Mirren Fischer is someone who finds herself at the confluence of some really big challenges: creating a sustainable future and leveraging the new methods which have caused such an acceleration in the role of digital experiences. She talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about applying that approach to problems and places which have deep, physical ro…

Poetry and place...listening and lockdowns...Dan Phillips, who led the Royal College of Art's (RCA) work on 'Our Future Towns' talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about how the research led to a different understanding of connectivity, mobility and transportation in our communities.It is a conversation with draws on Dan's breadth of design and res…

Mark Baldino’s path to co-founding a Chicago-based design agency wends its way from a degree in theology and working at non-profits in Washington DC to reading an early edition of ‘Information Architecture for the World Wide Web’ and a job as a late 90s web designer he claims he was totally unqualified for. What shines through today is a continuing…

Paul Campbell, a former chief designer at Ford, is now re-imagining the wheelchair at Centaur Robotics. In this conversation with MEX founder Marek Pawlowski, he shares the life experiences and human-centred insights which have shaped Centaur's new approach to personal, connected mobility. The discussion also explores Paul's deep experience of car …

Jared Ficklin’s approach of ‘think by making’ has led him to produce remarkable digital design work, often at the forefront of exploring new computing metaphors, from smartphones to spatial interfaces. In his conversation with MEX founder Marek Pawlowski, Jared gets to one of the big truths of the digital age: the major expansions in computing occu…

The conversation between Robert Fabricant and Marek Pawlowski spans a wide arc, from Robert's childhood design influences growing up in New York City to the multi-year journey of co-authoring (with Cliff Kuang) the acclaimed book 'User Friendly - How the Hidden Rules of Design are Changing the way we Live, Work & Play'. Along the way they explore R…

Jennifer Sukis returns to the podcast to discuss changes in her own role at the intersection of artificial intelligence and design, as well as IBM's growing focus on this area for its big enterprise clients. The chat with MEX founder Marek Pawlowski ranges from approaches to user research when designing AI-powered systems, how AI may influence futu…

Samar Héchaimé joins MEX founder Marek Pawlowski for a special discussion - recorded with a live web audience - exploring how we might transform our post-pandemic systems and organisations by putting people at the heart of future strategy. Drawing on deep cross-cultural experience – from the Middle East to the United States – and disciplines from a…

John Fagan is building technology to enhance the user experience of public transport through a better understanding of human behaviour. He talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about how smartphone sensor data can be combined with real-time transport infrastructure feeds to deliver more contextually relevant digital services. John draws on his deep …

Ashton Snook, Head of Design for Digital & Physical Products at Hive, joins MEX founder Marek Pawlowski to share how Hive is approaching the complex, multi-touchpoint challenge of delivering good customer experience for its smart home products. Ashton talks about the user research and product design aspects, as well as the organisational journey he…

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Ben Scott-Robinson is designing the next generation of robot relations. Small Robot Company, the start-up he co-founded, must solve both the technical challenge of deploying rugged, autonomous robots on farms and the nuanced complexities of serving multiple users - from individual farmers to the animals the machines may encounter in the field. Ben …

Mark Rolston is working on the future, from mixed reality delivered via digital eyewear for the likes of Magic Leap, to experimental projects exploring how projected interfaces might materialise in the physical world. Mark talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about his long career at frog design, where he led global creative after a 20 year tenure,…

Tom Wood, co-founder of Foolproof, joins Marek Pawlowski to talk about what it takes to build a user-centred design agency, from the initial inspiration 17 years ago during his time as Head of Advertising at Virgin Money, to setting a course for the future through an acquisition. The conversation ranges from the nuances of structuring design teams …

Jason DaPonte has been at the cutting edge of digital experience design since the late 90s and shares some of the insights gained along the way with MEX founder Marek Pawlowski. They talk about Jason's current strategy role at design agency ustwo, as well as revisiting the evolution of multi-touchpoint experience design. The conversation expands to…

Gavin Edwards directs product design and research for Skyscanner, a travel search platform serving 90 million users a month. He talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about applying research insights at scale, the cultural nuances of users' travel behaviours and his own journey through design agency work to leading in-house teams. Along the way, the …

Anna Bäck has seen user-centred design from all angles: spending time as managing director of a small specialist agency, playing a leadership role at a larger agency as it became part of McKinsey and most recently as CEO of an expanding digital platform where she is nurturing a strong design culture throughout the organisation. She talks to MEX fou…

