In This Episode

• The impact of minor design tweaks on website conversion rates through call-to-action changes.
• The rise of agentic AI in user-centric design and its implications on responsible practices.
• An overview of recent articles from TPGi, Codrops, and Roman Pichler covering various web design and UX topics.
• Reddit discussions focusing on the aesthetic appreciation of functional design, color perception with black elements, debates around AI's role in design, and the "Pixel-Perfect" era in UX.

Articles Mentioned

• ["How Subtle CTA Changes Can Double Conversions Without Re-designing Your Website"] by Wira (Web Designer News)
• ["Beyond Generative: The Rise Of Agentic AI And User-Centric Design"] by Robert Tanislav (Web Designer News)

Community Discussions

• r/Design - A bird table design that's both functional and beautiful, receiving high upvotes.
• r/Design - Discussion on how black enhances color perception in ambient settings.
• r/UX_Design - Debate titled "Are We Building AI Because It’s Useful, or Just Because We Can?"
• r/UserExperience - Discussions around the "Pixel-Perfect" era and its impact on designers’ focus.

Announcement

Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Winter on Saturday, February 21st. The event is online, so you can join from anywhere in the world.

• Date: Saturday, February 21st
• Location: Online
• Cost: $13.50; Pay-What-You-Can tickets and free passes available for those with a need.
• More Info & Ticket Purchase: Chicago Camps.org
• Speaker Submission: Still open for additional speakers to submit their ideas.

Enjoy the episode!

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

In This Episode

• A critical perspective on using AI to solve real customer problems over trendy additions, as discussed by Josh LaMar.
• How AI is transforming alumni engagement in higher education with a focus on personalized communication and maintaining human touch.
• Dylan Brouwer's transition from traditional design-first approaches to motion-driven web development, focusing on the integration of dynamic animations.

Articles Mentioned

• "A Critical Mindset Shift in Using AI" by Josh LaMar (UX Design.cc)
• "AI-Powered Alumni Management Software: Transforming Alumni Engagement in Higher Education" by Web Designer News Team (Web Designer News)
• "From Design-First to Motion-Driven: Dylan Brouwer’s Journey into the No-Code Frontier" by Dylan Brouwer (Codrops)

Community Discussions

• r/Design - Cool tote bag concept gaining upvotes and a mention of Sydney appearing twice in a list.
• r/UXResearch - Discussion on résumé advice for those from organizations that don’t track results.
• r/Design - Debate about the aesthetics of airfryers.
• r/UXDesign - Lively discussion about Apple's corner radius consistency.

Announcement

Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Winter, an online event scheduled for Saturday, February 21st. The event features presentations from industry professionals delivering real-world UX work. Tickets are available for $13.50 with pay-what-you-can options and free passes offered to those in need. Interested speakers can submit their ideas.

Get tickets now at Chicago Camps.org.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

In This Episode

• Introduction to Hyperlegible Sans, a new font designed for better legibility among low-vision users.
• Discussion on ARIA roles causing accessibility issues and the importance of semantic HTML and user testing with assistive technologies.
• Exploration of how AI-generated content is fostering skepticism in users, enhancing critical thinking skills.

Articles Mentioned

• "Hyperlegible Sans: An Open-Source Font for Accessibility" by Matthew Stephens (UX Design.cc)
• "A Tale of ARIA Roles Gone Wrong" by Hashim Quraishi (CSS-Tricks)
• "The Rise of AI and the Critical Thinker's Response" by Emily Yorgey (UX Design.cc)

Community Discussions

• r/design - Playful hand-drawn menu design for a seafood restaurant, sparking lively discussions and humor.
• r/web_design - Tips for a talented web designer struggling to find clients who pay fairly, offering advice on compensation issues.
• r/design - Debate over the potential resurgence of german tiled tables in contemporary designs.
• r/designsystems - Discussion on how AI-assisted tools are evolving roles within design technology.

Announcement

UX Camp Winter

• Date: Saturday, February 21st
• Location: Online (accessible from anywhere)
• Tickets: $13.50; Pay-What-You-Can tickets and free passes available for those in need.
• More Information & Tickets: ChicagoCamps.org

Submit your speaking idea today to share your UX work!

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

In This Episode

• The importance of resilience over perfection in design, especially with complex systems like AI and autonomous vehicles.
• The shift from "pixel perfect" web design to a more fluid approach that aligns with modern technological advances and multi-device environments.
• Why user experience insights are often overlooked within organizations and the need for better storytelling skills among UX professionals.

Articles Mentioned

• ["Against cleverness"] by Michael Parent (UX Design.cc)
• ["Rethinking ‘Pixel Perfect’ Web Design"] by Amit Sheen (Smashing Magazine)
• ["How a 2,500-year-old story explains why UX findings get ignored"] by Kai Wong (UX Design.cc)

Community Discussions

• r/UXDesign - Frustration with career advice that assumes all designers work the same way.
• r/design - Discussions on simple, creative, minimal design approaches and sharing inspiring minimalist designs.
• r/UxResearch - Debate over whether user journey mapping is getting too complicated and missing obvious friction points.
• r/designsystems - Ongoing conversation about favorite design systems and what makes them stand out.

Announcement

Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Winter on Saturday, February 21st. The entire event will be online, allowing you to join from anywhere in the world. It promises a full day of presentations by people delivering real-world UX work.

Tickets: $13.50; Pay-What-You-Can tickets and free passes available for those with financial need.

Get your tickets now at Chicago Camps.org

Additional speakers are still welcome to submit their ideas!

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

In This Episode

• Adoption of W3C design token standards for enhancing visual consistency across platforms
• The role of disinformation techniques in modern media and their implications on truth reporting
• Emotional design as a critical element in creating meaningful user interactions

Articles Mentioned

• ["Design tokens with confidence"] by Lukas Oppermann (UX Design.cc)
• ["Betting on the truth"] by Dan Brown (Spilling Ink Newsletter)
• ["Feelings are the new features"] by Vadym Grin (UX Design.cc)

Community Discussions

• r/UXDesign - Discussion on Apple's inconsistent corner radius trends in Mac OS design.
• r/UXDesign - Rant about Intuit’s user navigation issue where the use of "www" is not allowed, making the site less intuitive.
• r/Design - Excitement over unique “Confidant” Chairs from Las Sillas Confidentes for their cozy vibes and distinctive shape.
• r/UXDesign - Advice on handling a challenging work environment with inexperienced managers and high-pressure output demands.
• r/webdesign - Development of a real-time design-to-code mapping tool that streamlines workflow without relying on AI.

Announcement

UX Camp Winter by Chicago Camps

• Date: Saturday, February 21st
• Format: Entirely online, accessible globally
• Tickets: $13.50; Pay-What-You-Can tickets and free passes available for those in need.
• Details & Ticket Purchase: ChicagoCamps.org
• Speakers can still submit their ideas to present at the event.

Enjoy the episode, and feel free to explore more articles and discussions mentioned!

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• The emerging concept of Authentic Experience (AuX) and designing intelligence over interfaces
• Emotional design and why feelings are becoming key features in UX
• Why Instagram's ad breaks feel worse than regular ads
• Community discussions on mobile-first design, form field accessibility, and productivity tools

Articles Mentioned

• "The dawn of Authentic Experience (AuX)" by Darren Yeo (UX Design.cc)
• "Feelings are the new features" by Vadym Grin (UX Design.cc)
• "Why Instagram's ad breaks feel worse than ads" by Fabrizia Ausiello (UX Design.cc)
• Also mentioned: New pieces from Nielsen Norman Group, CSS-Tricks, and UX Planet

Community Discussions

• r/Design - Building a vector graphics viewer for mobile
• r/UserExperience - Replacing paid subscriptions with free browser utilities (2025 stack)
• r/web_design - No-excuses checklist for modern small business web design in 2026
• r/Design - Form field types and email field accessibility

Announcement
Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Winter on Saturday, February 21st. Get tickets at chicagocamps.org.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• The importance of chatbots admitting uncertainty in their responses
• Ethical considerations when designing AI with human-like qualities
• Analysis on how UX design is evolving and stabilizing by 2026

Articles Mentioned

• "The Case for the Uncertain AI: Why Chatbots Should Say ‘I’m Not Sure’" by Alexandre Tempel (UX Design.cc) - https://uxdesign.cc/the-case-for-the-uncertain-ai-why-chatbots-should-say-im-not-sure-8d8b4d2bab89?source=rss----138adf9c44c---4
• "When Tools Pretend to Be People" by Bora (UX Design.cc) - https://uxdesign.cc/when-tools-pretend-to-be-people-4283748d33e1?source=rss----138adf9c44c---4
• "State of UX 2026: Design Deeper to Differentiate" by Kate Moran, Raluca Budiu, Sarah Gibbons, The Experts at NN/g (Nielsen Norman Group) - https://www.nngroup.com/articles/state-of-ux-2026/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss-syndication

Community Discussions

• r/Design - Graphic Design Employment
• r/web_design - Video Dither / ASCII Effect Pro
• r/Design - AI Destroy My Passion and Desire to Design
• r/web_design - I Just Ported Kube's Liquid Glass Demo to Pure HTML/CSS/JS
• r/UXDesign - Conversational Interfaces in Agentic Systems: UX Strategy in the Development of AI Agents

Announcement
Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Winter on Saturday, February 21st. Get tickets at chicagocamps.org.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• When Tools Pretend To Be People Discusses Ethical Risks Of Humanizing AI Systems
• HTTP Archive 2025 Web Almanac Offers Insights Into Current State Of Web Design, Accessibility And Performance
• One Way Out: Standing At The Edge Of The Map Explores The Future Of Content Design In Light Of Rapidly Advancing AI Technologies

Articles Mentioned

• "When Tools Pretend To Be People" by Bora (UXDesign.cc) - https://uxdesign.cc/when-tools-pretend-to-be-people-4283748d33e1?source=rss----138adf9c44c---4
• "The HTTP Archive 2025 Web Almanac" by Geoff Graham (CSS-Tricks) - https://css-tricks.com/http-archive-2025-web-almanac/
• "One Way Out: Standing At The Edge Of The Map" by Jas Deogan (UX Planet) - https://uxplanet.org/one-way-out-standing-at-the-edge-of-the-map-02b0c9d915e3?source=rss----819cc2aaeee0---4

Community Discussions

• r/UXDesign - Conversational interfaces in agentic systems: UX strategy in the development of AI agents
• r/Design - AI destroy my passion and desire to design

Announcement
Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Winter on Saturday, February 21st. Get tickets at https://chicagocamps.org.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Building technology products can seem complicated despite advancements in methodologies like Agile
• UX design significantly influences a company’s profitability through interactive experiences
• AI is changing software development by enabling as-needed feature generation

Articles Mentioned

• "Building Technology Products Is Easy, But We Made It Complicated" by Kike Peña (UX Design.cc) - https://uxdesign.cc/building-technology-products-is-easy-but-we-made-it-complicated-7f709039e7b8?source=rss----138adf9c44c---4
• "How UX Directly Impacts P&L" by Charles Leclercq (UX Design.cc) - https://uxdesign.cc/how-ux-directly-impacts-p-l-207cfe19fdc1?source=rss----138adf9c44c---4
• "AI Enables As-Needed Software Features" by info@lukew.com (LukeW) - https://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?2139

Community Discussions

• r/UXDesign - Client feedback on images is harder than the design itself
• r/UXResearch - How do you feel about the use of AI in qualitative research?
• r/UXDesign - Is this field not for introverts? I think I made a mistake in that case
• r/UXResearch - Metrics to measure UX
• r/UXResearch - New UXR grad doing “everything right” but still no opportunities. What am I missing?

Announcement
Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Winter on Saturday, February 21st at chicagocamps.org

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Exploring the challenges and opportunities in design, including the impact of AI on designer roles and user experience.
• Diving into issues faced by designers when trying to drive change within resistant organizations and strategies to overcome these hurdles.
• The importance of accessibility guidelines and how they can sometimes complicate rather than simplify discussions around making web content more accessible.

Articles Mentioned

• The WCAG problem" by Ruben Ferreira Duarte (UXDesign.cc) - https://uxdesign.cc/the-wcag-problem-a1e966d49428?source=rss----138adf9c44c---4
• "How can you ensure paying customers don't worsen the new user experience?" by Kai Wong (UX Collective) - https://uxdesign.cc/how-can-you-ensure-paying-customers-dont-worsen-the-new-user-experience-dbd2dcddfb3c
• "The dilemma of agency in design" by Martin Tomitsch (UXDesign.cc) - https://uxdesign.cc/the-dilemma-of-agency-in-design-0f50bd93cc8d?source=rss----138adf9c44c---4
• "

Community Discussions

• r/Design - honestly… where does AI leave designers? - https://www.reddit.com/r/Design/comments/1qdgy7n/honestly_where_does_ai_leave_designers/
• r/UX_Design - comparing notification design patterns across slack notion linear and what drives engagement - https://www.reddit.com/r/UX_Design/comments/1qddk4y/comparing_notification_design_patterns_across/
• r/web_design - How can I improve my UI/UX design skills? - https://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/1qd7lav/how_can_i_improve_my_uiux_design_skills/
• r/UI_Design - our shopping cart has 73% abandonment and every change I test makes it worse somehow for reducing shopping cart abandonment - https://www.reddit.com/r/UI_Design/comments/1qda60q/our_shopping_cart_has_73_abandonment_and_every/
• r/UXDesign - Why do people say UX is “rough right now” when there seem to be lots of UX jobs? - https://www.reddit.com/r/UXDesign/comments/1qdfvj4/why_do_people_say_ux_is_rough_right_now_when/
• r/design_critiques - stopped paying for adobe, here is my free browser-based design stack for 2025 - https://www.reddit.com/r/design_critiques/comments/1qdfj8q/stopped_paying_for_adobe_here_is_my_free/
• r/UXDesign - How do you network when you have nothing to offer? - https://www.reddit.com/r/UXDesign/comments/1qdbzhl/how_do_you_network_when_you_have_nothing_to_offer/
• r/web_design - Do you design ad banners? How do you handle boring, repetitive requests? - https://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/1qd3lzg/do_you_design_ad_banners_how_do_you_handle_boring/
• r/Design - A Confession: I'm an Amatuer Designer of 10 Years seeking to take my Career as a Freelance Designer seriously for the first time. - https://www.reddit.com/r/Design/comments/1qd3k47/a_confession_im_an_amatuer_designer_of_10_years/
• r/UX_Design - Need Thoughts: Where does a Figma file break for you? - https://www.reddit.com/r/Design/comments/1qdeetm/need_thoughts_where_does_a_figma_file_break_for/

Announcement

Chicago Camps UX Camp Winter 2026, Date: 2026-02-21 - https://chicagocamps.org

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Exploration of how AI is revolutionizing software development by enabling on-demand feature generation based on user needs through tools like Reve's Effects.
• How digitalization has transformed reading habits and led to shorter attention spans and a preference for skimming over deep reading.
• The introduction of slideVars, a new CodePen tool that automatically detects CSS variables and builds an interactive UI panel to adjust these values on the fly.

Articles Mentioned

• "AI Enables As-Needed Software Features" by info@lukew.com (LukeW) - https://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?2139
• "How reading patterns have changed" by Marcus Fleckner (UXDesign.cc) - https://uxdesign.cc/how-reading-patterns-have-changed-a88d0761f8e4?source=rss----138adf9c44c---4
• "Playing With CodePen slideVars" by Geoff Graham (CSS-Tricks) - https://css-tricks.com/playing-with-codepen-slidevars/

Community Discussions

• r/web_design - The gap between "High Fidelity Prototypes" and "Live Sites" is finally closing (Why I ditched placeholders) - https://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/1qd4dl1/the_gap_between_high_fidelity_prototypes_and_live/
• r/UXResearch - Stuck between pursuing UXR or Data Science - https://www.reddit.com/r/UXResearch/comments/1qd1lrn/stuck_between_pursuing_uxr_or_data_science/
• r/web_design - Best freelance sites for designers to find high-end clients? - https://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/1ptb2l0/best_freelance_sites_for_designers_to_find/
• r/UXDesign - How would you handle floating buttons that need to be visible but keep blocking content? - https://www.reddit.com/r/UXDesign/comments/1qd3j3y/how_would_you_handle_floating_buttons_that_need/

Announcement

Chicago Camps UX Camp Winter 2026, January 1, 2026 - https://chicagocamps.org

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Explores how products can be evaluated like theme parks, focusing on access and user experience.
• Covers challenges and opportunities with Google’s experimental Neural OS.
• Discusses the application of Nano Banana Pro in UI design to streamline processes.

