Taryn du Plooy

Will I ever stop talking about the business value of design? NEVER. Designers are under selling themselves if they don't know how to connect the dots. It only took me first half of my career working directly with founders to build business through different stages, plus 7 years to build my own side hustle from nearly drain out my life savings to turning over multi six figures to figured out:👇 Designers absolutely need to know more than design to succeed in the business eco system. so where do you even start? All will be revealed in this session. Warning: this talk will be filled with relationship analogies. come for a laugh 😂 ✌️🌈🚀 #businessdesign #designcareer #productdesign #uxdesign

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Next week. I'm talking about disconnection of business and design Atlassian Sydney. Looking forward to share few nuggets about getting these two to talk to each other. Thank you for the crew behind the scene Kevin Wilkins, Lydia Bradshaw, Sylvia Luk, Ashlee King, Sarah Stokes, Tim Dixon, PhD, Timothy Parker for organising. Reminder for everyone, I also run a half day in bootcamp on 21st JUNE in Sydney on - Mastering Business Acumen for Designers. Link in comment. 💬🔗 #businessdesigner #productdesigner #productstrategy

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Another great Macquarie Design Blog post by Leah Ochroch went live this morning. Insightful, practical tips to ensure your design is accessible for all. #design #experiencedesign #uxdesign #accessibility

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Thanks Steve. It's a noble quest, for sure. An effective answer should be one that will unlock someone's understanding of design, and cause them to act differently as a result. I think you are close. To me, a definition using design as a strategic capability should include the things you've mentioned. I feel it should also include bringing the ambitions to life (eg a future state experience vision of sorts). As you know, strategy is also as much about what you say no to as what you say yes to, and being very clear about the path you take to get there. Those decisions could be made with any number of customer insights or lack thereof, and therefore I would include the fact that design can play a part in prioritising, defining horizons and also de-risking the big bets.

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The Note Taker - Unsung hero in user research 💥 💡 🔥 Over 15 years in UX research, the work I’m most proud of—and that’s had the greatest impact— involved the support of a note taker ... whose regular role ranged from BAs and engineers to designers, fellow URs, PMs, DMs, and engagement leads... you name it! But sometimes I still get asked: ❓“Why do you need a note taker?” ❓“Can’t you just take notes yourself?” ❓“Aren’t automated transcripts enough?” Here’s the truth ... 👉 a good note taker is so much more than just someone who jots down notes. 👉 In fact, the term ‘note taker’ seriously undersells the value they bring. 👉 Their true impact? Better research, better business outcomes, and stronger teams—ultimately benefiting the users who rely on the products and services we create in tech and beyond. Why a note taker is good for business 🔹 Higher quality insights leading to more informed decisions. 🔹 Faster turnarounds, keeping projects on track. 🔹 Mitigating risks of delays by avoiding single points of failure, especially during research-heavy phases like discovery. Why a note taker is good for morale 🔹 Prevents burnout by supporting the researchers’ wellbeing 🔹 Encourages collaboration and shared understanding 🔹 Provides support and camaraderie that can be more impactful than any team-building exercise. Why a note taker is good for quality 🔹 Reduces biases from only one person being familiar with the research data e.g. sunk cost fallacy, availability heuristic, recency bias, attentional bias, and more! 🔹 Prevents siloed work by opening up the research process to others on the team 🔹 Research knowledge continuity, speeding up onboarding and reducing ramp-up time on follow-up projects. 🔹 Ensures richer insights and stronger recommendations. Two heads are indeed better than one. So... is a note taker always needed when doing research? No, not always, but here's when I think it's particularly beneficial to bring in a note taker: ⚡ The phase of the work is generative/discovery research. ⚡ Timelines are ambitious, quick research turnaround is needed, single points of failure are high risk. ⚡ High-quality insights are a top priority ⚡ The researcher is new to the project and/or domain, a note taker who helps sense-make adds perspective and value. ✨ User research is a team sport, and note takers are star players. Thank you to all the note takers everywhere! We see you and appreciate you 👏 🏅 ❓Have you worked with an exceptional note taker who elevated your research process? Or maybe you’ve taken on the role yourself? Share your experiences or thoughts below—let’s celebrate the unsung heroes of UX together! 👇 #UXResearch #Collaboration #Teamwork #Wellbeing #UserExperience #BusinessNeed Image by Ash Lamb ---- 💬 Want a friendly chat about all things UX or how I might help you in your career? ➡ DM me or book an intro chat here: https://lnkd.in/erzqHcX8

