: Andy Budd, Emil Björklund: 9781430258636: BooksAndy Budd: BlogographyAndy Budd (@andybudd) | TwitterBrought to you by: ZipRecrutier (Visit the link to post jobs on ZipRecruiter for FREE). BlueApron (Check out this week's menu and get your first three meals FREE—with FREE SHIPPING—by going to BlueApron.com/bigwebshow.
Clearleft’s Andy Budd and host Zeldman discuss the changing role design agencies must play to remain relevant; the rise of in-house design; working with pattern libraries (since 2008!); whether the “golden age” of web design and blogging is over; and much more. Andy Budd has been blogging about design and technology since 2003. He was one of the leading lights of the web standards movement and his book, CSS Mastery, sold over 60,000 copies and has been translated into a dozen languages. Andy is a founding partner at UX design consultancy Clearleft; the curator of dConstruct, one of the UK’s most popular design conferences; and the force behind UX London, the UK’s first dedicated usability, IA, and UX design event.
This week on Boagworld: We examine ways to improve the conversion rate on your ecommerce site, review CSS Mastery 2nd Edition and take a look at Zen Coding.
This week on Boagworld: We examine ways to improve the conversion rate on your ecommerce site, review CSS Mastery 2nd Edition and take a look at Zen Coding.
These days people expect more from a website than a handy set of tools and a pretty interface - they want an experience. From the moment somebody enters your site they’ll be judging you on everything from the way the site looks to the tone of your error messages. And they won’t just be judging you against other sites. They will be judging you on every customer experience they have ever had, from the rude man at the train station to the lovely hotel clerk that checked them in on holiday. So in order to compete, we need to up our game and look at experiences both on and off-line. In this session Andy Budd will look at the 9 key factors that go into designing the perfect customer experience. By taking examples from the world around us, Andy will discuss how we can turn utilitarian experiences into something wonderful. Andy Budd is an interaction designer and web standards developer from Brighton, England. As the user experience lead at Clearleft, Andy spends his time helping clients improve their customers online experience. Andy is a regular speaker at international design events such as SXSW, An Event Apart and Web Design World. He also runs the popular dConstruct conference, which takes place in Brighton every year. Andy has helped judge several international design awards and currently sits on the advisory board for .Net magazine. Andy wrote the best selling book, CSS Mastery and blogs at andybudd.com. Never happier than when he’s diving some remote tropical atoll, Andy is a qualified PADI dive instructor and retired shark wrangler. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).