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UX Planet — Medium | Guy Ligertwood
I’ve brought together twenty influential and exciting designers from Australia, Canada, South Africa, Peru, Russia, Taiwan, England, America, and Italy.
They work at Medium, Facebook, You Tube, Google, start up’s, agencies, banks, as designers, leaders, consultants, advisors, and educators.
Each week for twenty weeks we’ll dive deep into one design related question, answered by all the designers.
This article introduces them.
I promise you; you won’t be bored, these are a unique group of humans.
Before we start, I want to thank all the people taking part. Some I knew already, some were kind enough to let me track them down. They all trusted me to tell their story, so I’m thrilled to bring their knowledge to you with this unique series.
Simon Pan — Medium
Stephanie Engle — Facebook
Andrew Doherty — Another.ai
Nirissa Govender — Standard Bank
Adham Dannaway — Freelance
Leah Buley — Independant Design Advisor
Ben Huggins — You Tube
Chirryl-Lee Ryan (Cheech)— Isobar
Charbel Zeaiter — Academy Xi
Audrey Liu — Thumbtack
Nick Babich — Ring Central
Paola Mariselli — Facebook
Michael Wong (Mizko) — Mizko Media
Kymberlee Ide — McCann
Alessandro Floridi — Deloitte
Leslie Chicoine — Experience Design and Product Management Consultant
Buzz Usborne — Help Scout
Kylie Timpani — Humaan
Graeme Fulton — Marvel
Kaiting Huang — Google
Nationality: Australian 🇦🇺
Grew up: Umina Beach, New South Wales, Australia
Studies: Computer Science degree, self-taught design
Specialties: Interaction design and experience strategy
Hobbies/passions: Traveling and music
Biggest inspiration: No idols for me 😉
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Jack Kerouac and Trent Reznor
Something interesting about you: I’ve traveled to 52 countries so far
Favourite quote:
“Maybe that’s what life is… a wink of the eye and winking stars”(Jack Kerouac)
Anything you’d like to plug? I’m working on a book about UX careers and portfolios. Subscribe to my mailing list to get updates.
Where can people follow you? simonpan.com or on twitter
Nationality: American 🇺🇸
Grew up: Atherton, California, USA
Studies: BA in Public Policy, Duke University
Specialties: Product design, spatial design, public speaking
Hobbies/passions: Photography, traveling, making absurd amounts of puns
Biggest inspiration: My grandpa; he casually escaped Soviet Russia for Stanford, was in the CIA, and founded one of the most successful tech companies of all time.
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Grant Achatz, Tina Fey, Jeff Bezos
Something interesting about you: I have a twin sister, Erica, who’s an engineer at Slack. My parents think we’d make a cute startup.
Favourite quote:
“Leave it better than you found it” (Robert Baden-Powell)
Anything you’d like to plug? My Medium
Where can people follow you? On Twitter
Formerly Product Design Manager at Google, Mountain View
Nationality: Australian 🇦🇺
Grew up: Mango Hill, Queensland, Australia
Studies: Archaeology
Specialties: Product design, storytelling, writing, speaking, dreaming
Hobbies/passions: Writing, painting, riding, and eating
Biggest inspiration: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Elon Musk, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Pema Chodron
Something interesting about you: I’ve almost died so many times it’s become a bit of a family joke. Spider bites, snake bites, severe allergic reactions, stabbings, drownings, and building fires.
Favourite quote:
“The biggest risk in life is taking no risk at all”
Anything you’d like to plug? We are building the world’s first ai powered best friend — Another.ai
Where can people follow you? My website or on Medium
Nationality: South African 🇿🇦
Grew up: Durban, South Africa
Studies: BA in Multimedia. Vega design school certificates and multiple short courses in UX Design
Specialties: UX & UI Design — my skills are strong in both these fields
Hobbies/passions: Horror, sci-fi and fantasy novels. Movies, tv shows, and chill with my husband and cat. Cooking yummy food and road trips with my husband. South Africa has beautiful sights to see.
Biggest inspiration: Other designers that are masters of their craft, their work inspires me to be a better designer.
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: My parents (dead), Sheryl Sandberg, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and Jason Mamoa (from the Game of Thrones — I’m sure we’d have nothing to talk about over dinner but I could just sit there and drool, I’m cool with that).
