Greg Smith

Many organisations create inclusive personas to represent disabled people. I know the UK Government's Digital Service do, and they are people who really know what they're doing. But ... these artefacts tend to focus on the disability, and the assistive technology people use to overcome barriers. Not so much on who they are, their goals, and what they're trying to achieve with their businesses and their lives. On people as people. Just, y'know, peopling. We've done lots of research over the years with disabled people who run, or are in positions of authority in businesses. It's obvious that disabled people are under-represented in the upper echelons of business because of the cultural, physical, and technological barriers they face. The statistics tell us that with barely any interrogation at all. It's equally obvious that the people we do talk to – who have managed to create and sustain successful businesses despite these barriers – embody a selection bias. They've already been able to overcome those hurdles. Nevertheless, I think context matters – and in some contexts, focusing on what people can't do is less important than highlighting what they go out and do anyway, despite all the difficulties they face up to every day. Anyway, I wrote up some thoughts on how to include some #accessibility pointers into #personas without making them the main focus. (And, yes, I use gender-neutral names and pronouns for our personas. None of our research has revealed any significant difference between them.) https://lnkd.in/edbnZGQp

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🙏 Feedback request: Principles of Healthcare Experience Design I'm drafting some design principles for healthcare user experience design which I will publish at Design with Care, and I would love your feedback as I work on them. Are they useful? What resonates with you? What's missing? If you have a few minutes, take a look at the Google Doc here: https://lnkd.in/g9vRYxUQ You can comment directly on the Google Doc or reply to this post. To give you a preview of what you'll find in the Doc, here's the description of the first principle, "Promote Well-Being": 🧘 Promote Well-Being "Design to enhance the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of individuals." "Well-being is central to healthcare design. It’s not just about improving physical health but also addressing the emotional and mental well-being of individuals. When designing for healthcare, it’s crucial to create experiences that make users feel supported, informed, and in control of their health journey. This means reducing friction, improving access to relevant information, and making tasks less stressful for both healthcare professionals and individuals. Well-being also includes factors such as a sense of accomplishment for professionals and patients’ confidence in managing their health." Thank you! — Interested in healthcare UX? Join the community at Design with Care: https://designwith.care #healthcareux #designprinciples #ux #uxdesign

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Accessibility is getting more important in websites. Let me or us know if you would like an accessibility audit done on your website.

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With ↗️ links out to interesting conversations and resources—Steve Messer on how “It’s OK for [UK #Government] departments to have their own #DesignSystem”. https://lnkd.in/ePY5jE6j I agree in principle with the valid points raised in discussions linked to this post. My main concern with the various Department-specific Design Systems (https://lnkd.in/ez85MBs7) built over the years is it's often not clear how the 🔙 upstream process works. How often do these local systems merge helpful patterns back into the main GovUK Design System? And how easy is it to do so? 🤔

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After spending the last 6-12 months successfully making the case for a central team to improve, grow, and maintain the MoJ Design System, I've now written about why I think we need one even though we have the GOV.UK Design System. The writing is part of the Reuse by Design series where Nikola Goger and Martin Ford-Downes are making a case for a share + reuse infrastructure in government and how to implement reuse by design.

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I always enjoy seeing examples of great #ServiceDesign and learning from others on what approaches work well. So, while browsing the BBC Archives, it was great to see this footage from 1986—part of a series that looked at the functional design that surrounds our everyday lives—looking at the design process used across the entire #Customer experience when using 🛫 London Gatwick Airport. 📺 https://lnkd.in/eYsdZTvz The concept of considering all areas of the process is clearly shown including; 🧭 Signage and Wayfinding (designed by #JockKinneir and #MargaretCalvert) using a consistent typeface and series of symbols. 🚶‍♀️ Hard flooring for highly trafficked areas but carpeting used in areas where passengers can relax. 💺 Seating designed for groups to sit together, or for a single person to lie down on if awaiting delays (quite opposite to the #HostileDesign approaches taken more recently regarding public seating) with fabrics that can easily repaired or replaced (a great example of 🌱 #Sustainable #Design in action). 🚮 Even down the the design of the bins which separated standard waste from flammable (this was a time when smoking in airports was allowed) but acted as a fire suppressant should accidents occur. The thought process put into all stages of the journey is so well demonstrated. This is no doubt down to the British Airport Authority having the amazing #JanePriestman (https://lnkd.in/eqEeMeVU) as General Manager in #Architecture and #Design. Someone who could apply all their knowledge of Design across a spectrum of airport #UserNeeds. Watching this, it does sometime seem that some areas noted have regressed rather then evolved. We had this foundational #ServiceDesign work in place to learn from, but are we building on past lessons in the most effective way? 🤔

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My first blog post! Take a look at the similarities between goldsmithing and user research 👩‍🏭 👩‍💻  I'd love to hear your thoughts

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Looking back at my 2025 UX predictions piece - the section on the need for adaptability really captures a key challenge: that AI is redefining what it means to do our job. Listen to my thoughts here #UX https://lnkd.in/e2VdTGqW

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I hope the introduction of the European Accessibility Act (EAA) next year will see more products and brands build up from the principles of Accessibility and inclusion first and not just nice to haves. #designsystems #designsystem #accessibility #accessibledesign #ux #userexperience #productdesign #eaa #inclusion #designcommunity #wcag

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I think there may be some confusion about the difference or similarities between rapid research, rolling research, continuous research, iterative research and probably a bunch of other [insert prefix] research. In an attempt to unravel the confusion and learn about each of these, I have embarked on a new interview series. My first guest was Amanda Gelb and amongst other things, she told me all about setting up a Rapid Research program at Lyft. You can find the interview on our website and also on our YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/ew6Uqmix If you have a story to tell about setting up an innovative program of research, I would love to hear from you. #uxresearch #userresearch #ux247