Articles Mentioned

• "Your Product Is a Theme Park" by Wira Indra Kusuma (UXDesign.cc)
• "From Playwright to Stage Manager" by Sean J. Savage (UXDesign.cc)
• "UI Design with Nano Banana Pro" by Nick Babich (UXPlanet)

Community Discussions

• UXDesign subreddit - Comparing notification design patterns across Slack, Notion, and Linear
• UXDesign subreddit - Where does Object Oriented UX break down in real-world constraints?
• WebDesign subreddit - How are spatial design + AI voice interfaces pulling off storytelling magic in 2026 web projects?
• UXResearch subreddit - Will "Prompt-First" Interfaces Replace Menus as the Primary UX Layer?
• DesignCritiques subreddit - Feedback about Docx Tool Help To Edit Without Breaking the Style

Announcement

Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Winter on Saturday, February 21st. The event will be held online and tickets are $13.50 with Pay-What-You-Can options available. Get tickets at ChicagoCamps.org.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Transitioned into project management organically when the former PM left—Tyler was already exploring Agile and had strong team relationships.
• Leaned into a design mindset to lead—asking questions, listening, finding patterns, and breaking down complexity.
• Learned the value of not needing all the answers—collaboration beats solo problem-solving.
• Project management, to him, is about creating conditions for great work, not controlling outcomes.

Making Agile Work for Designers:

• Tyler’s team was already working in a design-forward agile way from the start, often encouraging devs to adopt more iterative practices, not the other way around.
• Practice of “sharing before we’re ready” allows for earlier feedback and keeps iteration alive.
• Involve design early—in sprint planning and backlog refinement—to avoid isolation.
• Work slightly ahead of development to maintain flow without sacrificing quality.

Breaking Away from Waterfall:

• Made iteration non-negotiable by building habits like early sharing.
• Celebrated small wins instead of waiting for one big reveal.
• Iteration encourages shared ownership and cross-functional collaboration.
• Shifting from Waterfall isn’t a one-time change—it’s about consistent small practices that reinforce flexibility.

Keeping Creativity Alive in Fast Iterations:

• Creativity isn’t the job of one person—it thrives when shared across the team.
• Feedback and spontaneous working sessions fuel idea generation.
• Non-designers bring fresh perspectives that enhance creative problem-solving.
• A culture of openness and collaboration keeps creativity from getting lost in speed.

Design Mindset in PM Work:

• Leading like a designer means simplifying, listening, and focusing on clarity.
• Project management is about creating space for good work, not just managing timelines.
• Recognizing when complexity is self-imposed—and stepping back to clarify the real problem.
• Two core leadership principles: “share before we’re ready” and “everyone contributes to the solution.”

Notable Quotes

• “I still think like a designer because I still am a designer.”
• “Project management is about creating the conditions for collaboration and momentum.”
• “Share before we’re ready—that vulnerability is a strength.”
• “Iteration isn’t a process change, it’s a mindset shift.”
• “Creativity doesn’t live in isolation—it thrives in transparency and collaboration.”
• “Everyone on the team, regardless of title, has a role in getting us to the right solution.”

Reference Materials

• Agile methodologies (Scrum, sprint planning, backlog refinement)
• Design thinking principles
• UX research and collaboration practices

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

In this Tent Talks session, Heidi Trost dives deep into the evolving relationship between AI, privacy, and the future of UX. She introduces a helpful mental model involving three key players in the cybersecurity ecosystem: Alice (the user), the threat actor (the adversary), and Charlie (the design of the system). Through this lens, Heidi explores how invisible interfaces and AI agents are shifting the landscape of privacy and security, often creating tension and confusion for users like Alice.

Heidi emphasizes that while AI can enhance usability and offer powerful new capabilities, it also opens up major risks—especially when users are unaware of how their data is being used or what rights they have. She calls for UX designers to become advocates for Alice, learning enough about the underlying technology to design responsibly and communicate clearly. Throughout, she stresses the importance of trust, transparency, and cross-functional collaboration to build safer, more user-friendly systems.

How do less visible interfaces change perceptions of privacy and security?

• Introduced a model with three roles: Alice (user), threat actor, and Charlie (system design).
• AI-powered tools like transcription at a doctor’s visit or smart glasses can provide value but also raise privacy concerns.
• Users often don’t know what rights they have or how their data is being used.
• Trust is key—users behave differently based on how much they trust the system, even when that trust is misplaced.
• Invisible interfaces make it harder to know when data is being collected, creating new security and ethical concerns.

What are the biggest risks with AI agents acting on users’ behalf?

• AI agents can access email, financial accounts, and more—making life easier for users but also for threat actors.
• The broader the access, the bigger the attack surface.
• Onboarding and setup must balance ease of use with friction that promotes awareness.
• Advocates for “secure by default” settings—like Firefox’s built-in safe browsing—as best practice.
• Good UX needs to clearly explain choices and risks specific to users’ context, which security often fails to do.

Can AI help users understand privacy, or does it create false security?

• Answer is both—it depends on how Charlie (system design) shows up.
• Currently, Charlie is like an annoying coworker who interrupts Alice with jargon and unclear warnings.
• AI has potential to become a helpful sidekick, like Daniel Miessler’s concept of a digital perimeter protector.
• Danger lies in over-reliance; users might trust AI too much and stop questioning or verifying.

Advice for UX designers building AI-driven experiences:

• Learn the dynamics of Alice, Charlie, and threat actors—security is a constant game of reaction and adjustment.
• Understand enough about the tech to ask the right questions and push back on bad decisions.
• Don’t gather or store more data than needed—reduce risk at the source.
• Prepare for multimodal experiences: voice, gestures, facial expressions, and text.
• Communicate clearly what the system is doing and why, without overwhelming users.
• Make system limitations visible—users need to know what AI can and can’t do.
• Allow for reversibility: let users undo mistakes the AI makes.
• Embrace cross-functional collaboration—design alone can’t solve this, but it must lead the way.

Notable Quotes

• “You can’t lose data that you don’t gather—or don’t keep.”
• “Charlie is the security UX—and UX people, you are in charge of Charlie.”
• “Trust changes how Alice behaves—even if the trust is misplaced.”
• “The holy grail is building in security and privacy so Alice doesn’t have to think about it.”
• “Help Charlie help Alice.”
• “The Venn diagram of engineering, design, security, law, and product—that’s where the magic happens.”

Reference Materials

• Human-Centered Security by Heidi Trost
• Daniel Miessler – Security researcher and writer (danielmiessler.com)
• Firefox – Example of secure defaults in UX design

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Throughout the session, Sabina balances technical insights with thoughtful critiques—particularly around AI in content creation. She offers practical advice for UX professionals looking to bridge the gap between design and content strategy, advocating for better collaboration, more exposure to CMS environments, and a healthy respect for the behind-the-scenes work of structuring information for both users and editors.

What is content modeling and why it matters to UX:

• Content modeling defines and documents content structure, from high-level types and relationships to detailed CMS fields and attributes.

• UX designers benefit from understanding content structures because design and content are tightly linked—good layout depends on knowing what will populate it.

• A key driver of content modeling is enabling content reuse across platforms, saving time and creating more scalable, consistent systems.

• Sabina argues that while visuals matter, content is the core of user experience—people return to sites for meaningful, quality content.

Designing authoring experiences and structuring content in a CMS:

• Sabina’s approach starts with discovery workshops—goals, tech stacks, IA reviews, and current vs. ideal states.

• She uses concept models (e.g., Scott Kubie-style ecosystem maps) to define relationships in content systems.

• Workshops refine CMS field structures—granular questions like character limits, required fields, free text vs. taxonomy.

• Key considerations include source of content, structured reuse, hidden data (metadata, status, SEO), and translation needs.

• Good content models account for technical constraints and editorial realities—designers benefit from understanding both.

AI in content creation and authoring:

• Sabina is skeptical of AI’s current role, especially in chatbots—often seen as a shortcut rather than part of a strong content strategy.

• She argues that better content upfront might eliminate the need for AI-powered customer service.

• AI tools are only as good as the content they’re trained on—bad inputs yield bad results.

• There are some promising but nuanced uses, like AI-generated alt text or teaser copy, but risks of inaccuracy, bias, or generic outputs remain high.

• Sabina supports AI for note-taking and low-stakes productivity tasks but warns against AI replacing the essential thinking that writing fosters.

Common misconceptions about content reuse and scaling in design systems:

• Reuse takes serious effort—granular breakdowns and political alignment, especially in large orgs like hospitals.

• Not all content should be reusable; trying to force reuse can lead to unnecessary complexity.

• Content reuse systems evolve—don’t try to build everything at once.

• Effective reuse depends on clarity, consistency, and knowing what content works across contexts.

• UX writers often attempt smart reuse through content strings tied to behavior, but this requires robust testing to get right.

Advice for UX designers working with content strategists and CMS developers:

• Always ask: “How will the author enter or control this content?” and “How can we make this easier to edit?”

• Limit free text where possible; controlled vocabularies improve design and consistency.

• Get hands-on with CMS platforms—test environments, screen shares, trainings help build empathy and understanding.

• Ask to review content models and taxonomy work—showing interest in this often-invisible work builds stronger collaboration.

• Partner closely with designers and strategists—connect CMS fields to visual components for better developer implementation.

• Lastly, embrace a beginner’s mindset—UXers aren’t expected to know it all. Ask questions and learn as you go.

Notable Quotes

• “The content is everything.”

• “Trying to do AI without structured content is like wanting to be a bodybuilder without lifting weights.”

• “Designers should ask: how might the author have to enter this content?”

• “Good systems allow for consistency, not just in the front end, but in how they’re managed on the back end.”

• “So much of my work is spreadsheets and whiteboards—it’s invisible, but essential.”

Reference Materials

• Scott Kubie – Ecosystem Mapping and Concept Modeling approaches

• Jobs to Be Done – Workshop framework

• axe-con Talk on AI for Alt Text – Conference session on accessibility implications of AI

• Contentful and Drupal – CMS platforms mentioned for content modeling

• WordPress – CMS experience referenced

• Miro – Tool used for collaborative modeling

• JSON, APIs – Technologies referenced for content sourcing

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• More with less: Teams are under pressure with fewer resources, leading many leaders to default to process changes.

• Removing friction: Instead of adding more processes, reducing inefficiencies that slow teams down is key.

• Clarity and autonomy: Alignment on practices and priorities, along with clear roles and expectations, improves efficiency.

• Empowerment over micromanagement: Giving teams autonomy to make decisions enhances team effectiveness.

How Do Teams Undermine Communication, Collaboration, and Culture?

Communication Pitfalls:

• Assuming clarity: Just because something was said doesn’t mean everyone understood it the same way.

• Over-reliance on tools: Slack, email, and PM platforms don’t replace direct human conversation.

• Avoiding feedback: Lack of check-ins and retrospectives leads to misalignment and bigger problems.

Collaboration Pitfalls:

• Unclear roles: If no one knows who owns what, collaboration becomes chaotic.

• Department silos: Teams optimize for their department rather than shared goals, creating inefficiencies.
 

Culture Pitfalls:

• Avoiding hard conversations: Letting misalignment fester erodes trust.

• Inconsistent leadership: Shifting leadership priorities lead to confusion and distrust.

• Misaligned values: Culture isn’t what a company says it values, but what happens when no one is watching.

What is Teamangle and How Does It Help Teams?

• A flexible approach, not a rigid framework: Teamangle helps teams align on their own terms.

• Focus areas: Communication, collaboration, and culture as key to team success.

• Diagnostic tool: Identifies alignment and misalignment through team surveys.

• Conversation Cards: Structured discussions to uncover gaps in teamwork.

• Workshops & Playbooks: Practical resources to help teams implement long-term change.

• Action-driven: Less about abstract insights, more about tangible improvements.

How Can Leaders Boost Engagement in Tough Times?

• Reinforce purpose: Teams stay engaged when they see the impact of their work.

• Give teams more control: Micromanagement and shifting priorities lead to disengagement.

• Create the right conditions: Engagement can’t be forced, but leaders can build an environment where it happens naturally.

A Myth About Teamwork That Needs to Go

• “A great team is like a family”: Brett strongly rejects this notion.

• Work should be about respect, trust, and accountability—not forced intimacy.

• Better analogy? A high-performing sports team: Clear roles, investment in success, and a shared commitment to growth.

• “Your team doesn’t need a work family; they need clarity, trust, and space to do great work.”

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Structured vs. Unstructured Mentorship: Key Differences & Impact

• Mentorship generally falls into three types: casual “coffee chat” mentorship, semi-structured engagements, and fully structured mentorships with defined goals.

• A structured mentorship starts with a clear understanding of objectives, expectations, and a mutual agreement on what success looks like.

• Setting clear goals from the beginning ensures both mentor and mentee gain value from the experience.

Common Pitfalls in Mentorship & How to Avoid Them

• Many mentorship relationships fail due to unspoken expectations and misunderstandings.

• Setting expectations early—writing down goals, success measures, and ground rules—prevents miscommunication.

• Open and flexible communication is key; mentors should create a space where mentees feel comfortable voicing concerns.

• A midpoint check-in allows for adjustments, ensuring both parties stay aligned.

Effective Tools & Practices for Mentorship

• There’s no single correct mentorship framework; different approaches work for different people.

• Simple tools like a shared Google Doc or Word Doc help track progress and keep both parties accountable.

• Small, confidence-building assignments between meetings can help mentees grow without overwhelming them.

• A mentorship should end with reflection—one mentee even created a six-slide PowerPoint highlighting growth, reinforcing the value of structured tracking.

• Mentors should serve as professional hype people—pushing mentees forward without making them feel inadequate.

Applying Mentorship Principles in Community & Social Impact Work

• The most important principles in community mentorship: adaptability and meeting people where they are.

• Mentors must respect different cultural and logistical realities—what works in corporate environments may not work for microentrepreneurs or under-resourced communities.

• A humbling lesson from working with Indian microentrepreneurs: technology-based solutions don’t always fit the reality of power outages and paper-based record-keeping.

• The key to effective mentorship in diverse environments is listening, understanding, and adapting mentorship methods to fit the mentee’s world.

Mentorship’s Role in Career Growth & Navigating Pivots

• Career paths aren’t always linear—mentorship helps individuals navigate unexpected opportunities and changes.

• One of Kara’s mentors encouraged her to remain open to new paths, shaping her eclectic career spanning government, tech, and entertainment.

• Flexibility is crucial; sometimes, the best opportunities are the ones you didn’t plan for.

• Another mentor emphasized work-life balance: “Vacation time is all made up—take what you need.”

• A key leadership lesson from Obama and Biden: “You can be kind and still get shit done.”

• A mentor’s impact extends beyond one-on-one guidance—it includes advocating for mentees, ensuring they use resources like training budgets, and supporting their broader professional development.

Notable Quotes

• “If I’m going to invest my time in you and you’re going to invest your time in learning, we should both get something great out of it.”

• “The number one reason mentorships fail? Unspoken expectations.”

• “Your most important tools as a mentor are adaptability and empathy.”

• “You can be kind and still get shit done.”

• “Your life can be so much more spectacular than you ever imagined—if you stay open to opportunities.”

Reference Materials

• Brene Brown’s concept of “The story I’m telling myself” (for addressing unspoken assumptions in relationships).

• The Three C’s, Five C’s, and Four A’s of mentorship (various informal mentorship frameworks).

• Open Source & Feelings (OS Feels) Conference – a space for discussing humanity in technology.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Prioritization is straightforward in simple, static environments but complex in dynamic, large-scale settings.
• Under stress, people revert to familiar but outdated methods.
• A consistent methodology, using tools and frameworks, is essential for effective prioritization.
• Prioritization is often confused with time management or productivity but encompasses much more.