In-depth user research has been a touchstone throughout Lada Gorlenko's fascinating career. She talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about her current role leading experience research for work management platform Smartsheet, as well as everything from her background in cognitive science, working in prisons and her time working on Microsoft's mobile…

From debuting concept cars in computer games to re-imagining autonomous vehicles as luxurious overnight sleeping cabins, Sam Livingstone has been advising the automotive industry on customer-led design strategy for over 20 years. He talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about the opportunities for vehicle manufacturers to embrace digital experience …

Fiona Myles runs her own agency, Kin Branding, working at the intersection of brand strategy and design thinking. In addition, she works all over the world delivering workshops and education programmes to foster a design-led, creative economy with organisations like Nesta and the British Council. She shares the story of her career with MEX founder …

Tedde van Gelderen, founder of design agency Akendi and author of the book Experience Thinking, shares the story of his career journey with MEX founder Marek Pawlowski. From client-side roles with Philips and Nortel, to founding and selling an earlier agency business, Tedde talks about the career experiences which informed his book. The conversatio…

Jo Barnard is founder of the London-based design agency Morrama. She talks to Marek Pawlowski about the journey she's been on since founding the business four years ago. The conversation turns to the development of Morrama's beautifully considered smartphone concepts, part of a hybrid client and internal project which focuses on changing users' rel…

Lidia Oshlyansky has led numerous user experience teams in media and tech companies, including for Google's emerging markets research and now for growth opportunities at Spotify. She talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about the nuances of successful field trips, her move from agency- to client-side and the challenges of building communities of pr…

Laura Forlano's diverse work as a writer, teacher and consultant bridges social sciences, design and emerging technology. She talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about the wide range of projects she's involved with, from a book imagining what the Bauhaus might look like if it was practicing today through to the impact of autonomous vehicles on urb…

Omar Bakhshi sits down to share the story of his career, from tinkering with electronics as a child to the strategic projects he now leads at Smart Design for some of the world's largest companies. Marek and Omar reflect on how the challenges faced in designing digital experiences have changed since 12 years ago, when Omar first spoke at MEX, and t…

Before becoming a prolific angel investor and partner at the thesis-driven VC firm BlueYard, Hampus Jakobsson helped co-found TAT, one of the most influential companies in mobile user experience. He talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about the motivations and challenges of building user interfaces for some of the world's largest device manufactur…

Rachel Liu traces her path as a service designer to an early interest in making and a degree in computer science. She talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about the evolution of her career, including the nuances of conducting complex user research in countries like China. The conversation touches on the way education in China has changed since Rach…

Scott Weiss' career in user experience has its origins in the late 1980s, when he served an internship at Apple in the days of System 6 and 7. He went on to write one of the reference books on mobile user experience, 'Handheld Usability'. Today he leads product design for the language learning app Babel. He's seen the evolution of experience-led de…

Amy Daroukakis has spent her career helping others to see the deeper reality behind users’ lives. Through travel, observation and research she is constantly on the look out for emerging trends. Her work has included time in-house at one of the world’s largest retailers and in a variety of agency roles working with clients from fashion to financial …

As machines of all kinds become active participants in the economy, how will user experience strategy evolve to shape this new class of digital interactions? Kerstin Eichmann, managing director at Innogy Innovation, is working at the cutting edge of this challenge, helping one of Germany's oldest and largest energy companies imagine the future role…

How does a journey that begins with a degree in philosophy - and a chance conversation with a librarian - lead to a surprise move from Manchester to New York, one of the advertising industry's foremost fellowship programmes and a career-long interest in understanding customer behaviour? Onika Simon shares her story, including awards, working with C…

Gil Kahana is one of a growing number of designers launching their own start-ups. He shares the story with MEX founder Marek Pawlowski, tracing the arc from falling in love with user-centred design at the BBC in the mid-2000s to working agency-side for clients in a wide range of industries. Gil goes on to explain how he has tried to embed user-cent…

Sofia Svanteson shares how founding and growing her own design agency has helped to shape Elsa, her new life sciences venture which aims to support rheumatoid patients in achieving meaningful self-care. She talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about cultural influences on the early interface design projects which helped establish her agency, Ocean …

What does innovation look like at a 300 year old paint and materials company with 40,000 employees? Massimo Mercuri, Director of Digital Innovation at AkzoNobel, sits down for a chat with MEX founder Marek Pawlowski, exploring everything from creative workshop methods to cutting edge experiments with wearables, biometrics and performance analysis o…

