Just Us

We're freaky good at branding, y'all. We review the design and user experience of the infamous OnlyFans... 

Is success attainable for anyone's online brand?

 Find out which co-host made their platform debut to give us the inside scoop!

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Word of the day --> SALACIOUS

Communitea

Buckle up, Buttercups! We are traveling all over history and the globe for today’s episode on allyship and culture. We brought our beautiful friend Belem to help us unpack different suitcases around decolonization and the LatinX identity. Belem is a UX Researcher of Mexican descent who has a passion for family, poetic storytelling, and healing generational trauma.

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Word of the Day: VENOMOUS

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Communi-Tea

Belem references

We may not always have the answers, but we definitely have some thoughts. Today, we give advice on career, peers, continuing education, and more. If you’re an emerging designer, DM us your questions to be featured on the next Q&A episode! @justus.podcast

Communi-Tea

We learned a lot about trigger warnings this week, and realized they are controversial because of poor design and misinformation. Our minds were kind of blown! Listen to us try to build a “persona” (a research tool that helps portray the target user) and reformat TW language and features, so that could be more beneficial to those who need them.

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Communi-Tea

We’re playing “one gotta go” with some long lost members of the group chat..! We reminisce about old times and share our points of view on random topics like Treasure’s plan for living without toilet paper. This breather episode has been heavily redacted for all the shady boots in the studio, but we're here for it.

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Dark Patterns, that is… UX designers have power to influence behavior. Sometimes, this power is used to warp digital interactions to the benefit of a company, and the disadvantage of the user. We discussed the various categories of these miscarriages of design decisions, and bring up examples you may have noticed yourself!

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Word of the Day: Whet

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Communi-Tea

darkpatterns.org by Alexander Darlington

Uncle Clifford was on point, but The Pynk  could use some TLC... In this episode we design an innovative experience for the iconic strip club from Showtime’s P Valley.  We consider a few things with our recommendations:

1.  How do we promote the dancer's business while keeping them safe?

2. How do we play into a VIP experience for all patrons?

3. How do we create content and a service model that lines the owner’s pockets?

Our rebrand is the future of shake joints! Come on down to the House of Pynk, now accepting mobile pay and Booty Bitcoin!

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WORD  OF  THE DAY: Behoove

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Communitea Links

Raise your hand if you ever been personally victimized by your own IG feed. We never could have imagined the impact these digital spaces would have in our real lives. This spontaneous conversation holds one thing for certain- the gworls are obsessed. See how each of us interpret what goes down on these platforms, and our opinions on the future of social media. What is on the horizon? And do we need a detox?

Communi-Tea

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In today’s lively episode about innovation, we unpack innovations that are both celebrated and slept on.

Sexy tech has nothing over the innovative solutions that come out the hood! 

Jeremy and Treasure recently moved, so we also dove into U-haul’s service design and dreamed up a wishlist for the ideal move. 

We can see the future (it is black and brown!).

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Intro to UX @allblackcreatives

Most brilliant people are a mess inside. Creative energy comes from the heart, so our work can have a big impact on our emotions and mental health. Sometimes, we are NOT OK (which is totally OK)! If this sounds like you, come through for today’s group chat about creative wellness, our challenges and growth, and self-care. Specifically, we nerd out about how Headspace, a mindfulness app, builds habits and addresses user needs. If you’re listening to this episode or reading this description, this is a sign to do something kind for yourself today.

Communi-Tea

Inequality: It’s what’s for dinner. COVID-19 has brought to light the inequality in our food systems, yet another blow to BIPOC communities. Today’s discussion around food insecurity travels through urban gardening, food and grocery delivery, designing circular systems, and the pitfalls of college meal plans. We get deep, but these human moments make us better designers.

Community Resources

Cuddle up, you cool cats and kittens! The Just Us crew stays entertained watching our shows… but ya’ll got streaming money? It’s too many options! Subscription fatigue is a real thing! Today, we talk viewing preferences, compare the UI of our favorite platforms, and imagine the future of streaming. We give our show recommendations and reminisce on simpler times...

We got your report card, Quarantina…

Today we give out grades to brands based on their quarterly qurantine performance. We talk unsanitary employees and Treasure’s ideas for drive-in movie theaters. Honorable mention our local businesses that did the best they can with what they had!

We give our flowers, and our critiques, while launching into a discussion on the eye mouth eye phenomenon.

Walmart C

Wegmans C

Wawa B-

AMC C

Verzuz A+

Delta A

Condados Taco in Cleveland Ohio A+

Jeremy’s Apartment complex B

Jaran Ramsey in Dallas A++ @Jaranramsey

Ben Wegman A+ @

Conferences D

Quarantine-Con A+

shoutouts to:

@verzuztv

@Jaranramsey

@benwegmann

@wherearetheblackdesigners

@quarantinecon.co

It’s *just us* and our shenanigans in the studio this week... We summarize our last few weeks and reflect on our interviews. Thanks to our special guests for enlightening us on experience design! Here we discuss our final thoughts as we hone our career interests. We want to show up in a way that makes space for others. We see growth in the type of designers we want to be, and we are always learning. We talk pivoting into creative careers and working from home…and Jeremy’s backup plans for selling his bathwater on the internet.

