Alice Tyler

It's great to see more environmentally aware websites appearing. There is a growing hidden energy cost in more data heavy websites and it looks like a clever solution to be rewarded visually for using cleaner energy sources. Along with making people more conscious that using websites requires energy. #carbonaware #sustainabledesign #energy #webdesign

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Validate Your Product Before Investing Big in Design. I spoke with the brilliant Vicki Stirling from The Startup Network last week, and we discussed how often founders invest in design and development too early. At Refract and in the past, I’ve seen this happen a lot: founders with big visions feel the need to spend huge budgets—$100K on product development, $20K on branding, $50K on a website—believing this will automatically attract users. While ambition is great, this approach can lead to wasted resources if you haven’t validated your product first and it's important to only invest the absolute necessary needed early on for that initial MVP. Here are some affordable ways to validate your product before diving into a full build: ⚡️ Build a landing page with a clear call to action. Track sign-ups, interest, and feedback. ⚡️ Create a waitlist and aim for at least 1,000 sign-ups (as Vicki suggested) to gauge real interest. ⚡️ Run small ad campaigns to test demand and gather insights. ⚡️ Develop an MVP or prototype to get early feedback without heavy investment. ⚡️ Conduct user interviews to understand what your audience really needs. The truth is, once your product hits the market, you’ll need to stay lean and iterate based on real user feedback. Going big too soon without validation can lead to disappointment. At Refract, we advise founders to validate their ideas first. Then, scaling with the right design and development becomes far more effective. Big thank you to Vicki Stirling for chatting with me last week! And definitely check out The Startup Network if you're a founder or interested in the scene.

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A study found that if every adult in the UK sent one less "thank you" email, it could save 16,433 tonnes of carbon a year — the equivalent to taking 3,334 diesel cars off the road. Did you know that as a UX/UI or product designer you can make a real tangible difference to climate change? Here’s a short list to get you started: - How can you make your digital application more efficient? A simple UI is not only good for the users, it’s good for the planet too! - Can you nudge your users towards more sustainable behaviors? Sending fewer emails, avoiding duplicate work, making more sustainable choices digitally or physically will impact on the environment. - Can you become an advocate for all living systems, not just human users? UX designers became the advocates for users 20 to 30 years ago, making sure their needs and concerns were considered at every step of a design process - now we need to expand and care for ALL living systems. Which living systems do you directly impact? - What are the ethical considerations of your digital application? Who or what is most negatively impacted by it, and what are the opportunities to address that? And with that I’m going to start writing about being a designer in the GreenTech or ClimateTech world. Let me know what you think, is this something you care about? What things do you do to design more climate friendly services? Find the above and a whole lot more on ClimateDesigners https://lnkd.in/etaXcRB6 And make sure to follow me or https://lnkd.in/eaHq5E8d for more like this!

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The automobile industry has always made user experience in the car a cornerstone of its success. They must lead the way in today's market, where the economy is driven by user experience. In-car user research is vital for exceeding user expectations, driving innovation, enhancing safety, and ensuring market competitiveness! #userresearch #UXDesign #automobileUX

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Yes! THIS!! It's not just about the function, it's also about the application, causality, and ethics. Unfortunately not things they teach enough (if at all) in engineering and design schools. #design #engineering #technology #ethics

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The tech industry has been glorying in the rise of weird, experimental new hardware lately. Economic factors that could be cooling down innovation - a dampened M&A market and stricter regulation, which are making 'acquihire as an exit strategy' more challenging to start-ups - are being more than compensated for by the energising potential of AI, which has sparked a rising trend for intriguing products that try new ideas and dare to be original. Read more on the new weird - including how it’s emerging across cinema and design - in this month’s newsletter: https://lnkd.in/et2-7RhN #substack #newsletter #designfutures #thinkdifferent

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I've been working and prototyping an AI course for designers and found myself talking about Proof of Concepts (PoCs), sizing projects, project outcomes and objectives - you know how to run an AI project. The aim is to determine the right AI approach for the problem we've identified in the organisation. The feedback I received was "Designers aren't interested in this." What aren't designers interested in? How to run a project? Write a business case? Decide on a technology direction? Probably not! But I do, because from the beginning of my career, I've moved back and forth between Design and Product/Project Management. Are we missing a trick if we can't understand and deliver technology, as well as define the experience? Does this connect to the conversations about the role of Design in a world where less Discovery is needed, because we already have the patterns? #productmanagement #uxdesign #AI #digitaldelivery

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Working with Swarm has been a really exciting experience for me, our team, and Opencast as a whole. Read more about what we've been working on and what we've learned, as well as what we hope the future brings in this blog: https://lnkd.in/eW5bTfdb

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What do Paul Scholes and Service Designers have in common? 🥁🥁 ….they are playmakers The best midfielders / Service Designers are those that: > spot the gaps and opportunities > predict how situations will play out > keep a wide view of the action > link up play, connecting the team from back to front > create moments of magic Though often both often unseen, they can be the game-changers in setting others / the org up for success What would you add to the above? P.S #GGMU 👹🔴🏆 #Design #ServiceDesign

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Miro - not a tool we use every day by any stretch, but it's such a powerful way to visualise and create plans, schedules and video storyboards. Clients love the collaborative functionality while we think it's easily the most visual way to put creative outputs against a tangible plan and get instant approval. Really easy to use, with a free version too - a great creative weapon in the arsenal of any creative team planning videos, social calendars, customer personas... the list goes on! http://miro.com #marketingtool #tooloftheweek

