David Hamill

What do you want from the technology industry in the next 5 years? If you could change anything, what would it be? #fridaythought For me, it would be... * Understanding and facilitation of the power of UX, researchers, and designers within organisations. No longer do we have to prove everything and fight for understanding; in turn, we understand the prioritisation and compromises of business decisions. * The use and extent of AI would be determined, so for common purposes, it can be used as an aid but doesn't put at risk entire workforces, which can destabilise society just to make rich people richer, and instead, the full power is harnessed for mutual human benefit solving some of the really big issues we face with the environment, poverty, health, basic education etc. What would you like to see?

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Lucy Woodcock spends much of her time at work 'doing' diverse usability testing. She has recently blogged "#UserTesting Unveiled: A Step-by-Step Exploration" and aims to demystify the process. Here are #KeyTakeaways from her blog: 1. Importance of #InclusiveDesign and #Accessibility: Inclusive design and accessibility are crucial factors in shaping user experiences. User testing with people with disabilities can help reach a broader audience and cater to diverse needs. 2. Meticulous Planning: User testing begins with meticulous planning, including setting dates, arranging calls, and recruiting diverse participants. A clear research plan aligned with client objectives ensures a valuable and inclusive testing project. 3. Remote Usability Testing: Remote usability testing provides flexibility for testers and clients alike. It gives clients the opportunity to observe sessions first-hand, turning the testing day into a collaborative experience. 4. Analysis of Results: Analysis of user testing results is a crucial part of the process, highlighting key issues and forming recommendations. Different tools and methods may be used for analysis, but the goal remains insightful insights and recommendations. 5. Comprehensive User Testing Report: The user testing report is the end deliverable for clients, containing evidenced insights and relevant recommendations closely linked to client objectives. A clear, justified, and measurable report increases implementation and improves accessibility. 6. Continuous Improvement: A #retrospective allows the team to review successes and identify areas for improvement, ensuring #adaptability to evolving client needs and making each project a stepping stone to future success. 7. Enquiring about User Testing Service: User testing services with companies like Accessible Me Ltd, eLaHub Ltd, or AbilityNet ensure you asking the right people the right questions at the right time and making the best use of their feedback. 8. Self-Conducting User Testing: Learning how to conduct user testing can provide reassurance in making accessibility improvements and focusing resources in the right areas. Like AbilityNet, Accessible Me Ltd offers training courses (both online and offline) for those interested in starting their own #AccessibilityTesting. Accessible Me Ltd's focus is in the #eLearning, #LearningAndDevelopment, and #BrandMarketing areas; helping to make learning accessible to everyone. These takeaways highlight the importance of meticulous planning, remote usability testing, thorough analysis, and continuous improvement in creating inclusive and accessible user experiences through user testing.

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My first blog post! Take a look at the similarities between goldsmithing and user research 👩‍🏭 👩‍💻  I'd love to hear your thoughts

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On #BraveUX this week, Jakob Nielsen addresses some of the criticism he’s faced 🎤, calls on UXers to urgently adopt AI 🐛, and shares why he believes the commoditisation of UX is a good thing 📈. Highlights include: ⭐ Are you surprised by how much you’ve offended some people? ⭐ Why do UXers need a greater sense of urgency about adopting AI? ⭐ Were the hiring practices at your previous company elitist? ⭐ What is the state of UX today and where is the growth potential? ⭐ Will AI impede our ability to develop our professional judgement? Plus much more! - - - - - 📺 Want to watch or listen 🎧 to the episode? 👉 Find the links in the comments, or search for Brave UX with Brendan Jarvis 🇺🇦 on YouTube or on your favourite podcast platform. - - - - - Who is Jakob Nielsen, PhD? Jakob is the founder of UX Tigers 🐯, the website and associated substack he uses to bring his 41 years of UX knowledge and experience to the world, in what he has described as a plainspoken, hard-hitting and not bowing to orthodoxy kind-of-way. Before founding UX Tigers, Jakob was the co-founder and principal - for 25 years - of a rather well known UX consultancy, the Nielsen Norman Group 📜. His other notable roles include being a distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems, and a member of the research staff at Bell Communications Research 🔔 - one of the world’s top three HCI labs in the 1990s. Jakob is known for many other things, among which are being the founder of the discount usability movement, the foundational 10 usability heuristics for user interface design, and the eponymously named Jakob’s Law of Internet User Experience 🏛️. He is the holder of no less than 79 United States patents and the author of 8 books, including the best-selling “Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity”, “Usability Engineering”, and the pioneering “Hypertext and Hypermedia” 📚. In 2013, Jakob received the Lifetime Achievement Award for HCI Practice from ACM SIGCHI and in 2024 he was named a “Titan of Human Factors” by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 🏆. - - - - - Don’t forget to check out the show notes on YouTube for quick-access to interview chapters, as well as where to find Jakob. #UX #UXDesign #UXAI #UXR #UXResearch #UserResearch #DesignLeadership #UXTigers

