Duncan Stephen

Article — 11 May 2022 — 838 words

Behaviour modes — Keeping personas meaningful

My team have been using personas for more than a decade. But with our work to reimagine the future of our web services, we recognised that these personas needed to evolve. Behaviour modes offer a more effective way to work with personas.

Article — 31 March 2022 — 2,637 words

Half a year on parental leave with a broken ankle

Personal

Work: The University of Edinburgh

Becoming a parent is a huge privilege. But it’s no secret that it’s also hard work. You don’t plan to break your ankle during the first year of your child’s life.

Note — 18 February 2022 — 37 words

Human-centred approaches — User experience — User research

How often do you buy Valentine’s Day gifts? More often than once a week? Less often than once a month?

Survey question: "And how often would you say you buy valentine's day (e.g., from any brand or retailer)?" Options: "More often than once a week"; "Roughly once a week"; "Roughly once a fortnight"; "Roughly once a month"; "Less often than once a month"; "Never"

Stop making people complete terrible surveys that you won’t even be able to interpret the results of!

Article — 10 February 2022 — 341 words

Could you be our nudge intern?

Economics — Social science — User experience — Web

Work: The University of Edinburgh

We have a fascinating opportunity for a University of Edinburgh undergraduate student to join our team as an intern this summer. The job has a cool title: nudge intern.

Linknote — 8 February 2022 — 100 words

User experience — User research

Work: The University of Edinburgh

UX in universities — UX Soup

I have been interviewed for the podcast UX Soup. The host [Chris Schreiner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisschreiner/) was interested in the [User Experience Service’s work at the University of Edinburgh](https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/user-experience). He spoke with me about:

* how the consultancy model works in a higher education context
* the history of our service
* the projects we get involved with
* the methodologies we follow
* the specific challenges we face working in higher education

It was good fun being interviewed. Please have a listen if you have the time. Thank you to Chris for the opportunity.

Linknote — 1 February 2022 — 134 words

Service design

Practitioner Stories — A self-initiated research project exploring service design practice

Practitioner stories — Illustration of a group of people holding jigsaw pieces in front of a map of Scotland

For the past two years, a group of service designers have been researching and understanding the state of service design practice in Scotland. Angela F Orviz, Serena Nüsing, Stéphanie Krus and Vinishree Verma have been doing this in their spare time and with no funding.

Their insights are fascinating reading. The study shows how far service design has come in Scotland over a few short years. But it also outlines a series of challenges the discipline faces for the future.

I recommend you read the blog posts to get a sense of the depth of the findings. They are a must-read for anyone interested in human-centred approaches, and making positive change within organisations and society.

To the team behind Practitioner Stories, thank you for your hard work on this. 🙏

Article — 11 January 2022 — 877 words

Awooga! The metaverse was better 29 years ago

Media — Technology

What’s most surprising about the metaverse is just how lacking in ambition it is. This is a half-hearted rehash of a 30-year-old idea.

Note — 5 January 2022 — 91 words

Personal

I return to work regularly today for the first time in almost 25 weeks.

This was longer than anticipated. My planned parental leave was forcibly extended due to my [ankle injury](https://duncanstephen.net/ive-broken-my-ankle/). It was further complicated by my tricky recovery. I have more to say about all of that another day.

I approach today with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. Balancing work with looking after a one-year-old is a whole new normal. For me at least, it makes the changes in working practices due to coronavirus seem small.

Article — 9 November 2021 — 1,032 words

Be usable, not consistent, not uniform

User experience

Consistency is often seen as a slam-dunk argument in favour of an initiative. But if you don’t know what you want to a design to be consistent with — and why — then consistency risks confusing your users.

Article — 21 October 2021 — 1,758 words

Design approaches aren’t sufficient to be human-centred

Social science — User experience

Many designers talk about user-centred design. But design approaches alone aren’t sufficient to ensure we are human-centred. Design approaches can be used carelessly — or even maliciously — to centre the designer and sideline the user.

Article — 27 September 2021 — 86 words

List of things Google Assistant thinks I want to do instead of make oat milk

Technology

Occasionally I make my own oat milk. When I run out of oat milk, I ask Google Assistant to remind me later in the day to make oat milk. It normally misunderstands me. Interestingly, it misunderstands me in a variety of different ways.

Article — 23 August 2021 — 988 words

Overlaps between user experience and other disciplines — a benefit, not a problem

Content design — Information architecture — User experience — User research

Have you ever been told that by doing human-centred work you’re stepping on someone else’s toes? I have heard it a number of times. More and more people are exploring the apparent overlaps between human-centred approaches and other disciplines.