The UX Level-Up

In this first episode of 2023, Sophia lays out her findings after successfully rolling out the ORCA Sprint envisioned in episode 033 from last season. She talks about manifesting the ORCA Sprint from concept to deliverable, what worked and what didn't work (and what can probably be skipped) while running the first ORCA Sprint, and why ending Day 2 of the ORCA Sprint with a nav flow is guaranteed to blow people's minds. 

LINKS:

For background on this episode, check out episode 033 - The ORCA Sprint with Sophia V. Prater, as well as The OOUX Happy Hour with Certified OOUX Strategist, Allie Ofisher - OOUX Happy Hour: Running ORCA Sprints with Allie Ofisher, as well as The ORCA Sprint Outline in Notion - www.ooux.com/hi/orca-sprints.

Download The OOUX Launch Guide!

Contact Sophia with your thoughts on the ORCA Sprint on Twitter @sophiavux

Email Sophia at [email protected] to get more information on ORCA Sprints

In this solo episode of the podcast (and final episode of this season), Sophia talks about a new concept called "The ORCA Sprint." A week-long OOUX journey teams can take to tackle their projects head-on with the methodology of ORCA (tackling objects, relationships, calls-to-action, and attributes). Sophia will take you through each day of the ORCA Sprint schedule going step by step with recommended tools and templates included. And she's looking for feedback! We recommend you listen to this episode in front of your computer so that you can follow along and take notes. 

Following this episode, the OOUX Podcast will be going on hiatus until the fall. 

LINKS:

The Notion ORCA Sprint Outline

The Whimsical ORCA Collab Hub

OOUX-Style Sketch Worksheets

Keep up with the latest OOUX News with the OOUX Newsletter

Give us feedback on the ORCA Sprint or set up a meeting with Sophia to discuss doing an ORCA Sprint for your team by writing us at [email protected].

Keith Rich and Anthony Gallo join us from Think Company, a bespoke UX and software firm out of Philadelphia. Anthony, the "engineer" of Think Company, began his career in system administration. He took learning how things work "under the hood" to a new level when he later became a self-taught developer. Keith, the "midfielder" at Think Company, comes from Pharma advertising and is passionate about prototyping new ideas and bridging the gaps between design and development.

Don't miss hearing more from Keith and Anthony at the upcoming Object-Oriented UX Happy Hour on May 5, 2022 @ 6pm EST.

Follow Keith on Twitter: @keith_rich

Follow Anthony on Twitter: @_ant_g

Read the series on OOUX by Keren Toledano on the Think Company blog: Part 1 and Part 2

And Think Company’s article “What the Heck is a ‘Full Stack’ Developer, Anyhow?”

Samuel Hulick runs UserOnboard where he researches, writes about, and implements successful user onboarding for companies around the world. In this episode, Sophia and Samuel chat about Value Paths and how they hone in on the deeper value of our products. Listen as they lay this lens over a medical prescription app design challenge, the Headspace onboarding experience, and even OOUX.com's offerings.

LINKS:

OOUX Fundamentals workshop recording — mentioned in the intro!

OOUX Podcast Episode 024, Value Paths and OOUX — Samuel Hulick’s first time on the podcast

Useronboard.com — Samuel’s website

The Elements of User Onboarding — Samuel’s book

Value Paths — Samuel’s new onboarding approach

Follow Samuel on Twitter

Follow UserOnboard on Twitter

Caroline Sober-James is the Director of UX at Acumium, where she and her team have successfully instituted OOUX to great success. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Caroline discuss why designers should cultivate empathy toward developers, how to be "a designer devs swoon over," and how quickly Caroline's conversations with developers turn into "OOUX lovefests."

LINKS:

Follow Caroline on Twitter: @wildwend

Connect with Caroline on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinesober/

Tune-In to Caroline's talk, When OOUX meets API design: Love at first "site" at THAT Conference, July 27: https://that.us/activities/As01VUh3JNJGcHFrXhyW

Listen to Caroline's previous appearance on the UX Hustle Podcast (Replayed on the OOUX Podcast)

Buy the Self-Paced OOUX Masterclass!