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If your main metric for success for design systems is measuring adoption, then consider this: Adoption does not equal value. Value is better communicated by money saving or money generated when it comes to organisations. This can be calculated by time savings for example. Adoption only tells you how much it is being used - without the former you cannot realise the scale of value. #designsystems #design #designmatrics

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We got our first website accessibility audit in quite a while done recently. It's important not to be daunted by the report you get back – we are thoroughly working through it to make the improvements needed. We're trying to design and develop things in a robust way, and a nice bonus was some big recently shipped work had no known issues. It just shows that when you build accessibility in from the start it makes a huge impact. #accessibility

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Top 5 insights for Design Leaders navigating Budget and Resource Constraints... A recent poll I ran on LinkedIn indicated that one of the most common challenges design leaders are facing right now is budget or resource constraints. It's a familiar struggle, so I asked a few leaders what strategies they implement to navigate or even combat this challenge effectively. Here's the top 5: 1) Prioritize the most impactful projects: When resources are limited, focus on projects that deliver the most significant impact. Identify initiatives aligned with strategic goals and prioritize them accordingly. By concentrating efforts on high-impact projects, you can maximize the value generated with limited resources. 2) Leverage cross-functional collaboration: Engage with other departments and teams to leverage their resources and expertise where possible. Collaboration allows you to pool resources, share insights, and tackle challenges collectively. By fostering cross-functional partnerships, you can access additional resources and capabilities to support your initiatives. 3) Optimize existing resources: Make the most of the resources you already have. Conduct a thorough assessment of your current tools, technologies, and talent. Identify areas for optimization and efficiency gains. By optimizing existing resources, you can maximize their impact and minimize waste. 4) Invest in skill development: In resource-constrained environments, investing in skill development can be a game-changer. Equip your team with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in a dynamic landscape. Consider training programs, workshops, or online courses to up-skill your team and enhance their capabilities. 5) Demonstrate ROI and Value: Clearly articulate the value of design initiatives in terms of ROI and impact on business outcomes. Use data and metrics to quantify the value generated by these projects. By demonstrating the tangible benefits of design investments, you can secure buy-in and support from stakeholders. Have you faced similar challenges in your role as a design leader? How have you navigated budget or resource constraints? Share your experiences and insights below to help others going through the same thing! #design #designteams #DesignLeadership #ResourceConstraints #teamdevelopment #budgeting #resourcemanagement

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Efficiency may not seem so important, but then consider all you must do in the work day and juggle to get things done. That is where a trusted partner can really make the difference. Having the right tools, processes, and support can be a game-changer in boosting your productivity when talent-seeking and reducing stress. Whether it's streamlining workflows, automating repetitive tasks, or getting expert guidance - leveraging the right partner can free up your time and mental energy to focus on your most important priorities. Don't underestimate the power of efficiency. It may be the secret weapon you need to take your performance to the next level. #productivity #efficiency #timemanagement #worksmarter

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Sometimes standard agile methods just don't cut it when it comes to complex, UX-heavy product development. Daniel Moore and I experienced this recently and found we wanted Agile to 'be more UX'. 💡 Our solution was Dual Track Agile One of the key benefits for me was that it facilitated user-centric designs, informed by technical experts resulting in products securely grounded in reality. Read more about Dual Track Agile in our blog linked below. What is it? How did we implement it? And what other benefits did it deliver?

