Niamh Walsh

Finding the right Chief Design Officer (CDO) is crucial for driving innovation and success in your organisation. Here are three essential leadership traits to consider. ✨ What are some key characteristics you look for? #UXleadership #DesignLeadershipJobs #UXJobs

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Apparently half of UK-based designers (n=1068) are capable, 'to a large extent,' of offering 'Transition Design' to clients?! I'd downloaded-without-reading the Design Council's Skills Gap Report, so hadn't noticed this until a friend just pointed it out. I'm intrigued by what respondents are thinking when they say this. It's been more than 10 years now since Terry Irwin and Gideon Kossoff and I started talking and publishing about what we called Transition Design. Many others are now contributing to that practice and discourse, and some perhaps were doing 'convergent evolution' from other directions. There are a few, but only a few, places teaching different approaches to 'Transition Design.' But I don't think any of us think of it as a settled 'thing.' It was always meant to be a placeholder for raising the ambitions of designers, an emerging collection of perspectives around design-enabled systems-level change. So it is a little disconcerting to realise that half of professional designers think that they can already do this 'thing,' are prepared to offer it as part of a fee-for-service. There's a 'Designing (for) Transitions' track at DRS Boston: https://lnkd.in/gJt3mSwi. The organisers are hosting a 'conversation' about their experience arranging the track on Monday June 24th, 4:00-5:30pm, Boston time. I cannot participate but there was talk by organisers about breadth, and not in a good way, of things that seemed to be currently claiming to be kinds of 'transition design.'

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In his article 'Stuck on the Outside', David Forrest contemplates our latest newsletter theme 'In Stuckness and Play', exploring it through a Gestalt perspective and sharing how its meaning has evolved for him over time. Read below! #Gestalt #Newsletter

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🔥Is Accessibility important for product and service design in South-East Asian (SEA) & Malaysia?🔥 In SEA countries, especially Malaysia, UI/UX is the core aspect for product and service design for designers. From my design circle, accessibility is not mandatory for company to consider for product output. Although there are some UX Designers I know, they at least do some accessibility check using Figma. ❓️What are the BARRIERS for Accessibility as integral for product and service design? ♦️Firstly, Accessibility is rarely integral as part of the design process, partly there is no needs and mandatory enforcement such as ADA (American Disability Act) and EAA 2025 (European Accessibility Act) to adhere for products and services designed for public. ♦️Secondly, there is no access for People with Disability (PWD) easily and conveniently for user feedback. ♦️Thirdly, Accessibilty is deemed as bottleneck for product development, not to mention accessibilty testing with PwD. ♦️Fourthly, the numbers of PwD is not significant that impacts P&L and business revenue. ❓️For Malaysian & SEA Designers, do we need to care about Accessibility? 💡Since the European Accessibility Act (EAA) is a European Union directive that requires certain products and services to be accessible to people with disabilities and the elderly, anyone who design products for EU needs to aware about this. 💡We can start having the Awareness on Inclusive Design and Accessibility testing (at least using automated tools). 💡As SEA countries is closed to Japan, Korea and China (the promising super-economy nation), we will never know there will be a mandatory requirement for exporting our products and services there one day. 💡I had the privilege taught my former Interface Designers who were PwD (hearing-impaired and physically challenged) in a university 15 years ago. As an Industrial R&D Liaison for Interface Design, I collaborated with Malaysia Association for the Blind (MAB), Malaysia Federation of the Deaf (MFD), BAKTI-MIND, and brought the awareness of Inclusive Design as part of the design curriculum. Due to their phyisical challenges, my design students had become my 'teacher' because they themselves had to involved with their own community to produce design output for their final-year project that had industrial partnership. Suggestion is to work closely with PwD to learn their struggles (pain points) and needs. 💡When I fully worked in industry at Intel, armed with the understanding of Inclusive Design, I had the privilege to be a Mentor for Intel Accessibilty Innovation and conducted Assessibility Testing with various assistive technology users on #Fable. I reckon the convenience and user-friendly platform designing for accessibility testing, especially with their established PwD and Assistive technology users. 🔥EVERYTHING STARTS FROM US!🔥 We can create a better Inclusive and Accessible world by our own action. #accessibility #inclusivedesign #pwd

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🎥 I bought a new TV - a UX exploration - Andy Curry, Strategy Director LION+MASON View Andy's talk from UX Leeds 2024 and if you saw it live it's the one about the cat! Describing a real user case scenario Andy expresses the importance of research and insight into genuine user needs. #ux #ui #dx #userneeds #insight #userresearch #usercase https://lnkd.in/eRMa-sq2

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The more I talk to hiring managers and senior designers about what they are looking for in designers, the more I back up the theory that portfolios shouldn't be X, Y, Z case studies, but explorations of your obsession with details. I've written up more thoughts on this so I don't spam your LinkedIn feed with an essay https://lnkd.in/e9CxHxzz

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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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Interesting article on rethinking the role of UX Teams. https://lnkd.in/eN7SQHEm #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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16 million people in the UK are disabled, equating to one in four individuals, by ignoring accessibility, you potentially exclude over 25% of the population from engaging with your website. At Pixeled Eggs, we believe good design is accessible design. With ethical storytelling and impactful visual design, we can go beyond compliance to foster an inclusive environment where everyone can access information and services without barriers. In his blog post "Design for everyone, universal accessibility," Creative Director Kris Samyui-Adams explores why it's important and shares some tips for making your website accessible to everyone. He explores how prioritising accessibility not only demonstrates your commitment to inclusivity and equality but also enhances your brand perception and loyalty. Let's make the web a more accessible and inclusive place! 🌐 https://lnkd.in/eQxiUmmF #WebDesign #Accessibility #InclusiveDesign #UniversalDesign

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How can sketching help us make sense of complex information? ✍ Senior UX Designer Sean Jones explores how through several projects, sketching sessions have emerged as a key strategy in managing complexity and effectively translating client needs into practical design solutions: https://lnkd.in/e-53AihB #UX #UXDesign

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In Mustard's latest blog, Anthony Shephard-Williams explores how much the team has fully embraced observational UX research. Read here: https://lnkd.in/e2-YjZmf #mrx #UX #mustard #newblog

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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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The demand for UX designers has surged post-pandemic, driven by an increased need for enhanced digital experiences across all sectors. Watch as John Doran explores the booming demand for UX designers post-pandemic and explains why there’s never been a better time to start a career in UX design. To know more, check out link here - https://bit.ly/48OUeI0 #ux #uxdesign #uxcommunity #userexperience #userexperiencedesigner #uxui

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What power structures are inherent in your design system, and how does it perpetuate these structures? One of my favourite things is having theory (of any kind) applied to something you weren't expecting - here's a great example that properly made my brain fizz (in a good 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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Insights from UX research are invaluable assets and should be treated as such. 💎 💻 In this article, Emily DiLeo, PhD, MLIS digs into why knowledge management tooling is essential for protecting your research assets.

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