Common Organizational Challenges:

• Many individuals are unaware of how prioritization happens within their organizations.
• Effective organizations have clear visions and mature operating models that guide prioritization.
• Learning and recognizing prioritization patterns at different levels (individual, team, organizational) is crucial.

DEGAP Strategy:

• DEGAP stands for Decide, Engage, Gather, Arrange, Prioritize.
• It helps close the gap between current and desired states.
• Harry uses examples, like his experience at AllClear ID, to illustrate the practical application of DEGAP in high-pressure scenarios.

Balancing Personal and Team Priorities:

• Recognize false urgency and assess the cost of delay.
• Focus on personal priorities first, then align with team and organizational goals.
• Addressing avoidance and high-cost delays can improve individual and team performance.

Advice for New Leaders:

• Make prioritizing prioritization a daily habit.
• Start the day by identifying and addressing avoidance.
• Develop a routine that includes focusing on high-impact tasks before tackling less urgent ones.

Notable Quotes

• "Prioritization is deceptively tricky because as you move into larger, more complex environments, we rely on outdated methods."
• "It's not just the fact of prioritizing, but the process involves multiple critical stages."
• "Start with self-prioritization to enhance your team's and organization's performance."
• "The false sense of urgency often drives poor prioritization decisions."

Reference Materials

• Harry Max's book: "Managing Priorities"
• Luke Holman's "Speed Boat" visual framework
• Scaled Agile community concepts on cost of delay

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

In this Tent Talks session, Meghan Casey delves into her journey from her early career to establishing Do Better Content Consulting, emphasizing the importance of content strategy and modeling. She shares insights on how content modeling enhances content consistency and efficiency, and discusses common challenges and effective collaborative strategies for implementation.

Content Strategy Journey:

• Meghan's career began in roles such as Communications Manager, Website Editor, and Marketing Manager.
• She often asked strategic questions about audience, goals, and key messages, leading her to content strategy.
• Joined Brain Traffic in 2008, transitioning from web writer to content strategist.
• Authored "The Content Strategy Toolkit," which boosted her career and reputation.
• Founded Do Better Content Consulting six years ago, working with clients to solve various content-related problems.

Explaining Content Modeling:

• Content model bridges the front-end experience and back-end content management systems.
• Helps determine what content to display and how it relates together.
• Important for resource efficiency, consistent information delivery, and confidence in content creation.
• Examples include creating multiple versions of a CEO's bio for different contexts while maintaining a centralized source of truth.

Enhancing Audience and Team Experience:

• Ensures consistent, accurate, and relevant content, preventing conflicting information.
• Example: A medical facility had differing post-surgery instructions on their website and physical handouts.
• Helps place content where it is most relevant and useful for users, like serving up specific parts of a product page in various contexts.

Challenges in Implementing Content Modeling:

• Enormity of the task and lack of time or leadership support.
• Solution: Start with small pilots to demonstrate efficiency and benefits.
• Changing content creation mindset to think in structured chunks rather than linear pages.
• Disconnect between content creation and visual/UX design needs.

Collaborative Strategies for Content Modeling:

• Workshops and collaborative sessions with diverse teams (product owners, marketers, developers, designers, content creators).
• Mapping out all necessary information about a product across its lifecycle.
• Using tools like Airtable to prototype content structures and having iterative discussions with developers.
• Important to involve legal, innovation, and product development teams for future-proofing content models.

Notable Quotes

• "Content is a key part of solving all manner of problems from business issues to people and process problems."
• "The content model helps figure out what to display and how it all relates together."
• "It's crucial to provide consistent, accurate, and relevant content to prevent conflicting information."
• "AI reminds me of the early 2000s when everyone wanted an app. It's important to ask what problems AI can solve for you, rather than just jumping on the trend."
• "Helping people think about content in a more chunked-out way can start the process of effective content modeling."
• "Collaborative working sessions and conversations are key to successful content modeling and ensuring everyone is on the same page."

Reference Materials

• "The Content Strategy Toolkit" by Meghan Casey
• "Content Strategy for the Web" by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Definition of alignment: Varies among individuals based on their experiences.
• Strategic understanding: Importance of knowing why a task is strategically important.
• Role clarity: Everyone should understand their contribution to the desired outcomes.
• Key barriers: Misalignment in vision and strategy, shaky planning, misaligned incentives, and emotional challenges in decision-making.

Balancing diverse viewpoints and common goals:

• Shared understanding: Ensuring everyone understands the outcomes and actions agreed upon.
• Healthy discourse: Encouraging evidence-based discussions without fear of social pressure.
• Psychological safety: Creating a safe environment for proposing ideas and viewpoints.
• Learning culture: Emphasizing learning from failures and supporting open communication.

Simplifying complex messages:

• Repetition: Necessary for messages to sink in, especially in larger organizations.
• Cartoon clarity: Boiling messages down to simple, clear points that can be quickly understood.
• Multi-channel communication: Using various mediums to reinforce messages.
• Written comms plan: Ensuring clarity and thoroughness in messaging through written plans.

Achieving alignment in challenging situations:

• Case study: Building a new product with high technical and regulatory complexity.
• Design sprint: Using system maps and OOUX activities to align teams on a shared model.
• Rapid testing: Iterative testing with customers to refine and validate plans.
• Micro shareouts: Regular updates to keep stakeholders informed and involved.

Signs of losing alignment and steps to realign:

• Indicators: Vague reporting, stalled progress, tensions, and finger-pointing.
• Diagnostics: Speaking with ICs, maintaining cross-functional relationships, and understanding different perspectives.
• Timeline creation: Tracking changes and decisions to identify points of misalignment.
• Role clarity: Using frameworks like DACI for decision-making and accountability.
• Celebration and recognition: Acknowledging achievements to boost morale and reinforce positive culture.

Notable Quotes

• "Healthy alignment means you've built a shared understanding of the problem to be solved and people know the desired outcomes."
• "Teams should have flexibility on how to achieve outcomes, rather than being given prescriptive plans."
• "Psychological safety is crucial for healthy dialogue and team identity."
• "Leaders owe teams clarity on decision-making processes and expectations."
• "A lot of companies will say something like it is our strategy to increase sales by 40 percent, and that is a goal that is a desired outcome, but it is not exactly a strategy."
• "Alignment does not mean that everyone does something the same way."
• "It's okay to have an idea that turns out to fail or to be wrong as long as you learn from it."
• "You can always tell comms went well if you get back, 'Okay, cool. That makes sense.'"
• "Help your team understand how to bring rationale and really help people see what you see."
• "At the end of the day, alignment health comes down to strategic clarity."

Reference Materials

• Books:
  • "Good Strategy, Bad Strategy" by Richard Rumelt
  • "Turning People Into Teams" by David and Mary Sherwin
• Podcasts:
  • Amy Edmondson’s podcast on psychological safety (Harvard Business Review)
• Articles:
  • Christine Perfetti’s Tent Talks episode on strategic rallying

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• The CIA's core missions include foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, all-source analysis, and covert action.
• The agency is organized into directorates and mission centers, integrating different functions for regional or functional focus.
• Patel's Transnational and Technology Mission Center (T2MC) synchronizes with the private sector and addresses global strategic technology issues.

User Experience in the Intelligence Cycle

• UX plays a critical role in presenting intelligence to policymakers in a digestible and usable format.
• Key elements of effective intelligence presentation include:
  • Bottom-line upfront: presenting the most crucial information first.
  • Conciseness: limiting reports to one or two pages.
  • Structured storytelling: ensuring a clear narrative with a story arc and relevance to national security.
  • Visualization: using maps, charts, and graphics to aid memory retention.
  • Accessible formatting: maintaining white space and larger fonts to enhance readability.

Evolution of Technology in the CIA

• Technological advancements have significantly impacted intelligence operations, with ubiquitous technical surveillance becoming a norm.
• The PRC's rise as a tech competitor and the shift of innovation from government to the private sector and academia have influenced CIA's approach.
• Collaboration with private sector and academic entities is increasingly critical for staying abreast of technological developments.

Challenges in Applying UX and HCD in Intelligence

• Predominantly paper-based dissemination requires maintaining effective traditional methods while exploring interactive products.
• Policymakers' varying levels of expertise necessitate adaptable presentation formats, balancing detailed technical information with simplicity.

Opportunities for Transforming Intelligence Gathering and Analysis

• Tailoring information to user needs is crucial, distinguishing between detailed technical explanations and concise summaries.
• Understanding what level of detail is necessary for users to grasp the significance of intelligence findings.

Advice for UX and HCD Professionals Interested in National Security

• The CIA seeks a broad range of expertise, welcoming applications from individuals with diverse backgrounds.
• Opportunities for contributing to national security extend beyond employment, with the agency open to external insights on technological trends.

Notable Quotes

• "Your bottom line is up front. Your first sentence of your paragraphs, your first sentence of your briefing is going to tell a policymaker literally what the bottom line is."
• "Visualization comes in, maps, charts, graphics, however it is possible to get that information in a format that is not only quickly digested, but remembered."
• "Since World War II, a lot of the tech innovation was happening in government. And what has happened in the last decade, 15, 20 years, I think, there has been a shift."
• "You don't want to lose the audience before the message has been downloaded."

Reference Materials

• CIA's official website: CIA.gov

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Forms are often undervalued despite their crucial role in user interactions.
• Many UX professionals and budget holders fail to see the value in investing in form improvements.
• Poorly designed forms can lead to high error rates, inefficiency, and user frustration.
• Digitizing a bad form doesn't fix its inherent issues; it just transfers them to a new medium.

Impact of AI and Modern Technologies:

• AI and machine learning have been integrated into form design since the early '90s, with technologies like OCR.
• These technologies have improved but still face significant limitations, especially in understanding context.
• AI should assist rather than replace human judgment in form design, ensuring critical nuances are captured.
• The balance between automation and human intervention is crucial for effective form design.

Strategies for Ensuring User-Friendly Forms:

• Conduct usability testing by observing users in real-time as they fill out forms.
• Focus on where users direct their attention and identify points of confusion or difficulty.
• Avoid placing labels inside form fields, as they disappear when users start typing, causing confusion.
• Consider the various contexts in which users might fill out forms, such as poor internet connections or different accessibility needs.

Challenges in Form Design Projects:

• Creating design systems that not only include effective components but also guide their appropriate use.
• Encouraging designers and developers to consider the broader context and usability, even under tight deadlines.
• Developing guidance and materials that balance the need for quick implementation with thoughtful, user-centered design.

Emerging Trends in Forms and Surveys:

• The overuse of surveys has led to user fatigue and decreased response rates, undermining their effectiveness.
• AI-driven form filling by browsers can introduce new errors and reduce data accuracy.
• Enhancing user control over browser autofill features to prevent incorrect data entries and improve reliability.

Adding Helpful Friction to Forms:

• For serious forms, like living wills, incorporate steps that require users to reflect and have necessary conversations.
• Use signing ceremonies to create a formal pause, ensuring users consider their decisions carefully.
• Recognize and design for scenarios where multiple people are involved in completing a form, adding layers of complexity and consideration.

Difference Between Forms and Surveys:

• Forms are designed to collect individual responses for specific actions.
• Surveys aggregate data for broader analysis and insights.
• The distinction lies in the intended use of the responses, though the tools and formats can overlap.

Notable Quotes:

• "Your people will hate you if the forms are difficult, and yet everything we do is mediated through forms."
• "AI is basically a giant autocorrect that works on paragraphs, not words."
• "The reading pattern for forms is very different from other materials. It's a laser beam to the input box."
• "Poor form design can lead to error rates over 100%, where forms are repeatedly returned for corrections."
• "We often overlook the importance of forms, even though they are essential to effective business processes."
• "AI technology has advanced, but it still can't replace the nuanced understanding a human brings to form design."
• "Usability testing is vital. Watching real users interact with your forms reveals insights you can't get any other way."
• "The overuse of surveys has led to user fatigue; we need to be more thoughtful about when and how we ask for feedback."
• "Creating a good form is not just about the design but understanding the user's context and needs."
• "Adding friction to forms thoughtfully can ensure users reflect on their answers, especially for serious matters like living wills."

Reference Materials:

• "Surveys That Work: A Practical Guide for Designing and Running Better Surveys" by Caroline Jarrett
• "Forms That Work: Designing Web Forms for Usability" by Caroline Jarrett
• "User Interface Design and Evaluation" by Caroline Jarrett

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• AI advancements are rapid, with new updates and integrations across various tools and environments.
• New designers may feel overwhelmed by the abundance of tools and the rapid pace of technological change.
• Despite economic instability and layoffs, integrating AI into workflows can enhance competitiveness.
• Jakob Nielsen's concept of "pancaking" in UX design emphasizes the evolution rather than the replacement of core UX principles.
• AI helps lower skill gaps, promotes a wider range of skills, and leads to more agile, less hierarchical teams.
• Smaller teams can achieve more with AI, as demonstrated by successful startups with minimal staff.

Kai Tran's journey from print design to AI product design: Key lessons and influences

• Transitioned from film and gaming cinematics to merchandising design for retail, gaining a holistic understanding of user experience.
• Emphasized the importance of understanding end-to-end user journeys and strategic thinking in AI product design.
• Highlighted the need for immersive, multimodal user experiences that go beyond the screen.
• Encouraged designers to think strategically and anticipate future AI experiences.

Effective strategies for incorporating AI in design sprints at Sprintfolio

• Hands-on, project-driven learning is essential for gaining practical experience with AI.
• Encouraged designers to engage with AI projects to stand out in interviews and gain firsthand experience.
• Integrated an AI UX mentor, Leo, to guide designers through thoughtful questioning and problem-solving.
• Highlighted the importance of prompt engineering and understanding the technical aspects of AI models.
• Emphasized continuous learning, collaborative projects, and addressing ethical considerations in AI.

Advice for transitioning into UX design with AI projects in portfolios

• Start with real projects to gain practical experience and stand out to employers.
• Leverage pre-existing expertise to add value to AI projects and solve specific design problems.
• Showcase data-driven decisions and highlight experience with AI tools and technologies.
• Demonstrate continuous learning and involvement in collaborative, cross-functional projects.
• Address ethical implications and show awareness of data privacy, bias, and human oversight.

Challenges and rewards of mentoring new talents in leveraging AI

• Balancing the demands of running a business while guiding new designers was challenging.
• Mentoring provided valuable insights and reinforced the importance of resilience and iterative improvement.
• Witnessing the transformation and confidence growth in designers as they master AI tools was highly rewarding.
• Fostered meaningful professional relationships and saw impactful career advancements among mentored designers.

Notable Quotes

• "The pace of AI advancements is staggering... This impacts our tools, our work environment, significantly."
• "Understanding how to incorporate AI into their workflows enhances their competitiveness."
• "AI lowers skill gaps and boosts seniority, providing everyone with a broader range of good enough skills."
• "Designing for AI is like a delicate puzzle... designers need to practice their strategic skills."
• "Our extensive experience distilling complex user requirements and clearly communicating needs is a strength."

Reference Materials

• Jakob Nielsen's writings and research on AI in UX design.
• UX Design Institute statistics on UX job market trends.
• Theory Ventures projections on AI software company growth.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• The lab is located on Microsoft's campus and serves as a space to engage with the disability community.
• The lab has hosted over 16,000 visitors and focuses on including people with disabilities in the design process.
• The facility includes a sensory room designed to meet the needs of the neurodiverse community.
• The lab's primary goal is to involve the disabled community directly in the design process to create more inclusive technology.
• It emphasizes the principle of "nothing about us without us," ensuring that designs are made with input from those who will use them.

Most Impactful Project – Xbox Adaptive Controller:

• The adaptive controller, introduced with a prominent Super Bowl ad in 2019, began as a project to include veterans who were gamers.
• The design addressed the limitations of the traditional Xbox controller, which required the use of two hands and dexterity.
• The project was driven by the need to support veterans' mental health and social integration.
• The adaptive controller helps veterans and others with disabilities maintain social connections through gaming.
• The project involved extensive collaboration with the disabled community to ensure the controller met their needs.