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Australia is deciding on banning social media for minors, potentially up until the age of 16. As a UX designer, I think this is great, and here's why ↓↓ 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁: "𝘈𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢 𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘪𝘬𝘛𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦'𝘴 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩." Instead of approaching multiple platforms and asking for changes (which we'll unlikely see), the Australian government has suggested age verification processes, which many other countries have also discussed in recent years. Those who oppose the idea have argued about personal freedoms. Still, they forget that social media platforms profit from all ages and do the bare minimum to create better safety for young audiences. User experience has been ranked second to profits, and big platforms would rather keep users glued to the screen than deliver ethically sound experiences. As UX designers and developers, we should not allow young audiences on these platforms if we can't deliver safe and exceptional experiences for them. Original Articles: https://lnkd.in/d8BeRjF9 https://lnkd.in/dMEWCGxY

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Accessible UX Design Accessible UX design is essential for any brand aiming to boost its web presence. Ensuring accessibility means all users, including those with disabilities, can engage with your digital content. In Australia, one in five people live with a disability. By prioritizing inclusivity, you’ll streamline your site, improve navigation, and increase engagement, which reduces bounce rates and boosts traffic. Accessibility isn’t just a moral obligation; it’s a legal one. Australian sites must adhere to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Non-compliance can lead to fines. For inclusive design: 1. Perceivable: Ensure content is easily seen and heard. 2. Operable: Make navigation simple for all users. 3. Understandable: Ensure content is clear and comprehensible. 4. Robust: Adapt to new technologies. Gather user feedback and employ AI to stay ahead in accessibility. Accessible UX design not only meets legal requirements but also enhances user experience and business success.

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What are the best design, product and alround tech events these days? I've been out of the loop since covid but would like to get out and about more. AND if anyone is interested in hosting me talk about how designers should move into product, let me know!

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Design is not limited to a screen. Culture, services, even relationships (sad as it sounds) have much to gain from design thinking. I’m hosting a panel next Wednesday in Melbourne called “Design Beyond Boxes” where I’ll be interviewing three people who have taken their UX design skills into new domains. The problem is, I’ve had a late drop-out that I need to replace. If you know a Melbourne-based black-belt professional who has gone from UX into legal design, org design, spatial design, designing AI products or things you can touch, please introduce me. Bonus points for interesting journeys or diverse perspectives

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This article from Vision Australia shares five simple tips for designing accessible web forms. #Accessibility

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Check out Allison Ravenhall's insightful talk from A11y Camp on Customer Informed Accessibility in the CommBank app. This session highlights how usability testing with low vision users revealed an issue in our App 5.0 redesign. Some of you might remember Jacob Torres Agudo and Liam Corry's presentation at The Research Society Human Insights conference, where they discussed the research journey behind the new CommBank app home screen (I might of mentioned it a couple of times, did you hear they won an award?). Allison's talk goes deeper into how our testing with low vision users uncovered an unexpected design flaw. Usability testing often gets a bad rap for being boring and low value, but for me, it's some of the most crucial work we do. A lot of the time designs pass with flying colours, but it's those moments when we uncover a usability issue that are truly invaluable. This is especially true when we're addressing the needs of users with accessibility requirements. Enjoy this super informative talk and learn more about the importance of usability testing in creating accessible designs: https://lnkd.in/gKrQTexE #commbanklife #accessibility #a11y #research #humaninsightsconference

