Episode 11: So you want to make a podcast?
Join Vinita and Sam in our last episode of the series, as they reflect on their IxDA podcasting journey.
The IxDA podcast emerged in 2022 as a unique approach to the IxDA Sydney mentoring program, interviewing design leaders around career progression and mentoring. This year we’ve delved more into the ‘zeitgeist of design’, covering topics from Web3 to design accessibility.
We’ll be taking a short break from the podcast while the team focuses on delivering an amazing program for Interaction 24.
Episode 10: Simone Attanasio, Benaz Irani, Milly Schmidt | Therapy for Designers
In this episode, Vinita and Jess are chatting with the team at Therapy for Designers. Simone Attanasio – Product Design Lead at Canva, Benaz Irani – Product Design Manager at OpenTable and Milly Schmidt – Experience Design Manager at Atlassian.
We’ve all heard of career growth programs through ADPList and IxDA’s mentoring program. Therapy for Designers is looking at doing this in a way that incorporates meaningful conversations, connections, food and wine. Creating a space for designers to safely share their challenges, be heard and learn to build a growth mindset and leadership capabilities as a group.
We’ll be covering:
- The origin, inspiration, and purpose behind the program
- Differentiating themselves from other career growth initiatives
- The connection to conversations, connections, and food
- Leadership styles within the facilitators
- Their learnings with “experiments” and scaling going forward
Episode 9: Amy Howard | Designing the Design System
In our ninth episode of the season, Vinita and Jess are having a chat with Amy Howard. Amy is the Lead Designer for IAG’s Design System, leading the creation and implementation of tools and resources that support designers using the design system. She works closely with designers and digital teams across the company to support its adoption and ensure it meets the needs of the organization and its users.
We’ll be covering the following themes:
- The landscape of design systems and design ops
- How design systems reflect branding
- Consumption of a design systems by different stakeholders
- Accessibility, scalability, and documentation within design systems
- The role design systems play in a designer’s career
Episode 8: Elise Margaritis | Designing a sustainable future
In this episode, Vinita is joined by Elise Margaritis, the Creative Director of TEM. Elise built the brand and marketing function for TEM which has grown to become Asia Pacific’s most trusted carbon offset provider.
In this session we dive into the following themes:
- Her philosophy and approach to helping organisations achieve net-zero emissions through carbon offsetting
- How designers can take the initiative to investigate sustainable claims made by businesses and not to promote greenwashing
- What designers can do to make an impact within the sustainable space
- How Australian organisations can learn from Europe’s stricter sustainability measures
Episode 7: Kent Eisenhuth | Data viz and accessibility: Lessons in building a data visualisation practice at Google
In this episode, Jessica and Sam are joined by Kent Eisenhuth, a data visualisation thought leader at Google and author. As the leader of Google’s data accessibility program, Kent has designed visualisations for various products, including Fitbit, Google Fit, Material Design, Workspaces, Google Cloud, and X.company. This episode is a deep dive into the world of data, covering topics such as accessibility, visualisation, and more!
We cover:
- The value of data visualisations in the UX world.
- How education played a pivotal role in building a data visualisation practice within Google.
- Data accessibility maturity in an organisation.
- Making sketching approachable for people who aren’t designers
Kent’s work and ideas have been featured in several prominent publications, including Fast Company, Tech Crunch, The Guardian, and Smashing Magazine. He has presented talks and ideas at prestigious conferences such as IxDA’s Interaction and SXSW, and he frequently guest lectures at universities across the United States. For more information about Kent and his book, “Drawing Product Ideas: Fast and Easy UX Drawing for Anyone,” please visit https://www.kenteisenhuth.com/.
Episode 6: Rich Brophy | The bridge between comedy and design facilitation
In our 6th episode of the season, we’re chatting with Rich Brophy, a stand-up comedian turned designer and is currently the Head of Design at BlueEgg.
We cover the following themes:
- The overlap between stand-up comedy and design
- The importance of design principles
- Creating research repositories and how to use them
- The impact of remote and virtual work environments with workshops
- Getting started in facilitating
- Designing a design culture
Episode 5: Grishma Jena | Why data science and design research is the perfect duo
In this episode, Jessica and Vinita speak with Grishma about the importance of data science within product development. Grishma is a data scientist with the UX research operations team in IBM in San Francisco. In her team, she supports a design and research team of over 80 where she uses data to understand user struggles and opportunities to enhance user experiences.
We cover the following themes:
- The value of data in storytelling and using successful case studies to demonstrate the impact of research on business metrics
- How to communicate the importance of research to organisations that may not have fully embraced it
- How data scientists can collaborate with researchers and designers
- The future of research in design and product development
Episode 4: Nina Ajnira Karisik | Breaking barriers: Overcoming unconscious bias as a tech self-starter
In this episode, Vinita and Sam talk to software engineer and SHE codes mentor, Nina Ajnira Karisik, to discuss how to break into the tech industry as a self-starter, dealing with unconscious bias, and how to overcome these barriers to achieve success.
We cover the following themes:
- Finding her feet in tech as a self-starter
- How unconscious bias has affected her career
- The benefits and limitations of AI in programming
- The co-dependence between design and programming
Episode 3: Kate Linton | Web accessibility, designing a world that works for everyone
Join hosts Jessica and Sam as they sit down with Kate Linton, the Global Design Lead at ThoughtWorks, to discuss the critical role of accessibility in designing successful customer experiences. Discover how Kate has used her experience to gain valuable insights into creating intuitive and accessible designs that cater to a diverse range of users. We cover the following themes:
- How incorporating accessibility after launching your product can be quite difficult.
- The challenges of working with stakeholders to ensure accessibility is top of mind
- Tips for incorporating neurodiversity into your design choices.
- How small improvements can lead to a big impact on accessibility
By taking small steps to improve your digital accessibility, you can make a huge difference for people with disabilities and ensure your content is accessible for all. Let’s make the digital world a more inclusive place for everyone!
Episode 2: Mark Monfort | Designing for the fundamentals of Web3
In our second episode of the season, we’re jumping straight into the world of Web3, chatting with Mark Monfort, a TradFi native turned DeFi advocate who is passionate about building communities and bringing about more mainstream adoption of blockchain technology.
We’ll be covering the following themes:
- Where to get started in the Web3 / blockchain space
- Breaking down popular buzz words
- Creating ethical, equitable, inclusive systems from scratch
- The history of blockchain technology
- A different way of building, with the community in mind
- Where designers play a role and designing for good
In this conversation, we travel with Mark on the journey through the Web3 space – from tracing the history of crypto and NFTs, to breaking down popular buzzwords.
Episode 1: Felix Lee | From spreadsheet to worldwide success: the incredible journey of ADPList
Join us for a fascinating conversation with Felix Lee, co-founder, and CEO of ADPList, the world’s largest mentorship platform for the tech industry. In this episode, we’ll hear Felix’s story and how ADPList came to be and discuss the importance of mentorship and its impact on careers.
We’ll be covering the following themes:
- Felix’s background and journey before ADPList
- The Singapore design scene and why design is integral to progressing organizations forward
- The creation of ADPList and how the platform has evolved over time
- ADPLists’s journey to finding product-market fit
- The importance of democraticising mentorship in personal and professional growth
- The future vision of ADPList and its continued impact on the tech industry
Started in 2021, ADPList is the world’s largest mentorship platform for people in tech industry. Since then, Felix has overseen ADPList’s growth to become a community of over ten thousand Mentors who have mentored over ten million minutes across 140+ countries and regions.