The UX Level-Up

Kamil Van Buuren is a Digital Experience Design Team Leader at IKEA, With a focus on IKEA's co-worker & employee experiences. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia & Kamil discuss when to give your team a heavy versus a light dose of OOUX, using OOUX to quickly gain domain knowledge at a new job, plus how to more efficiently divide & conquer on a complicated project. LINKS: Connec...

Allie Ofisher is a UX Consultant & Certified OOUX Strategist who focuses on information architecture, user research, & of course, Object-Oriented UX. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia & Allie discuss running an ORCA Sprint for the Church of Latter Day Saints, how best to teach the process to stakeholders who might not have a design background, as well as future plans for implement...

Caitlin Steele is the Experience Design Manager at Jira & Liam Greig is Head of Design at Confluence, both previously were at Trello. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia, Liam, & Caitlin discuss the aftermath of an OOUX Design Sprint at Trello, how maybe OOUX isn't for everyone, & strategies for bringing OOUX to a big organization. LINKS: Sign up for The Self-Paced OOUX Mastercl...

Ewelina Nowakowska is a Certified OOUX Strategist and is the Director of UI/UX Design & Development at American Reading Company. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia & Ewelina discuss the ways in which OOUX is like mental yoga practice, how ORCA helps teams work faster, plus some exciting innovations that may be on the horizon from OOUX headquarters. LINKS: Sign up for ⁠ ⁠The Self-Paced...

In this episode of the podcast, Sophia explains eight ways to level up your system modeling skills, plus diagramming The Church of Latter Day Saints! Please let Sophia know on Twitter ( @sophiavux ) what you think. What was your favorite tip? What do you think you will start using? Next time on The OOUX Podcast, we will do my top tips on the CTA matrix. Until then, happy OOUXing! LINKS: Take The F...

Chase Roberts is the Senior Content designer at Chewy.com and has worked as a senior content designer in the fintech world with Global 500 banks, like Capital One and BBVA, as well as at startups like Wealthfront and Relief App. In this episode of the podcast Sophia and Chase discuss using Object-Oriented UX to onboard at Chewy.com, creating new objects at Wealthfront, how OOUX fits in with other...

In this episode of the podcast, Sophia talks to the VP of Design and Research at HelloFresh — Jake Zukowski. They discuss how a designer on his team started sneaking OOUX through the backdoor into their design meetings, they debate about the difference between a Product Manager and a UX Designer, and they talk about how PMs can bring OOUX to their teams. It's a great conversation and we hope y...

NOW AVAILABLE! Sign up for Joe & Sophia's Udemy course: OOUX Fundamentals! In this super candid conversation, Joe Natoli and Sophia sit down to talk UX process, sketching, creativity, agile, and how OOUX can fit into to all of the above, "meeting you where you are". We'll give you a look into the new course that Joe and Sophia are launching on April 1st, 2023 — a course that...

This is a story about finding a path from struggle to satisfaction and from frustration to way more fun. In yet another solo episode (we promise we’ve got some interviews coming up!), Sophia goes way back to her childhood, high school, college days, and early UX career to make sense of the current state of OOUX and ORCA. Sophia gets into the frustrations of designing in the dark, shares a few juic...

In this episode of the podcast, Sophia kicks off the first in a 15-part series on her ORCA (Objects, Relationships, CTAs, and Attributes) process. This first installment will cover the process of Noun Foraging. Learn Sophia's 10 hot tips for getting started with noun foraging. Plus, how artificial intelligence can help you do the work, and how noun foraging might not be just for nouns. Enjoy! LINK...

In this first episode of 2023, Sophia lays out her findings after successfully rolling out the ORCA Sprint envisioned in episode 033 from last season. She talks about manifesting the ORCA Sprint from concept to deliverable, what worked and what didn't work (and what can probably be skipped) while running the first ORCA Sprint, and why ending Day 2 of the ORCA Sprint with a nav flow is guaranteed t...

In this solo episode of the podcast (and final episode of this season), Sophia talks about a new concept called "The ORCA Sprint." A week-long OOUX journey teams can take to tackle their projects head-on with the methodology of ORCA (tackling objects, relationships, calls-to-action, and attributes). Sophia will take you through each day of the ORCA Sprint schedule going step by step with recommend...