Something interesting about you: Aside from being a designer (my day job), I’m also an entrepreneur (in my spare time). I have a line of fashion accessories for pets. It’s a start up, but I have big dreams for it (yes, I love my cat, I’m a crazy cat lady, and I’m ok with that 😛 )
Favourite quote:
“To find a career to which you are adapted by nature, and then to work hard at it, is about as near to a formula for success and happiness as the world provides. One of the fortunate aspects of this formula is that, granted the right career has been found, the hard work takes care of itself. Then hard work is not hard work at all.” (Mark Sullivan)
Anything you’d like to plug? No thanks
Where can people follow you? My Linkedin
Nationality: Australian 🇦🇺
Grew up: Sydney, Australia
Studies: Bachelor of Computer Science at UNSW Master of Digital Media at UNSW. Lots of online articles, tutorials and practice
Specialties: UI design, UX design, product design
Hobbies/passions: Gym, running, cooking, travelling, interior design and gardening
Biggest inspiration: Other great designers, makers, creators and builders
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Yoda, Elon Musk and Jerry Seinfeld
Something interesting about you: If I weren’t a UI/UX designer, I’d be a builder or an architect.
Favourite quote:
“See the extraordinary in the ordinary”
Anything you’d like to plug? My Twitter
Where can people follow you? adhamdannaway.com
Nationality: American 🇺🇸
Studies: Undergraduate degree in American Studies with a focus on media; Master’s degree in Library and Information Science with an emphasis in Information Architecture; self-taught as a front-end developer
Specialties: UX strategy & design, organisational dynamics around UX, research on the evolving role of UX in business
Hobbies/passions: Spending time with my two children, ages 4 years and 7 months
Biggest inspiration: Edward Tufte, Alan Cooper, Christopher Alexander
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Somerset Maugham, Edith Wharton, Charles Dickens
Something interesting about you: I can stand on my head for 5 minutes
Favourite quote:
“Design is a powerful weapon. Make pictures, not arguments, to win the war.”
Anything you’d like to plug? My book, The User Experience Team of One (available on Amazon)
Where can people follow you? leahbuley.com
Nationality: American 🇺🇸
Grew up: Outside of Boston in a town called Sharon, Massachusetts
Studies: I did my undergrad at Tufts University, focusing on social psychology and media. The most formative part of my time there was in the ExCollege (excollege.tufts.edu) where I got to make a bunch of music videos and short films. I also have a graduate degree in UX design (aka HFID) from Bentley University.
Specialties: I’ve been told that I’m good at dismantling especially large or complex UX problems in a way that helps the team understand and move forward. I’m also known for staying level-headed through difficult feedback or changes in direction.
Hobbies/passions: Snowboarding, mountain biking, “serious conversation” hikes with my wife, and most recently trying to not screw up woodworking projects.
Biggest inspiration: My little brother Luke (who is now a giant human), and a handful of coaches and teachers growing up. Also, if you’ve never seen Wilson Miner’s “When We Build” talk, you should watch it.
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Benjamin Franklin, Dave Grohl, Jason Segel
Something interesting about you: I’m pretty sure my Mom was the inspiration for the female news anchor character on Family Guy.
Favourite quote: I got called out by Hartmut Esslinger (founder of frog design, total badass) for asking a soft question at a panel recently. So I have his response plastered on my desk:
“Be courageous. don’t play it safe”
Anything you’d like to plug? I make a thing called Instant Shotski with a friend of mine. It started as a joke, but turned out to be really interesting to learn how to build, package and distribute a physical product.
Where can people follow you? hugg.in — or I’m @bhuggins most places
(Across Hong Kong, Australia and the region)
Nationality: Australian 🇦🇺
Grew up: Sydney, Australia
Studies: Film, radio, marketing, psychology, advertising, architecture, industrial design & the school of hard knocks
Specialties: I try to be the person I needed when I was younger. I’m good at being comfortable with the uncomfortable. I thrive on change. I like to help people see their unique talents and guide them through the tough patches.
Hobbies/passions: Talking on the phone, eating ramen noodles, collecting tattoos and my bulldog Bronson
Biggest inspiration: In the words of John Lennon, “I was the walrus, but now I am John… and so my friends, you’ll just have to carry on. The dream is over.”
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Salvador Dali, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Deno (my favourite tattooer)
Something interesting about you: More than 75% of my body is tattooed. That’s a lot for someone who works in the corporate world! But I know that when I walk into a room, I make conversations happen. I’ve learnt to use the thing people told me would stop me getting a job as one of the reasons people want to work with me.
