What’s out of this world? UX in space! Macy Nguyen, Senior Interaction Designer at NASA Ames Research Center, talks about her role in spacewalking research and design in astronaut applications. From a background in mobile app design to designing solutions for astronauts, she elaborates on her favorite elements of UX, why it’s important to build a strong relationship with developers and how to make sense of a complex and nebulous problem.

The world of physical products and industrial design go hand in hand, but also overlaps digital design. Lucas Couto, Senior Industrial Designer at EGGS Design, explains what creating a physical product is like, from design all the way to manufacturing. Despite the differences working with plastic vs pixels, designers from both industries follow a similar design discipline from understanding a problem and testing assumptions to mocking and prototyping. Lucas walks us through the process of handling iterations in industrial design and answers the big question “is plastic a necessary evil?”

Allie Thu, Senior Accessibility Experience Designer at Zappos, guides us on her journey from a marketing job to carving her own accessibility experience designer position. The world of accessibility really resonated with Allie by showing her what it meant to be inclusive and empathize for all users. It’s about making a commitment to approach problems from different angles, since accessibility gets tied into every single thing we touch, smell, see, etc. When it comes to showing the ROI of accessibility on a business level, Allie goes over three points: brand loyalty, building a usable product, and semantic code. She ends the episode with quick tips for both designers and developers, as well as a number of helpful resources.

Hayden Humphrey, Chief Uplift Officer, tackles how he transformed himself from people pleasing in a corporate career to becoming a success coach and creative entrepreneur. In order to break free from people pleasing, we must first recognize the behavioral patterns and understand that niceness and kindness are two different things. To close the gap between customer advocacy and business goals in UX, we have to make ourselves uncomfortable! Hayden brings up how imposter syndrome is another level of vulnerability we need to defy by allowing self-love and encouragement. This episode closes with advice on how to combat isolation during Covid, especially for those working from home.

Is a degree really necessary for UX? What type of job descriptions reflect a clear set of goals and expectations for an applicant? Should designers leverage their skills based on the industry or the technology itself? Filippo dives deep into these and a few other insightful questions posted on the User Experience subreddit.

Trevor Newberry, Owner and Product Manager of Newberry Consulting and AppThink, shares his insights about the differences in customer experience between the food and tech industry. In his “bad sandwich” metaphor, he breaks down why customer dissatisfaction is not always caused by the product itself and how good customer service can resolve the underlying source of frustration. As he shifts from food to tech, Trevor discusses the challenges of working with non-technical founders and why spending money doesn’t necessarily translate to an amazing product. Rather, Trevor states that advocating on behalf of UX and allocating UX time and resources is essential to creating a solid product and business.

Matteo Trisolini, Chief Behavioral Offer and Customer Experience Strategist at South Slope Pediatrics, discusses why it’s important to focus on relationships to thrive in customer experience, especially in the healthcare industry. Valuing relationships over profit has helped his company succeed and ignited a positive chain reaction among his patients and community.

Matteo Trisolini, Chief Behavioral Officer and Customer Experience Strategist at South Slope Pediatrics in Brooklyn, New York, walks us through his inspiring journey from a career in photography to a career dedicated to customer experience and company culture in the healthcare industry. He discusses how he became obsessed with customer experience, how he translated that to create a close community, how he proved his passion to be impactful during the Covid-19 pandemic for both his employees and patients, and why it’s important to hire the right person.

Ray Gonzales, Lead UX Designer at Zappos, shares his favorite Design System resources. First, when it comes to the "creation" side of things, Invision is a great way to start. They have an entire collection of books on the subject. When it comes to "adoption," Ray mentions Nathan Curtis, who digs deeper behind the scenes at the structures we can use to disseminate our Design Systems. On the other hand, Paul uses the oldest (yet still best) trick in the book: a Google search!

Paul Pittman (Amazon), Filippo Lovotti (Zappos) talk Design Systems with Ray Gonzales, Lead UX Designer at Zappos. They start with the basics and move to more complex issues. Ray reveals how he approaches Design Systems and what has worked for him when it comes to adoption. Paul doubles down on the importance of nailing communication. Finally, they move to common mistakes and how to discover and communicate the ROI of Design Systems.