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As designers we don’t need to own to have impact A lot of our skillsets and value lie: - in the facilitation - in collaboration - in being the glue, the playmakers - in helping to enable impact, efficiencies and value It is partly why there is so much grey area around the CDO role (I think) Whether driving a transformation or building a product, there’s always value in Design being involved But we don’t need to be in the driving seat We can be the supporting actor rather than the star of the show Many will be thinking, ‘well we are just fighting to have that voice at all’ It’s fair But the reality is that shouting louder won’t make you more clearly understood Sometimes you need to play the long game Figure out what those where you want to be care about Pick them off one by one to build trust and advocacy Give them value, so they are the ones to ask why you are not in the room If that happens enough, you’ll be invited in I think I’ve said before Design (in most cases) should be in the room Not because our ideas are better but because they are different 🖤 #Design #Leadership #DesignLeadership

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Think of #DoubleDiamond as place to grow rather than a process or journey to cross thru. Design Council released its Systemic Design Framework this week https://lnkd.in/e6ftRQbG I designed and tested a number of workshops for this toolkit to understand how it worked with design professionals and climate activists. The adapted version of Double Diamond in the framework works differently in shifting from a very tight business-oriented design thinking process to a more broad sense of community and place making for change. The image here is from one workshop for #CampDigital in Manchester and the use of the tree model continued into workshops for #UXCopenhagen. Using the systemic design framework as a foundation to do more with more people while using fewer resources and planning for degrowth is good. Using Permaculture principles helped with thinking of time in a place not movement thru a place. I’d recommend the Entangled Activist and Closing The Loop as books to read. #DesignThinking #SystemicThinking #ClimateCrisis #SystemsThinking #EcologicalThinking.

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If your main metric for success for design systems is measuring adoption, then consider this: Adoption does not equal value. Value is better communicated by money saving or money generated when it comes to organisations. This can be calculated by time savings for example. Adoption only tells you how much it is being used - without the former you cannot realise the scale of value. #designsystems #design #designmatrics

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Don’t be that stakeholder…. Yes that one that despite being in invited to all the user research sessions, the design workshops, and the planning sessions decides not to come and then wonders why the project doesn’t deliver what they wanted. If you want change you have to be the change. We all have a responsibility! The stage has been set it’s now your responsibility to turn up and play your part in Change. Please get out there today, put a ❌ in a box. It doesn’t matter which one just have a reason and do it! #bethechange #election #responsibility

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On #BraveUX this week, Dr. Ari Zelmanow shares insight into his life as a police detective 🕵️‍♂️, how he transformed into a PhD and then UX researcher 😎, and how researchers can become strategic partners ♟️. Highlights include: ⭐ What insight did your time as a detective give you into your fellow humans? ⭐ How do you communicate the value of research to the business? ⭐ What is the most impactful way to present research findings? ⭐ Why is it important to associate a level of certainty with research findings? ⭐ What is the most important thing for researchers to focus on right now? 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 Ari Zelmanow? Ari is he Head of UX Research at Twilio, where he leads the ‘small but mighty’ research and research ops teams for the industry-leading platform that efficiently powers customer engagement, marketing and innovation 💪. He is also the Managing Director of Customer Forensics, where he helps companies to capture and keep more customers - informed by his time in the research field, and former life as a metropolitan police detective 🕵️‍♂️. Ari has also held a number of senior research roles, including as vice president of analytics, research and insight at Gtmhub, As a UX research manager at Indeed, a director of analytics, research, and insights at Panasonic, and as a UX and Market Research Lead at Twitter 🦤. Complementing Ari’s decade of experience as a police detective and years in the field as an applied researcher and research manager, he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies, a Master of Science in Criminal Justice, and a PhD in Cognitive Psychology 🧠. - - - - - Don’t forget to check out the show notes on YouTube for quick-access to interview chapters, as well as where to find Ari. #UX #UXR #UXResearch #UserResearch #DesignLeadership

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I’m really worried about what ransom hacks involving the leaking of patient data will do for confidence in healthcare systems. This morning the BBC reported that a large volume of patient data from NHS Dumfries and Galloway has been released on the dark web. And a few days ago a Finnish hacker was sentenced after stealing and publishing data from patients undergoing therapy. In that case, the data leak cost some people their lives. As service users, do we now have to accept that there’s a non-negligible risk of our medical information being leaked? If so, how might that change what we feel comfortable sharing with medical professionals? A loss of confidence might stop us getting the help we need. Apart from doubling down on security and security training, there must be more institutions can do to reassure us. Collecting less data in the first place might help. Is it *necessary* for the treatment I’m receiving? If not, don’t ask. And definitely don’t use my personal information for anything other than that purpose. (I’m looking with a hard stare at my local GP surgery which shared my contact details with some academics researching middle-aged spread – rude…) Storing data only as long as it needs to be stored might also help. This is about data/content governance – having efficient processes for deleting information when it’s no longer needed. And perhaps there’s also something about categorising data so that the most sensitive information – stuff which might derail your life if it were to be leaked – is stored with the very highest levels of security, in separate repositories, which only very few people are able to access. I’d be interested to know what security experts like Richard K. think, though. [Image description: A Yale style key in a dark, shadowy space.] #NHS #healthcare #hacking

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Agentic workflows are going to transform how we use #GenAI. Recommend following Harrison Chase and LangChain to stay caught up.

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