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A huge advocate for the design community, Andy is a regular speaker at international conferences like SXSW, Awwwards and The Next Web. He founded and curated the dConstruct, UX London and Leading Design conferences, as well as an online community of over 2,000 design leaders. He's a founding member of the Adobe Design Circle and has appeared on both the Wired 100 and BIMA 100 lists, as well as winning agency of the year several times.
Andy Budd speaks frankly about designers' limiting beliefs, the siren song of perfection, and how to start playing business better. Highlights include: How does one wrangle sharks at the Great Barrier Reef? What is the best way to ensure design is valued? How many designers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Why should designers start playing poker and stop playing chess? What is the most limiting belief that design leaders have? ====== Who is Andy Budd? Andy is an independent executive product & design leadership coach and a venture partner at Seedcamp, Europe's most successful seed fund, investing in over 450 companies who have gone on to raise over $7 Billion. Before joining Seedcamp, Andy was the founder, managing director and then CEO of Clearleft, arguably the United Kingdom's first User Experience consultancy. During his 17 years there, Andy relentlessly promoted the value of design and founded two product businesses - FontDeck and Silverback. The latter a popular usability testing app for Mac. In 2008, in the midst of the GFC, Andy founded UX London, Britain's first major user experience conference. It would become the longest running UX conference in all of Europe, and it was an event that he lovingly curated until 2021. Andy is also the founder and curator of dConstruct, which was the first digital design conference in the UK and Leading Design, an annual event and 2,000 strong community that brings together some of the world's best design leaders. ====== Find Andy here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andybudd/ Website: https://www.andybudd.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/andybudd Medium: https://andybudd.medium.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andybudd/ ====== Liked what you heard and want to hear more? Subscribe and support the show by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen). Follow us on our other social channels for more great Brave UX content! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/TheSpaceInBetween/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-space-in-between/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespaceinbetw__n/ ====== Hosted by Brendan Jarvis: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanjarvis/ Website: https://thespaceinbetween.co.nz/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/brendanjarvis/
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/
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 Jon and Dan are joined by Andy Budd from Clearleft - a well known UX Design agency based in Brighton. Clearleft are well known for their high quality of work as well as advancing the field by putting on a number of UX, Design and Development events around the country.In this episode they cover:Small vs large agenciesQuality vs quantity of client workHow do Clearleft judge their success metricsTaking on the projects you want to work onGrowing the team from the founders and adding new skillsHow adding content strategy skills to the team has helped Clearleft enhance their offeringWhat are the driving factors behind the events and conferences Clearleft put on, and what effect does that have on their businessGiving back to the design community - why we do these thingsShow notes:Clearleft’s website, including their work and blog. Keep an eye out for the new website & rebrand launching end 2016/early 2017.Clearleft’s new event; Leading Design (24 - 26 October 2016). At the time of publishing, now in the past, but sign up for details next year.Clearleft’s other conferences:UX London (24-26 May 2017)dConstruct (on a break this year)Every Interaction’s website update, taking a content-first approach.
Ezen a héten két adás egyszerre! Ez itt a reguláris, amiben sorra vesszük az őszi keynote-szezon bejelentéseit, a tech-támogatott pizzarendelés kimaxolását, a megjavítható okostelefont, a makákók szelfijogait, a brit vízállásjelentést, hipszterkillinget és a marsit. Pótlólagos adásnapló gyors linkekkel. DConstruct konferencia, aminek vagy vége lett idén vagy nem, de mindenképp érdemes meghallgatni az előadásokat. És ha … Continue reading #117. Unikornisdögkút adás
Icon designer Jon Hicks joins me this week on Unfinished Business to discuss our experiences of recent conferences including dConstruct (me) and An Event Apart (him.) We narrowly avoid talking about our predictions for the upcoming Apple event and instead discuss how to keep work and home life separate, whether it‘s right to be connected to work outside work hours and how having an office can help with work/life balance. Of course, all of this is just a thinly disguised ruse for what we really want to talk about, Doctor Who. In the after-show section, we look back at Matt Smith’s final episode, talk about Peter Capaldi’s new Doctor so far and if Doctor Who needs longer than one hour per episode to tell a good story. Oh. And Clara bloody Oswald.
While Andy’s on holiday, Ashley Baxter and Laura Kalbag take over this week’s episode of Unfinished Business. We talk about all things business insurance, including public liability, professional indemnity, business contents and copyright infringement. And it’s not boring, honest! This episode is sponsored by Devicelab, Perch and dConstruct. Get your ticket to dConstruct for only £125+VAT (£150) when you use the offer code unfinished.
I’ve been looking forward to speaking with Sara Soueidan on this week’s episode of Unfinished Business for a long while, not least because I’m a huge, huge, fan of her work. She’s been writing what I consider to be the best articles about CSS and SVG. We talk about those, yes, but we also talk about what it’s like for her, living and working as a web developer in her home country of Lebanon. We discuss the preconceptions and misconceptions that people in the West have about Lebanon, its people and its customs. I think you’ll find what she has to say fascinating. I know I did. This episode is kindly sponsored by two UK conferences, Native Summit and dConstruct. Get your ticket to dConstruct for only £125+VAT (£150) when you use the offer code unfinished.
Immaterials, Brighton, dConstruct, Iain M Banks, visible technology
Interview with the funky and dynamic Lisa Pointon-Reico, owner of dconstruct Jewelery. She’ll chat with us about her eco-friendly biz and upcoming events!
Interview with the funky and dynamic Lisa Pointon-Reico, owner of dconstruct Jewelery. She’ll chat with us about her eco-friendly biz and upcoming events!
