James Bickerton

"In the digital world, a frustrating pattern has emerged—a cycle that starts with promise, slides into mediocrity, and leaves users and businesses disillusioned. This is 'enshittification' (shoutout to Kouch Culture friends), the decline of once-unstoppable platforms. It seems these platforms always seem to meet a slow, painful end. So, what’s the takeaway? Enshittification isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a warning. Users should stay mindful of where they invest their time, exploring new platforms that put them first. For businesses, it’s about diversifying—don’t rely on one platform to define your brand. Ultimately, success comes from making a living, not a killing. The platforms that survive will be those that balance user satisfaction with growth. For more, head to Rosie Lee Groups Unorthodox Blend on Substack

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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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Stuff that makes you go wow! Round 22 - Weekly Opinions & Wonders (WOW) - my roundup of opinions, thoughts, tips and highlights that I found helpful and insightful Kasia Kaminska (she/her) - AI myths, misconceptions and inaccuracies https://lnkd.in/g_YcgFGS Engprax via Jon Fukuda - The failure rates of Agile https://lnkd.in/gbaaSktf Christopher Rice - AI doesn’t have a sustainable biz model https://lnkd.in/gEDJ6eGz Azeem Azhar - The knock-on effects of AI on the labour market  https://lnkd.in/gMdk9A47 #GenerativeAI #BusinessModel #AgileMethodology #LabourMarket #Failure #Myths 

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If you're looking to up your accessibility game, your search is over. Join my colleague and accessibility guru Grant for some insights and guidance next Wednesday!

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Listen to this today if you’re designing experiences with LLMs and AI agents. LiveKit’s CEO has some great insights around: 👉🏼 What voice is good for, what text is good for, and what neither is good for. 👉🏼 How these relate to the modalities of how we interact with each other as humans. 👉🏼 The current bifurcation of modes (text, voice, computer use/touch) and how we need to work towards blending those more fluidly for the ideal UX. Very fascinating stuff that’s deeply resonant with my mind this week and validates a path towards the future of human-computer interaction.

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I went to my first UX Architect team meeting at BBC UX&D for a few years last week and it inspired me to revisit some information architecture ideas... mainly the idea of 'concurrent information architecture'. I'm still not convinced it's a real thing... maybe it depends on where you draw the boundary of an architecture... but I do think considering the points of overlap, interaction and integration between systems, at the information architecture level, is one way to build better products and services. #informationarchitecture

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In the digital world, it seems a frustrating pattern has emerged—a cycle that starts with promise, slides into mediocrity, and leaves users and businesses disillusioned. This is 'enshittification' (shoutout to Kouch Culture friends David Bloom, and Ben Dietz), the decline of once-unstoppable platforms. Enshittification isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a warning. We should stay mindful of where they invest our time, exploring new platforms that put us first. For businesses, it’s about diversifying, don’t rely on one platform to define your brand. Ultimately, success comes from making a living, not a killing. The platforms that survive will be those that balance user satisfaction with growth. For more, head to Unorthodox Blend on Substack.

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Introverts vs extroverts and then all the nuance and folk who sit in between those two ends of the scale. To be a good design leader (or a leader more generally) do you need to be one or the other? Both have different strengths, values and likely different ways of approaching things. I think the two ends of that scale will likely have quite different styles but I would argue that there is no one size fits all approach. Interested to see what folk think. #design #leadership #people

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#Accessibility is often where the future already happened. All of the discussions of #AI art using text prompts reminds me that what they are attempting is the inversion of AltText image description. Using text to hold the meaning and emotion of visual imagery. What AltText shows is that language is not great at holding subtleties and tones of art. That’s because language isn’t good at such details. The book Language Versus Reality is good on why this is a problem. This modern inversion of the problem has not fixed the core linguistic problem and cannot fix it.

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Really enjoyed this podcast episode about the state of design leadership and craft, and what might need to be done. https://buff.ly/3Wfm51r

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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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Speaker callout! 📣 This June in London we are hosting an event to help designers scale their impact beyond individual contribution as a researcher or designer. We are looking for speakers with interesting case studies, strategies or frameworks that have successfully influenced strategy and delivered meaningful business value through design? Is this you? If so, drop me a DM or a quick comment and I'd love to find a few minutes to chat in the coming week or so. #businessdesign #designstrategy #UX #design #product.

