This time I had the honor to be joined by Maria Giudice. You probably know Maria for her books “Changemakers - How Leaders can Design Change” or “Rise of the DEO: Leadership by Design”. Maria and me met at the World Usability Congress in Graz last October and I am really happy to welcome her in the podcast now.. In our conversation we speak about how Design can and must actively drive change, but also why all leaders should have design skills. From there we dive deeper into what is good, into Narratives and why fear-based stories stick so much more to people than the positive narratives. And we speak about how the good will arise from the dark times we see at the moment and how we all can help driving this. As a little side note: We recorded this episode right before the election in Germany in February and we spoke briefly about this as well, just so that you do not wonder.

Connect with our guest or us:

Marias Channels:

Marias LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariagiudice/ 

Web: https://www.hotstudio.com/ 

Marias Book “Changemakers”: https://www.hotstudio.com/library 

Masterclass “Become a sustainable UX Designer”

Date: May 7, 5:30pm-10:00pm CEST

Link: https://www.eventbrite.de/e/masterclass-become-a-sustainable-ux-designer-2025-tickets-1298940960379 

Get 15% discount with the code "SUX_Friend"

Our Channels:

SUX Slack Community 

SUX LinkedIn 

SUX Website

Thorsten's LinkedIn 

SUX Branding and Design: Isabel Pettinato

Isabel's LinkedIn 

Music: Bavo Lodewyckx 

Bavo's Linkedin 

Email us at [email protected] to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

This time I had the honor to be joined by Gerry McGovern. Gerry is besides many things the author of the book World Wide Waste and well known for his work regarding digital sustainability and especially digital waste and e-waste. For me this was also really special because I relate to Gerry and his work pretty often in my talks. “Up to 90% of all digital data is not used” is one of the famous quotes from his book World Wide Waste and you probably have heard it somewhere already. 

Gerry and me had a really deep conversation about the dark side of tech and we could fill a whole book with great quotable statements from him just in this podcast. 

We spoke about the problem of innovation and why AI is a big problem not only from an environmental point of view but on many ends. And we discussed how big tech per se is a problem and how it is acting not for the good of us but only for the good of themselves. 

But we also spoke about what we can do, how we need to reconnect to nature and the need to get back to local. And we discussed hope and resilience and which of both is maybe more important.

Connect with our guest or us:

Gerrys Channels:

Gerrys LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerry-mcgovern-07876469/  

Web: https://gerrymcgovern.com/

Gerrys Book “World Wide Waste”: https://gerrymcgovern.com/books/world-wide-waste/ 

Mastodon: @[email protected]

Our Channels:

Thorsten's LinkedIn 

SUX Slack Community 

SUX LinkedIn 

SUX Website

SUX Branding and Design: Isabel Pettinato

Isabel's LinkedIn 

Music: Bavo Lodewyckx 

Bavo's Linkedin 

Email us at [email protected] to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

Welcome to this episode of the SUX Podcast. This time I had the honor to be joined by Laura Korculanin from Lisbon. Laura is a Design anthropologist, a systems thinker and a water advocate, running her own company called give a shit. We met for the first time I think 3 years ago and what really stuck to me was how Laura already back then had dedicated her design work to water, to nature and to regeneration.

And therefore I am so happy that she joined me for this episode to talk especially about water and the impact to it by the digital world we design or use (and yes AI plays a huge part in that).

We also speak about the importance of nature and why we need to recalibrate our societal value set. Laura for example made the great point, how insane it is that a forest is only of economical value when the trees are cut down to sell the wood. But we also touched the question of balancing online and offline time for ourselves and how that connects us to nature.

And we speak about why designers need to be system thinkers to design sustainability and for regeneration. 