The world is changing, and people have needs. We admit today that we aren’t quite sure what to do with ourselves at the moment.  Our chat with Carl Joseph is philosophical and thought-provoking about society, design, and how we cope. He showed us that experience design is what the world needs now.  It turns out, we all have bright futures ahead of us! Today’s conversation is methodical and idealistic like our thoughtful guest. 

What the world needs now is YOU. Take a break and have a seat with us. We are always glad you came.

Ashley Glover is an Experience Designer in the Bay Area that cemented herself as *our* ally this episode.  She drops gems on us about self care, advocacy, and personal peace. These days, it’s easy to feel hopeless. We are navigating rough waters. We chat educating yourself, the need for healing, and how to make sense of the events that are unfolding. Ashley talks about her career in tech, and how to create opportunities to address micro-aggressions in the workplace. She took us to church before and after the show, in addition to what you’ll unpack in this episode. The tea was served up piping! 

"Experience Design" is a dynamic school of thought that is hard to define...  and even harder to search job boards for.  In this episode, we pull in our friend Tobi Oluwo for a fresh perspective that is intelligent and creative. Tobi is full of great advice for exploring this career path.  This is our first train stop on our journey to make it make sense... We talk Cali living, the high-level "labyrinth" of design decisions, the structure of a creative team, and how a photographer and Dragonball Z fan from Nigeria tumbled into the world of art and design.  After the interview,  the Just Us crew digests  this advice. Thanks for putting us on,  Tobi!

Black is beautiful. But as we know, being black in America can turn ugly quick. 

In today's episode, we create space for the frustration of recent events involving the murder of George Floyd. As always, we offer three different perspectives and peel back layers of complex topics. This time it is about systemic racism.

We talk emotional baggage, participating in social media, and our experiences with combatting racism. We discuss constructive involvement like education, and the role allies play. 

We started this podcast to give a voice to those labeled as "other." Thank you for your solidarity and support of this vision. Hugs, from the Just Us crew.

What makes you groan about going to Walmart? Why does Target get all of Jeremy’s coins? How is Chick-fil-A such a beast at quarantine? 

In this episode, the Just Us crew launches an official exploration into "experience design." We're on a mission to find an easier way to break down what we do to people outside the industry (like our moms). 

We chop it up about roles and titles, services and products and find endless metaphors for defining this field.  SPOILER: Experience Design ISN'T  “marketing” or “graphic design!”

We wrap up our design sprint and season 1 with the final reflection on our sprintine 2020 (*air horns*). These phases were about demonstrating our idea with a prototype, and seeing how this is received by our target users. Overall, we enjoyed the learning and challenge of tackling generational wealth. We talk time constraints, limitations of our concept, and how the testing process unfurled… we did not push this product toward final presentation stages, as a result of our learning.

We talk day Day 3 of our Design Sprintine - where we started to form a unified vision and realized the pitfalls of an abbreviated sprint. We talk about what creative exercises worked for our design process and the dynamics of guided group activities. By day three of our remote collaboration, energy started to fade.. but we lived to Sprint! another day!

We’re back with a breakdown of phase 2 of our design sprint! We talk memorable activities, what exercises we found useful, and how team roles created an opportunity for new learning. Our research period came to a close with a survey and focus group, and the group tried out voting methods with our collaborative Miro workspace. We are “sprinting” along toward a strategy for building generational wealth in the black community!

Challenging ourselves with design exercises from Jake Knapp's Sprint! guidebook. The Just Us crew takes on team roles, some in our wheelhouse (Jeremy as Decider) and some that are a challenge by choice (Danielle as Facilitator). We talk remote collaboration, our topic, and trusting an unfamiliar process. We are digging in to a topic on building generational wealth in the black community. We are having a blast! Listen in as we peel back the layers on the design process during #Sprintine2020!

Hey all you cool cats and kittens... Thanks for sticking with us! Stay safe out here in these streets!

Today we talk voter registration systems, voting processes, visuals at the polls, and new products related to voter turnout and election design. 

Brands are looking for new ways to be authentic and keep up with culture through some odd juxtapositions. Beginning with McDonald's latest e-commerce novelty, we discuss the ways mature brands keep relevant through social trends. 

In honor of black history month, we test our black trivia wits

Dating apps carve out a large portion of our time and industry dollars, and also pose an excellent challenge in designing for connections. Online and physical interactions are colliding in a way that is evolving our customs, use of social media, and sense of identity.  

After ringing in the New Year, we set our table with a discussion of 2020 design trends. These visual and process developments are rooted in consumer habits and our current social climate.

With a special guest, we talk product design with regard to accessible gaming and designing for public spaces. We also take a deep dive into socioeconomic levels of engagement with digital platforms and how institutions can leverage design and advocate for greater opportunity and inclusivity.

We talked about the history of gynecology and its tools in consideration of human centered design. Shifting paradigms to flex the "empathy muscle" can increase understanding and make for more impactful work. How relating to others has changed in our fast-paced society.

Innovation for use cases that aren't always considered but can be impactful. Wearables can start conversation and provide visibilty to subcultures that aren't usually heard. How minority bodies can require specific design considerations. Treasure discusses the infusion of empathy in her work designing a wearable for pregnant black women. 

It's Just Us, Jeremy, Danielle SP, and Treasure B, a gaggle of minority designers having provocative conversations. Every week we discuss a design theme that is ripped from the headlines, dive deep into a related suptopic.