Jeremy Keith from Clearleft discusses his session at 2008's UI13 conference called Ajax Design Considerations that Tim attended. What do UX professionals need to know about Ajax to best make use of it in websites and web applications? And why is Jeremy's title at Clearleft currently "Lineman for the County"?You can find Clearleft athttp://clearleft.com/Check out the 2009 dConstruct conference athttp://2009.dconstruct.org/UI14 is coming this November and you can learn more about it athttp://www.uie.com/events/uiconf/2009/The Wikipedia entry for Jimmy Webb's classic song "Wichita Lineman" is athttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita_Lineman
In this weeks show we give you advice on choosing the right hosting company, Teifion and John send us a review of dConstruct and of course we discuss the release of Google Chrome, can it topple IE?
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/).
You're still here? Head on over to http://2007.dconstruct.org/podcast/ to subscribe to the podcast for dConstruct 2007.
What is the current status of Version 2 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines? Gian Sampson-Wild tells us the story.She also explains how Flickr and Google have used Ajax without sacrificing accessibility.For more on the Maguire vs SOCOG case, see Joe Clark's reader's guide (www.contenu.nu/socog.html).A listener subsequently pointed out a USA case - National Federation of the Blind v Target, as described on the Disability Rights Advocates website (http://tinyurl.com/djrfd) - thanks elDavo.Gian's blog is The Kismet Heuristic (www.tkh.com.au).You can also read her peer review of the Samurai Errata. (samuraireview.wordpress.com)You might also want to check out the WCAG Samurai Group website (wcagsamurai.org).Gian mentions the work of Cameron Adams and Jeremy Keith. Cameron wrote 'AJAX: Usable Interactivity with Remote Scripting' (www.sitepoint.com/article/remote-scripting-ajax) in 2005. Jeremy Keith's book is 'Bulletproof Ajax' (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321472667/informdesign); you can read an interview with him on Digital Web magazine (www.digital-web.com/articles/jeremy_keith_2) ... and the giveaway:Andy Budd of Clearleft (clearleft.com) has donated a free ticket (worth 85 pounds sterling plus VAT) for dConstruct 2007 (2007.dconstruct.org) to a UXpod listener. To be in the draw, send an email to gerry at infodesign.com.au, with the subject line dConstruct, by June 28. Winner drawn on June 30, and notified by email. Ticket is non-transferrable, so please only enter if you or a colleague wish to attend.Duration: 16:40File size: 11.5MB
Design is hard. The Web is complicated. How do we make things for people when all we have are the most basic understanding of what they want? Join Jeffrey Veen as he takes a broad survey of the challenges designers face today, and how we're all solving those problems with new perspectives on user research, interaction design, and information architecture.
Thomas Vander Wal provides an overview on tagging services and outline where there is value in tagging. This focuses on what is different in folksonomy that improves upon tagging, so that it becomes a powerful tool. Thomas provides insights to help answer when to use tagging and/or categories, who should be tagging, the value of a tagcloud (or lack of value) when used properly, and how to create value from tagging to improve the sites and services we build.
How can we build modern web applications that use DOM Scripting and Ajax-type technologies and ensure that they are accessible? To find the answers Derek lookd at the impact of Ajax and dynamically-generated content on people with disabilities by examining how various assistive technologies interact with modern web development techniques such as DOM Scripting and Ajax. Using those results Derek creates a strategy to make some currently popular design patterns more accessible to all users.
Can you ever go back to Ajax once you Web 2.0 with Flex 2.0? The Flex 2 framework and the Eclipse-based Flex Builder 2 IDE provide you with a superior development workflow for creating web applications. You can create rich user interfaces quickly by using features such as data binding, application states, custom components, effects, and transitions. Join Aral Balkan, the Lone Ranger of the Flash Platform at d.Construct, as he shows you how easy it is to use open data, consume web services and create mashups in Flex 2 by using open source ActionScript 3 libraries for Flickr, Mappr, Odeo, and YouTube. Warning: This session may alter your preconceptions about the Flash Platform.
Over the course of d.Construct, we've heard plenty about APIs from the people providing them: Yahoo!, Amazon, etc. But why should you, as a developer, be interested? Come on a journey with Jeremy Keith as he describes how much fun can be had from hacking around with open data. Listen to his experiences of experimenting with mashups. Find out how Web Services can rekindle the passion in your code. After some initial foreplay describing the differences between REST and SOAP, join Jeremy as he penetrates some code. Soon you'll be swinging with Amazon, Flickr, and Google Maps.
Over the last year the Yahoo! Developer Network has opened up dozens of sites and services to external software developers, with APIs for Yahoo! Search, Flickr, del.icio.us, Yahoo! Maps, and many others. More recently Yahoo! has started adopting microformats on Yahoo! Local and Upcoming.org. Simon and Paul peek behind the Yahoo! firewall, showing how these services are created and discussing some of the lessons learned in releasing them to the public. They also show how a company can make use of web services internally to solve real-world technical problems, encourage innovation, and make work more enjoyable.
Web services are changing the fundamental nature of the web, as more and more companies offer their data for free. Rather than spending millions of dollars on complicated systems, entrepreneurs can tap into the existing services of companies like Amazon, and create innovative new enterprises for a fraction of the cost; enterprises that wouldn't have been economical otherwise. In this session, Amazon Web Services Evangelist, Jeff Barr, discusses the power of open APIs and how they are helping to fuel innovation and entrepreneurship. Jeff discusses Amazon's motivation for building AWS and some of the design decisions (such as their use of XSLT) they made along the way. Jeff touches on some of Amazon's current offerings such as S3 and the Mechanical Turk, before showing demonstrations of how these services are being used in the wild.
A quick chat with Andy Budd and the Clearleft office dalek. Plus some more Odeo messages.
Mikel Maron from OpenStreetMap gives the lowdown on the workshop taking place the day after d.Construct. Also, I finally got some Odeo messages.