Anna Kirah is an internationally respected design anthropologist and psychologist known for pioneering the people-centric approach to innovation and change management. Her passions are co-creation and working with “transdisciplinary” teams.

Anna believes that creating meaningful, relevant, desirable and sustainable products, services and organizational changes happen only by understanding people’s motivations and aspirations and utilizing this knowledge to solve challenges together with the people we serve.

Anna returned to Norway in 2010 where she has her own consultancy, teaches at the Oslo Metropolitan University and until recently was the Managing Director of Design without Borders (she still maintains her board status for DwB). She is also a Specialist in the Design Consultancy: Halogen situated in Oslo, Norway.

We talk to Anna about her career path from anthropology to psychology to design; about transdisciplinarity, what each of these disciplines can give each other and the potential they have to create together; how she transitioned to design, reclaimed the title of anthropologist.

We talk about her experience entering the corporate sector with Boeing as a psychologist and exiting as a design anthropologist; what businesses appreciate in anthropology and why it’s important to have a social scientist on board.

Lastly, she shares 3 techniques she teaches designers to practice empathy and active listening in order to break their own assumptions. These techniques come from different disciplines including psychology and the role of the clinician but somewhere along the way she was introduced to Colombo as a way to describe the “Help me understand…” technique.

Mentioned in Podcast:

Anna’s work:

Social media and other links:

https://www.annakirah.com/services/

https://www.hioa.no/eng/employee/Anna%20Kirah

http://www.technoport.no/content/574/Anna-Kirah

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-kirah-06615a/

https://twitter.com/annakirah

Jamer Hunt is the Vice Provost for Transdisciplinary Initiatives at The New School, where he was a founding director (2009-2015) of the graduate program in Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons School of Design. He is also Visiting Design Researcher at the Institute of Design in Umea, Sweden. With Paola Antonelli at the MoMA he was co-creator of the award-winning, curatorial experiment and book Design and Violence (2013-15), as well as collaborating on the Head Space: On Scent as Design and The Design and the Elastic Mind symposium.

He is the co-founder of Design Philadelphia; the country’s largest design week and he is one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People…Inspiring Leaders [who] are Shaping the Future of Business in Creative Ways.” He has published over twenty articles on the poetics and politics of design, including for Fast Company and the Huffington Post, and he is co-author, with Meredith Davis, of Visual Communication Design. He is currently completing a book manuscript for Grand Central Publishing on scale, complex systems, and the unruliness of everyday experiences.

In today’s episode we talk to Jamer about his career path from anthropology to design; the different perspectives on the definition and scope of an intervention; the ways in which designers & social scientists view the practice of ethnography, participation and co-creation. We talk about places where design and social science blend together, what they can bring to each other as well as what they can create together; tips on how to successfully form and operate multidisciplinary teams. Lastly, we cover the role of the university space in supporting the practice of anthropology outside of academia.

Mentioned in Podcast:

Jamer’s work:

Visual Communication Design, An Introduction to Design Concepts in Everyday Experience (co-authored with Meredith Davis)

Social media or other links:

http://www.jamerhunt.com/

https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/faculty/jamer-hunt/

https://twitter.com/jamerhunt

Steph Creasy is the Managing Director of Digital Arts which is based in Auckland. Digital Arts is one of New Zealand’s preeminent human-centered Digital Agency and has designed and delivered exceptional digital experiences for New Zealand’s largest private and public organisations for over 20 years. Steph herself has nearly 20 years’ experience as an experienced human-centered design practitioner, digital customer experience and service designer, team leader, facilitator and design manager.

Steph has led digital and customer experience strategy for a wide range of NZ clients; ANZ, Tourism New Zealand, Auckland Council, Ministry of Social Development, TVNZ, Spark and Auckland Airport amongst others. She has lead projects that have won awards for their design, technology and business outcomes including the Best Awards, SXSW, FWA and Axis.