Scott Kubie is "a designer who writes." He's the author of "Writing for Designers," a must-read for anyone who writes, and the brain behind "Content Ecosystem Mapping," a visual way to represent your content reality—what you have and where it is. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Scott discuss is-ness versus ought-ness, the rhetorical nature of creating a content ecosystem, plus how exactly one goes about making a content ecosystem map. 

LINKS: 

Follow Scott on Twitter: @scottkubie

Buy Scott's book: Writing for Designers

Keep up with Scott through his linktree: scottkubie

Check out the first draft Rewired Content Ecosystem Sophia and Scott talked about in the episode.

Also don't miss Scott Kubie's talk at The OOUX Happy Hour, March 3, 2022 12-1PM EST

Lou Rosenfeld needs no introduction. If you are listening to this podcast, you have most likely read or are aware of the Polar Bear book he co-wrote, or one of the many other design books published by his company, Rosenfeld Media, or have attended one of his many excellent IA conferences. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Lou discuss why portals should be banned, what precisely is the definition of "moment prison," and why we shouldn't get emotional about our professional metaphors. 

LINKS:

Polar Bear Book: https://amzn.to/3o0f9mT

Steve Smith is a software engineer, a UXer, and a serial entrepreneur. His early company, Ordered List, was acquired by GitHub and after a long stint as a product designer at GitHub, we met when we were both consulting to NineLabs. He is the founder and lead designer at Box Out Designs, which is basically Canva for the sports industry. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Steve discuss what designers and developers have in common with potters and woodworkers, which programming language is best for OOUXers who want to learn some code, and the ins and outs of OOUXing a whisky. Enjoy!

LINKS:

Follow Steve on Twitter: @orderedlist

Check out Box Out Sports

Take your career to the next level! Cohort 6 of the Object-Oriented UX Masterclass Certification is open for enrollment. Cohort 6 kicks off February 21, 2022!

Email us at [email protected] if you have any questions!

As you probably know, Brad Frost is the author of "Atomic Design," the creator of pattern lab, and a design systems advocate and educator. He writes front end code, writes about writing code, and consults to companies looking to create successful, effective design systems. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Brad discuss how technology is like a river, why it's important for everyone on a project to have a shared language, and how design systems are like furniture parts. 

If you like this conversation, make sure to scroll back and listen to the first three episodes of the podcast. I’ve got some introduction episodes as well as a conversation with Dan Mall, which as you might expect, compliments this episode nicely. As a huge fan of the atomic design philosophy and brad frost himself, I am super excited to share this conversation with you!

LINKS:

Follow Brad on Twitter: @brad_frost

Keep up with Brad on his site: bradfrost.com

If you haven't read "Atomic Design" yet, what are you doing? Buy it here: Atomic Design

Cohort 6 of the OOUX Certification Program is being pushed to February. If you want to be a part of that cohort I STRONGLY encourage you to get on the waitlist by going to OOUX.com/waitlist. We will only email you when enrollment opens. Promise to respect your inbox.

If you don’t want to wait until Feb, you can get started now by enrolling in the Self-Paced Masterclass which is the exact same content, just without the bells and whistles of the certification. And if you decide you want to upgrade to the certification when enrollment opens, you just pay the difference. See a side by side comparison and Ooux.com/training

Not convinced? Check out Ooux.com/testimonals to see what certified strategists say about OOUX and the course.

Sondra Eby Eisenstat is a Certified OOUX Strategist and UX Designer at web development agency Oddbird. Miriam Suzanne is a self-described software engineer and artist. She is co-founder at Oddbird, as well as an Invited Expert with the W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium) CSS Working Group where she works with other experts in the field to develop open standards that ensure the long-term growth of the Web. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia, Sondra, and Miriam discuss the adaptability of the ORCA process for teams, the coming innovations of container queries in CSS, and how OOUX facilitates a fruitful, continuous conversation between designers and developers. 

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