Challenges in Designing Inclusive Technology:

• Awareness and stigma around assistive technology are significant challenges.
• Functional fixedness, where people find it hard to see new uses for existing objects, is a barrier.
• The lab focuses on creating devices that are familiar yet optimized for specific disabilities.
• There is often a lack of understanding about the importance of assistive technology in mainstream society.
• Overcoming preconceptions and educating both the public and other designers is an ongoing effort.

Future of Inclusive Technology and AI:

• Inclusive design is about personalization and accommodating human diversity.
• AI can help create interfaces that adapt to individual needs, enhancing accessibility.
• Future interfaces might be multimodal, adjusting to different input and output methods based on the user's environment and abilities.
• The potential of AI to transform user experiences by providing tailored interactions is immense.
• Multimodal input and output can make technology more accessible for various disabilities.

Advice for Designing Inclusive Technology:

• Engage with the disabled community directly; design with them, not for them.
• Embrace the principle of "nothing about us without us" to ensure designs meet real needs.
• Involve users early and often in the design process to gather authentic insights.
• Understand that true inclusivity requires ongoing learning and adaptation.
• Foster a culture of inclusivity within the design team to ensure diverse perspectives are considered.

Notable Quotes

• "Nothing about us without us."
• "If people couldn’t use [the traditional controller], they couldn’t play Xbox."
• "All accessibility is personalization that takes into account human diversity."
• "We need to remind people that you can do anything in Windows with a mouse."
• "Our inclusive design methodology strives to design with and not for."
• "I don’t want to tell people to go read these books or watch these YouTube videos. All of that is decent advice but it never takes the place of actually engaging with the disabled community."
• "The adaptive controller wasn’t just about making a controller for disabled kids; it was about including everyone, including veterans, who grew up playing games."
• "We have a responsibility to make sure that we're including people with disabilities in the products that we create."
• "When I think about the evolution of computing devices, I ask what if the objects that are with me all the time could do more for my sensory needs?"
• "Assistive technology should be familiar yet optimized for specific disabilities."
• "I think one of the challenges in assistive technology is when things get unfamiliar, it becomes hard for people to understand and use them."
• "The lab prioritizes people with disabilities; we told Walmart they couldn’t come in because we had a transition program for the disabled community."
• "Functional fixedness is a challenge; we need people to see beyond the traditional uses of objects."
• "Awareness and stigma are significant barriers to the adoption of assistive technology."
• "We need to get to a place where the whole way people interact with computers can be different for everybody."
• "All the input all the time can be overwhelming; we need to be thoughtful about how we design for accessibility."
• "One of my favorite examples is a woman in the military who needs context and narratives rather than tabular data and bullet points."
• "We need to ensure that the way we design interfaces allows for flexibility and personalization."

Reference Materials

• Xbox Adaptive Controller
• Microsoft's Inclusive Tech Lab
• Inclusive Design Methodology at Microsoft
• Xbox Accessibility Guidelines

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Cassidy emphasizes the importance of self-audits to determine personal and professional likes and dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses.
• She mentions that these audits help her decide when it's time for a change, ensuring she's always aligned with her interests and skills.

Side Projects and Balance:

• Discusses the genesis and development timeline of her side projects, such as W9 Crafter and Jumbly.com.
• Highlights the use of the Obsidian app to organize ideas and manage time efficiently, especially around her responsibilities as a new mother.

Passion for Education:

• Cassidy shares her drive to provide learning resources she wished she had when starting in tech.
• She recounts impactful moments in education, like helping friends secure jobs through her guidance and resources.

Organizational Techniques and Productivity Tools:

• Describes her reliance on digital tools like Obsidian, Brainstory, and others for productivity and organization.
• Cassidy values scheduled planning and strategic use of apps to manage her diverse commitments.

Adapting to Technological Changes:

• Cassidy uses her newsletter as a tool to stay updated with new technologies, ensuring she reads the materials she recommends to her audience.
• She explores building projects from scratch to deepen her understanding of new technologies without relying on libraries.

Notable Quotes:

• "Do a life audit regularly to figure out if you are where you want to be."
• "I want people to have the resources I didn’t have when starting out in tech."
• "Using a calendar and obeying it helps me stay organized amidst my busy schedule."
• "Having a baby has made me very efficient with my time."
• "Seeing people succeed as a result of my help is immensely gratifying."
• "It's fun to build something from scratch, to be close to the metal with the browser."
• "Paying it forward and lifting as you climb benefits everyone."

Reference Materials:

• Obsidian: A versatile note-taking application that allows users to create a linked network of notes. Cassidy uses it extensively for organizing project ideas, writing newsletters, blog posts, and general note-taking.
• Brainstory: Described as "rubber duck debugging as a service," this tool helps users articulate and refine their thoughts through Socratic questioning. It was developed to facilitate deeper thinking about projects or problems, simulating a conversation with a bot instead of a human.
• W9 Crafter and Jumblie.com: These are examples of Cassidy's side projects. W9 Crafter was developed over a few years and aims to simplify tax-related processes, while Jumblie.com is a fun word game created in just a week to accompany a video project.
• Raindrop: A bookmarking app that Cassidy utilizes to save and organize web resources effectively. This tool is handy for keeping important links accessible and categorized.
• Sukha: An app that combines Pomodoro-style timers with focus music, helping to enhance productivity through structured work and rest periods.
• Dabble.me: A journaling app that Cassidy tries to use daily. It helps her keep a personal log of her thoughts and activities, which is beneficial for reflection and mental organization.
• todometer: Another one of Cassidy's creations, this app is essentially a glorified to-do list with a progress bar feature. It visually represents task completion and allows for task pausing, enhancing the satisfaction of seeing tasks completed.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Tanya underscores the importance of designing the team member experience, advocating for personalized approaches to feedback and recognition.
• She suggests practical strategies such as setting clear boundaries, creating a code of conduct, and establishing fixed times for team accessibility to improve mental well-being in the workplace.
• Emphasizes the necessity of leaders being proactive and mindful about the mental health of their team members, rather than just offering standard support programs.

Signs of UX Theatre in Companies:

• Tanya defines UX theatre as the adoption of UX terminology and superficial processes without substantive user-centered methodologies.
• Critiques the misuse of design thinking as a replacement for comprehensive UX strategies and the tendency of some organizations to test UX concepts with executives rather than actual users.
• She warns about the dangers of UX theatre in diluting the effectiveness of UX practices and misleading stakeholders about the maturity of UX integration within the company.

UX Theatre in AI Integration:

• Discusses the potential for AI to contribute to UX theatre, particularly when AI solutions are oversold as replacements for comprehensive design processes.
• Highlights risks such as executive misunderstanding of AI capabilities leading to reduced support for UX teams.
• Advocates for informed executive decision-making on AI integrations to genuinely support UX outcomes rather than just cutting costs or replacing human insight.

Supporting Mental Health in High-Stress Situations:

• Tanya provides strategies for design leaders to support their teams during high-stress situations, such as performance reviews.
• Discusses the importance of leaders being transparent about their own mental health challenges and setting an example of self-care and boundary-setting.

AI and Genuine User-Centric UX Design:

• Emphasizes the need for AI in design to be deeply integrated in ways that truly enhance user experience rather than just automate existing processes.
• Shares examples of successful AI applications in government services that improve efficiency and user satisfaction.
• Suggests focusing AI development on user needs to prevent it from being another form of UX theatre.

Notable Quotes

• "Leaders need to actually design the workplace experience with the same care we design user interfaces."
• "UX theatre often happens when companies talk about user-centered design but don't walk the walk."
• "AI should be a tool that enhances, not replaces, the human elements of UX design."

Reference Materials

• Tanya Snook's articles and presentations on LinkedIn about UX design, leadership, and workplace mental health.
• Recommended readings include studies on AI integration in UX processes and critiques of UX theatre practices.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Researchers are becoming more involved at the executive level, driven by organizational changes and the impact of new technologies like AI.
• Effective communication and business understanding are crucial for researchers to influence executive decisions and strategies.

Impact of AI on Research:

• AI and large language models are expected to become essential tools for researchers, enhancing their productivity and expanding their capabilities.
• These technologies will likely lead to a significant transformation in research practices, making them more efficient and less labor-intensive.

Centralized Research Functions:

• There is a growing trend towards integrating research functions more deeply within the product development process.
• Empowering non-researchers with research skills can reduce communication overhead and lead to more insightful and effective product strategies.

Role of Learners Platform:

• Learners is designed to support ongoing professional development and community engagement among researchers.
• The platform adapts to the changing educational needs of the research community, emphasizing practical, community-driven learning experiences.

Future Technologies in Research:

• Emerging technologies, especially AI, are poised to dramatically impact user research by enabling more dynamic and comprehensive analysis of data.
• Researchers and organizations need to embrace these tools to stay competitive and maximize the value of their research efforts.

Notable Quotes

• "Research is the only function that creates value indirectly, by enabling others to make better decisions."
• "The reality is that it's not just all these super wealthy people who are invested in these companies. It's your grandma's mutual fund too."
• "AI will not only automate some of the research tasks but will also enable a broader participation in the research process across different roles within the organization."

Reference Materials

• Mention of AI and its impact on various sectors like Getty images, which suggests a look into how AI is transforming industries.
• Discussion of Slack's research-driven approach to expansion in Japan, highlighting the nuances of adapting products for different cultural contexts.
• Alec's emphasis on the evolving educational and community-building roles through platforms like Learners and events like UXRConf.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• LLMs have significantly shifted Colin's approach to design, especially in the ideation phase, by accelerating the move from idea generation to discernment and filtering.
• AI's capacity for generating diverse ideas helps bypass the initial, often time-consuming, brainstorming stage.
• Despite AI's assistance, the importance of human judgment, discernment, and taste remains undiminished.

Challenges in Designing for LLM-Based Products:

• The unpredictability and non-deterministic nature of LLMs pose unique challenges, diverging from traditional design principles that emphasize predictability.
• Designers are tasked with navigating these challenges by guiding users through the unpredictability of LLM outputs and equipping them with tools to manipulate and utilize these outputs effectively.

Role of Human Creativity:

• The conversation highlighted a broader, more nuanced understanding of creativity, suggesting that while AI can take over repetitive aspects of creative work, elements like discernment and intuition become even more crucial.
• Creativity within design is seen as evolving towards leveraging intuition and discernment over mere idea generation.

Ethical Considerations and Design Principles:

• Ethical considerations remain paramount, with a focus on preventing, reducing, and reversing harm.
• The unpredictability of LLM outputs necessitates a nuanced approach to design, focusing on outcomes rather than just technical performance.

Changes in Design Education:

• Despite AI's integration into design, fundamental design and research processes remain critical.
• Emphasis is placed on hands-on experience with LLMs, accountability for outcomes, and the development of a nuanced understanding of when and how to trust AI tools in the design process.

Notable Quotes

• "LLMs... have encouraged me to shift my method of work in some real ways."
• "Discernment and taste remain really important."
• "Predictability is the hallmark of good design."
• "Our work should prevent, reduce, and reverse harm in our societies."

Reference Materials

• Nielsen's Usability Heuristics
• Interface design principles for LLM-based products
• Ethical guidelines for technology development and application

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Emphasis on building from a library of UI components and visual language.
• Importance of collaboration between designers and developers.
• The notion of a design system as a product serving products, requiring evolution, roadmap, support, and marketing.

Strategic Planning for Design Systems:

• Life cycles of design systems as generations, each with its focus and operational mode.
• The necessity of strategic periods, production processes, and shifts to business-as-usual modes.
• Prioritization of initiatives and the balance between major investments and ongoing feature development.

Contributions to Design Systems:

• Challenges with the conventional approach to contributions.
• Advocating for a shift from central governance to facilitating direct sharing and reuse among teams.
• Success stories of changing perspectives on contributions leading to more effective collaboration and system growth.

Evolution of Design Systems:

• Higher levels of rigor and formality in design system teams compared to product teams.
• The influence of design systems on establishing effective work practices and fostering cultures of critique.
• The importance of adaptability, experimentation, and less formal rigor in design systems.

Emerging Trends and Technologies:

• The imminent impact of AI and automation on design systems.
• The future emphasis on composition skills and the importance of understanding nested structures and layouts.
• The need for design professionals to adapt to tools that automate previously manual tasks.

Notable Quotes

• "A design system is a product serving products."
• "Contributions is a bit of a bad word in design systems."
• "The best design systems are the ones that know how to change and evolve."
• "AI is right around the corner, impacting design systems significantly."

Reference Materials

• Blog post by Nathan Curtis titled "A Design System is a Product Serving Products" (2016).

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Christine Perfetti dives into the concept of "Strategic Rallying" as a team-based, collaborative approach aimed at setting and executing a strategy and product vision with a focus on understanding and involving both external users/customers and internal team members of an organization. She shares insights from her experience, particularly a successful implementation at Aquia, where a one-day workshop with cross-functional teams led to significant alignment on product vision and strategy. Perfetti emphasizes the importance of involving the team in the process to foster ownership and execution on the vision. Additionally, she provides steps for organizations to shift towards a problem-space ideation culture and highlights the role of Strategic Rallying in bridging the gap between research insights and actionable outcomes. Moreover, she discusses recalibrating organizational culture to celebrate team success beyond traditional metrics and addresses how her approach tackles team chemistry within product development.

Strategic Rallying Defined:

• Emphasizes a collaborative approach for setting and executing strategy and vision.
• Involves internal teams in the process, fostering a sense of ownership.
• Utilizes workshops to gather and prioritize ideas towards a long-term product direction.

Shifting Towards Problem-Space Ideation:

• Recommends a preparatory process involving stakeholder engagement, user research, and strategic planning.
• Advocates for involving cross-functional teams early and throughout the process.

Bridging Research and Action Gaps:

• Identifies common gaps where research insights do not lead to actionable outcomes.
• Suggests that involving stakeholders in the research and visioning process increases investment in and execution on insights.

Fostering Collaborative Culture:

• Advises on shifting focus from solely measurable outcomes to also valuing relationships and team successes.
• Emphasizes the importance of prioritizing relationships and celebrating collective achievements to foster a collaborative culture.

Tackling Team Chemistry:

• Outlines four internal pillars essential for product success, including team chemistry.
• Discusses how Strategic Rallying can improve team chemistry by promoting partnership and collaboration.

Notable Quotes

• "Involving your teams in setting the vision and strategy for your company and product is crucial."
• "Strategic Rallying is about bringing together cross-functional teams to collect their brilliant ideas."
• "It's not enough for your team to understand the vision; they need to contribute to it and evangelize around it."
• "Shifting from a solution-focused mindset to a problem space ideation culture involves preparing through stakeholder engagement and user research."
• "The key to bridging research and action gaps is to involve stakeholders in the process, making them more invested in the outcomes."

Reference Materials

• Jared Spool's articles on connecting research to actionable outcomes and celebrating team wins.
• Todd Zaki Warfel's work on the design studio method for ideation and convergence.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Danielle is still on a journey to discover what she wants to share with the world, using her experiences with Women Talk Design and the process of writing "Present Yourself."
• She aims to empower others to amplify their impact, believing in supporting others to do their best work and share their ideas.

Unfinished Stories in Presentations:

• Unfinished stories can make audiences feel less alone, invite collaboration, and allow speakers to outline potential outcomes.
• Sharing unfinished work can be intimidating, but it fosters connection, collaboration, and opens up discussions.

Five Beliefs in Public Speaking:

• Public speaking has no one right way; diversity in presentation styles enriches the field.
• New voices are crucial for industry and societal evolution.
• Acknowledging that public speaking is not a level playing field is vital for inclusivity.
• Improvement in public speaking comes with practice.
• Community support is essential for resilience and effectiveness in public speaking.

Lessons from Self-Publishing:

• Building a supportive team early and considering a book coach are critical steps.
• Understanding the timeline and process intricacies is necessary for a smooth publication.
• Setting clear processes and boundaries helps manage collaborations and version control effectively.
• Recognizing the various editing stages and maintaining control over content changes is important.

Notable Quotes:

• "Empowering others amplifies impact beyond individual efforts."
• "Unfinished stories connect, collaborate, and create opportunities for dialogue."
• "Diverse voices and approaches enrich public speaking and thought leadership."
• "Self-publishing is a journey of learning, adaptation, and community support."