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Thank you so much Marzia Aricò for sharing this cheat sheet! This is truly a gift 🤩 I can only imagine how many years of work has resulted in this. I have been trying to figure this out in bits and pieces on my own so I know how hard it can be for designers to have access to the right people and resources that can result in such clear #goals and #keymetrics for each #businessfunction within an #organisation. "Describe the value of your design work to other groups without using the word design and by building on what they care about and value"- was an important reminder of our interaction at Politecnico di Milano POLIMI Graduate School of Management last month. 📢 Fellow senior/service/strategic #designers, STOP what you're doing and READ this! This is the 20% that will drive 80% of your results. And follow her substack for more insights- https://lnkd.in/gib8Q6Kc #notsponsored #trueappreciation

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Groups don't always make bad decisions unintentionally. Sometimes they are fully aware that what they're doing will have negative consequences - but conformity bias forces everyone to vote for the bad thing. It's naive to believe that the functional result of a decision (make the metric go up) is the only consideration behind a product decision. Emotional and social outcomes are equally - if not more - important. We hesitate to make a call that the data tells us is right if our gut says it's wrong. We also hesitate to go against the group. Group cohesion and belonging is one of the most powerful motivators there is. Whatever we may believe privately, speaking up against what's perceived as group consensus goes against our instincts. This results in a situation where everyone can privately believe in one course of action but publicly support another *because everyone else in their group supports it publicly* - even if privately everyone shares the other opinion! That's conformity bias. Amazon has a tool to break it - the leadership principle "Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit." Voicing those objections even when it's scary is an important part of every high functioning team. Unfortunately this LP is often misread by people who emphasize the last word. "You might disagree with me, but you should let me have my way." That's the OPPOSITE of leadership. There's another phrasing out there: "if we have data, use the data; if all we have are opinions, we might as well go with mine." The point of "have backbone" is to break these deadlocks just long enough to go and collect the data that can lead to a high quality decision, not to sweep disagreement under the rug forever. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eWZsSqu8

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Designers - are you being asked to provide measurable proof of how your work impacts business outcomes with metrics? Are you unsure of what to measure, when and how? Being able to assess the impact of your design decisions can not only have a positive effect on your product and end users, but is also a skill increasingly in demand for design roles. Recently, I wrote an article on this very topic, "How design teams can use product data to add value to the business" (https://lnkd.in/gYreMBm9 ). Today I'm excited to announce the release of part 2 on this topic, "6 ways Pendo's design team uses Pendo to add more value to the platform - and the business" (https://lnkd.in/gTgj2dmJ). Check it out! #DesignMetrics #BusinessOutcomes #ProductData #DesignTeams #Pendo

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It's Friday... Substack day! 🎉 I've just published a new article exploring rapport building in UX research. Rapport - that elusive but essential connection between researcher and participant - can make or break the insights we uncover in UX studies... but what exactly is rapport, and how can we cultivate it effectively? In this piece, I dive into recent rapport literature including a recent systematic review by Brouillard et al.'s (2024). Key topics include: ✅ The 5 key dimensions of rapport and how they apply to UX research ✅ Strategies for tailoring rapport-building to different research contexts and modes ✅ Approaches for measuring rapport and its impact on data quality ✅ Navigating the potential pitfalls of high rapport ✅ Practical tips Link to the full article: https://lnkd.in/eBZE27GD I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences on this! How do you build rapport in your own research practice? What challenges have you faced, and what strategies have you found effective?