Favourite quote:
“It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice”
Anything you’d like to plug? Service design days
Where can people follow you? My Linkedin
Nationality: Australian 🇦🇺
Grew up: Sydney, Australia
Studies: Hotel & Catering Management Diploma
Specialties: UX design, service design, public speaking, leadership, business development, teaching, team building
Hobbies/passions: Working, design, writing, cooking, gym, coffee, travelling
Biggest inspiration: Richard Branson
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Beyoncé, Malcolm X, Richard Branson
Something interesting about you:
My first business was taking over a run-down deli in a building that was to be demolished in Glebe (Sydney) when I was 20 years old and turning it into a food destination. It lasted seventeen months before the building was demolished and I went travelling for a year.
After this, I had a succession of businesses, most of which didn’t work out. From restaurants to online stores, cafes and two clothing labels. All of these experiences pointed to setting up my agency, Velvet Onion, and now, Academy Xi.
Favourite quote:
“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” (Joel A. Barker)
Anything you’d like to plug?
Academy Xi, an education company I co-founded with Ben Wong. Xi is my vocation, the place where all of my experiences, good and challenging, have converged to build a community of change-makers, activists and digital creators.
With human-centred design at our core, we believe firmly that designers and technologists of all disciplines have risen and will continue to. At our core, Xi is about education.
Our mission is to fundamentally shift society through design and tech by forming a tribe of people who want to leave the world in a better place from where we found it.
Where can people follow you? My Linkedin
Nationality: American 🇺🇸
Grew up: New York, USA
Studies: I started out by studying visual arts and art history at Barnard College\ in New York City and when I graduated, I thought I’d want to become an artist. I quickly realised that I had a passion for problem solving, took a few night classes to build up my portfolio and enrolled in the Product Design program at Art Center in Pasadena. While at Art Center, I participated in a study abroad program at an international business school called Instead, where I learned about the full circle of product development and marketing.
Specialties: Product design, UX design, culture building, team building and management.
Hobbies/passions: Spending time with my family, making things with my hands, being outdoors.
Biggest inspiration: Charles and Ray Eames, Dieter Rams, Saul Bass, Muji, Naoto Fukasawa. Anyone making a positive impact on the lives of others. The prospect of solving problems for people through design.
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Ira Glass, Haim Saban, Ray Eames
Something interesting about you: Most of my father’s life lessons can be attributed to The Godfather (Part 1).
Favourite quote:
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” (Winston Churchill)
Anything you’d like to plug? Thumbtack.com
Where can people follow you? My Twitter
Nationality: Russian 🇷🇺
Grew up: Sakhalin, Far-East region of Russia
Studies: Master of Science, Computer Science I started as a full-stack software developer (web and mobile development). I was always interested in design — can’t separate design and development and think they come together to form one great product. My graduate work was design-related.
Specialties: Development, writing UX design, leadership, public speaking and teaching
Hobbies/passions: Jogging, writing and travelling
Biggest inspiration: My parents (my father Alex and mother Irina), books (W. Somerset Maugham and Scott Fitzgerald’s books), Music (Funk music from 70s and 80s), Architecture (Art Deco), Cars (British cars from 80s, especially Jaguar XJ)
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein and Anton Chekhov
Something interesting about you: I’ve mastered martial arts (former region champion in Taekwondo).
Favourite quote:
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)
Anything you’d like to plug? My Medium, UX Planet
Where can people follow you? UX Planet, Twitter , Facebook
Nationality: Peruvian 🇵🇪
Grew up: Lima, Peru
Studies: I earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Harvard University. I also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems and Marketing from New York University, Stern School of Business.
Specialties: Product design, public speaking, user experience design, interaction design, mobile design
Hobbies/passions: Being fully present in my every day life through traveling, spending time outdoors, and interacting with animals.
Biggest inspiration: The inner desire to make things better than what they are.
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Amanda Burden, Marina Willer and Yayoi Kusama
Something interesting about you: I used to be afraid of dogs, now I have two of my own. I also volunteer at the Humane Society keeping dogs happy while they find their forever homes.
Favourite quote:
“When a device as simple as a door has to come with an instruction manual, even a one-word manual, then it is a failure, poorly designed.” (Donald Norman)
Anything you’d like to plug? I love connecting with people through public speaking: paolamariselli.com/speaking/ Also, my dog wants to be famous: @goldythehuman or on Facebook
Where can people follow you? paolamariselli.com, my Medium, my Twitter
Nationality: Australian 🇦🇺
Grew up: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Studies: Self taught. First a gamer; started my first gaming forum at 16, learnt how to design and code my first forum theme through trial and error, and slapped a couple of Google Ads on to make some extra cash. One thing led to another and soon I was promoting affiliate products and running affiliate campaigns.