Reference Materials:

"Present Yourself" Book:

• Authors: Danielle Barnes and Christina Wodtke.
• Focus: A comprehensive guide to public speaking, aimed at empowering readers to find and amplify their voices. The book distills insights from the authors' experiences and lessons learned through their professional journeys and work at Women Talk Design. It includes practical advice, exercises ("now try" sections), and strategies for improving public speaking skills. The book emphasizes the importance of practice, inclusivity, and adapting one's approach over time.

Kat Vellos' "Designer to Author" Course:

• Creator: Kat Vellos, a designer and author known for her self-published works and educational initiatives.
• Content: This course is designed for designers and other creatives who are interested in writing and publishing their own books. It covers the end-to-end process of book creation, from ideation and writing to publishing and marketing. Vellos shares her own experiences and lessons learned, providing a roadmap for others to follow in her footsteps. The course is valuable for anyone considering self-publishing, offering insights into overcoming common challenges and making informed decisions throughout the publishing journey.

Women Talk Design Events and Workshops:

• Organization: Women Talk Design is dedicated to increasing the visibility and influence of women and non-binary individuals in design and technology through public speaking.
• Offerings: The organization hosts a variety of events, workshops, and training programs focused on public speaking, leadership, and career development. These initiatives are designed to help participants develop their speaking skills, discover their unique voices, and gain the confidence to present their ideas effectively. Women Talk Design's programs are characterized by a supportive community atmosphere, practical learning experiences, and a commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion in the tech and design fields.

These materials and initiatives collectively support individuals in their journeys to become more effective communicators and leaders, emphasizing the value of diverse perspectives, continuous learning, and community engagement in professional growth.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

In this episode of Tent Talks, Christine McGlade, a sessional lecturer on digital futures at OCAD University, shares her insights on designing tomorrow with a focus on ethics and AI. Christine discusses the importance of futures thinking as a design discipline akin to systems thinking, emphasizing the need for ongoing engagement with the world to anticipate changes. She highlights the challenges of finding trusted primary sources in an era where AI-generated content is becoming increasingly prevalent, leading to a potential "model collapse." Christine also delves into the ethical dilemmas faced by designers in creating AI-driven solutions and the importance of incorporating ethical considerations into the design process. Additionally, she shares her thoughts on the intersection of humor and AI, suggesting that while AI struggles with creating humor, it can be a powerful tool to address ethical issues in AI.

Approaching Futures Thinking in AI:

• Futures thinking is likened to a design discipline, stressing the importance of scanning for signals of change.
• Challenges in finding trusted primary sources due to the proliferation of AI-generated content.
• The importance of using tools like Perplexity.ai and Google Scholar to access primary sources.

Model Collapse and AI:

• Model collapse results from an increase in AI-generated training data, leading to a decrease in the quality of AI outputs.
• Concerns about data pollution and the echoing of mediocrity in AI-generated content.
• The introduction of artist-developed countermeasures like Nightshade to protect their work from being used as AI training data.

Ethical Considerations in AI-Driven Design:

• The need for designers to focus on the process rather than the outcomes when using AI to generate designs.
• Encouraging students to demonstrate their problem-solving process, emphasizing that the journey is as important as the destination.
• The limitations of AI in fully capturing the creative and design process, particularly in art and design.

Humor as a Tool in Addressing AI Ethics:

• AI's inability to create humor effectively, especially in sensitive or nuanced topics.
• The potential for humor to address and highlight ethical issues in AI, despite AI's limitations in understanding or generating humor.

Notable Quotes:

• "Futures thinking... is helping students to foster... a kind of ongoing engagement with the world."
• "It's actually pretty difficult to find trusted primary sources."
• "We're not getting innovation, right? And that's the bottom line."
• "The outcome is not the thing. The road that you travel to get there, that's the thing."

Reference Materials:

• Jeremy Rifkin's "The Empathic Civilization": This book is widely available and can be found on major book retailer websites, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local bookstore's online platform. Additionally, it may be available in digital format through platforms like Kindle or Audible for audiobooks.
• TechTarget Article on Model Collapse:  Model collapse in the context of AI refers to a situation where a machine learning model fails to generalize from its training data, often due to overfitting on synthetic or unrepresentative training data, resulting in the model producing increasingly homogenous or inaccurate outputs. This issue underscores the importance of using diverse and representative data in training AI models to ensure they perform reliably in real-world applications.
• Nielsen Norman's Publications on Working with AI as Designers: The Nielsen Norman Group is renowned for its research and publications on user experience (UX) design.
• Nightshade: Nightshade is a tool designed to protect artists' copyrights by transforming images into "poison" samples that disrupt AI model training. It aims to deter the use of unlicensed data by introducing unpredictable behaviors in models trained on such data, making licensing a more appealing option. Nightshade and Glaze serve complementary roles: Glaze protects individual artworks from style mimicry, while Nightshade offers a collective defense against unauthorized scraping, with both aiming to support artists and encourage responsible data use in AI development.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Leadership Philosophy and Conflict Resolution:

• Leadership as partnership and coaching, rather than command and control.
• Importance of facilitation and understanding team dynamics.
• Encouragement of dissenting opinions and open communication.
• Navigating personal styles and conflicts for team betterment.

Applying Radical Candor:

• Foundation of trust and caring for successful application.
• Four communication styles: obnoxious aggression, ruinous empathy, manipulative insincerity, and radical candor.
• Emphasis on caring genuinely and addressing issues directly.
• Personal growth through feedback and clear, kind communication.

Balance in High Stakes Situations:

• Foundation of trust and caring is crucial.
• Importance of considering the receiver's perspective and readiness.
• Direct and clear communication for effective understanding.
• Strategies for feedback and creating a supportive environment.

Adapting Leadership in Diverse Teams:

• Application of design skills to stakeholder relationships.
• Importance of aligning goals and building trusting relationships.
• Strategies for dealing with tough relationships and disagreements.
• Emphasis on inclusivity and understanding different perspectives.

Encouraging Open Communication:

• Creating safe and approachable spaces for team members.
• Importance of facilitation across different work environments.
• Strategies for anonymous feedback and enforcing a no-asshole policy.
• Support for team members in preparing for and debriefing after difficult conversations.

Notable Quotes:

• "Leadership is about partnership and coaching, not command and control."
• "Radical Candor requires a foundation of trust and caring."
• "Navigating team dynamics demands honesty, sensitivity, and a strong foundation of trust."
• "Encouraging open communication involves creating safe spaces and supporting team members through challenges."

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Deep Self Design Virtual Community:

• Creating a community for people interested in contemplative practices.
• Focus on personal growth, leadership, and becoming better at life and work.
• Transitioning to a virtual community to reach more people.

Deep Self Design Method:

• Emphasizes engaging with the inner world for personal insight and growth.
• Different from other methods by encouraging exploration and benevolence.
• Particularly beneficial for designers and creative professionals facing obstacles.

Challenges Addressed by Deep Self Design:

• Suitable for personal risk-taking, career changes, and overcoming internal obstacles.
• Helps with achieving personal and professional goals through inner exploration.

Personal Benefits from Applying Deep Self Design:

• Provides a pathway to peace, inner stability, and resilience in the face of challenges.
• Has been a transformative and healing process for both Sunni and Liya.

Notable Quotes:

• "Engage with the inner world because there's data in there to help you get to where you need to go."
• "Real courage comes from working with self-talk in a compassionate way."
• "Deep Self Design is well suited for taking the meaning out of it's not just about you."
• "Exploring thoughts and being curious about them can open up a whole world that helps you understand why you behave a certain way."
• "Peace and inner stability... that's the thing we both return to again and again in the face of chaos and adversity."

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

In this enlightening Tent Talks session with Yaddy Arroyo, we dove into the intricate world of AI UX design leadership. Yaddy shared valuable insights on the differences between traditional UX design leadership and AI UX design leadership, emphasizing the importance of a diverse skill set, adaptability, and ethical considerations in AI projects. She highlighted the necessity of leaders to have hands-on experience in AI product design and development, along with the crucial role of natural language understanding in AI UX design. Yaddy also addressed the special UX considerations for digital human design and offered advice for companies looking to build a competent AI UX practice.

Key Differences in AI UX Design Leadership:

• Importance of being a good human and caring about others.
• AI UX leaders need AI experience to attract high-caliber talent.
• AI leadership involves abstract thinking and a respect for content design.
• AI leaders must be adaptable, open, and able to handle ambiguity.
• Ethical considerations, like diversity and user privacy, are crucial in AI UX.

Ethical Implications in AI Product Design:

• Necessity of diverse teams to reduce algorithmic bias.
• Importance of user privacy and data protection.
• Ethical considerations extend beyond UX to sourcing and handling of data.
• AI leaders must advocate for ethical practices and understand the broader impact of their decisions.

Importance of Hands-On Experience:

• Leaders with AI experience are crucial for guiding teams effectively.
• Leaders must understand AI intricacies to make informed decisions.
• Hands-on experience helps leaders mentor and elevate their teams.

Building a Competent AI UX Practice:

• Emphasize hiring leaders who are teachable and can nurture talent.
• Focus on upskilling existing workforce with a mindset for learning and adaptability.
• Encourage a culture of collaboration and continuous learning.

Role of Natural Language Understanding (NLU):

• NLU is foundational to AI UX design, especially in crafting user interactions.
• Understanding user communication and processing is key to effective AI UX design.
• Content design closely aligns with NLU and is critical in AI UX.

UX Considerations for Digital Human Design:

• Focus on human factors and understanding user mindsets in various scenarios.
• Design must account for different user needs and urgency levels.

Continuous Learning in AI for Leadership:

• Learn from industry professionals and hands-on experience.
• Engage in professional communities, attend conferences, and follow AI thought leaders.
• Understand AI technology fundamentals and stay updated with evolving trends.

Notable Quotes:

• "AI UX leaders need to be adaptable, open, and able to handle ambiguity."
• "Diversity in teams is key to creating ethical AI products."
• "Hands-on AI experience is crucial for effective leadership."
• "Continuous learning and adaptability are essential in AI UX practice."
• "NLU is foundational to AI UX, shaping user interactions and content design."

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Content as Infrastructure

• Content is a foundational element in products and services, akin to infrastructure in its essential yet often invisible role.
• Jane shared a project experience where content design was initially sidelined but later recognized as critical in structuring user interactions and decision paths.
• The project highlighted the importance of considering content early in the design process and integrating it with other aspects of product development.

Value of Content in Tech Environments

• Convincing others of the importance of content is challenging; success often lies in working with those who already acknowledge its value.
• Jane emphasized the importance of making informed decisions about content and helping others understand these choices.
• She noted similarities between the challenges faced by content strategists and engineers, suggesting potential alliances.

Educating on Technical Concepts

• Jane's approach to teaching complex subjects involves meeting people where they are and focusing on their goals rather than overwhelming them with jargon.
• She shared her experience teaching archaeology to school kids, using relatable scenarios to make the subject engaging and accessible.

Advocacy for Content

• Advocacy in content strategy is about forming alliances and understanding the type of gap (awareness, knowledge, value) you're trying to close.
• Measuring the impact of advocacy and content work can be difficult; success often lies in prevention of problems rather than easily quantifiable metrics.

Notable Quotes

• "Content is not an afterthought; it's the structure we build everything else around."
• "In content design, success is often about making informed decisions and helping others see the value in those choices."
• "Teaching is about helping people see the world through a new lens, not just imparting knowledge."
• "Advocacy for content isn't just about promoting its importance; it's about forming strategic alliances and being recognized for your expertise."

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Tim also touches on the significant environmental impact of the internet and data centers, a revelation from his journey as a B Corp advocate. The discussion also covers the Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSGs) and their potential to shape web development and design. Tim acknowledges challenges like lack of awareness, technical debt, data accessibility, and legislative incentives in adopting sustainable practices. Lastly, he emphasizes the importance of inclusive economic practices and regenerative design in the digital product lifecycle and advises on measuring and communicating the impact of sustainability initiatives, drawing on his experiences with MightyBytes and B Corp certification.

Digital Sustainability's Future:

• Digital sustainability is an emerging, niche topic.
• Growing awareness in both technology and sustainability sectors.
• Hope for sustainability to become a default in digital product design in the next decade.
• Significant environmental impact of internet and data centers highlighted.

Web Sustainability Guidelines:

• WSGs developed to provide guidance in digital sustainability.
• A multidisciplinary approach covering business, UX design, web development, and more.
• Aimed at making sustainable practices more accessible and actionable.

Barriers to Sustainable Practices:

• Challenges include lack of awareness and understanding, technical debt, data accessibility, and lack of legislative incentives.
• Emphasis on the need for sustainable data strategies and supporting right-to-repair policies.

Regenerative Design and Inclusive Economic Practices:

• Focus on systemic thinking and sustainability in all decisions.
• Importance of powering digital products with renewable energy and responsible data strategies.
• Inclusion entails personal wellbeing, equitable hiring, and sharing economic benefits.

Measuring and Communicating Sustainability Initiatives:

• The B Impact Assessment as a valuable tool for measuring sustainability.
• Importance of collective action and making sustainability a journey rather than a switch to flip.

Notable Quotes:

• "Digital sustainability...is growing rapidly. As technology advances, the intersection between digital innovation and sustainability becomes more crucial."
• "My hope is that 10 years from now, [sustainability] is just a default way that people design and develop digital products."
• "The internet is a big machine...the true environmental impact of the internet [is significant]."
• "We need a set of guidelines to govern sustainable digital practices...and [the Web Sustainability Guidelines] aim to provide that."
• "Lack of awareness, technical debt, and data gaps are significant barriers in sustainable digital product development."
• "Sustainability is not a switch you flip. It's a journey. It's about continuous improvement and collective action towards a more sustainable future."

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Evolution in User Research:

• User research practices have shifted significantly, particularly in compensating participants. The trend moved from cash payments to more convenient, digital forms.
• The rise of remote work, accelerated by the pandemic, has transformed user research methodologies, with a notable increase in remote interviews.
• There's a greater focus on data privacy and regulatory compliance in research, reflecting societal and legal shifts.
• Adapting interview techniques for remote settings has become crucial, with adjustments needed for communication styles and technological limitations.

Impact of Remote User Interviews:

• Remote interviews lack the personal connection and context-rich environment of in-person interactions, affecting the depth of insights.
• Collaboration within research teams and post-interview synthesis have become more challenging in remote settings.
• New norms of communication, like managing turn-taking and interpreting non-verbal cues, have emerged, necessitating adaptation by researchers.

Ethical Implications in Research:

• The ethical landscape in user research is complex, with a growing emphasis on informed consent and transparent data practices.
• Resources like Alba Villamil's "Ethical Researcher's Checklist" provide guidance on navigating these ethical considerations effectively.
• The approach to consent has evolved, with more nuanced methods being developed to respect participants' autonomy and privacy.

AI in User Research:

• The role of AI in user research is evolving, with its potential impact still largely uncertain.
• AI's current strength lies in data summarization rather than synthesis, which remains a predominantly human-driven process.
• As AI technology advances, its application in user research could extend to supporting creative thinking and problem-solving.

Most Profound Learning Experience:

• Steve recounted an experience where he confronted and overcame his own age bias during an interview, highlighting the human nature of biases in research.
• This experience underlined the importance of being aware of and challenging personal biases to gain true insights in user research.

Notable Quotes:

• "We operate on biases, but research allows us to overcome and revisit our assumptions."
• "Remote research has changed our norms of communication and collaboration."
• "Ethical considerations are vital in user research, especially in the age of data privacy."
• "I had a conversation with someone that I respect the other day, and they said to me, a large language model, they can summarize, but it can't synthesize because it can only be based on what is, so summarization is like a great use of that, but synthesis isn't."
• "AI's potential in user research lies more in aiding creativity than replacing human analysis."

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Effective Onboarding Steps:

• Introduction:
  • Emphasize the product's benefits.
  • Utilize tutorials, carousels, and videos for user engagement.
• Cognitive Load:
  • Limit tasks to three to avoid overwhelming users.
  • Too many tasks without rewards can deter users.
• Retention:
  • Reward users after completing tasks for serotonin boost and retention.
  • Simple gestures of recognition can significantly impact user satisfaction.

