Designdrives
By Sebastian Gier
DesigndrivesAug 09, 2019
Bob Baxley | Driving UX Leadership at Apple, ThoughtSpot, Pinterest and more.
We are thrilled to launch EP58 with Bob Baxley, Senior Vice-President of Design at ThoughtSpot.
Before ThoughtSpot he served as a Senior Manager of Design and product management at Apple and Head of Product Design at Pinterest.
With Bob, we talk about the software as a creative medium and future opportunities for designers.
We also talk about the design culture at Apple and what makes it so unique when it comes to putting CX first.
During the episode we explore:
✅ Why the team comes first and how important team and culture are for any product innovations.
✅ What Bob has learned working with Steve Jobs
✅ How Apple wins through design
✅ How Apple drives UX design and user research
✅ Why great design needs great engineering
✅ How design visions can bring teams together and bring together design and engineering
✅ Over a million users, no user research, why every project needs a tailored approach
Thanks a lot for your time and for learning Bob!
#7 | Antonio Starnino | Driving intentionality and meanings of design
This episode I talk with Antonio Starnino about different views of “what is design”. Antonio draws his insights from a reflective and thoughtful article we was writing on Medium about 3 schools of design. We discuss the tension that is visible these days in the design community. The meaning of what design is range from traditional views where design is about the craft, to newer streams where design is seen as a cultural-mediator and driver for change to design as an inclusive tool for innovation that everyone can learn.
Furthermore we tap into the difference between the Italian and Canadian design scene and where he things heading in terms of the evolution of design and specifically service design. In addition we talk about the impact design can have on society and how is driving change.
Antonio is a Service Designer at Partner at Studio Wé in Canada, Visiting Lecturer at UAL and Masters Candidate, Human Systems Intervention.
#6 | Kathryn Richards | Driving innovation in different countries and cultures
The newest guest at Designdrives is Kathryn Richards, Design Director at Fjord in South Africa. Kathryn had the chance to drive Service Design and Design Strategy in an impressive amount of countries - she designed in London, Munich, Paris, Istanbul and across South Africa.
This rich experience as a design leader is the base of our conversation: we learn what it means to design in different environments, solve local design problems and face new challenges like building up Designit London or transitioning to new roles of leading design teams. Besides Designit and various positions at Fjord she also worked at EY and Designplus getting to know how to communicate the importance and value of design from a broad design consulting experience.
Incredibly inspiring to hear her insights how to convince other stakeholders on the importance of the design investment and perspective in the process of innovating in products and services: to ultimately driving innovation across public and private organisations—from start-up, global corporates to the government - that full-fill customer desires beyond expectations.
#5 | Ross Mitchell | Driving UX Research & Strategy from Ford to AT&T
In this episode we talk about Design Strategy and UX Research. Ross Mitchell is an experienced design leader that gained experience from the automotive field at Ford to the entertainment industry at AT&T as a director of UX Research and Strategy. Gaining experience in both in-house teams and design consultancies: Before his corporate experiences, he was also working at design agencies like RKS Design and served as an Adjunct Professor at CCS. Nowadays he is building WHOA as a Co-founder and Managing Director of the agency which bridges the sectors of research, strategy, innovation and design. During his time leading research and innovation programmes, he experienced industry in change, motion and high competition. Both the automotive field faces challenges with autonomous driving but also during his time at AT&T he experiences the merging business of entertainment, media, and telecommunication. In this podcast, we tap into how to design in industries that are rapidly changing. We cover aspects around Service Design, UX Design and User Research but also how to adjust your process and tools when facing new industries and challenges. In addition, we dive into the value of design and the increasing importance of it when solving complex problems.
This episode was recorded before Ross left AT&T.
You can learn more about Whoa here:
#4 | Shan He | Driving transparency and urban design through mobility data
In this episode, we talk with Shan He from Uber, the founding member of Uber’s data visualisation team. Combing backgrounds in architectural generative design (gained in China) in the physical space with generative software design and data visualisation (learned at MIT) she created a new field that becomes increasingly important. By using geo-data and design visualisation tools she is able to design eye-opening visualisations that help in the communication of scientific findings and enable better decision making for cities and governments. Based on the data from Uber's global user in over 600 cities the visualisations can show when and how people move in the environment. In addition, her team developed an open source tool called “Kepler.gl” which gives everyone access to these powerful visualisations tools. Furthermore, the data is empowering research and science to easily create stunning infographics and presentations out of their data. For cities and urban planners its crucial to understand how people move, if they drive alone or with multiple people and understand citizen behaviour in general. Shan and her team work closely with cities to foster better and more strategic urban design. A talk exploring the intersection of design, data and cities of the future.
If you want to learn more about the tool Shan helped to develop and enables you to create powerful data visualisations click here: https://vis.gl
#3 | Joey Zeledón | Driving desirable innovations through emotional ergonomics
In this episode, we talk with Joey Zeledón who just founded his own Design Studio. Prior to that, he was Design Principle at Steelcase, driving the intersection of spacial healthcare experience and furniture design. He is also the author of the book “Touchy/Feely” and Co-founder of Mothership. Before joining Steelcase Joey gained experience at Smart Design in New York, Continuum and even in footwear design through his time at New Balance. In the episode, we pick from his wide range of experiences ranging from Industrial Design and beyond - pushing innovation in a large range of areas like kitchen products, consumer electronics, furniture and others. Through experiences at Smart Design he also explored and researched new bold questions in design for example “How design can inform our food?” and how design can foster greater food decisions? A topic we specifically focused on was “emotional ergonomics” - how it does foster empathy for human-centred and importantly inclusive design.
If you are interested in getting Joey’s book on emotional ergonomics head to https://www.joeyzeledon.com/shop/touchy-feely-book where you can also explore about his studio.
#2 | Siri Johansson | Driving new paths between Interface and Industrial Design
In this episode, we talk to Siri Johansson, who is currently designing at Spotify in Stockholm. Siri is a Swedish Interaction Designer who prior worked in various positions at IDEO London (and other locations) and studied MFA Interaction Design at the renowned Umea Institute of Design in the very north of Sweden. Before deciding to go into IxD she was already working as a full-time Industrial Designer in Sweden which led us to the topic of the intersection of Interaction and Industrial Design. We talk about how both fields can learn from each other, her learnings in the transition and how being interdisciplinary and open can be highly beneficial as a designer to drive things forward. In addition, we also touch on the difference between consultancy/agency and in-house when talking about her role at Spotify and the how design is positioned there.
#1 | Cheryl Platz | Driving future interfaces, from Amazon Alexa to Microsoft Azure
We talk with Cheryl Platz, a pioneer in the area of AI-driven Voice User Interface Design and one of the first designer on the Amazon Echo System. We talk about the design process of designing the very first interactive voice experiences. Furthermore we learn about her experiences at Microsoft where she worked on both B2C and B2B solutions: Ranging from the Azure Product to AI in-car systems. These days she is driving positive change and impact through design as a Principal Designer at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In addition she is also running her own design consulting venture Ideaplatz, takes roles as an Actor and speaks at conferences around the world.
The conversation happened before Cheryl left Microsoft and joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.