In the Making

The world of FUI or fantasy user interface design is responsible for on-screen depictions of UX. Like the heads up displays for superheroes, or what a hacker sees as she cracks the government’s mainframe. All of these worlds are designed by someone. But, when it comes to designing these worlds, the lines between fiction and reality are often blurred. How do FUI designers create the futures we see...

Design critics Jessica Helfand and Emily Heyward, founder of Red Antler, discuss what's at stake when everything looks the same -- and what designers can do about it. Read the PDF transcript of this episode.

Sound is becoming more important in the world of design, especially as our devices shrink and we become less attached to screens. Wireframe speaks to sound designer Connor Moore and psychoacoustic expert Susan Rogers on the best ways to design for the ear. Read the PDF transcript of this episode.

Khoi speaks with a roundtable of global privacy experts to find out what designers can - and should - do to keep user data safe. Featuring: Georgia Bullen (Simply Secure), Amy Stepanovich (Access Now) and Lieke Beelen (Visual Contracts). Read the PDF transcript of this episode.

Electronic health records aren’t just cumbersome and time-consuming, they’re actually damaging the doctor-patient relationship. How can UX designers help?  Read the PDF transcript of this episode.

The foosball, the snacks, the scale - life at a big design firm can be really exciting. But at independent studios, design culture still flourishes. In this episode, taped live at Adobe MAX, we explore life at independent design studios, with Jason Hardy of Century, Jennifer Gonzales of Hugo & Marie, and Kemp Attwood of Area 17.

Last season we asked - what is good design? This season, we’re delving deeper into what design can - and can’t - do. From privacy, to the beeps and boops our phones make, to the secret world of UX design in film. 

On this special live episode of Wireframe, we dive into the brand new territory of Voice UX design. How can designers to approach voice not just as a technology, but also as a design challenge? Our guests are Katie Briggs (NPR) and Will Hall (RAIN Agency).

This episode asks: what's the difference between designing for accessibility versus designing inclusively? To find the answers we look at everything from WordPress blogging software to the Xbox controller. We even start with some early lessons from, of all places, TV’s “French Chef,” Julia Child! Bon appetit! Read the PDF transcript of this episode.

The “Like” button was a huge triumph for Facebook, or was it? Now more than ever we’re all wondering if our traditional definition of “good” design is actually in our best interests. In this episode, we take a look at the intersection of ethics and design. Read the PDF transcript of this episode.

A few years from now, augmented reality may render most screens obsolete, as computing becomes integrated into the world around us. This presents a host of challenges for designers: What do we want an augmented reality world to look like?  Read the PDF transcript of this episode.

A short but special bonus episode of Wireframe, recorded at Adobe MAX in Los Angeles, a.k.a. the world’s largest creativity conference, which this year brought together more than 14,000 creative pros—designers, photographers, videographers, illustrators, artists, and more—all in one place. So it was an ideal opportunity to ask them: What does good design mean to you?   

We dig into the unexpected origin story of the universal screen language… emoji! We talk to the designers behind emoji, and the steps (and missteps) emoji design took before the icons found their way to our screens.  Read the PDF transcript of this episode.

The Boston Mayor’s Office was having a problem: Not enough residents were reporting their own problems into the city. Sure, the 311 phone line had its old school devotees. But Boston decided they could reach a whole new population by creating a brand new 311 mobile app. The only issue? Turning a human-operated phone line into a mobile app isn’t easy. Designers at the mayor’s office looked around a...

From airplane crashes, to industrial disasters and medical error: When things go terribly wrong, why do we blame human beings instead of bad design? Read the PDF transcript of this episode .

From Adobe, a podcast about interaction design. Hear the trailer now.