Laura is a real inspiration and we could have talked for 2 or 3 hours (no worries - the episode is only one hour long) and she as well creates “punch-line” quotes throughout the whole episode. Just to give you a teaser:

„The less time you are online, the more connected you are offline“ 

„How is it possible that the forest is worth money only once you cut down trees?“

Connect with our guest or us:

Laura’s Channels:

Lauras LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurakorculanin/ 

Give a Shit: https://www.giveashitnow.org/ 

Partner of this episode: 

mittwald - your strong partner for premium hosting

“We live the web. We breathe code. And: We love agencies and freelancers. With highly performant and flexible managed cloud hosting, we provide web professionals with the platform to launch their web projects to the next level. Smart workflows and innovative features, like measuring the CO2 emissions per website visit, make your work more efficient. Hosting has never been this fun!”

A big thank you mittwald for supporting this episode of the SUX Podcast! 💚

Find all information about mittwald, their hosting offer and their efforts in sustainability here: 

https://mitt.link/sux

Our Channels:

Thorsten's LinkedIn 

SUX Slack Community 

SUX LinkedIn 

SUX Website

Email us at [email protected] to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

For this episode of the SUX Podcast we had the honor to be joined by Chris Cassens. She is the Director of Product and Design Operations at Too Good to Go, this wonderful company that is fighting food waste by creating a marketplace for surplus food.

We speak about how to design a service that helps to reduce food waste and about the special challenges you are facing in doing that. But we discuss also how we here in Europe produce a lot of food waste by not using every part of for example an apple. And how this is done differently in Brazil, where Chris is originally from.

And we talk about her personal journey all the way from Brazil to Denmark to an impact company like Too Good to Go. 

So, join us in our conversation to learn more about food waste and how to fight it, but also about the differences in how food is treated in western Europe and in Brazil.

One technical side note. We had some audio issues due to construction work outside of Chris apartment. Though we did some post-production editing you still might hear some low tone noise in the first 20min. After that we switched microphones, but you will notice a slightly change in the sound of Chris voice due to the other microphone.

Connect with our guest or us:

Chris’s Channels:

Chris’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinacassens/

Too Good to Go: https://www.toogoodtogo.com/ 

Our Channels:

Bavo's Linkedin 

Thorsten's LinkedIn 

Isabel's LinkedIn 

SUX Slack Community 

SUX LinkedIn 

SUX Website

Email us at [email protected] to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

For this episode of the SUX Podcast we were joined by Hannah Smith, who is the Director of Operations of the Green Web Foundation. We spoke about how to make the web fossil free until 2030, if we are on track here and how Designers, Developers and all professions need to join to work towards this goal. But we also spoke about the role of AI in all this and how our use of tech in the northern/western world creates a lot of injustice because of our massive overconsumption of energy. And we dived into AI and the problems that come with it - ecologically as well as socially. 

We spoke about the need of Narrative shifts and what every one of us can do about it and we discussed we not only need to learn but also unlearn frequently.

Like Thorsten, Hannah is loving the outdoors and is trying to do all her travels by train, so we also spoke a little bit about the greatest train travels and our longest trips. And Hannah started a new tradition on the podcast by beginning to ask questions to Thorsten on her own. 

So, if you want to here more about how to get to a fossil free internet, about the role of AI in it and why we need to question it more, but also about beautiful train trips and what Hannah does to re-energize in bad moments, do not hesitate to tune in to this episode of the SUX Podcast.

Connect with our guest or us:

Hannah’s Channels:

Hannah’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanopcan/ 

Green Web Foundation: http://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/

Green Tech South West: https://greentechsouthwest.org/

Sources from the episode:

Branch Magazine: https://branch.climateaction.tech/ 

Green Web Foundation: http://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/

Green Web Check Service of Green Web Foundation: https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/green-web-check/ 

CO2.js: https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/co2-js/ 

UX Connect Aarhus: https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/uxconnect24 

Our Channels:

Bavo's Linkedin 

Thorsten's LinkedIn 

Isabel's LinkedIn 

SUX Slack Community 

SUX LinkedIn 

SUX Website

Email us at [email protected] to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

This time we were joined by one of the long-time trailblazers of digital Sustainability - Tom Greenwood, Founder of Wholegrain Digital and Author of “Sustainable Webdesign”.

We spoke about digital Sustainability, and how Tom’s Journey into it already began 2004. And we discussed the challenges of advocating for digital sustainability and where we are at the moment and what we actually can do as designers on various levels. 