Common Onboarding Mistakes:

• Asking Too Many Questions:
  • Unnecessary questions lead to false data and user drop-off.
  • Explaining the purpose of data collection can enhance trust and compliance.
• Neglecting Analytics and User Feedback:
  • Analytics reveal drop-off points indicating issues.
  • User interviews provide insights to improve the onboarding process.

Creating Memorable First User Experiences:

• Branding and Visuals:
  • Align visuals with company's mission and identity.
  • Brand identity impacts user's first impression significantly.
• Copywriting:
  • Clear, error-free, and personable copy is as crucial as visuals.

Accessibility in Onboarding:

• Standard Practice:
  • Accessibility is no longer optional but a standard expectation.
  • Contrast checkers, font sizes, and inclusivity in gender options are critical.
• Inclusive Design:
  • Consider target audience characteristics, like age, in design decisions.

Success Story in Improved Onboarding:

• Problem Identification:
  • Diverse user personas require different onboarding paths.
  • Understanding user context is key to providing value.
• Solution Implementation:
  • A bifurcated onboarding approach tailored to user location (home/store).
  • Algorithmic guesses of warranty expiry provided a "small win" for at-home users.

Notable Quotes from Haley Stracher:

• "If you do too much and don't reward users, they're going to feel like it never ends."
• "Explain why at every juncture—it can be really helpful and useful."
• "Design is always an iterative process. It's never done."
• "Accessibility has become more of a standard than a nice to have."
• "Understanding your users a little bit better can solve onboarding problems by making a fork in the road."

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Balancing Needs and Expectations:

• Acknowledgment of design leaders as a unique bunch, learning on the job due to a lack of formal education in design leadership.
• The "design leadership playbook" is an amalgamation of trials, errors, successes, and failures over the last two decades.
• Importance of translating the value proposition of design not only to the design team but to the larger organization.

Reconciling Product Success with Design Maturity:

• Questioning the long-term goal of design maturity and emphasizing that it should lead to greater product success visible to people outside design.
• Design maturity described as an asymptotic approach towards perfection that can never be reached, thus requiring realistic goal-setting.

Misunderstood Executive Motivations:

• Highlighting designers’ potential misinterpretations of executive motivations, especially regarding financial and quantitative aspects.
• Advocating for more empathy and attunement towards those who do not share the designerly way of seeing things.

Navigating Tough Decisions:

• Discussing the delicate balance between being responsible and being compassionate when making tough decisions.
• Encouraging design leaders to clarify their mandates and align their change-making goals with organizational expectations.

Notable Quotes:

• "Leadership is the art of disappointing people at a rate they can handle." - quoted by Chicago Camps from Carmen Medina’s Tent Talk session.
• "Design maturity is not an end in itself... It has to add up to something more that is visible to people outside design."
• "If your boss is like, I thought I hired you to build me a function to keep this dev engine fed with front end assets. And you're all, I came here to create systemic organizational and cultural change to drive a revolution of human-centered thinking across the company. Yeah, you're going to have a disconnect."

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Heretical Change and Organizational Resistance:

• Initial efforts to introduce digital adaptation at the CIA met with resistance due to the organization's contrasting ethos around secrecy.
• Encountering resistance led to a realization of the importance of aligning change proposals with organizational orthodoxy or finding overlapping interests.

Approaching Change through Adjacency:

• Using adjacent areas of interest to bridge the gap between new ideas and existing organizational priorities.
• Emphasized the importance of practical steps and new metrics to avoid getting trapped in old processes.

Importance of Allies and Bureaucratic Black Belts:

• The necessity of gaining and keeping allies throughout the rebel journey.
• Befriending 'bureaucratic black belts' who understand the organization's workings can be crucial for successfully navigating change.

Pacing Change and Prioritizing Ideas:

• The notion of pacing oneself to ensure the organization can tolerate the rate of change.
• Prioritizing ideas based on various criteria including cost, practicality, and potential support.

Operationalizing Empathy:

• Advocated for avoiding embarrassment and humiliation when interacting with others.
• Mentioned the phrase "connection before correction" to emphasize understanding before making corrections.

Building Trust and Empowering Teams:

• Trust was described as a muscle that needs to be strengthened by testing its limits.
• Creating an environment where team members willingly provide discretionary energy towards excellence.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls:

• The 'ego trap' where narcissism is hidden behind the language of innovation can be a common pitfall.
• Being cognizant of one's speed when pushing forward new ideas to ensure others can keep up.
• Understanding one's status within the organization and sometimes conforming to existing ways before proposing new ideas.

Notable Quotes from Carmen Medina:

1. "Innovation is the opposite of policy."
2. "Avoiding the Athena complex telling stories appealing to emotions."
3. "Leadership involves disappointing your followers at a rate they can tolerate."
4. "An act of trust implies that you are not certain of the outcome if you let a particular individual handle the task."
5. "You need to operationalize empathy... Stop embarrassing people."
6. "You have to be really aware of what your status is in the organization...you have to become proficient in doing things the way they're done before anybody will listen to you and your new ideas."
7. “Oftentimes narcissists, hide their narcissism in the language of innovation. Which is a sad thing. It’s their idea. They’re the one that can save the organization.”

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Assessing and Improving Leadership Impact:

• Leaders often face challenges when their teams expand rapidly, and issues arise that can lead to blaming others for performance gaps.
• It’s crucial to self-assess and gather feedback from team members to understand the leader’s impact on the organization.
• Engaging in conversations and assessments helps in discovering the good practices and amplifying them rather than focusing on the negatives.

Meaning and Importance of Leadership Impact:

• Leadership impact is about understanding the results and reactions that follow a leader’s actions or decisions.
• It’s vital to assess leadership impact to ensure that actions are leading towards desired outcomes and not causing unintended negative effects.
• Using metrics and feedback, leaders can connect the dots between their actions and organizational performance.

Essential Skills for Positive Leadership Impact:

• Self-awareness is paramount; understanding the impact one has on others and the organization as a whole is critical.
• Developing a sense of awareness requires a pause and notice approach, understanding the effects of one’s actions on others and the business.
• Appreciation and less judgment can lead to a better understanding and improvement in leadership impact.

Advice for Emerging Leaders:

• Developing awareness and curiosity early in one’s leadership journey is crucial.
• Building alliances and relationships across the organization can provide a supportive environment for growth.
• Being open to feedback and willing to help others can foster a culture of growth and continuous improvement.

Notable Quotes from Donna Lichaw:

• “One of the first things I do with anyone I work with is we go out and we find out, all right, how are you doing? And it’s as simple as talking to people.”
• “You want to find out what’s working, what could be better. There’s so much evidence behind this idea of first identifying and then amplifying your strengths versus trying to minimize them.”
• “Self-awareness, it’s everything… it requires you to do is if it’s skill, you pause, you notice, and you look at the impact.”
• “For emerging folks, I think showing up with people internally or externally who you admire and want to learn from and grow with showing up as a helpful human is key.”

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Session Introduction:

• Amy Bucher discusses personalization in behavior change.
• Highlights the importance of tailoring communication to each individual's context and needs.
• Explores the use of reinforcement learning in personalization.
• Distinguishes between broad, AI-driven approaches and audience-specific design.

Defining Personalization:

• Personalization involves communicating with individuals as if you were talking to them one on one.
• It requires understanding an individual's context, preferences, and history.
• Goes beyond segmentation and adapts to changes over time and across contexts.
• Acknowledges that personalization should account for situational variations in behavior.

The Role of Reinforcement Learning:

• Lirio employs behavioral reinforcement learning, a subset of AI.
• Reinforcement learning involves designating outcomes to reward the algorithm for achieving.
• In healthcare, the primary goal is to reward behaviors like completing a mammogram.
• Reinforcement learning is advantageous for its ability to learn individual characteristics over time.
• It can help overcome biases present in manually designed interventions.
• Amy emphasizes the importance of having data-attached behavioral outcomes for effective reinforcement learning.

Benefits and Challenges of AI in Personalization:

• AI, specifically reinforcement learning, allows for broad, data-driven design.
• It enables the inclusion of various elements in interventions to cater to different subsets of the population.
• It's especially valuable in healthcare for tracking outcomes like appointment attendance.
• Challenges include detecting behaviors without data and maintaining privacy.
• Amy emphasizes the need for finesse in designing for more elusive behaviors like exercise.
• She also discusses the benefits of AI in overcoming biases and the validation of AI-driven messaging through behavioral science.

Dealing with Limited Data:

• Amy discusses approaches to personalization with limited data.
• Mention of "transfer learning," where knowledge about one person is used to inform personalization for another with similarities.
• Emphasizes the importance of minimizing data hoarding and maintaining privacy.
• Talks about using demographic data and behavior-influencing demographics for "warm starts" in AI personalization.
• Stresses that interactions with individuals quickly replace initial data, making personalization more accurate over time.

Ethical Considerations:

• Addresses the ethical question of why an AI should recommend actions to individuals.
• Draws on motivational psychology, discussing "volitional non-adherence" – allowing individuals not ready for action to make their own choices.
• Highlights the risk of resentment and short-term gains with forceful recommendations.
• Discusses the need to respect individual autonomy in healthcare decisions.
• Explains the importance of maintaining trust with individuals and not pushing them into actions they're not prepared for.

Balancing Personalization and Intrusiveness:

• Discusses the need to obtain permission for data usage and communication methods.
• Emphasizes data privacy rules and regulations and securing data with certifications.
• Highlights the importance of "white-labeling" interventions to maintain trust with clients and end-users.
• Considers the "creepiness" factor and how personalization varies depending on communication channels.
• Discusses using first names in emails as an effective personalization strategy.
• Notes that personalization effectiveness may vary across different communication modalities.

Navigating Interdisciplinary Teams:

• Amy leads the behavioral science team at Lirio, working closely with AI and platform teams.
• Emphasizes the importance of asking questions and seeking clarity, even if it means sounding "stupid" in interdisciplinary discussions.
• Stresses the value of cross-functional meetings and sharing ideas early in the design process.
• Reflects on her experience with the platform team when designing for colonoscopies and the importance of aligning behavioral requirements with technology capabilities.
• Highlights the value of collaboration among leaders of different teams.

Types of AI for Different Design Needs:

• Discusses reinforcement learning as used by Lirio for behavioral outcomes.
• Touches on large language models like Chat GPT and Google's BERT as tools for generating content.
• Explains experiments with generative AI for content generation.
• Mentions recommender systems, such as those used in e-commerce, and their potential in healthcare for lifestyle management.
• Envisions using natural language processing (NLP) for bidirectional messaging and understanding user intent.
• Stresses the importance of managing risks when using AI for content generation, particularly in healthcare.

Notable Quotes:

"I think we really have to be okay with them still not being ready to do that. We can provide them the reasons we can have that gentle conversation with them. But ultimately, if they don't want to take action, I think that's something we just have to learn from and move on."

"I think it's so helpful to have people at the top of the teams who are willing to work with each other."

"The risk of delivering somebody the wrong message is so high. Whether they took action on something that's not really good for them, or they missed a recommendation that would have been incredibly helpful or even life-saving."

"We really want to understand the role that [generative AI] might play, but we have some concerns about it."

"One of our Lirio maxims that people say all the time, share before you're ready."

"You really have to be willing to sound stupid in some of these conversations."

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

The Genesis of Necessity

• Shannon emphasizes that her journey began from a need to adapt due to budget constraints.
• Working at smaller companies initially, she couldn't afford "fancy design tools," so she relied on accessible office software.

Democratizing Design

• Using common office software makes design more approachable for non-design team members.
• These tools are familiar to people across various departments, reducing intimidation and making it easier for them to participate in the design process.

Innovative Use of Simple Tools

• Examples include using word docs and spreadsheets for user journey maps, ideation sessions, and even complex service blueprints.
• By harnessing the basic functionalities of these tools creatively, Shannon has been able to produce valuable UX artifacts.

Boring Design is Good Design

• The focus should be on creating artifacts that are well-organized and help move the project forward.
• Pretty designs are fine, but the path to getting there may involve "ugly but effective" steps.

Collaboration and Communication

• Shannon stresses that the tool is secondary; what matters is good communication and relationship-building within the team.
• Tips for effective collaboration:
  • Clear expectations and boundaries.
  • Setting the stage by explaining where you are in the process.
  • Making sure everyone has access and knows where to find shared documents.

Legal Inclusion

• Including departments like Legal early in the process can be enriching and prevent roadblocks down the line.
• Setting the context of the design phase helps in managing expectations and allows for more constructive collaboration.Balance and Context in Tool Selection
• Shannon advocates for a balanced approach when choosing design tools.
• Importance of context: Tools can be powerful but need to fit the task at hand.

Balancing Between Different Design Tools

• Shannon emphasizes the importance of balance in choosing design tools.
• Sometimes less glamorous tools like wireframes or word processing documents are just as effective as high-fidelity design tools.
• When a project got stuck at the high-fidelity design stage, Shannon broke the deadlock by stepping back to create basic wireframes that facilitated discussions.

Open-Mindedness & Experimentation

• Keeping an open mind is essential for growth and innovation.
• She advocates for using existing resources in new and unexpected ways.
• Different tools can complement each other; they are not necessarily in competition.

Advice for Early-Career Designers

• Shannon encourages those who are new to their careers to "make stuff up."
• There is room for all kinds of approaches and it’s not about one "right" way.
• She stresses the importance of sharing your unique methods and experiences; someone out there will find it valuable.

Adapting Design Frameworks & Processes

• Design is not static; it evolves based on context and needs.
• Shannon believes that one should declare their design process and then adapt it as they gain more experience.
• She emphasizes focusing on core behaviors like creative thinking, problem-solving, and research, rather than sticking to a particular method.

Encouragement for Design Educators and Leaders

• Educators should expose students to a variety of tools and tactics.
• The end goal of design is to achieve something, be it a conversation, an agreement, or a solution.
• Provide designers with the flexibility to mix and match their approaches.

The Importance of Sharing Ideas

• Even if you think you have a "weird" idea or approach, share it.
• You never know how your contributions could spark interest or become beneficial to someone else.
• Shannon shares an anecdote about how sharing her favorite design tools led to engaging conversations and new opportunities.

Takeaways:

• Don't overlook the power of accessible and common office tools for UX deliverables.
• Always prioritize clear communication and inclusivity in the design process.
• Be open to "boring design" if it effectively serves the purpose.Context matters in design, both for tool selection and approach.
• Flexibility and an open mind can be your greatest assets in UX design.
• There's value in sharing your unique approaches and methods with the community, as it fosters innovation and collaborative growth.
• Embrace the variety of design tools and methods available.
• If you're new or transitioning into the field, dive in, experiment, and make your mark.
• Don’t hesitate to share your unique perspective; someone out there will find it valuable.

Memorable Quotes:

• "It was all about what can I do to meet a need now in the moment."
• "It made them feel like they had a seat at a table that they did not usually understand."
• "We will eventually get to the beautiful, polished, high fidelity stuff, but on the path to that, oh yeah, I will bust out an ugly thing if it helps us make a decision."
• "It's less about the tool and it's about relationships, and it's about communication."
• "It's about balance because yeah, there's a time and place to use a prototyping tool."
• "How I ended up getting us unstuck was I made a really crappy wireframe of a couple key screens where we got stuck."
• "These things are not in competition with each other. Again, they're complementary to each other."
• "It's to achieve something. There's a conversation you need to have. There's agreement you need to reach with somebody."

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Top 5 Well-Meaning Behaviors That Create Toxic Work Environments

Complicit Bystander: Often rooted in people-pleasing or conflict avoidance, this behavior can have detrimental effects on teams and individuals.

Workplace Gossip: Though often unintentional, gossip can have a corrosive impact on work culture, especially in startups where roles and power structures are fluid.

Perfectionism: Aiming for flawlessness not only hampers individual growth but can also make leaders the "creativity ceiling" of their teams.

Lack of Role Clarity: A nebulous definition of roles and decision-making processes can lead to workplace stress and confusion.