In this episode she will be talking to us about her experience working within the tech/business sector and why she values the view of social sciences in researching these areas. We talk about the insight a social scientist can bring into a research project and also Steph’s own insight into leading research based projects.

Follow Steph’s work at:

https://medium.com/@stephcreasy/on-becoming-design-led-celebrating-assumption-busting-democratising-decisions-and-embracing-beda4602918b

https://medium.com/@stephcreasy/the-digital-evolution-is-about-the-people-5dcb9948a119

http://www.dan.co.nz/

Social media or other links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-creasy-b389255/

Angèle Christin has a PhD in Sociology from Princeton University and the EHESS (Paris). She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and affiliated faculty in the Sociology Department and Program in Science, Technology, and Society at Stanford University.

She is interested in how algorithms and analytics transform professional values, expertise, and work practices. Currently, she studies the construction, institutionalization, and reception of predictive algorithms in the US criminal justice system.

In today’s episode we talk to Angèle about her work on technology and criminal justice in the US and France. We cover the definitions and purpose of risk assessment algorithms as well as how prosecutors and judges use them in their daily work. We talk about fairness and agency in sentencing, the COMPAS case, and the origins of the anxiety and moral panic around the use of AI algorithms.

Lastly we cover questions relating to the governance of risk assessment tools as well as the type of conversation needed between the academic field and the criminal justice sector when it comes to technology.

Mentioned in podcast:

Angèle’s work:

Social media or other links:

http://www.angelechristin.com

https://twitter.com/AngeleChristin

Matt May has had an extensive career in technology design, access and inclusivity. He is currently Head of Inclusive Design for Adobe where his work includes integrating inclusive design practices across every aspect of the Adobe user experience, training and mentoring the Adobe Design team, and advocating principles of accessibility and inclusive design to the public at large.

In today’s episode we talk to Matt about access, inclusion and exclusion in technology design through the lens of his work in this space. We cover what it is and how to start building inclusive design; how to scale inclusivity at a corporate level; the connection between inclusion, ethics and trust; the difference between inclusion and compliance. We also talk about how he uses research to support his work. Lastly, we cover privilege and allyship in the technology space.

Mentioned in Podcast:

Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG)

AI principles, ethics and Google

ADOBE Research

The Americans with Disabilities Act

Safiya Umoja Noble: Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism

Emily Chang: Brotopia, Breaking up the boy’s club of Silicon Valley

Virginia Eubanks: Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor

Social media or other links:

https://theblog.adobe.com/author/matt-may/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maymatt/

https://twitter.com/mattmay

In today’s episode we talk to Thomas about what a game is and how a well-designed one balances constraints and unpredictabilities.

We cover what relationships people build in and around games and how it (often) outstrips the designers’ expectations of them; his experience with Linden Lab and how Second Life was designed not as a game but as a platform for game making; player governance as a legitimate component of an online space; the connection between trust, ethics, and governance and why it’s necessary for game companies to participate in digital, public spaces.

We talk about identity and building inclusive avatars and the asymmetry between players and game makers. Lastly we talk about chance, patterns and open ended-ness in games.

Mentioned in Podcast:

Thomas’s work:

Malaby, T. M. (2012). Digital Gaming, Game Design, and its Precursors. Digital Anthropology, 288-305. Oxford: Berg.

Social media or other links:

https://thomasmalaby.com

https://uwm.edu/anthropology/people/malaby-thomas-m/

Saswati (Sas) Saha Mitra has both a diverse background (Literature, Political Science and Business) as well as an extensive career in research having worked for companies such as

She has worked with multidisciplinary teams bringing UX driven product development to their Engineering processes. She helped build low cost smartphones, developed new informational services that users can enjoy with or without data.

In her role with Uber, she manages UX Research for all mega-regions- Latin America, Europe and Middle East, India and Asia Pacific. Amongst her current topics of interest are governance, policy and how AI can reduce frictions of language and decision making in order to make smartphones and internet-based services more intelligent and assistive for users.