At the age of 20, I had a number of ventures acquired and also made a mid six figure pay check through all my campaigns. Through these experiences not only did I learn how to design, but lots about business and marketing.
Specialties: Leadership, business and startups, product management, UX design
Hobbies/passions: Fitness, calisthenics, music festivals, starting, building and investing in internet companies
Biggest inspiration: My family. Growing up in a Chinese migrant family, we came to Australia with nothing. Witnessing everything my grandparents and parents have done to give us a better life, has been one of my biggest inspirations.
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Jesus, Elon Musk, and Bruce Lee
Something interesting about you: You can find me doing a topless muscle up in a Microsoft Surfacebook advertisement somewhere on the internet.
Favourite quote:
“Go fast alone, go far together”
Anything you’d like to plug? The Designership. I believe in giving back. I stumbled into the design industry with no real guidance. It was just me trying things and hoping for the best. As I’ve become a little more established, I believe the most I can do for like-minded creatives, is to setup a trusted community to help bring them together so they have a place that they can meet, share, and learn with one another.
The community has now grown to over 4000+ members (As of August 2017) and it’s great to see so many creatives going out of their way to help one another.
Where can people follow you? Twitter and my Dribbble
Nationality: Canadian 🇨🇦
Grew up: Toronto, Canada
Studies: Masters, Forensic Psychology Diploma, Graphic Design
Specialties: UX design, information architecture, copy editing
Hobbies/passions: I have a ton, but my big ones are animal welfare, home improvement/renovations/DIY stuff, travel (mainly Costa Rica), gaming.
Biggest inspiration: My daughter
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: My dad, who died when I was very young so I never knew him. God, because I’m agnostic. My grandparents (Is this cheating? Can I group them into one?) — I’d really love to see them again.
Something interesting about you: I’m a pretty hardcore FPS gamer (PSN). I’m also in love with Paul Rudd.
Favourite quote:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” (Mark Twain)
Anything you’d like to plug? End Breed Specific Legislation. And if you don’t know what it is, please look it up.
Where can people follow you? My Linkedin
Nationality: Italian 🇮🇹
Grew up: Rome, Italy
Studies: I have studied economics in Rome and when I arrived in Australia in 2010 I studied a Marketing Diploma. I enjoyed a Product Management course and a few Design Thinking one’s here in Sydney.
Specialties: UX strategy, service design, design thinking, research, innovation, behavioural economics
Hobbies/passions: Surfing, meditation, rock climbing, reading, running, observing people
Biggest inspiration: Jiddu Krishnamurti
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Tiziano Terzani, an exceptional journalist that inspired me. George Orwell, his vision and understanding of the human being still freaks me out. Dame Stephanie Shirley, visionary woman who started a software company in the 60’s.
Something interesting about you: I spent five years in China working for a research and development department in a tech company. I learned how to run user testing and research by developing products for very different industries.
Favourite quote:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” (Maya Angelou)
Anything you’d like to plug? No but I’d love to write a book one day. Possibly about design that change people’s lives.
Where can people follow you? My Linkedin
Nationality: American 🇺🇸
Grew up: My family moved all over the US, but I grew up mostly in the mid-west of America.
Studies: BFA, Savannah College of Art and Design, Interaction Design and Game Development. Continued studies include GA Mobile Development (Swift for iOS) 12 Week Course and GA Back-end Web Development (Ruby on Rails) 10 Week Course.
Specialties: Experienced product manager focused on launching new products, drawing from a background in design, research, and games. 4x product-founder, with two successful exits.
Hobbies/passions: Yoga (I’m a 250 hour certified instructor), Olympic Recurve Archery, and exploring Denver with my partner.
Biggest inspiration: The social sciences; psychology, economics, anthropology etc. They set the stage for how we think and act as designers.
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Richard Feynman, Amelia Earhart, Tim Ferris
Something interesting about you: As of 2017 I’ve been competing at the national level in Olympic Recurve Archery.
Favourite quote:
“The most effective way to do it, is to do it” (Amelia Earhart)
Anything you’d like to plug? If you’ve ever been curious about archery follow me on my Instagram
Where can people follow you? My Instagram and my Twitter
Nationality: British 🇬🇧 and recently Australian 🇦🇺
Grew up: I was born in Portsmouth in the UK and grew up in various spots on the south coast (I’m from a military family, so we moved a fair bit).
Studies: I studied for a degree in Graphic Design, but I’m largely self-taught in UX/UI and development through running Prevue.it (mostly through trial and error).
