World Designer - the podcast with people who are shaping the world

Our guest is Jesper Svenning a Danish UX designer and researcher. 

In this interview we learn how a mentor can help you grow. Jesper shares his story of how he became a freelance designer and then compares the freelance design scene in the US and Europe.

After that we learn about the 3 things you have to keep in mind if you want to work as a freelance designer. As freelancing isn't the right choice for everyone. Jesper tells us about his research experience and why he loves working with developers. He also explains why you have to sometimes feel uncomfortable when testing a product.

Another topic is the influence of design on our lives. Does working as a designer relate to being better as a human? 

Jesper shares his controversial thoughts about testing, brainstorming and forcing creativity. We also learn about the boring aspects of design work that many people forget. In the end, Jesper tells us about the problem with the distribution of wealth and some things we can do to deal with it.

https://www.hotairindustries.com/ 

Our guest is Péter Balázs Polgár, the lead product designer at Krisp. Peter tells us about Krisp and how they use software to make online meetings easier. 

We learn why designers and developers have to teach one another to understand each other's goals. Peter tells us also about the things you have to keep in mind when managing a design team and why it's important to create spaces for creative work.  

We touch also on the topic of humility and why ego is often the enemy. Another topic we tackle is the closing of coal mines. At the end Péter shares his advice with people who want to be design managers.  

You can find Peter on:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterbalazspolgar/ 

His website: https://polgarp.com/ 

Our guest on the 10th episode of World Designer is Martina Pagura, a Product Design Manager at Koa Health . Together with Martina, we talk about the project she is working on, a project that will make mental health support accessible for millions thanks to technology.

We talk about the mental health problem and how design is applied to solve it. Martina tells us about user-centricity and we ask her if good design is always user-centered. You will learn the importance of balance between logic and craziness as a designer. Sometimes you have to think outside the box and channel yourself to be tactical, other times you should let out the beast and come up with crazy ideas to change things.

Martina tells us why the most beautiful thing about design is also the most worrisome one and the responsibility that design and development teams have. At the end of the episode, Martina explains why you need a hobby if your job requires creativity and why you have to stay curious and hungry to learn design.

Martina on LinkedIn 

https://www.martinapagura.com/ 

Our guest is Feild Craddock, an Interaction Designer specializing in interactive hardware that shares his experience with us. Feild tells about problems with politics and how a few people can have too much power. He explains the hardest part about designing physical products and the differences between the design of software and physical products.

We learn about bodystorming and how designing for Augmented Reality looks like. He tells us why designers and developers should share terminology and why developers have to ask more questions. Later Feild shares with us his thoughts about brainstorming. He tells us also why he is learning to build software and how it relates to being a designer.

Most importantly, Feild shares his thoughts about sketching and why we should do it more often. We also talk about the emotional connection between products and users, should a good design always form that connection? In the end, Feild shares his tips with aspiring interaction designers.

You can find Feild at:

https://www.feild.work/

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

John Ferreira is an educator, creator of Killer Interactions and a great Product Designer who knows a lot about UI. 

In this episode of World Designer he tells us about the problem with media and fake news, he shares the story of how he created Media Sifter to fight this problem. We learn how experience as a photographer relates to being a designer and also the most important thing he learned when working in the gaming industry. 

John explains why designers should learn to code to a degree, how it will change the quality of work and affect mutual understanding. We talk also about consolidated creativity and why all mailing applications look the same. 

Moreover, John shares with us his analogy between finding the source of a river and defining problems to be solved. We learn also a little bit about his course "Killer Interactions", if you want to learn how to build beautiful Pixel Perfect User Interfaces, that's the place to go. He tells us about the components good UI is made of and why colors are still a misunderstood topic. He gives also actionable tips on reverse engineering things and the learnings that come from it.

John's Twitter - https://twitter.com/johnfferreira?lang=en

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnfwferreira/

Killer Interactions - https://www.killerinteractions.com/

Together with Martin Mershroth we talked about the differences between B2B and B2C products, we learn about the decisions he made to grow as a designer. 

Martin told us how his career as a designer started in a small village in Germany. We talk about designing for VUI (Voice user interfaces) and the exciting things connected with it. Another topic we tackle is the ability to operate on different heights, Martin explains what it is and how important this ability is for every designer.

He shares also his thoughts on open-sourcing design and the good things it can bring to the whole community. We talk also about asymmetries in societies and the significance of this problem in today's world. In the end, Martin shares a few tips with people who are at the start of their design careers.

https://majroth.com/

https://www.figma.com/@martin 

This podcast is brought to you by: Elite Crew 

Our guest is Ane Eline Sorensen, the founder of The Great Caribbean Barrier, owner of issun studio and a great designer who is an agent of resilient expansion. Together with Ane we talk about the importance of creative leadership. Eline tells us her story, how she changed her career to make the world a better place. We talk about collaboration across silos to find solutions to every problem. There are problems in the world that everyone needs to work on. Another topic we cover is the relationship between generalists and specialists, why they need each other and how together they can change the world. Eline tells us why we should question the status quo and how important it is to find your tribe to grow as a designer and as a person.

Together with Anders Hojmose we talk about many many things, one of the first topics is design in Education. Anders is the Head of UX at EF Education First, thanks to that he knows a lot about the challenges that design has to solve when it comes to teaching people. 

We talk about the problems that the pandemic caused and how it affects the quality of design, but we also discuss the new challenges that new technologies create. Anders explains why T-shaped designers are needed and the importance of having expertise in a given niche. As a follow-up he explains why we have to take courses and "get our hands dirty" in order to learn. 

Anders site: https://www.hojmo.se/ 

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

Elite Crew: https://www.elitecrew.io/ 

Key points:

Favorite sector - Education - [3:15]

Finding the sweet spot between technology and peer to peer learning - [5:00]

Challenge in front of us - [8:30]

Designers without developers - [16:15]

Engage developers early on in the design process - [19:00]

Solve problems first - [22:10]

Working from home and the quality - [25:30]

Intuition vs research - [30:15]

T-shaped designer - [34:50]

Skills required to be a good designer - [39:40]

In this episode of "The App Designer" we talk with Sven Neitzel the CEO of Looc.io, a vision test app that will help you take care of your eyes with vision tests that you can do at home. Sven tells us about his journey from a graphic designer throughout UX design up to becoming a CEO of a tech company. We learn why it's important to stay flexible and always learn new skills to be a good designer. 

We learn about the design challenges they faced during the development of their app. We also talk about the importance of typography, one of the most under- and over- rated things in design.

Sven tells us about the magic of iterations in digital design and when is the right time to focus on the details. At the end we learn Sven's thoughts on the direction design is headed in the coming years. 

Healthcare is one of the most important sectors in our society and Designers are already making an impact on how people experience health care services. In this episode of The App Designer, Felicjan Rybka talks with Abi Golestanian about the impact design can have on this sector and how healthcare support can look like in the coming years. Abi tells us about the consequences of design and what it means to be a designer in today’s society. We also talk about sustainability in relation to energy usage. At the end of this episode you will learn why it's important to have an open mind to be a great designer.