In today’s episode we talk to Sas about her past research work with Google and (currently) Uber. We cover topics such as what she values in a researcher, methods used in technology research and stories of impact; ethics, governance, policy and her thoughts on the relationship between government and industry; what it’s like to work with a social scientist and her advice on transitioning from academia to industry. Lastly, she shares her experience working as a woman in the technology sector.

Mentioned in podcast:

Uber Movement https://movement.uber.com/?lang=en-US

Uber app revamp https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/04/uber-driver-app-revamp/557117/

Social media or other links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/saswatisahamitra/

Mizuko (Mimi) Ito is a cultural anthropologist and learning scientist studying children and youth's new media use.

She has 2 PhDs from Stanford University, one in Anthropology with the Dissertation "Engineering Play: Children's Software and the Productions of Everyday Life" and one in Education with the Dissertation "Interactive Media for Play: Kids, Computer Games, and the Productions of Everyday Life”. She is currently the Director of the Connected Learning Lab, and a Professor in Residence at University of California, Irvine's Department of Anthropology, Department of Education, Department of Informatics, and School of Education.

She is also the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning and the CEO of Connected Camps, a non-profit organization that provides online learning programs in coding and the digital arts. Her specialities include: ethnographic fieldwork, educational technology, youth Internet culture

We talk to Mimi about her unconventional path as an anthropologist interested in technology since the late 90s and about bridging boundaries between academic and applied fields. We talk about the social and political identity of commercial companies and the relationship between metrics and social and commercial benefit. We cover the definition and time shapes of internet culture and its significance to youth audiences.

We talk about caretakers of youth and the internet; media literacy, access and trust, Google as a learning technology as well as ethics and privacy on social media platforms. Lastly, we talk about the value of using applied social scientists when studying digital cultures.

Mentioned in Podcast:

Affinity Online, How Connection and Shared Interest Fuel Learning

From Good Intentions to Real Outcomes, Equity by Design in Learning Technologies

Connected Camps

Connected Learning Summit 2018

Mimi’s work:

Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life

Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media

Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children’s Software

Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design

Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World

Participatory Culture in a Networked Era: A Conversation on Youth, Learning, Commerce, and Politics

Social media or other links:

https://twitter.com/mizuko

http://www.itofisher.com/mito

http://blog.connectedcamps.com

http://clalliance.org

http://connectedlearning.uci.edu

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mizuko-ito-17b2/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizuko_It

Mrudula Sreekanth has an MICT from the International University in Germany and over 13 years of experience in User Experience Research and Interaction Design in the technology space in India having worked with companies such as SAP, Samsung and Oracle. She is currently the Business Head - UX

In today’s episode we talk to Mrudula about her academic experience in the early days of AI as well as her extensive research experience in the technology space in India. We explore the process and challenges of doing local research in India for international companies. We cover what she values in a researcher and what are the benefits of hiring a social scientist. Lastly, we talk about the power of multidisciplinary teams and how to rapidly integrate a social scientist.

Ann Hsieh is a mixed-methods research leader and loves adapting or creating new methods to build greater impact with stakeholders. She currently leads research for Groups team at Facebook and has 13 years of industry experience from Google, Nokia, and Yahoo. She has published and presented papers at conferences in the US, Europe, and Asia since 2005. Ann has a master’s from Stanford University and a bachelor's from Cornell and grew up in upstate NY and Taiwan. In her spare time, she is an avid cyclist and loves gardening with succulents.

In today’s episode we talk to Ann about her definition of user experience and user research; her experience as the first researcher working on Google Music and her creative approaches to dealing with time constraints; we cover the topic of stakeholders, why they are important and how to get them on board a research project; we cover thinking about community and cross-culturalism when researching social groups; we cover how she deals with bias and her preferred methods of research. Lastly she gives advice on how to make a (smooth) transition from academia to the technology industry.

Mentioned in podcast:

Design User Research Google Group

Ann’s work:

How to Use Video to Tell Impactful Stories

Social media or other links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/annhsieh/