Specialties: Visual design, UX, mentoring, creative direction, presentation and public speaking
Hobbies/passions: I really enjoy sand running and riding motorbikes, both clear my head — although since our baby boy arrived recently I don’t have much time for either!
Biggest inspiration: Kathy Sierra and Michael Bierut have always been big inspirations for me. I also feel crazy inspired anytime I talk with Eva-Lotta Lamm, whose been an amazing mentor to me over the years.
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Elon Musk, Michelle Obama and Neil deGrasse Tyson — because they’re all super inspirational, I’d learn heaps, and we’d definitely have some decent conversation
Something interesting about you: Before designing I was a sailor, and lived on a beach in the Mediterranean teaching and competing professionally.
Favourite quote:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Anything you’d like to plug? Prevue.it is a little side project that I’ve been running for a little over ten years now. I think anyone who shares design work with clients should give it a go 🙂
Where can people follow you? My work at buzzusborne.com, my Twitter, my writing on Medium and my resume on Linkedin
Nationality: Australian 🇦🇺
Grew up: Bunbury, Western Australia
Studies: I have a Bachelor in Communication Studies, majoring in English (I wanted to be a journalist!) but I am primarily a self-taught designer and code-dabbler.
Specialties: Web and UI design
Hobbies/passions: Exploring, whether that’s in my back yard or faraway. Spending time with family friends, something I lost sight of for a long time. Learning, about anything and everything, from how to fix a laundry tap to pop-psychology. Self-improvement. Slowly but surely I am practicing the art of essentialism. Writing; and finding more ways to be better to the environment.
Biggest inspiration: My mum without question
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: The three original Halliwell Sisters. Sorry, Paige.
Something interesting about you: Interesting or ridiculous? Let’s go with ridiculous. In my time as a checkout operator, I was awarded the fastest scanner of groceries not only within our store but in the state. I still practice on self-serve checkouts. I sill got it.
Favourite quote:
“Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are all responsible for each other and the world, which is exactly the way it is, because consciously or unconsciously, we have made it so.
And while none of us made any of the rules that govern the universe or the human heart, we are all beneficiaries of a divine promise, that the world is still a safe place despite our fears and we in it, are not asked to do great things; we are asked to do all things with great love.”
(Martin Sheen, Laetare Medal Acceptance Speech, 2008)
Anything you’d like to plug? Humaan as a whole but also The Perth Device Lab which is a side project of Humaan’s. It’s open to anyone to come in and test their work on a bunch of devices. People can also just come and work in the space if they need a change of scenery. It’s available to anyone.
Where can people follow you? My Twitter and also on my Dribbble for haphazardly timed insights into my work.
Nationality: British 🇬🇧
Grew up: Blackpool, UK
Studies: Computer Science MSc, business management and accounting BSc, One month content marketing, Coursera: programming mobile applications, startup engineering, creative programming for digital media & mobile apps
Specialties: Writing, designing, marketing, coding — I guess it all can come under ‘making’
Hobbies/passions: Startups, trying to learn Spanish at Little English! animation, playing piano, football and Illuminati
Biggest inspiration: David and Goliath story
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Chris (Simpsons artist), Salad fingers maker David Firth and Inna
Something interesting about you: Most of my days I work alone from under a rock.
Favourite quote:
“How did David make Goliath fall down?”
Anything you’d like to plug? Pikatool — something I made to compare prototyping tools. I made this ages ago: grad-jobs.com — if anyone wants it, it’s yours for free.
Where can people follow you? My Twitter
Nationality: Taiwanese 🇹🇼
Grew up: Taichung, Taiwan
Studies: Master of Human-Computer Interaction and Design at University of Washington. Master of Design for Interaction at TU Delft. Bachelor of Business Administration at National Taiwan University
Specialties: Interaction design, visual design, digital prototyping, front-end development
Hobbies/passions: Be inspired and inspire others. Writing, traveling. playing guitar and yoga.
Biggest inspiration: Artwork by M.C. Escher
Three people, you’d love to have dinner with: Quincy Larson, Elon Musk, Taylor Swift
Something interesting about you: I like noodles and I eat them every single day.
Favourite quote:
“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken” ( Oscar Wilde)
Anything you’d like to plug? kaitinghuang.com
Where can people follow you? My Medium
There’ll be one question answered by all the designers every week over the next twenty weeks. The first question will come week commencing 11th September 2017.
20 Designers, 20 Questions, 20 Weeks was originally published in UX Planet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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