Keith Rich and Anthony Gallo join us from Think Company, a bespoke UX and software firm out of Philadelphia. Anthony, the "engineer" of Think Company, began his career in system administration. He took learning how things work "under the hood" to a new level when he later became a self-taught developer. Keith, the "midfielder" at Think Company, comes from Pharma advertising and is passionate about...

Samuel Hulick runs UserOnboard where he researches, writes about, and implements successful user onboarding for companies around the world. In this episode, Sophia and Samuel chat about Value Paths and how they hone in on the deeper value of our products. Listen as they lay this lens over a medical prescription app design challenge, the Headspace onboarding experience, and even OOUX.com's offering...

Caroline Sober-James is the Director of UX at Acumium, where she and her team have successfully instituted OOUX to great success. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Caroline discuss why designers should cultivate empathy toward developers, how to be "a designer devs swoon over," and how quickly Caroline's conversations with developers turn into "OOUX lovefests." LINKS: Follow Caroline on T...

Scott Kubie is "a designer who writes." He's the author of "Writing for Designers," a must-read for anyone who writes, and the brain behind "Content Ecosystem Mapping," a visual way to represent your content reality—what you have and where it is. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Scott discuss is-ness versus ought-ness, the rhetorical nature of creating a content ecosystem, plus how exact...

Lou Rosenfeld needs no introduction. If you are listening to this podcast, you have most likely read or are aware of the Polar Bear book he co-wrote, or one of the many other design books published by his company, Rosenfeld Media, or have attended one of his many excellent IA conferences. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Lou discuss why portals should be banned, what precisely is the def...

Steve Smith is a software engineer, a UXer, and a serial entrepreneur. His early company, Ordered List, was acquired by GitHub and after a long stint as a product designer at GitHub, we met when we were both consulting to NineLabs. He is the founder and lead designer at Box Out Designs, which is basically Canva for the sports industry. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Steve discuss what...

As you probably know, Brad Frost is the author of "Atomic Design," the creator of pattern lab, and a design systems advocate and educator. He writes front end code, writes about writing code, and consults to companies looking to create successful, effective design systems. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Brad discuss how technology is like a river, why it's important for everyone on a p...

Sondra Eby Eisenstat is a Certified OOUX Strategist and UX Designer at web development agency Oddbird. Miriam Suzanne is a self-described software engineer and artist. She is co-founder at Oddbird, as well as an Invited Expert with the W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium) CSS Working Group where she works with other experts in the field to develop open standards that ensure the long-term growth of...

Samuel Hulick runs User Onboard, where he researches, writes about, and implements successful user onboarding for companies around the world. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Samuel discuss how OOUX helped with a crisis of faith, how there's more than one way to learn to ride a bike, and why the right objects at the right time are the answer to good UX.  LINKS: Useronboard.com &nbsp...

Cassie Eddy is a UX Designer and Researcher at Health Catalyst in Boston. She is also a Certified OOUX Strategist and active mentor in the OOUX Certification Program. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Cassie discuss learning to code, the information architecture of Crossfit, and how OOUX can help with combining passions in career and life.  LINKS: Join the waitlist for " Fundamentals...

Harrison Wheeler is a Senior Design Manager at Linkedin and is the host of his own user experience design podcast: Technically Speaking. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Harrison discuss how OOUX provides a chance to take a principled approach to design, why social media websites are like old enterprise software, and how inheritance can be used to build user trust. The script got thrown...

In this episode of the podcast, Sophia goes solo once again to address a question someone in the OOUX Self-Paced Masterclass Program brought to her from a senior UXer who just didn't see the value of OOUX when information architecture already exists. It's one she's heard more than once from those familiar with IA. Is OOUX just a rebrand of IA that no one asked for and no one needs?  LINKS: Le...

In this episode, your host Sophia Prater flies solo to show you how to sell more UX research using Object-Oriented UX—more specifically, the first two steps of the ORCA process. We will talk about how to make your stakeholders and biz folks aware of gaps in the team’s understanding and become more invested in important questions that need to be brought to users. LINKS: Get one of the last spots in...