The Learners Podcast

As far as design systems go, the Gov. UK design system is about as famous as it gets. However, the creators of this particular design system are concerned with it's popularity, and that some folks could be missing the forest for the trees. In this talk, join Tom as he explains that the real takeaway from building the Gov. UK design system is not actually the output, but the method of building it.

We hear a lot about population diversity across many areas: income, geography, interests, age, gender, and more. But, there's one that's rarely ever talked about: faith. Out of the 7 billion people on the planet, there are billions of people who look to religion to inform their values, key decisions and behaviours. In this talk, Zoe gives us a primer on faith and how it should be understood in the...

Often when we think of the outcomes from our work, it's focused on insights. Insights for PMs, insights for designers, insights for leadership. Danny has a different point of view. What if instead of outputting insights, we thought of ourselves as setting standards. As researchers, we have the ability to set mental models for what's 'good' or 'efficient' or any other metrics that are important to...

If you work in a large enterprise, the amount of user interaction with your product is enormous. While small sample-size qualitative research is great, we simply need ways to measure user sentiment and input at scale. That's where Jessica comes in. She's a research leader at Loblaw, one of Canada's largest grocery chains, where every day millions of people go to shop. Watch this talk to learn more...

Most researchers have a keen eye and ear, able to sense how people around them feel. Those abilities are clearly a positive for our jobs, but they come with some serious drawbacks. Deirdre leads research at Toast, and is here to talk about not just how wonderful our superpowers are, but also the costs associated with having them.

Many of our research methods have roots in academic fields of social science, like ethnography, anthropology, HCI, and more. But, what about behavioural science? What can we learn from that field of research? Christelle is a behavioural scientist applying methods learned during her PhD to help design interventions in products that lead to better user choices. She's here to tell us how behavioural...

If you're making products for consumers, traditional methods like usability tests and concepts tests are going to work great. But what if you're working on something much more technical, much more complex? Say, oh I don't know, the robots that makes cars and heavy machinery? In this talk, watch as Katie explains a new approach to doing UX Research with highly technical users, machining engineers.

Surveys have a bad rap. But, if we think critically about them, is it because they're bad tools, or because we aren't using them correctly? Lucas and Ashley from Slack are here to tell us that it's the latter, and that surveys are extraordinarily powerful tools when used the right way. Tune into this talk to learn more about all the survey goodness you're missing out on.

If there's any field in tech that's desperately in need of talent that understands human nature better, it's the 'web3' or crypto space. Incredible new technology is being developed, but the field is hampered by their ability to translate that technology into experiences people love. Georgia has been working in the web3 space for years, and is here to share a call-to-action: web3 needs research. J...

Measuring the impact of UX research is notoriously hard. Measuring it's financial impact? Forget about it. Or maybe... not? Claudia is a UXR Director with an MBA and background in finance, and she's here to give us the missing equation we need to communicate our impact to our stakeholders, from product managers all the way up to the C-suite.

If we're keeping it 100%, business leaders can struggle appreciating the value of UX. I mean, they sort of care, but what they really care about is something else entirely: growth. With that in mind, how can we leverage the power of research to not only make experience better, but also drive growth? Lucky for us, Kakau and Carlos are design and research leaders at Nubank, running efforts on their...

Figuring out your career progression as a researcher is a confusing and daunting task. It often feels like the field is changing faster than we can keep up with. How do we figure out where to focus our efforts for career growth and promotion? In this talk, Brandi outlines her approach to career levelling for UX researchers.

Our work as researchers is more than just a job. For many of us, it feels like a calling, work we were always supposed to be doing. But, as with everyone, sometimes we lose that feeling. Falling into a rut is easy, and finding your way out can be much harder. In this talk, Satsuko introduces us to the Japanese concept of Ikigai, and outlines how to apply it to our own work to make sure our careers...

The role of the UX researcher is evolving. There's less clarity about what it takes to get to the next stage of your research career. What skills am I missing today? In this talk, Dave outlines the key skills that make up the reserach role, how to map them out, and plan to acquire the ones you need next. It's an evidence-based approach that'll help you find clarity during the murkier stages of you...

There's field research, and then there's field research. Lucky for us, Evelina is here to help us prepare for the latter. Evelina leads UX at Chai One, an agency that does research and design work with companies in the energy sector. That means much of her research has her doing field research in some truly challenging places, like oil rigs and nuclear reactors. Watch as Evelina outlines her check...

Researchers know they add value to the teams they're on. But tracking that value... can be tough. The impact of our work often doesn't show up in easily viewed metrics, but instead influence key decisions to move in one direction or another. Victoria, Director of UX Research at Verizon, has developed her own approach to help her team track the impact of their work, tying it back directly to key de...

Tactical research is important. Is it fun? Sometimes. Would we rather be doing strategic research 99% of the time? Heck yes. The path to a place where your research function is doing strategic research is murky, but lucky for us, Colette is here to demystify it for us.

Naturally, most of our research skills and efforts are put towards creating better products and services. However, those same skills can be put towards other, equally important initiatives as well. Taylor Kim and Lisa Madokoro are two researchers who work on employee research, leveraging research methods to create a better and more productive work environment for employees at Shopify. If you want...

Much of the research we do as UX researchers follows a fairly standard approach. Don't tell the user too much about what you're building so you don't bias them, do low fidelity research before testing engineered prototypes, etc. However, when you're working with expert users, that doesn't work anymore. Expert users are a type of user that are often highly technical and know way more about your pro...

So much about successful research work comes down to great communication. But, how often do you get the chance to level up this crucial skill? Playing off the bestseller, 'The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts', watch as Vidhika outlines what she believes are the five key tenets to successful research communication and great stakeholder partnership.

There's no 'one-size-fits-all' approach to leadership roles, and that holds especially true for research. So, how do you plan for and start practicing the approach to research leadership that's right for you? Join Loi, former research leader at Facebook, Trip Advisor, and Buoy Health, to learn more about different approaches to managing a research function and how to figure out which one is meant...

Sourcing a tool to create a research repository is easy. Implementing a research repository in a way that's compliant with legal, is used in a consistent manner by researchers, and is accessed frequently and correctly by stakeholders... that's extremely hard. Meg knows this first hard. Join Meg as she walks you through a six month process to fully implement a research repository where team members...

One major critique of UX Research is that it's often "too obscure" to tie new insights back to the bottom line. How do qualitative insights translate into more growth or revenue for the company? Molly and Lukas lead the research and experimentation teams at Booking.com, and they're here to share with you how they join forces to measure the impact of key qualitative learnings the research team unco...

Let's face it, UX Researchers don't do enough accessibility research. We have lots of good excuses, but now it's a legal requirement to make sure our applications are compliant with key accessibility standards. Sheri Byrne-Haber has been an accessibility advocate and expert for years, and she's here to knock one excuse off our collective lists - knowing how to get started with the work in the firs...

Hardware research is infinitely more difficult to do than software research. You have a physical object to manage, that often has a digital component to it as well, which can break down and is very hard to update. But there's also another key consideration: how your hardware interacts with a diverse physical environment. Vanessa leads research for iRobot, makers of the Roomba. In her talk, Vanessa...