In the second half of the conversation we were diving deep into AI, its impacts and if AI can help us saving the world or helps destroying it. We were discussing if AI is creative and what the use of AI does to us as humans. 

It was a very deep and inspirational conversation and if you want to learn more what you should ask yourself when using AI, tune in to this episode of the SUX Podcast.

Connect with our guest or us:

Tom’s Channels:

Tom’s agency Wholegrain Digital: https://www.wholegraindigital.com/ 

Tom’s Newsletter “Oximoron”: https://tomgreenwood.substack.com/ 

Toms’ “Humanitas et Machina”: https://hopefulepoch.substack.com/ 

Tom’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomgreenwood/ 

Toms’ Book “Sustainable Web Design”: https://abookapart.com/products/sustainable-web-design/ 

Sources from the episode:

Book “Approaching the Natural” by Sid Garza-Hillman:

https://abookapart.com/products/sustainable-web-design/ 

Blog-Article: “Will AI be good for the environment?”:

https://www.wholegraindigital.com/blog/will-ai-be-good-for-the-environment/

Website Carbon Calculator: https://websitecarbon.com  

Our Channels:

Bavo's Linkedin 

Thorsten's LinkedIn 

Isabel's LinkedIn 

SUX Slack Community 

SUX LinkedIn 

SUX Website

Email us at [email protected] to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

You most probably know our guest already. This time we had the honor to be joined by Don Norman, author of "Design of everyday things" or "Design for a better world" , Co-Founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, University Professor and so much more for many of us.

We spoke about morning walks, elaborated on Humanity Centered Design and why Dons latest book was a different one, when he started writing it. We discussed about the importance of curiosity and made the connection between design, business and decision making and how it relates to sustainability. We spoke about sustainability and why it can only be the beginning and why it is good to be wrong sometimes. And we discussed how human centered design is wrong and why and how it needs to be enhanced and changed.

So, if you want to learn more about Humanity Centered Design and what is wrong with Human Centered Design, about how Don writes his books, but also about how to stay curious and not get older, even when you are 88, join us for this episode of the SUX podcast.

Connect with our guest or us:

Don’s Channels:

Don Norman Design Award and Summit: https://donnormanaward.design/

Don’s Book “Design for a better world”:  https://jnd.org/books/design-for-a-better-world/

Don’s Website: https://jnd.org/

Don’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnorman/ 

Sources from the episode:

Book “Lean Impact” by Ann Mei Chang: https://www.annmei.com/

Book “Design for the real world” by Vicgor Papanek: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/190560.Design_for_the_Real_World

SUX Academy:

Waitlist for the upcoming Course “Become a Sustainable UX Designer”:  https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/#courses

And for information and curriculum options about the Sustainable UX Masterclass for design and product-teams get in touch with Thorsten: [email protected]

Our Channels:

Bavo's Linkedin 

Thorsten's LinkedIn 

Isabel's LinkedIn 

SUX Slack Community 

SUX LinkedIn 

SUX Website

Email us at [email protected] to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

You probably have heard of life-centered design or non-human personas. But, have you applied it to your work already? 

For this episode we were joined by Damien Lutz from Sydney, Australia, one of the most prominent voices and drivers of life-centered design as well as the author of the “Life-centered design guide” and the “Non-human persona guide”. 

We discussed the problems of nowadays design, how we need to change the way we design from being destructive to being sustainable and regenerative. We spoke about non-human personas and if apples mother nature video is a good thing or not.

So, if you want to hear more about life-centered design, non-human personas and how to apply it. And if you want to learn about Damiens journey into the world of life-centered design, join us for this episode of the SUX Podcast.