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I had an awesome time speaking at UX Crunch "Designing Beyond Accessibility" by Iconic Agency (Previously Tech Circus) at Fora last week. Exceptional organisers (thank you Myles McMorrow and Luke Reed), welcoming venue and staff, and a brilliant #community. What I took away: 🦺 Designers and researchers would like to know about the techniques to take care of themselves when moderating sensitive research (safeguarding) 🧑‍💻 People are interested in learning about moderating research with participants with vision and hearing loss, remotely 🫶 There are a lot of ways to ensure we design with care, and don’t unknowingly expose people to triggering experiences (wealth of examples by Erika Menczigar, a solid presentation from Afreen Saulat) 💡 1 in 4 people will be 60 by 2025, and we are nowhere near designing for nearly 2 billion people(mind-blowing stat and great work from Stacey M.) 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 It’s key to think about the decision-makers and engage core stakeholders in our process, demonstrating tangible impact your research makes (very informative tips on planning inclusive research from Marianthi Vezertzi) 🚀 Drop us a line at Cosmic Velocity if you’d like to make sure your products and services serve a broader and more diverse audience ❤️ Lovely photo credit Aneta Zokaite #design #research #InclusiveResearch #ServiceDesign #Events #Community #Collaboration

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So glad I managed to attend UX Brighton on Friday. Top notch speakers for an obvious but tricky theme: UX & AI. Some personal highlights: - Pablo Stanley's contagious energy, humour and eye-candy slides somehow managed to show really practical "why did I put this button here" advice. Proper Design class! >> check his Lummi app https://www.lummi.ai/ - Maggie Appleton perfectly encapsulated why AI is breaking the free Internet and what possible (mostly-depressing) futures await us. PS: it's all here >> https://lnkd.in/ek6wJ6V8 - Glenn Jones's text-to-functional-UI demo left some speechless. A glimpse into a future of use-once UIs generated on the fly. - Hannah Beresford's solid research work laid out why AI tools don't work yet and what to do about it. - Will Taylor's historical framework was the perfect conference intro and a useful tool to clarify "which AI for which situation". A few reflections: - There are identified ways make chatbot-style AI UIs more usable... but the single box to "ask anything" is far from the being the most useful interaction paradigm. - AIs are rubbish at context, societal norms and verbal cues. It's best to think of them as a smart alien rather than a human. - Data-led products, like AI-driven ones, need to be user tested in context, with real data. Smoke & mirrors prototypes or static mockups are pointless. - It did made me want to work on AI products and try more AI tools! - Also, not one mention of sustainability?? It feels like the elephant in the room. Overall, such an awesome day with Joanna Rusznica Laura Pison David Man Jess Judge Rachel Ward Kounnas Caroline Gardiner Andrew Wood Rosie FitzGerald Carolyn Letts #uxbri #uxbrighton #uxbrighton2024 #ai #ux #design

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Design teams with extensive design systems will have a good time playing with localised AI (hyper-personalisation) to explore generative interfaces. In short, a team could have its own UIzard and more. As a result there's a potential for Design Systems to become stand alone product/service offering. (It already is but the demand side is dry) This will allow for: Rapid Prototyping Stakeholders' alignment Data-driven decision making p.s. Design Systems are not UI components alone.

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I messed up... Business has been booming. BUT - The unlimited design model just isn't the right fit a lot of the time. I quickly realised clients don't know what they need. They want to lean on our expertise and have back-and-forth conversations that help get the best out of the design and build of their product. That's why I made the decision to pivot the model and add two new models to Technically Creative's offering. We won't just blindly rely on your team to submit design briefs they 'think' the business needs. We integrate into your businesses channels and work like part of your in-house team. We have tweaked our branding and built our new website to reflect the changes. Take a look and let me know what you think 👇 https://lnkd.in/eDcZYCeh

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Worth revisiting this article on the lessons of building products for mixed realities. https://lnkd.in/eaneMUK7 #design #designthinking #designbuild #designstrategy #product #producctdesign #productmanagement #productstrategy #designprinciples #innovation #designers #digitaltransformation #ux #uxdesign #uiux #uidesign #designinnovation #application #software #softwaredesign #usability #userresearch #research #usercentereddesign #productleadership #uxwriting #designsystems #empathy #interfacedesign #usabilitytesting #userexperience #productdesign #accessibility #ui

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Thanks to Kingston Green Business and Ioanna Rossi for inviting me to join the panel alongside Ian Manders, Avrilia Diamanti and Lilian Martins CEng MCIBSE and facilitated by David Symons at the recent Think Green discussion on harnessing the power of a green economy and emerging technologies. One topic of discussion was the localised manufacturing and the contribution it can make to economic diversity at a local level. Diversity that is critical to ensure that all members of a community can live and work locally by making jobs available to suit everyone.   Kingston 100 years ago was a centre for hi-tech production but there seems to be a prevailing belief that such activity no longer has a place in the suburbs. I argued that manufacturing is no longer the dirty, noisy, space and energy hungry sector that it was a century ago. And that, right now, Kingston is becoming a hotspot for sustainable technology led by trailblazing businesses like KAPDAA and Limetrack, supported by a local network of sector specialists.   There is a chance at this point to capitalise on this momentum by establishing a sustainable tech cluster in Kingston. However, the biggest challenge to these types of business is the lack of opportunity to scale locally - there are just too many incentives to relocate production to Wales or the north of England. Part of the solution is to ensure that commercial properties of all flavours (not just office space) are included in borough development plans and that manufacturing is an acceptable change of use for empty retail and hospitality. Of course, this is hard to do when the central government focuses entirely on housing with the risk of building dormitories with little live-work opportunity.     I really hope to see our nascent SusTech hub developing and would welcome further conversation with local academia, local government, Central government and local enterprise initiatives to push this initiative further. Business at Kingston upon Thames Kingston Chamber of Commerce

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