Listening to Criticize: When people listen with the intent to appear smart, rather than to genuinely understand or connect, communication breaks down.

Deep Dive Into Perfectionism

• Perfectionism stifles authenticity and induces fear of failure, keeping team members from reaching their full potential.
• Leadership that enforces perfectionism can lead to employee attrition.

Effective Communication

Inviting Criticism: Leaders should use open-ended questions like "What am I missing?" to invite team input.

Counteracting Power Dynamics: To build a culture of transparency, leaders should model vulnerability and invite team members into their problem-solving processes.

Strategies for Navigating Complex Relationships

• Personal anecdotes from Billie illuminate the complexities of relationships that are both professional and personal. The key takeaway is to set clear boundaries and be acutely aware of the potential impact on your professional roles.

Approaching Difficult Conversations When You're the Problem

1. Acknowledgment: The first step is admitting to the mistake.
2. Framework: Use the "Situation, Behavior, Impact" model to discuss the issue.
3. Actionable Steps: Sometimes an apology isn't enough, especially in DEI contexts. It's essential to take steps to do better.

Strategies for Inclusivity and Anti-Toxicity

• If you're privileged, use your platform to amplify underrepresented voices.
• Focus on continuous improvement, particularly through actions, rather than mere apologies.

Additional Insights from Billie Mandel

Leadership and Vulnerability: Inspired by Brene Brown, Billie recommends showing your own mistakes as a way to establish trust within the team.

Gossip Trap: Be cautious with who you vent to. Gossiping, especially to a boss, can be destructive.

Backstabbing Dilemma: When receiving feedback about someone, it's responsible to ask, "Have you talked to them about it?"

Recommended Reading and Resources

• "Mindset" by Carol Dweck
• Billie Mandel's coaching practices

Actionable Tips for Improvement

Set Boundaries: Clarify roles and boundaries, particularly in complex relationships.

Choose Vent Buddies Wisely: Keep professional and venting relationships separate.

Encourage Open Dialogue: Create an environment where team members can directly communicate with each other.

Be Cautious with Feedback: Redirect negative feedback to the concerned individual.

Acknowledge Mistakes and Learn: Take actionable steps to improve, particularly in DEI contexts.

Quotable Quotes

"Critique is 100% that for creative teams. The hardest thing to teach people, but the most valuable thing to teach people, is to crave that discomfort."

"Sometimes you've just got to forgive yourself but do better."

"I seek my own consent first. Somebody asks me to do something at work. Am I willing to do this thing with the amount of knowledge that I have and the amount of support that I have?"

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Design Philosophy

Jenae emphasizes that learning should center on the needs, motivations, and concerns of the learners, not just content delivery. Variety in learning methods, social interactions, and alignment of goals with activities form the core of her philosophy to foster a more effective learning experience.

Challenges in Online Learning Design

The design of online learning must break away from the traditional linear approach, focusing instead on achieving the end goal through consultation and creative insights. Jenae also highlights the multitasking required in online design and the limitations of available tools, offering practical solutions to overcome these obstacles.

Feedback and Assessment in Online Learning

Jenae argues for the importance of formative feedback through informal progress updates, quizzes, and reflective exercises. She also stresses the need for summative feedback that emphasizes skill demonstration over mere memorization, providing space for safe failure.

Concepts and Strategies in Design for Online Education

With a strong emphasis on creativity, Jenae expresses disappointment at the lack of imagination in online courses. She advocates better use of existing technology and social platforms like Discord to create engaging learning communities. While recognizing the potential of AI, she remains skeptical about its ability to replace human connection in learning.

Designing for Shrinking Attention Spans

Jenae encourages educators to critically analyze distraction and cultivate attention by demonstrating relevance to learners. Transparency in setting expectations, acknowledging neurodiversity, and striking a balance with natural distraction all play a part in her approach to keep learners engaged without competing directly with social media.

Key Insights

Jenae's insights underline a shift away from pursuing new technology towards creatively using existing tools to enhance online learning. By connecting personally with learners and setting clear, relevant goals, she presents a vision for a more engaged, effective online learning environment.

Thoughtful Quotes

• “I just think the future of these ideas has to really just tie back to who are the people on the other side of these experiences and how do you better help them connect to each other?”
• “Knowing that occasionally people will drift to Instagram in the middle of something, maybe that's okay. People have doodled for all time... Our capacity to distract ourselves is balance. And that sometimes is part of the process too, is just being okay with a little bit of balance.”

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Supporting Research Team Growth: Align with goals, involve in maturity determination, foster collaboration, and share insights.

Handling Hybrid Lead/Manager Role: Recognize challenges, support researchers, keep focused one-on-ones, and track time.

Reporting to Non-Research Leaders: Understand stakeholders, seek clarity, and educate on research challenges.

Working with Stakeholders in UX Research: Understand needs, establish relationships, and provide support as needed.

Hiring UX Researchers Responsibly: Trust in expertise, emphasize collaboration and transparency.

Good User Research Planning: Utilize frameworks, include stakeholders, define outcomes, and align expectations.

Explaining UX to Stakeholders: Align understanding, use accessible terms, and develop an "elevator pitch."

Addressing UX Research Maturity Variation: Consider nuanced evaluations, understanding differences within the organization.

Training Analysts in UX Research: Explore skills, provide tailored guides for different backgrounds.

Conveying Evidence Over Gut Feelings: Engage stakeholders in research, show process, build trust.

Involving Stakeholders in Research: Assess necessity, communicate directly, build trust.

Research-First Approach with PMs: Offer help, start small with contributions like tests, show value and ease of research.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Embracing Change in Design

• Acknowledges the inevitability of change in design and the importance of flexibility.
• Emphasizes the alignment of understanding within a team, even if there's no agreement.
• Outlines a script and story arc for future-oriented design, akin to TV show creation, without filming every episode in advance.

Future-Oriented Design Approach

• Discusses the impossibility of creating unchangeable designs.
• Advocates for understanding and appreciating underlying structures without rigidly defining every bit of a product.
• Compares product design to TV show production, including high-level mapping and teasing out definitions.
• Clarifies that it's abstract but provides a common language for the product team.

Conceptual Modeling vs Object Mapping

• Shares the idea of using a conceptual model as a flexible tool for understanding a domain.
• Prefers the term "concept" over "object" because it doesn’t prescribe how it might manifest in the user experience.
• Emphasizes framing and the potential pitfalls of object-oriented UX, like unnecessary connections and data associations.

Insights into Object Map Creation

• Acknowledges lack of knowledge about how others create object maps but recognizes potential similarities.
• Stresses a chill approach, listening to others and using the tool for personal understanding.
• Points out the risks of preoccupation with buy-in and making presumptions.

Value of Returning to Basics in UX

• Reflects on three decades of design progress, highlighting continuous thinking on the same topics.
• Revisits the article on design revolutions and the influence of new technology, like cloud-based design tools.
• Distinguishes between learning past lessons and focusing on essential basics such as writing, presenting, and drawing.

Importance of Fundamental Skills in Design

• Emphasizes writing, presenting, and collaborative drawing as core skills.
• Reflects on personal experiences, like college tours, to underscore the universal value of presenting.
• Advocates for building on these basics before adding technical skills of information architecture.

UX Education for the Next Generation

• Acknowledges the progress in UX design, with personal reflections on continuous thinking.
• Discusses the paradigm shift in design processes, such as cloud collaboration and the elimination of file-sharing challenges.
• Stresses the significance of articulation through words, structuring meetings, and drawing pictures.
• Shares the importance of core skills, including writing and presenting, for the next generation of UX designers, emphasizing how these skills are now considered essential in education.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

The Value of Wireframing: The value of wireframing for non-designers lies in its ability to explore and test ideas early on. Wireframes are easy to create and discard, allowing teams to find the best ideas without fear of wasting resources. The goal is to teach more than just the use of evolving tools; it's about mastering essential skills and techniques.

Essential Skills in Wireframing: These essential skills include fostering a fearless approach to visualizing ideas and championing the process itself. A basic understanding of user interface (UI) design is needed, but the focus is on simplicity and understanding the iterative process.

Wireframing’s Evolution: The wireframing approach has evolved over time, with core concepts remaining constant even as technology advances. Even with opportunities in AR, VR, and AI, the basic "gray boxing" in VR remains the same. While AI may be embedded in future tools, wireframing's core will remain unaffected.

Challenges in Teaching Wireframing: Teaching wireframing presents challenges, especially in shifting the mindset of non-designers to what designers actually do. It isn't just about making things look nice; it's about asking the right questions and keeping the user in mind. The emphasis should be on the process rather than the end product.

Tools and Techniques: Various tools such as Visio, Balsamiq, and others are available for wireframing, but the trend is towards tools focusing on techniques rather than features. The approach to wireframing should be seen as a phase where anything is possible, a platform to generate many ideas to find the best one.

Conclusion: Overall, the theme of the book is clear: Wireframing isn't about complex drawing or design skills. It's about understanding and championing a process that leads to effective, human-centered designs. The tools and techniques are means to that end, and the intention is to simplify and demystify that process for a broader audience, making wireframing a technique for everyone.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Evolution of Coaching Leadership
  - Emphasizes deepening the practice, moving from having answers to embracing uncertainty.
  - Encourages curiosity, creativity, playfulness, and reduces stress.
  - Recognizes the complexity of humans and organizations and leverages collective sensing for innovation.
• Integration of Realization Process and Dreamtending
  - Realization Process: An embodied approach enhancing presence and awareness, helps in releasing body constrictions.
  - Dreamtending: Works with dreams and subconscious levels to tap into deeper information and creativity.
  - Both methodologies deepen leadership presence and enhance coaching practices.
• Developing Coaching Leadership Skills:
  - Learning Container: Create daily structures for mindfulness and reflection.
  - Daily Practices: Five minutes of morning awareness, end-of-day reflection questions, and trying small practical changes.
  - Addressing Difficult Conversations: Coaching helps in addressing these earlier, building collective awareness without blame.
• Understanding of Organizational Awareness
  - Leaders may have a broader view but not necessarily a more detailed view.
  - Uses everyone's unique perspectives to build capacity and find innovative solutions.
• Connecting Coaching Skills to Life
  - Coaching skills are about daily practice, integrating awareness, curiosity, presence, and responsiveness.
  - They are not just tools but a way of being, fostering an environment that supports growth, innovation, and connection.
• Practical Guidance for Skill Development
  - Start with simple daily practices, engage in reflective questioning.
  - Be patient with oneself, recognizing that the shift to a coaching leadership style doesn't happen overnight.
  - Consider deeper methodologies like the Realization Process and Dreamtending if they resonate.
• Technology Impact
  - Awareness of the increasing influence of technology.
  - Balancing technological advancements with the human need for connection and understanding.
  - The importance of understanding the design of technology and its effect on human interaction.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Role of IA and UX in Content Curation: Lou Rosenfeld highlights that his approach is to use IA and UX skills in an untraditional manner to curate high-quality content.
• Considering the User's Journey in Event Planning: Rosenfeld emphasizes the importance of considering the user's journey, energy levels, and narrative arc in the planning and sequencing of conferences, deriving inspiration from Donna Lichaw's book "The User's Journey".
• Keeping Content Relevant and Engaging: Rosenfeld Media focuses on evergreen topics for their books that are not highly dependent on the technology du jour. When technologies are referenced, they are placed within an evergreen framework. Conference programs attempt to be timely but also maintain recurring themes that reflect the maturing field. Rosenfeld views the evolution of a conference program as a way to define a practice or field.
• The Role of Relationships in Content Curation: Relationships are crucial for successful content curation. Having a solid network and being comfortable with asking for favors are essential parts of the process. The act of curation is about elevating others and their ideas, not promoting oneself.
• Future of Content Curation in UX: Rosenfeld sees potential in generative AI tools for aiding in content curation but maintains that relationship building is where AI tools will likely fall short. He urges those interested in curating UX content to prioritize knowing people, networking, and not being the center of attention.
• Curating Across Media Types for Learning Paths: Rosenfeld supports a mixed approach to curating learning paths, combining recorded and live content in text and video formats to cater to different pedagogical styles. He also mentions the business side of creating learning paths, suggesting a blend of lectures, workshops, recordings, and office hours. However, he also addresses the difficulty in selling this integrated approach due to unclear financing and budgeting lines.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

• Health, Wellness, and Self Care in UX Design: Natalie defines health in UX design as how a system is performing, similar to the way heuristic evaluations are done. Wellness involves having the freedom and control to accomplish tasks without unnecessary obstacles. Self-care involves the flexibility to fulfill individual needs, which she relates to her yoga practice by asking, "What do I need in this moment?"
• Parallels between UX Design and Healthy Lifestyle: The practice of asking what one needs at the moment serves as a personal heuristic in her UX practice, helping to assess situations, course correct if needed, or keep going if things are working well.
• Incorporating Health and Wellness Principles in UX Practice: Natalie advocates for slowing down to assess situations when things seem to be getting out of control. This approach involves taking a step back, evaluating the status, and determining the next course of action.
• Influence of Hatha Yoga on her UX Practice: The idea of making yoga and UX design accessible to everyone, regardless of their physical abilities, shapes, or sizes, is a key influence from her yoga background. Natalie compares this to the principle of universal design in UX.
• Principles of Wellness in UX Projects: The principle of wellness involves recognizing the humanity in her team members, identifying the primary challenge or "monster in the room," and collaborating to overcome it without causing harm to each other.
• Themes of Health, Wellness, and Self Care in her book**: The book stresses the importance of maintaining a strong practice core with people at the center. It emphasizes the need for self-care, vulnerability, setting boundaries, and managing burnout.
• Self-Care Tips for Stressful UX Projects: Natalie suggests practicing self-care, fostering vulnerability, setting boundaries, and realizing the power of saying no. She advises creating a practice space that feels secure and building trust within the team. She also recommends establishing a practice charter as a living document to codify these principles and guidelines.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Jonathan McFadden

Jonathan McFadden is a senior content designer at Shopify, where he partners with a team of designers to create better experiences for users on the Shop app. Outside of his daytime gig, he runs his own content writing business, Jon Writes, and teaches a weekly Bible study. He enjoys spending time with his lyrically gifted wife, reading comic books, and bingeing reruns of his favorite cult classic, Xena: Warrior Princess.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway–If it’s a cool idea, we’d love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That’s a great question, we’d love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format–we like to think of them as “S’mores-sized content” because that’s pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything–we don’t want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don’t have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let’s have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Joie Chung

Joie Chung is a senior product design leader based in Austin, TX, who’s passionate about mentoring future leaders and helping designers achieve their best work. With over 17 years in the design industry, Joie has gained a deep understanding of what makes a great user experience. She’s led top-performing teams in both agency and in-house settings, working with a wide range of companies across various industries. Joie approaches design and leadership with empathy, creativity, and a growth mindset. She loves collaborating with others to create impactful change and push the boundaries of what’s possible.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Ian Smile

Ian Smile is a Principal UX Designer at Veritone in Orange County, CA working with AI in the Enterprise Synthetic Voice and Ad Tech spaces. A lifelong learner, teacher, thinker, and community builder, his purpose in life is to bring people together through design, education, culture, and skateboarding.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway–If it’s a cool idea, we’d love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That’s a great question, we’d love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format–we like to think of them as “S’mores-sized content” because that’s pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything–we don’t want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don’t have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let’s have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

On Wednesday, March 8th 3:00pm CST, Christina Goldschmidt joins us for a live Q&A session: “Key Business Concepts Design Leaders Need to Know.”

Join this live session for free and take part in the conversation with Christina. We’ll have our questions to ask, and questions from attendees are welcome, as well.

Christina answers the questions:

• Let’s start with you - tell us about yourself and your background, because the next question’s a doozy.
• Should designers get an MBA to help further their careers? Why or why not?
• What’s the allure of an MBA?
• What are some of the biggest things designers tend to not know enough about as they climb the career ladder?
• As you get to executive leadership levels, how much of what you learned as a designer do you think will be applied to the job?
• As a design executive, do you have a portfolio, and if so, what's in it?

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

On Thursday, February 23 at 5:00pm Central, Emily Parcell will join us for a live Q&A session “Design Management vs. Individual Contributor Leadership” and we’re very excited!