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So I'm seeing alot of UX/UI Design/Research/Lead positions being advertised (and sent to me by recruiters) around Australia. Something that I'm a little puzzled by, is the blurb and skillset tags in every single advert, omits any mention of accessibility. While I certainly wouldn't consider it the biggest part of my job, given that I have been working in the higher ed/govt space for a long time now, it's kinda essential to at least have SOME knowledge - or at least some grasp of the legislation around it. Because UX without accessibility just becomes "some user experience" - which SUX (see what I did there?). So, out of curiosity - hirers and recruiters - why is there no conversation around accessibility in the UX/UI space in the recruitment/talent attraction space? Genuinely interested to hear your thoughts! Would love to find a way to get it more spoken about in the recruitment space. As a reward (and maybe as a bit of a lure), here's a photo of my new pup, Henry - devoid of any context. You're welcome 😉

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Oof. I feel this one in my bones. The ‘forever war’ of all the labour input above and beyond doing the actual job can be demoralizing. The Canadian public service sorely needs UX and design talent to modernize services to a standard that meets public needs and expectations, but we won’t succeed if UX is simply relegated to a single team or function (or better yet, several siloed teams 😜) within a broader organization that needs to shift its ways of thinking and operating. While we rarely question the expertise of lawyers, doctors, or engineers, expertise in UX, design, and digital communications areas is dismissed and invalidated on a regular basis. Over time, some grow tired of fighting. I’ve watched friends and colleagues leave lucrative government jobs due to burnout and a lack of institutional support and understanding for their work, a lack of respect for and recognition of best practices established over decades of research that have flown under the radar of those who are unaware of or only recently learning about this entire field. So far, I stay because I’m passionate about the mission. I believe we can provide better services to people who need them. But it needs to be a group effort with everyone on board —from the top down and bottom up, across siloed verticals. I hope we can build mutual understanding, be dissatisfied together, and collaborate as agents of change. I deeply wish I could just do my job without disrupting the status quo, but that’s just not how it works. Take care of yourself and support each other out there. ❤️✌🏻

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On #BraveUX this week, Jakob Nielsen addresses some of the criticism he’s faced 🎤, calls on UXers to urgently adopt AI 🐛, and shares why he believes the commoditisation of UX is a good thing 📈. Highlights include: ⭐ Are you surprised by how much you’ve offended some people? ⭐ Why do UXers need a greater sense of urgency about adopting AI? ⭐ Were the hiring practices at your previous company elitist? ⭐ What is the state of UX today and where is the growth potential? ⭐ Will AI impede our ability to develop our professional judgement? Plus much more! - - - - - 📺 Want to watch or listen 🎧 to the episode? 👉 Find the links in the comments, or search for Brave UX with Brendan Jarvis 🇺🇦 on YouTube or on your favourite podcast platform. - - - - - Who is Jakob Nielsen, PhD? Jakob is the founder of UX Tigers 🐯, the website and associated substack he uses to bring his 41 years of UX knowledge and experience to the world, in what he has described as a plainspoken, hard-hitting and not bowing to orthodoxy kind-of-way. Before founding UX Tigers, Jakob was the co-founder and principal - for 25 years - of a rather well known UX consultancy, the Nielsen Norman Group 📜. His other notable roles include being a distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems, and a member of the research staff at Bell Communications Research 🔔 - one of the world’s top three HCI labs in the 1990s. Jakob is known for many other things, among which are being the founder of the discount usability movement, the foundational 10 usability heuristics for user interface design, and the eponymously named Jakob’s Law of Internet User Experience 🏛️. He is the holder of no less than 79 United States patents and the author of 8 books, including the best-selling “Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity”, “Usability Engineering”, and the pioneering “Hypertext and Hypermedia” 📚. In 2013, Jakob received the Lifetime Achievement Award for HCI Practice from ACM SIGCHI and in 2024 he was named a “Titan of Human Factors” by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 🏆. - - - - - Don’t forget to check out the show notes on YouTube for quick-access to interview chapters, as well as where to find Jakob. #UX #UXDesign #UXAI #UXR #UXResearch #UserResearch #DesignLeadership #UXTigers