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Are you coming to UX Scotland? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 People have asked me recently what UX Scotland is like. And although I am very biased I think what makes this conference so great for me is: ➡️ Variety Our program covers a broad range of talks, workshops and discussions on subjects aligned with user-centred design and research. There’s something for everyone, no matter how you want to participate on the day or what you are interested in learning. It always blows me away to see such breadth and depth of expertise. And talking of expertise.. ➡️ Expertise The quality of submissions has grown year on year. As our professions have grown and matured and into new areas and roles, what we’re talking about has too. From the practical to the thought-provoking , it’s wonderful to hear from and engage with people who are so passionate about their area of expertise they want to share it with others. ➡️ Connection As a small conference you really get the opportunity to connect and engage with the other participants, speakers and the keynotes in a meaningful way that you wouldn’t at some very large conferences. ➡️ Community Over the last 9 years we have developed an incredible community of local, national and international participants and its always lovely to connect with them and exchange ideas. ➡️ Immersion Spending three whole days (or just the one if that’s what you can manage) immersed in the bubble of user centred design is brilliant. Being able to focus on taking it all in, pondering your work and career without the distractions of day to day life is such a pleasure. What do you think? Do you agree? And more importantly, are you joining us next month? 🎟️ Tickets available at https://lnkd.in/eUdqNC4s 🩷 And you can use the code 15Jen to get a discount 🩷

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⭐ Tips for Designers Seeking Contract Roles ⭐ For all designers struggling to find contract work, try these tips to boost your chances: 1️⃣ Reach Out to Past Contacts 👉 Contact Recruiters or Direct Hiring Managers or Designers you've previously worked with Be Concise: ◾ Include your job title, day rate (inside/outside IR35), availability, CV, portfolio, mobile number, and email in the message to them. ◾ Add a brief bullet point on your key experience (e.g., native app experience, B2C/B2B checkout/conversions, SaaS). Tailor this to the client if you're contacting them directly. 2️⃣ Update Your Portfolio & CV 👉 Highlight Contract Details ◾ Projects: Describe what you worked on (e.g., Native/Responsive app, discovery phases). ◾ Purpose: Explain why you were hired. ◾ Collaboration: Mention who you worked with. ◾ Success Metrics: Define how you measured success. ◾ Role: Outline your daily contributions and processes (keep it brief). ◾ Outcome: Detail the results of your work. ◾ Keywords: Include terms that target specific companies (e.g., SaaS, B2B, data visualization, relevant tools). 🌟Additional Tips🌟 ◾ Tailor Job Titles: If you’re a product designer applying for a UX or service design role, adjust your job title and keywords to align with the position (e.g., UX-weighted Product Designer). ◾ Be Honest: Ensure your experience reflects the role accurately and truthfully otherwise this is a waste of time for you and the recruiter These steps can help you present yourself effectively and increase your chances of securing a contract role. If anyone has any success stories then feel free to comment and this will help lots of people!

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Question for service design contacts - Has anyone come across a "Design System" or something similar for non-digital services? I'm wondering how to go about creating basically a list of practical design features for creating accessible and inclusive community services. I've heard about "design systems" in UI being a way to create a consistent visual experience by listing standard components and elements that work so people don't keep reinventing the wheel. I know there are really good ones out there for creating accessible and inclusive digital services. And I sort of want to create something similar for non-digital services - like health services, support groups, things like that. I'm currently compiling lots of tips from lots of different sources, and I want to be able to share that research in a way that's easy to use. Does something like that already exist? Or does anyone have any thoughts on how to make that work? #ServiceDesign #DesignSystems #Accessibility #A11y #HealthAndCare #EDI

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I’ve mentioned in a previous post how much I put stock in Communication, so I thought I’d start with that for my top Product Designer skills. Breaking things down into Intermediate and Senior (remembering they build on each other), as an Intermediate you need to be able to show active listening skills as part of your communication. As part of this, there needs to be an awareness and understanding that every situation may require a different communication style. It depends on who and what you are trying to communicate. As a Senior, you need to be able to modify your communication depending on all those factors, including written vs verbal forums, and 1-1 vs groups. You need to be able to bring people on the journey you go through, adapting your style to the needs of those you are communicating with. As part of our role at Nomos One, we work with Software Engineers, Product Managers, SME’s, Customer Education, Lawyers, Technical Accountants, Customer Support, and Sales and Marketing among others. It’s important for us to remember we might need to interact slightly differently with each team, but that within those teams everyone is unique and individual – not everyone’s brains work in the same way, so we want to set ourselves up for success by recognising and reflecting that in how we communicate. What’s something you’ve learned on your journey to be a communication master? #productdesign #uxskills #ui #communication #collaboration #teamwork #leadership #softwaredevelopment #productmanagement #productdesignjob  

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