Warren Hutchison, founder of London-based agency Else, talks to Marek Pawlowski about what it means to create, grow and nurture your own design studio. The conversation ranges from Warren's early forays into digital design in the mid-90s to working client-side for the likes of Universal Music and Yell.com. Marek and Warren get deep into the importa…

Eric Kim, VP of Design and co-founder at Modo Labs talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about the challenges of growing a design team within a mobile UX-focused start-up. The conversation roams from Eric's early interest in architecture and how things work, then into graphic design and on to working with early web technologies. The discussion turns…

Maarten Pieters talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about his work driving co-creation design activities at Philips Lighting, one of the pioneers of smart home devices like the Hue lighting system. Maarten has also literally written the book – along with his co-author Stephanie Jansen – on how to succeed with co-creative approaches. He discusses h…

Jennifer Sukis is working at the intersection of user-centred design and artificial intelligence, leading the creative team for IBM Watson. She talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about when truly cognitive digital experiences may arrive, the challenges of developing dynamic interfaces and the future of conversational interfaces. The discussion in…

The Gemini PDA by Planet Computers brings a much loved form factor back to the world of smartphones – the clamshell, keyboard-based palmtop. In this episode, MEX founder Marek Pawlowski talks to Martin Riddiford of Therefore Design and Davide Guidi, CTO of Planet Computers, and hears the story of Gemini’s development and successful crowdfunding cam…

Just how significant are the user experience changes in iPhone X and what hints do they give us about the future of mobile innovation? Steve Litchfield, technology journalist and one of the world's most experienced reviewers of smartphones, shares his hands-on impressions of Apple's flagship with MEX founder Marek Pawlowski. Drawing on his experien…

James Auger and Julian Hanna, the duo behind the Crap Futures blog, talk to Marek Pawlowski about what motivated them to take on a provocative question we all ponder from time-to-time: whether or not the digital age we’re ushering in really represents the path to a better future? They talk about some of the dystopian examples they’ve highlighted at…

Gregg Vanderheiden talks to Marek Pawlowski about the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPii) - a multi-partner, multi-country effort to ensure technology is universally accessible. As well as being the initiator and one of the driving forces of the GPii, Gregg is a professor in the school of information studies at the University of Maryland …

Tim Burrell-Saward is working at the frontier of experience design, where the digital and physical dimensions combine in surprising, delightful ways. In this conversation with MEX founder Marek Pawlowski, Tim talks about his journey from lighting design and architecture to working at start-up company Sensible Object on a fascinating multi-touchpoin…

Louise Oakham’s career in experience design has ranged from leading in-house departments for large companies to specialising as a freelance independent practitioner. After being inspired by her talk on international user research techniques, MEX founder Marek Pawlowski sat down for a chat with Louise to hear about her tools and insights. Their disc…

Joe Macleod's book 'Ends' asks us to consider why we have such difficulty designing closure experiences. He talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about how the thinking behind the book emerged from a career in mobile technology with Nokia and design agency Ustwo, where he saw companies unable to address important issues around off-boarding. The conv…

Christian Lindholm, a pioneer of mobile experience design, has his sights set on enabling a new generation of wearables for health and fashion. He talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about his journey from Nokia in the 1990s, where he shipped the Navi Key UI on hundreds of millions of mobile devices - to his current ventures, including the Koru UI…

With Amazon's $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods placing a spotlight on the future of retail experience design, MEX founder Marek Pawlowski talks to Josh Shabtai of Lowe's Innovation Labs about how the home improvement giant is experimenting at the cutting edge. Josh shares some of the techniques they're using to maintain organisation-wide na…

As design grows in strategic influence, how important is language in helping diverse practitioners from different fields collaborate towards an overall goal? Kwame Nyanning, VP of Experience Design at McKinsey, talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about how pattern language informs his work helping global clients transform their businesses. The con…

Death remains one of the subjects we find hardest to address. Paula Ceballos, co-creator of When We Die, talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about her attempts to create a safe space - in virtual reality - where people can come to terms with their own mortality. After the usual show and tell, where Paula has some thought provoking examples, we tal…

This episode is a story which gets to the heart of the challenges facing digital agencies, from remote working to incubating in-house ventures, as Craig Bryant talks to Marek Pawlowski about his journey co-founding We Are Mammoth. Craig shares his thoughts on becoming a ‘remote first’ company, creating and scaling two successful software businesses…