What the Heck is Business Design, A New UX Podcast and Digital Experiences to Improve Mental Health

WHAT THE HECK IS A BUSINESS DESIGNER?
You could be the best UX designer and still work on a product that fails. That’s because a business fails to find product-market fit and lacks thoughtful business design. This article explains the need for business design as a skill and its follow up expands on required skillsets. Sounds like a great career option for design-minded strategists / business-minded designers to explore. (The first time I saw this term was for a business designer job posting from consultancy Deloitte Digital.)

• Highlight: “Business Design provides the tools and methods to develop and test a business model. At the same time it makes the difference between a service that is just a marketing stunt and one that is a sustainable business.”

ADOBE LAUNCHED A NEW UX PODCAST
More businesses are rolling out with their own podcasts, and Adobe is no exception as it partnered with my fav podcast studio Gimlet to launch the new Wireframe Podcast. I’m excited because design icon Khoi Vinh is a host to the show, along with the pro Gimlet team known for their masterful storytelling. I’ve now added Wireframe to the UX Podcasts page!

• Highlight: “Where things start getting difficult is what happens way up above there in the control room. This is the heart of Three Mile Island — and it’s the heart of this story too. Because according to Cliff Kuang, everything that really goes wrong at Three Mile Island can be attributed to this room. More specifically, how this control room was designed.”

DESIGNING EXPERIENCES TO IMPROVE MENTAL HEALTH
As an avid user of the Headspace App, I believe that digital design CAN benefit mental health. This SmashingMag article explores the relationship between design & clinical mental health, pointing to apps like Pear Therapeutics and MY3 as human-centered examples.

• Highlight: She once recommended a suicide hotline, but that it made people wait on hold for 20 minutes. After that experience, she said, “never again.”

MISSING FROM YOUR JOB DESCRIPTION
I’m a long-time fan of Seth Godin’s marketing mind. “Now that it’s easier than ever to outsource a job to someone cheaper (or a robot) there needs to be a really good reason for someone to be in the office.” These are the missing job descriptions. Some are cheeky, some are spot on, a reminder that work should not be limited by its standard job descriptions.

• Highlight: “Ask why. Tell a joke at no one’s expense. Treat customers better than they expect.”

CRAZY EXPERIMENTAL UI
This FastCo design article covers upcoming showcases of the upcoming UIST 2018 Conference. I’m blown away by some of the projects, such as the “physical pixels” of GridDrones and Tattoos as Screens. Having just watched Ready Player One (I’m late to the party), I’m excited about the increasing mix of tactile & digital UIs.

🏁UX CAREER COACHING CORNER
I’m quietly revamping the UX Portfolio Course for a big 2.0 update coming out in November 2018. Take a peek here. Of note are new examples of good UX portfolios, how to convert an offline to an online portfolio, and a free UX portfolio review for all students who enroll.

Keep learning,

Oz, founder @ UXBeginner, instructor @ UX School

Originally published at UX Beginner.