UX IRL

We are back with a live edition of Help Desk featuring fresh questions from Reddit and… YOU!  Watch the recording:  https://www.youtube.com/live/uwGn-N7I5bs?si=_uV6ZgozIdFhxOWB Join our livestream on YouTube and Twitch every month. We'd love to hear from you in real-time!

The Information Architecture Conference (IAC) recently wrapped up May 3rd, and we've got the inside scoop from the folks running what continues to be one of our favorite conferences. We spoke with Ashley Brewer, IAC25 co-chair, and Kyle Soucy, Career Center coordinator, on what to expect prior to the conference, why gathering in-person is critical in 2025, and how first-time attendees make the mos...

This is our 72nd episode of UX in Real Life, but our first episode in the new, live format! In this episode, we chat about one of our favorite places—Japan! 🇯🇵 Based on our recent travels to Japan, we jump into the UX of everything from daily life to visiting and some of the quirky, well-intentioned user experiences. Watch the recording:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8QCG-5EdTQ Join our livest...

Hi friends, Michelle and Mary Fran are, in true UX fasion, iterating on UX IRL! In the new year, we've got some fun annoucements for how the podcast is going to change. We'll share more details soon! In the mean time, we're releasing an episode on how to tackle tough interview questions.

We are taking a break this month to get ready for the holidays, and what better time to revisit Goal Setting! Get ready for our hot takes on New Year's resolutions and learn more about how we set goals. Hope everyone has a relaxing holiday season, and we look forward to seeing you in the new year!

We had a fantastic time hosting our Unconventional UX Blueprints workshop at UX Y'all this year! In this episode, we recap the workshop and the experience of engaging and building community. It was a truly fun and heartwarming experience. Take a listen and we'll be making the guidance available online soon!

UX Y'all is still working on getting us audio from our workshop, so no new episode this week, BUT we have a special re-release! This one is all about speaking at conferences, specifically using our talk from UX Y'all 2 years ago. Hope you enjoy!

We're kicking of Season 4! We have some fun updates to share about the UX IRL podcast. And UX Y'all will be here soon! We also share more about the workshop we're facilitating. While the conference is sold out, there's a waitlist you can join. But we hope to see you there!

In our S3 finale, we talk about how to set boundaries at work and our personal lives, and why it's especially tough for UXers to do this. 

Michelle and Mary Fran are taking a break this week, so enjoy this re-release all about Modified Delphi Card Sorting!

As UXers, creating consistency is often a tenet for the experiences we create. But is there ever a problem with consistency? In this episode, we talk about scenarios when consistency can do more harm than good. Do you have any examples of when consistency was bad? We'd love to know!

In this episode, we explore the RACI matrix for project management and why we think it's the worst. Learn about RACI, how it falls short, and what might work better for UXers and product teams. What's your take? We'd love to know if you aren't a fan of RACI either and if you've tried other alternatives. Feel free to reach out to us on LinkedIn.

We're back with another installment of the UX Help Desk! Reddit continues to provide a plethora of great questions, so we pulled a few to break down that cover topics like how to transition from start up to eneterprise and red flags in in the interview process.

We look at the UX of something IRL - home automation! We cover the basics of home automation, some advanced experiences you can create, and how to design them using your UX skills. We'd love to hear from you, reach out to us on LinkedIn (michelletchin, maryfran-ux).

Hey friends! We're extending our break a bit longer than planned. In honor of International Women's Day, we're re-releasing our episode on Women in UX, which is all about the women in UX that inspire us. We also take some time to discuss how to talk about yourself professionally, (which can be harder than you think) as part of our career goals series.

Hey friends! We're taking a break this week and revisiting Keeping Current with UX. See you back in 2 weeks for a new episode :)

This is Part 2 of addressing the UX Research Reckoning. Definitely check out Part 1 (the last episode), where we unpack Judd Antin's thoughts and give our own hot takes on this topic. In this episode, we talk about what we can do about it. We'd love to know what you think. Feel free to comment below or contact us on LinkedIn.

What's wrong with UX research today? According to Judd Antin, there's a lot, and he wrote an entire article on it. The heyday of research from the past 15 years is gone, and UX researchers are being let go. Presumably, because they don't provide business value. We unpack his thoughts and give our own hot takes on this topic. In Part 2, we'll talk about what we can do about it. We'd love to know wh...

We're taking a break this week but thought it would be a great opportunity to revisit one of our favorite episodes: Portfolio Case Studies! 

Is the grass greener on the other side? Today, we talk about our experiences working at agencies and on in-house teams as designers. We cover what we liked and definitely didn't like and the benefits of working in each setup. What's been your experience? Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (zeroheight.com/slack), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife...

About a year ago (Ep. 34), we experimented with ChatGPT for fun. AI is such a big thing now, that we wanted to revisit what it's like for us as UXers - what we use it for, how you can use it for UX work, and more! Let us know how you've used AI in your work or outside of work. We'd love to hear your perspective.

We're back with the UX Help Desk! Michelle did a deep dive into the UX Reddit and pulled 3 great questions for us to talk through covering everything from designing with real data, recruitiers asking for figma links (!?), to examples of gamification. If you have any burning UX questions, feel free to reach out to us on LinkedIn and we can address it in a future episode!

UX Y'all is one of our favorite conferences! We discuss our favorite talks and our experience speaking at and volunteering with them. We hope you consider attending a future UX Y'all conference and maybe we'll see you there! As always, keep in touch with us on the zeroheight Slack community! ( zeroheight.com/slack ), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife .

We love trying new tools and we're giving Penpot a spin in this episode! Penpot is an open-source, browser-based design and prototyping tool. Sight unseen, we give it a shot. Try it out too and let us know what you think! 

In honor of ADHD awareness month, Michelle and Mary Fran talk about their experiences with ADHD IRL. Topics includ everything from how they got diagnosed, to how it's impacted their respective UX journeys, to advice for those with ADHD and those working with coworkers who have ADHD.