Geoff discovers Guy’s fascination and revelations on the careful balance of utility, durability, aesthetics, and business drivers behind your everyday bag design.
Geoff and Guy both acknowledge and lament the challenges in getting airlines and international travel "back to the way it was", particularly in regard to all the extra security and forms being required to arrive or depart a country.
Geoff and Guy are finally back and recording together in person for the first time... from a phone... in a car. If you like your podcasts to really put you in the context of the moment, this episode is for you - road noise and all!
Geoff and Guy return to talk about web browsers without even once saying "surfing the web" (so of course it had to be squeezed into the episode title). From checking emails to watching videos and purchasing products, we use these ubiquitous tools multiple times a day, so we thought they deserved a deeper look and a moment to consider why we aren’t readily seeing if a different one would better meet our needs.
Kicking off our new Local Designer series, Janice Chan joins Geoff to explore the most niche topic: utensils. But, if there's ever a topic worth finding design and business opportunities in, it's noticing the individual usefulness of the countless variety of these tools we use daily.
Guy is back with Geoff to explore the design villainy behind shopping mall layouts and the bombardment of product eye candy that serves to make us lose track of our original goals and spend, spend, spend! Listen in to better recognise what nefarious design choices you’re subconsciously up against so you can be a more intentional consumer.
Kim Goodwin joins Geoff to explore Hotel UX beyond the websites and into the design of rooms, amenities, check-in and out experiences, life hacks, and more. Listen in to think deeper about hotel design through the lens of discrimination, diversity, interruptions, staff experiences, and what it takes to make brand superfans.
Geoff and Guy team up together again to verbally trade barbs and laugh way too much whilst discussing the act and factors behind upgrading our physical and digital products. They just don't make 'em like they used to anymore.
Doug Collins joins Geoff to talk about the careful balance between designing for customers versus users, but in this case, the customers being parents and users being their children. Listen in to how we can "keep the good moving forward."
Geoff and Guy 'plug back in' to talk about how so many of us ended up with an e-waste drawer-full of cables. We also struggle to get through this episode without incorrectly describing USB formats in just about every way possible... which just might tell you something about the headache it can cause consumers.
Kate Rutter joins Geoff to tackle (i.e. mutually complain about) the most complex everyday experience covered on this show thus far: The Postal Service. Listen in to this extra special episode where we, in Kate's fitting words, continue to "bring and highlight the specialness and interestingness of what might be perceived as mundane design."
Geoff and Guy find that there's technology and communication standards for most parts inside our devices, but why isn't there a standard for all of the digital or physical buttons we use? Whilst skeuomorphic digital toggles might work the same, every other product seems to work differently…
Geoff and Guy explore the mind (and wallet) controlling design decisions that influenced supermarket layouts, why online grocery shopping might be worth trying out, and the absolute pain in trying to find specific products - seriously, which aisle is the honey on?! Listen in as we ponder how might grocery stores be better designed for the customer and whether this is always in the business's best interest.
Geoff and Guy discuss their inspiration for this podcast, how their career paths influnced this mutual curiosity for observational design, and real life examples of what happens "when usability falls off a cliff".
In this pilot episode, an overly-excited Geoff Wilson is joined by the eloquent Guy Thompson to dive into dive bars to explore what design considerations influence both the bar patron and bartender experiences and notice the customer or business opportunities that might emerge. Hey barkeep, pour us another round!
The local designer series continues with Lulu Pachuau giving a mother's perspective of the pros and cons of three different methods of family travel along with the little tweaks and wins that could really make for a more pleasant experience.