Connect with our guest or us:

Damien’s Channels:

Damiens Websites:

https://lifecentred.design/

https://futurescouting.com.au/

Damiens Book “Life-centred Design Guide”: https://lifecentred.design/the-life-centred-design-guide/

Damiens Book “The non-human persona guide”: https://lifecentred.design/non-human-personas/the-non-human-persona-guide/

Damiens Book “Future Scouting”: https://futurescouting.com.au/design-guide-book/

Damien’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damien-lutz-36230515/

Sources from the episode:

Book „Super Nature“ by Lyall Watson: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/525843.Supernature 

https://ecograder.com/ 

https://sustainablewebdesign.org

Articles by Monica Sznel: https://medium.com/@unpacking.design

Book “Design for the real world” by Victor Papanek:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/190560.Design_for_the_Real_World

Our Channels:

Bavo's Linkedin 

Thorsten's LinkedIn 

Isabel's LinkedIn 

SUX Slack Community 

SUX LinkedIn 

SUX Website

Email us at [email protected] to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

This is a special bonus episode: It is Part 2 of our interview with Xhensila Reci. In the previous episode we spoke with Xhensila about Purpose Driven Design and its relation to Sustainability (--> Link). In this bonus episode we do the friendship book and speak about Xhensilas way into UX and to LEGO and we play together her wonderful card game “Someone You” (--> Link) to learn more about each other. 

It is the first time that we split an interview into two episodes. But since the whole conversation with Xhensila was just wonderful and super insightful, we decided that we did not want to cut anything out. 

If you haven’t heard part 1 of the interview yet, we recommend you listen to it first: SUX EP 10 - “Purpose Driven Design with Xhensila Reci” https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/suxpodcast/episodes/SUX-EP-10---Purpose-driven-design-with-Xhensila-Reci-e2dpmeo 

Connect with our guest or us:

Xhensilas Channels:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xhensila/ 

Xhensilas Website: https://www.xhensilareci.com/

Xhensilas Card-Game “Someone You”: https://www.xhensilareci.com/shop/someoneyou 

Xhensilas Talk about Purpose Driven Design at at WUC 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZAURrbVmM4&t=4s&ab_channel=WorldUsabilityCongress⁠

Sources from the episode:

Book “The Atlas of the Heart” by Brené Brown: https://brenebrown.com/book/atlas-of-the-heart/

Our Channels:

Bavo's Linkedin 

Thorsten's LinkedIn 

Isabel's LinkedIn 

SUX Slack Community 

SUX LinkedIn 

SUX Website

Email us at [email protected] to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

Today we have something very special for you. Finally here it is: the lost episode. Last year we recorded this wonderful and extra long episode with Xhensila Reci from LEGO to speak about Purpose Driven Design. For several reasons, we did not manage to cut it and to decide if we should keep it this long, re-cut it, or make two episodes of it. Since the whole conversation with Xhensila was just wonderful and super insightful, we decided that we did not want to cut anything out. The SUX friendship book was super insightful and we also played Xhensilas wonderful game “Someone You”. 

So, this interview became the first episode that consists of two parts. This part - Part 1 - contains the main conversation, where we spoke about purpose driven design, Xhensilas work at LEGO and how it strongly connects to purpose driven design. 

Part 2 will be released next week as a bonus episode that contains the SUX Friendship Book and also the part where Xhensila and Thorsten play Xhensilas wonderful card game “Someone You”.

So, if you want to learn how to do, achieve and drive purpose driven design, about working at LEGO and why a Banana played an important role in Xhensilas journey into UX and purpose driven design, do not miss this episode as well as the bonus episode.

One little side note: we had a few minor audio issues with Thorstens audio track in the beginning. We apologize for that. And no worries, it will be gone after a few minutes. 

Connect with our guest or us:

Xhensilas Channels:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xhensila/ 

Website: https://www.xhensilareci.com/

Xhensilas Card-Game “Someone You”: https://www.xhensilareci.com/shop/someoneyou 

Xhensilas Talk about Purpose Driven Design at WUC 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZAURrbVmM4&t=4s&ab_channel=WorldUsabilityCongress⁠

Sources from the episode:

Book “The Atlas of the Heart” by Brené Brown: https://brenebrown.com/book/atlas-of-the-heart/

Our Channels:

Bavo's Linkedin 

Thorsten's LinkedIn 

Isabel's LinkedIn 

SUX Slack Community 

SUX LinkedIn 

SUX Website

Email us at [email protected] to share your feedback or suggest future guests.