Speaking
I have spoken at a variety of conferences and events including UCD Gathering, IxDA Scotland and IWMW. My talks are about human-centred approaches in my work, focused mainly on service design, student experience and digital management.
Perception–Cognition–Action analysis — Minimising hazards and improving accessibility
UX Edinburgh (2024)
With Keith Allan.
This talk was held on Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Perception–Cognition–Action (PCA) analysis is a method of uncovering the root causes of usability errors and accessibility challenges in systems. By understanding these underlying issues, designs can be enhanced in order to avoid hazardous situations and cater to a wide array of user needs.
A version of the talk I gave at UX Healthcare London, but with more focus on accessibility.
View our talk on Perception–Cognition–Action analysis on YouTube
Persona power
User Vision Accessibility Masterclass (2024)
With Keith Allan.
A webinar about the power of personas at understanding and communicating the diverse needs of your user base. This session covered how to create effective personas, and how to maximise the role they play in designing inclusive experiences.
View the Persona Power Accessibility Masterclass on YouTube
Perception–Cognition–Action analysis — How to avoid hazardous situations and improve accessibility
UX Healthcare London (2024)
Perception–Cognition–Action (PCA) analysis is a method of uncovering the root causes of usability errors and accessibility challenges in systems. By understanding these underlying issues, designs can be enhanced in order to avoid hazardous situations and cater to a wide array of user needs.
View my UX Healthcare talk on Perception–Cognition–Action analysis on YouTube
Behavioural science — Approaches to improve user experience
User Vision Breakfast Briefing (2023)
This session explores the links between behavioural science and user experience. It also introduces some behavioural science frameworks and models you can adopt to improve your user research and design work.
User experience in universities
UX Soup (2022)
Podcast appearance where I discussed my work leading the University of Edinburgh’s user experience and digital consultancy team. I spoke about my team’s work and history, how the consultancy model can work in higher education, and how to break down silos in a complex organisation.
Service design and the Mario complex
UX Glasgow (2021)
This session highlighted some contradictory themes in service design, which I detected after reflecting on my attendance at the Service Design in Government conference. Service designers want to see themselves as both plumbers and saviours. Can they be both?
This talk also explored the similarities and differences between user experience and service design. It described why they have more similarities and differences. Instead of obsessing about the differences, we should recognise our shared goal in pursuing human-centred approaches.
This was a talk version of my blog post Service design and the Mario complex.
Panellist — Ask us anything — User experience / interaction design
UX Glasgow (2021)
I was a panellist at a UX Glasgow “ask us anything” event where I answered attendees’ questions about interaction design and user experience more broadly.
A service design approach to improving student experience
UCD Gathering (2020)
This session outlined the comprehensive programme of user research the University of Edinburgh’s User Experience Service conducted on behalf of a project to improve the way staff use virtual learning environments to achieve a better student experience. It showed how, as the project went along, we adopted a service design approach in order to better meet the needs of both students and staff.
Public Sector Design in Scotland meetup (2021)
With Emma Horrell.
This session was subsequently brought up to date at the public sector design meetup. My colleague Emma Horrell has led on some further research to ensure the solutions we developed before the coronavirus outbreak are still appropriate for hybrid teaching.
Understanding what students really need from a virtual learning environment
UX Glasgow (2020)
IxDA Scotland (2019)
UX Edinburgh (2019)
This talk outlined the methodology and some key findings from our user research programme for the Learn Foundations project analysing students’ needs around accessing course materials digitally. I explained how we used multiple methods to come to a true understanding of what students need. It showed that while it is important to use quantitative approaches to build a robust solution that you can sell to your stakeholders, we must also use qualitative approaches to get a true understanding of what’s happening.
How user experience research is shaping the changes to our virtual learning environment
Alt Annual Conference (2019)
With Paul Smyth and Karen Howie.
We presented about the comprehensive range of user research the User Experience Service has undertaken on behalf of the Learn Foundations project at the University of Edinburgh.
Building a digital team (almost) from scratch
IWMW — The Institutional Web Management Workshop (2016)
This session outlined my experience of building new digital teams (almost) from scratch, having found myself doing so in two different situations at two different institutions. I considered the challenges and opportunities presented by building a new team, and examined the contrasts between my experiences at the two institutions. I showed how the approach you can take to building a new team depends on the context.
Video
Blog post
Building a digital team (almost) from scratch — IWMW16 plenary session P6