Let's Fix Things

Guus and Joe breakdown the pros and cons of the “What 3 Words” mapping service. The go over the positive aspects of mapping areas without physical addresses, and the confusing aspects of why 3 random words, such as “popsicle, idea, shuttlebus”, would appear to be a good way to coordinate travel plans. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

It’s good to be home! After being gone for over a quarter, Guus and Joe return to talk about the news of the week. This episodes looks at Mark Zuckerberg’s goal of holding public discussion forums and the ability of Ring camera employees to potentially access individuals feeds. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Anki, the company that brought us the robot Cozmo, it back with Vector. A friendlier companion robot. Guus and Joe look at what the different roles and styles of robots / bots currently in the home. The share that while Vector, Alexa, and the Google Assistant may do very similar things, they are very different in their personality and drive. They discuss their wishes for robots to become better companions. Finally they close with a brief overview of how the field of design is growing, as robots, AI, and assistants, become more main stream. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Guus and Joe review Raft’s 2018 Trends report to provide a mid-year assessment. They speak to three trends and offer support in how they are coming to fruition through the year. They share that trends never arrive unannounced. To be applicable for companies, they should be emerging topics and not wild long-shot guesses. While their supporting materials are often dystopian, they close by sharing they are very hopeful for what these trends may enhance in people’s lives. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Now several weeks removed from returning from Brazil, Guus and Joe discuss their take-aways from the Thought for Food (TFF) Summit. They focus the episode of bringing the humanities and empathy to Agriculture. They review that while food is a cultural and social event, the production of food is cold and statistical. The opposition serves as the foundation for 15 minutes of discussion. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

In a continuation from last week, Guus and Joe go deeper on the cultural principle of respecting clients through client empathy. They discuss how designers could benefit from understanding the client POV further, whether it be political aspects, internal strategy, or personal views. Sharing their views that while designers speak heavily of user empathy, they should equally look to understand client empathy. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Guus and Joe discuss finally hanging up a series of posters that provide cultural guidance for the Raft office. Sharing their views on why the Raft culture is a bit unique, pragmatic, challenging, and mature compared to other design studios. They engage on each principle, what it means, and why it’s important. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Over the course of their consulting careers, Guus and Joe have worked with multiple companies within their accelerators or incubators. This episode is dedicated to a couple lessons they have learned working in these teams including the need for process, learning from failure, and building on company’s cultural principles. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Guus and Joe look at the growing discipline of DesignOps. The combination of program management for design tools, workflow, process, and integration with the development team. They discuss the need for alignment of tools and planning within larger organization and how DesignOps can be fundamental and helpful to larger teams. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

After ordering a Revolut prepaid card, Guus and Joe discuss how every company, organization, and team have a choice to either be unique, interesting, and provide a great experience or be mundane and accept the status quo. They put forth the simple theory that any area or industry that has a low barrier to entry (e.g. capital investment) and can be done digitally is ripe for start-up disruption. Note: Joe met with Val Scholz, Head of Customer * Engagement, not “Experience”, as Joe accidentally mentioned during the podcast. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

In the last several decades, digital design has been the new mecca for designers. Everyone has rushed to design the latest website or application. Now, as products change, and screen based systems mature, we must ask “what is next for designers”. Guus and Joe reflect on breaking down design to its primitives and refocusing on the “job to be done” along with the tools designers have at their disposal with each customer touchpoint. As products bring in voice, home devices, and digital assistances, the role of design must evolve to stay relevant. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Are we wise to ask companies to control what we see and hear? Guus and Joe look at the recent trends involving public outcry over content presented through different companies. With fake news being the topic of the year, more people have been asking for Facebook to take control over this situation, but is it wise to ask a private company to control what we view globally? The duo also look at companies personal ethics in presenting content, such as Spotify stopping all promotion around R Kelly. Finally, the discussion looks at how only a few decades ago, local governments and regional companies provided content guidelines for countries – now with globalization, it’s less clear, and content alongside ethics are determined by the country of origin. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Google I/O happened, and the world is afire with the Duplex demo in which the Google assistant makes a phone call and sounds like a human. Guus and Joe reflect on the ethical stance of this type of situation. That perhaps we don’t live in a simulation, but that everything around us can now be simulated; that trust is a strategic asset now more than ever. They also discuss how these types of products affect the future of design as a discipline and what design must do to remain relevant. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

A second episode discussing the issues around GDPR coming into effect in Europe and what that will mean for companies. The duo discuss the EU cookies regulation, and if these regulations are helping put users back in control, or simply create a “pop up soup” of dialogs that annoy, rather than assist, users. In the end, they question if the way regulation is done should be rethought, and what are designers roles in driving new regulations and guidelines for software. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

With the countdown to GDPR in the EU and Facebook being questioned by Congress in the US, Guus and Joe look at how to responsibly and ethically design for personal data privacy. The discussion looks at the infuriating task of designing privacy policies with understandable language. It then couples with the fact that users never read privacy statements as they are always in the way of core tasks. In the end, they question if making privacy easy to understand is an impossible task. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

During a previous conversation with a silicon valley software native, Guus and Joe discussed what was the best smart technology over the last decade. This week they bring that discussion to Lets Fix Things, sharing views on the different between technology, what is has enabled, and what constitutes “smart technology” - from refrigerator lights, to smart lights, and global entrepreneurship. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

A dutch supermarket chain accidentally does racial profiling with their personas, Apple’s Homepod is a really expensive speaker, and AmazonGo makes purchasing in real life frictionless. This week Guus and Joe go "old school" discussing several topic in recent news extrapolating lessons for designers from internal methods, to accidental creation of friction in products. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

An impromptu discussion after the last official show reviewing more on ethics, business, and design. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

This week we are joined by Jet Gispen from ethicsfordesigners.com. Guus, Joe, and Jet discuss ethics in design, and how a subjective topic based on personal belief can be brought into constructive team discussions. Jet runs through exercises designers can bring to their teams. She also showcases how ethics may be a way to reverse the commercial aspects of the design profession. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

This week is about race in design and technology. Guus and Joe talk to Stan Robinson, otherwise known in the Hip Hop world as Substantial. Stan is an accomplished artist who has toured the world multiple times. Stan offers his articulate views on the black community in design, technology, and the arts as well as multiple other pearls of wisdom on perspectives of how being black affects careers in these fields from early schooling.This week’s title is a ‘tip of the hat’ to one of Substantial’s latest releases.https://www.facebook.com/SubstantialMusic/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substantial_(rapper) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message