Emily Parcell

Driven by a passion to make the workplace more human, Emily’s work as a leadership coach and facilitator focuses on how strong leadership, process, and culture support teams to do their best work. She specializes in helping leaders navigate work with confidence by applying design skills such as creative thinking and an experiment-oriented mindset. Her approach is informed by a decade in user experience design, having led teams to design digital products for DIRECTV, Macy’s, Verizon, and Automation Anywhere.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway–If it’s a cool idea, we’d love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That’s a great question, we’d love to tell you. Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format–we like to think of them as “S’mores-sized content” because that’s pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything–we don’t want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don’t have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let’s have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Meena Kothandaraman

With 30 years of experience, Meena has consulted to emphasize the strategic value and positioning of qualitative research in the design of product, space and service. Meena is fascinated by the complexity of human behavior, and applies a credible, structured and transparent approach to integrating human stories and anecdotes into mainstream processes. This ensures that research activities provide the best service to the organization, and that learning objectives are addressed to maximize potential.

Meena is a founding member of twig+fish, a research and strategy practice based in Boston, MA, that espouses these research beliefs, while maintaining a utopic work-life balance. She is also a key Lecturer in the Bentley University Human Factors and Information Design (HFID) graduate program. Over her 20-year tenure, her capstone qualitative research course has guided now-leading practitioners to integrating meaningful and successful research practices.

She holds an M.S. in Information Resources Management from Syracuse University and a B.Com . in MIS from the University of Ottawa, Canada. Meena is always inspired in her work by her other passions, namely performing as a South-Indian Classical Violinist, pursuing culinary arts through a cooking show, and staying up to date with her two teenager interests!

For more, keep up with Meena on Twitter as @meena_ko.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Dani Nordin 

Dani Nordin works for athenahealth as the Product Design Architect for athenaClinicals. There, she uses her superpowers in user research, pattern recognition, and snark to help the organization unpack big, gnarly problems related to EHR configuration, clinical content, and specialty support. She also serves as the chair of the Clinician Experience Working Group for the HIMSS EHR Association. She lives in Watertown MA with two fire-cracker daughters, a delightfully supportive husband, and an adorable golden retriever named Larry. 

About Tent Talks 

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway–If it’s a cool idea, we’d love to hear about it and share it! What is a Tent Talk? That’s a great question, we’d love to tell you. 

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format–we like to think of them as “S’mores-sized content” because that’s pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything–we don’t want to limit ourselves, or you. 

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don’t have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let’s have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Prototypes, Process & Play presentation podcasts are sponsored by Balsamiq - with Balsamiq Mockups, anyone can design great software.

Jared Spool - Keynote

Founder of User Interface Engineering & Co-founder of Centre Center

Jared Spool is the founder of User Interface Engineering (UIE), the largest usability research organization of its kind in the world. If you’ve ever seen Jared speak about usability, you know that he’s probably the most effective and knowledgeable communicator on the subject today. He’s been working in the field of usability and design since 1978, before the term “usability” was ever associated with computers.

For more, keep up with Jared at uie.com or on Twitter as @jmspool.

Design is a Team Sport

Every seasoned designer has fallen into the trap. They see the bad design in front of them. They can’t help but see how bad it is. And they want to redesign it. Show the world how it could be done. How it should be done.

Well-intentioned as the desire to rid the world of this bad design is, their approach often is a disaster. It pushes their allies away, accidentally giving off the air of superiority filled with the smells of arrogance and contempt.

An alternative is a well-designed process for creating your designs. The secret sauce in that well-designed process is a realization and inclusiveness of everyone on the team. It’s infused with an understanding of how people contribute to the design process, even when they aren’t trained in design skills. And it opens up opportunities to give everyone—not just your trained designers—the superpowers necessary to rid your products and services of bad design.

This talk will inspire you and your team to:

• Realize the reason everyone thinks they are a designer is they are a designer, however unskilled
• Learn that our design processes need to be designed, with intention and thoughtfulness
• Focus on helping every contributing influencer of your designs become a consciously
  competent designer themselves

About Chicago Camps

Chicago Camps, LLC (chicagocamps.org) was founded in 2012. They plan multiple low cost, high-value events primarily in Chicago.

==========

"In the Basteal" music written and produced and performed by Christian Lane | @christianlane01

Simplecast - Publish your podcasts the easy way at Simplecast.fm.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Prototypes, Process & Play presentation podcasts are sponsored by Balsamiq - with Balsamiq Mockups, anyone can design great software.

Eli Silva - Presentation

Eli Silva is a Sr. Product designer at Pivotal labs. Eli is best known as a diversity advocate with practical insights drawn from the design discipline. Unlike traditional approaches to org design that focus on charts and work distribution, Eli emphasizes studying the way people interact with an organization as a product. Using this as a tool for reflection leads to better interactions between people and their work cultures. In re-examining Design Thinking as a organizational design tool, with a focus on diversity and inclusion, their work has generated some powerful new ways of looking at old questions in a new light. Eli enjoys playing video games, blogging, and volunteering on the side.

For more, keep up with Eli at elisilva.com or on Twitter as @elisymeon.

Designing for Diversity in Organization Design

The lack of diversity in design organizations is a fact that we can design for. We can drive innovation and increase creativity, but we have to be honest about what’s holding us back. Eli Silva will outline ways to design cultures that support design thinking, organizational growth, and diversity in the workplace.

Great design is the result of hard work and cultures that foster empathy, creativity, listening, and honest conversations. These happen to be the groundwork for diversity, so why is diversity still such a challenge in technology and in design organizations in particular?

In this talk you will learn practical steps toward designing for diversity—including quick tips on how to audit your processes and practices today. Learn how to effectively consider minorities and underrepresented groups in your approach to hiring, everyday work, and leadership development. The result of diverse design organizations is products that increasingly reflect actual people, across the age, gender, and income spectrum. That’s something worth working for.

About Chicago Camps

Chicago Camps, LLC (chicagocamps.org) was founded in 2012. They plan multiple low cost, high-value events primarily in Chicago.

==========

"In the Basteal" music written and produced and performed by Christian Lane | @christianlane01

Simplecast - Publish your podcasts the easy way at Simplecast.fm.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Prototypes, Process & Play presentation podcasts are sponsored by Balsamiq - with Balsamiq Mockups, anyone can design great software.

Sofia Millares - Presentation

Nasdaq

Sofia Millares is the Creative Director of Product Design at Nasdaq. For the past four years she has been overseeing the styling and global functionality for the entire product suite offering. Alongside her team, she is determined to expand the Nasdaq branding throughout all platforms and create new ways to position and rethink these products.

Born and raised in Mexico, Sofia always had an interest in design and moved to New York City ten years ago to pursue a BA in Design and Management with a concentration in graphic design from Parsons the New School for Design. In addition to design, she loves to travel, practice calligraphy and hang out with her three-year-old (and 100lb.) pup Lemmy.

For more, keep up with Sofia at sofia-millares.com or on Twitter as @sofimilli.

Tami Evnin - Presentation

Nasdaq

Tami Evnin is the Director of Portfolio Design Strategy at Nasdaq, where her team is changing the way a fintech leader builds products. She has established design best practices and helped scale the team from 3 to over 25 designers. Her most recent challenge has been learning to manage former peers while trying to not let her creative muscles atrophy. Tami earned her MFA in Design and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design, where she focused on developing social interfaces to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and product development. She is an international award winning product designer, has recently presented at a handful of international conferences, and is a proponent of the Oxford comma.

For more, keep up with Tami at tamievnin.com.

World’s Best Boss: Lessons Learned from a New Design Leader

What happens when you’re asked to step-up and lead the work of the design team or to manage your fellow designers for the first time? Most of us envision ourselves sketching ideas, designing solutions, or prototyping our days away, forever in our happy place. And we’re no different–we had no idea what to expect, beyond knowing what we saw that we thought was good or… not so good. We became new design managers and had to learn how to navigate our new responsibilities–to our boss and to our former peers–while trying to lead others to be successful as designers.

We faced a lot of challenges, and learned a lot about ourselves, our teams, and our boss. We’re going to share some tools and techniques that have helped us become better at leading our teams, and delivering to those who count on all of us. And we’re still working on becoming the best bosses in the world.

About Chicago Camps

Chicago Camps, LLC (chicagocamps.org) was founded in 2012. They plan multiple low cost, high-value events primarily in Chicago.

==========

"In the Basteal" music written and produced and performed by Christian Lane | @christianlane01

Simplecast - Publish your podcasts the easy way at Simplecast.fm.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Prototypes, Process & Play presentation podcasts are sponsored by Balsamiq - with Balsamiq Mockups, anyone can design great software.

Suzanna Bierwirth - Lightning Talk

Chief Creative Officer of The Mars Agency

Consumer-first through-the-line thinker. Empowering Leader. Passionate Business Builder. Mother. Maker. Instigator.

Raised and educated as a visual artist in Germany, I am relentless in my pursuit to make work that is meaningful, memorable and beautiful. I am left and right brained, and continually deploy both art and science, to create programs that engage consumers, change minds and evoke behavior. I believe there has never been a more exciting time to be in marketing. I love that we have to move faster and be more intuitive and inventive than ever before. And with the lines now blurred between all disciplines and channels, I know anything and everything is possible.

Managing Up, Down & Sideways

Congrats–you finally got promoted! You’ve gotten your seat at the table and now you’re learning that it’s no longer just about the work. It’s also about the politics within your own organization and the clients. These tips are what I have learned over the years–from Junior Art Director to Chief Creative Officer–and none of them involve kissing ass or sucking up. It’s all about empathy.

About Chicago Camps

Chicago Camps, LLC (chicagocamps.org) was founded in 2012. They plan multiple low cost, high-value events primarily in Chicago.

==========

"In the Basteal" music written and produced and performed by Christian Lane | @christianlane01

Simplecast - Publish your podcasts the easy way at Simplecast.fm.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Prototypes, Process & Play presentation podcasts are sponsored by Balsamiq - with Balsamiq Mockups, anyone can design great software.

Kathi Kaiser - Lightning Talk

Co-founder and Partner at Centralis

Kathi Kaiser is co-founder and partner at Centralis, a Chicago-based UX consultancy. She leads a top-notch team in creating great user experiences for global clients, start-ups, and cultural institutions. When Kathi’s not at the whiteboard or in the lab, she may be found observing users on boats, in museums, at train stations, and anywhere else where the digital and physical worlds collide. Kathi is a frequent speaker on topics in UX, and has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design.

For more, keep up with Kathi at centralis.com or on Twitter as @kathikaiser.

How to Design a Company

Back in 2001, I quit a perfectly good job and founded a UX consulting firm in a garage (a cliché, I know, but it’s true). Sixteen years later, Centralis is a thriving research and design firm with a small but mighty staff of UXers dedicated to both our craft and the company. Along the way we’ve learned that designing a company isn’t so different from designing a product. In this talk, I’ll share some of the lessons we’ve learned through prototyping, gathering feedback, and iterating on our organization.

About Chicago Camps

Chicago Camps, LLC (chicagocamps.org) was founded in 2012. They plan multiple low cost, high-value events primarily in Chicago.

==========

"In the Basteal" music written and produced and performed by Christian Lane | @christianlane01

Simplecast - Publish your podcasts the easy way at Simplecast.fm.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Prototypes, Process & Play presentation podcasts are sponsored by Balsamiq - with Balsamiq Mockups, anyone can design great software.

Dan Brown - Presentation

Co-founder of Eightshapes

In 2006, Dan Brown co-founded EightShapes, a design firm based in Washington, DC. EightShapes designs digital products and systematizes design standards for Fortune 500 clients. Most recently, Dan has conducted user research for a higher education product, designed an application for architects seeking a license, and lead the design of a web-based consumer application for a major educational publishing company.

Dan’s two books, Communicating Design and Designing Together, deal with communications and collaboration on design teams, and are widely considered to be essential reading for UX designers. UX teams all over the world have played his game Surviving Design Projects, to improve their conflict management skills. His new book Practical Design Discovery deals with the very first phase of a project, in which the product team seeks to understand the design problem.

For more, keep up with Dan at eightshapes.com or on Twitter as @brownorama.

Curiosity, Skepticism, Humility: Achieving the Right Mindset for Design Discovery in Teams

Discovery, the first part of the design process, is crucial for aligning teams and leading them to design success. A well-aligned team works toward the same goal, and brings out the best in each other because they all understand what their trying to achieve.

Discovery can take many forms: a multi-month endeavor to prepare for a complex business application, or a four-day “sprint” to align the team around a vision for a new product. Whatever the form, however, teams are prepping and priming themselves to do detailed design and development work.

Discovery is complicated, chaotic, and messy. In discovery, teams gather information about the problem and then explore different ways to tackle it. Through critical thinking, they refine their understanding of the problem and zero-in on a concrete plan for execution. Discovery requires participants to shift attitudes and perspectives almost constantly. Team members go from “tell me more about” to “how about this idea” in the blink of an eye.

To pull this off successfully, team members need to embrace a discovery mindset. This attitude emphasizes learning. It relies on team members maintaining an open mind, questioning everything, and above all not taking themselves too seriously.

In this session, we’ll look at why this attitude is important, how it affects your team’s approach to discovery, and ways you can cultivate this mindset in yourself and those you lead.

About Chicago Camps

Chicago Camps, LLC (chicagocamps.org) was founded in 2012. They plan multiple low cost, high-value events primarily in Chicago.

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"In the Basteal" music written and produced and performed by Christian Lane | @christianlane01

Simplecast - Publish your podcasts the easy way at Simplecast.fm.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX. 

Prototypes, Process & Play presentation podcasts are sponsored by Balsamiq - with Balsamiq Mockups, anyone can design great software.

Dr. Steve Julius - Presenation

Founder and Chief Executive of HRCG and former Team Psychologist for the Chicago Bulls

Dr. Steve Julius is the founder and chief executive of HRCG, a Chicago based firm specializing in executive leadership, high performance teamwork, organizational effectiveness and strategic human capital solutions. A true proponent of the power that is derived from integrating diverse talents and points-of-view, Steve has built a team of professionals who combine the approach of trusted advisor with the first-hand knowledge and insight that comes from their having been in significant leadership positions prior to joining HRCG.

Steve believes that personal and professional success is the result of principled intention, consistent practice and skillful execution. As such, he maintains an active practice of advising senior executives and their teams from an array of major corporations, entrepreneurial companies and professional service organizations. He also serves on the advisory board for several private equity firms. Whether called upon during times of organizational transition or in anticipation of capitalizing on opportunities for enhanced business performance, Dr. Julius is known for his ability to combine his knowledge of human behavior, organizational dynamics and business strategy to create relevant and practical solutions. Steve’s enthusiastic, outcome oriented style has been described as “contagious” resulting not only in ready-to-use business solutions, but also a collective sense of personal satisfaction and empowerment on the part of those with whom Steve works.

Getting a Seat at the Table and Keeping It!

Design is now finding it has a seat at the leadership table, but is it/are you viewed as a practitioner of an arcane science that is called upon to facilitate business processes? Or, are you also routinely called upon to contribute to the overall business strategy at the company–wide or departmental level? Building strong, domain capability will maintain your status as a design expert, but it won’t lead to your being trusted as someone who can help build the overall business strategy. That requires a complementary set of skills.

Talk to any CEO in organizations small and large and she will tell you about the critical role technology—and design–play in that business’ success. Ask that same CEO to describe how the design functions contribute to the day-to-day operation and it’s likely she will describe an enabling or support role. Dr. Steve Julius will describe how you can contribute to significant value creation as a strategic business partner, while maintaining and even enhancing your status as a design expert.

About Chicago Camps

Chicago Camps, LLC (chicagocamps.org) was founded in 2012. They plan multiple low cost, high-value events primarily in Chicago.

==========

"In the Basteal" music written and produced and performed by Christian Lane | @christianlane01

Simplecast - Publish your podcasts the easy way at Simplecast.fm.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!

About The Feed & The Thread

The Feed & The Thread is a daily summary of UX articles found in the industry and some light-touch updates from the UX Community found in online forums. It's brief, and meant as a light-touch overview of what's happening across UX.