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User research + AI = powerful paper trail. Ask any product designer and you’ll find we’ve all been on that meeting. The one where you’re presenting your new ui designs and walking through all the painstaking UX research, planning & strategy it took to get there. Only to have your stakeholder say their gut is saying the direction isn’t right. But you’re a pro ui/ux designer. You put in the work to make sure the direction is actually an improvement. Now it’s time to use Dovetail to bring it home. You can upload all your brainstorm sessions, user interviews, etc into Dovetail and the powerful ai tagging system will serve up insights and tags to help organize all the findings. Then you can easily call upon those insights on the fly when you need to bring out your receipts. Seriously, I think anyone doing UXR or even just UX design in general needs to have their customer insight hub ready to be able to sell the work they’ve put in. Get that paper trail with Dovetail! #uiux #dovetail #uxresearch #productteam #ad

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A little job market update from me. This is what I'm seeing out there across the world of design in Australia: 👉 We're still seeing most of the roles on the market across the end-to-end Product Design and Service Design space. There has - for the last year or so - been a real dip in pure User Research roles going to market, as well as a significant decrease in Content Design roles too. As the market stabilises, we anticipate a resurgence in demand here. 👉 Most of the roles on the market at the moment are at the Senior to Lead/Principal level - we're not seeing too many mid-level jobs out there, though we are seeing some of our bigger enterprise businesses investing in their grad schemes after a bit of a hiatus! 👉 Within these roles, there is a clear need for seasoned Senior ICs. Companies are seeking designers who can be on the tools, lead projects, and mentor junior members of staff. 👉 While the contract market is still busy, there is a notable tilt towards permanent positions, with a bit of downward pressure on salaries. 👉 The landscape at the leadership level remains quiet, though a lot of businesses I'm speaking with are earmarking budget for these types of hires in the new financial year. 👉 Most positively, there seems to be a shift across most verticals away from purely BAU, to new products, services (and usually CAPEX funded) projects. If you're looking to discuss your next step or looking to build out your team in the new year, get in touch! 📲 0414 636 440 📧 [email protected]

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🥁 Not ONE, but TWO design accelerator courses (by yours truly) are happening in the next two months: 🤩 (📍SYD)First-ever In person bootcamp for the topic: Mastering Business Acumen in Design Half-day business acumen bootcamp to build business confidence, and learn to connect design ideas to business outcomes. First in. Best dressed. 20 student limit per class. Date: 21st JUNE Fri 10.30-3pm https://lnkd.in/gfGhBA_x 🚀 If you’re after an intensive end to end Product Career Boost. From 1st July, My Maven Product Design Accelerator Course will kick start. This 4 weeks course is totally transformational.(Already has some awesome designers in the cohort.) Outcome 👇🏼 ⭐️Develop business acumen and become a savvy strategic designer ⭐️Influence design in the business by facilitation and lead ⭐️Measure your impact and plan your career ⭐️Effective storytelling skills to gain buy-in. ⏳20 students limit per class. Access to unlimited 1-1 support Only join if you are ready to commit and spend some time for weekly assignments. p.s. This cohort may be the last of this type. 🥹 Register links for both are in the comment👇🏼 PM to book a call with me if you’re unsure. #productdesign #designcareer #businessdesign #uxdesign

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📢 I recently completed the UX Australia course ‘Fostering collaboration by running better stakeholder workshops’, facilitated by Elena Sanchez & Loletta Cheng. 💡Key learnings were: 1. Understanding stakeholder workshops 2. Types of workshop activities 3. Defining workshop objectives 4. Stakeholder mapping 5. Preparing a workshop script 6. Workshop facilitation tips I look forward to applying these insights and methodologies to future workshops!

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