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I've long been a fan of Google when it comes to their design of physical and digital product, but their implementation of Gemini / AI has taken their already household search status to a new level. I'm genuinely so stoked to see this feature roll out. They enhanced search by showing you a relevant excert from the top result but now this takes it a step further to collate results for me in a tangible way. 👏👏 #google #userexperience #AI #gemini #search

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Here's my secret link to every secondary image (infographic) that I save on Amazon with AmzDesignKit. https://lnkd.in/eQge6_Dk Since launching the chrome extension at the start of this month I've personally captured 106 fantastic ideas for you to be inspired by. This enabled my team to create 35 infographic templates in 3-days. Infographics that can be quickly split tested across a host of different brands. And rapidly edited to suit any brands needs. This shows how quick your creative process can be with a) inspiration at hand and b) a design system. Yes, you need a designer that understands your system. I've taught my whole team ours. But this enables you as a brand or agency to design much faster, and at a lower cost, without sacrificing quality. Best of all, you can do it at scale. If you need help building a design system, or tapping into ours, your first step is you get a kit subscription. Thanks, George #itsalwaysdayone #amzdesignkit

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There's been so many conversations like this on Design's death this year. But if our approach and work at ZeroSixty Design is anything to go by, design practices are maturing and evolving. It's easy to point at signs of Design's demise because: - What some teams / agencies used to sell no longer works - The working cultures they were comfortable in no longer exist - New tech and tools make them feel estranged from how they worked - The bar for the value clients expect is higher - The way results are measured are sharper - Many orgs over-indexed in the good times - The way design operated as a function has evolved Are all these changes a step forward. No, not always. In the last year alone, the way ZeroSixty has been working has led to some of the most fascinating and fun projects I've ever worked on. And some of the introspection we now see is definitely a positive step forward. It points to an evolving industry, not a dying one. #designforimpact #experiencedesign #designagency #design

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Talk to your users, and if you don't have users... Do this: 1. Find out who your perfect user is 2. Reach out to them 3. Ask them for an interview, alpha test or prototyping session 4. Write down their comments 5. Promise them a discount once the software is out Not being live yet is no excuse to skip customer discovery. Pro Tip: Build a quick landing page to find even more test users. Any other tips to talk to potential users?

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🌟 Feature Usage: Spotlight on What Matters 🔦 Track which features users engage with most. Prioritise enhancements based on real usage. These should link back to user needs, and just simply asking them what will benefit most and why is a simple way to establish clear priorities. #FeaturePrioritisation #UserEngagement

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Back in 2019, when Ripul and Rasagy presented the Deconstruct Report at the DesignUp Conference stage, one line stood out: "no parent ever forced their child to become a Designer". 5 years later, whereas the conversation with parents has eased, it's still bumpy. The global uncertainty/fears around jobs, economy, Ai has made a lot of people re-root for traditional favourites: Medicine, Law, Engineering. Essentially a lot choices for, or against, are fuelled by lack of deep insights and balanced perspectives from professionals who have played in these arena for decades, and stumbled upon real intelligent patterns that Ai is still awaiting us to feed. That's where AltCwithJD comes in - it's a deep-dive, a podcast-on-a-mission (and another weekend project) with people who've followed uncertain paths, like me, and also have not just survived but thrived long enough to have a rewarding career. Beyond just money or titles. Meet professionals ranging from Health & Fitness Coaches, Musicians, Data Journalists, Business Anthropologists, Designers (of course) and many more. Discover aspects of careers you're unaware of, get tips and warnings, uncover challenges and opportunities. Hear them out before jumping into making choices, one way or the other. S1 E1 coming soon - follow along here or via insta, or subscribe via youtube. A big thanks to Dr. Jitin Chadha for deciding to support AltCwithJD in one short conversation while crossing a state border. With Indian Institute of Art and Design, Simrat, Sunaina, Dharmesh, Esha, Shiva, Raghu, Suresh, Arjyo, Jayanth, Navneet, Sanjay, Dr. Amit Jody, Peyush ++ Deconstruct Report (2019-20) https://lnkd.in/gnU5ibBb AltC on Insta https://lnkd.in/gXmM2mSX AltC on YouTube https://lnkd.in/gwz-7tFi

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