Digital Nordic Creatives: Recent Episodes
Xhensila Reci
Xhensila and Javier had an imaginary baby called "Teal", whose strongest skill is to make people chill🍦 That baby was born in the middle of this conversation, thanks to Someoneyou, a card game of Xhensila's invention.
On top, we covered a hot topic, which has been trending for the last 2 years: mental health at work, at life, at everything. It was inspiring to quote LEGO's case, and how such a massive corporation caters to its own employees sake🍀
C-Cube Team💜💛💜
This is a guest episode where Xhensila was invited to speak about the value of user experience design at Who is it for podcast.
In todays episode I explore the value of UX together with UX'er and project manager Xhensila Reci. This episode is a bit longer than the usual. But it so much worth it. Xhensila and I discover so many parts of what the core value of UX really is. More about Xhensila right here: https://www.instagram.com/xhensilareci/Â
Listen along. Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wiifdesign/ Â and consider supporting on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wiif --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/whoisitfor/message
Kotryna Kurt and Xhensila Reci invited me to join their Instagram Live recording about personal growth.
Links:
Xhensila: Instagram
Kotryna: Instagram, Facebook, Â LinkedIn, Twitter, Â Linkedist.com
In this episode they discussed companies involving the Spiritual aspect within their businesses.
They discussed the mindfulness approach companies are now focusing on, creating an environment where people are the focus of the business
Companies are now motivating their teams to reach their goals using recharge sessions and meditation
They discuss how to explain mindfulness to elders and how to clear your mind while at work.
Xhensila and Kortyna discuss the importance of Intellectual development
Learn to grow your skills within business.
Finally, they discussed the importance of being grateful and proud of yourself.
We know that UX is important. Google knows that UX is important. But when it comes to selling in UX work it can often feel like nobody else knows that it’s important. Clients and colleagues often seem completely intractable on ideas when we present them. So how can we better serve those customers and get them to take on board what we do as valuable? We’ve got tips that may well improve the success of selling your UX work.
Welcome to the You’ve Got 5 Options Show!
In this series, called “Coming Back to the Roots” we will explore BIG existential questions of WHY, WHAT, and HOW. What is our true purpose? Why are we here? How to live a joyful and fulfilled life? What are universal human values and skills and what makes us HUMAN in the first place? How to reconnect with the nature and people around us? And what skills do we need in case of an Apocalypse? ;) Tune in to listen to the very fist episode with UX Designer Xhensila Reci, where we discuss the future of humanity and what would a designer do in times of Apocalypse? In This Episode We Discussed 1) If you had to explain to your grandma what does UX Designer does, what would you say? 2) Why empathy is THE essential skill in the work of a UX Designer? 3) How will the world look like 2050 and what skills our children should develop in order to find employment in the world dominated by Robots and AI? 4) If you are a UX Designer and you experience mass destruction and wilderness in a post- Apocalyptic world, how do you use your skills? And many more! What's Special About Xhensila? Xhensila Reci is a designer, podcaster and community builder. Born and raised in sunny Albania, she moved to Denmark in her early 20's, to pursue the dream of creative higher education. What better place to study than Denmark - the design capital of the world. After graduating digital concept development she wants to make the world a better place, one design project at a time. Of course, all that while singing "Run the World (Girls)" and dancing salsa.
Find Xhensila here: http://xhensilareci.dk/
Find out more! You’ve Got 5 Options is a talk-show based Radio Program, where we discuss ordinary topics in an extraordinary way. Inspired by the idea that every challenge has 5 solutions, every transformation process has 5 steps and every great interview has 5 key questions, we have chosen FIVE as a common theme for every program we broadcast. If you want to learn more about us, please don't hesitate to visit our webpage at https://the5options.com
Today we discuss cognitive biases and how they impact our lives and design. A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment. Individuals create their own "subjective reality" from their perception of the input. An individual's construction of reality, not the objective input, may dictate their behavior in the world.
Christmas was very present in this episode, be aware of the pop hits coming your way.Â
Today’s episode will be amazing, not only because Laura has finally decided to join me, but also because we will discuss one of the most actual topics in the world right now: Artificial Intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence (also known with the acronym AI) is a term that has become popular in many industries, because of its potential to quickly perform tasks that typically require more work by a human. What was once thought of as a futuristic software endgame, is now being used to address real world issues.
One of the companies that develops and uses AI and machine learning tools is UNSILO.  I honestly didn’t know what UNSILO means so I googled it - and it means to reverse a process. At UNSILO they want to create a world where Artificial Intelligence technology supports business developers, editors and researchers in making use of scientific content in new ways.
New habit on our show: check in with each other on what we have been doing since last time and what do we expect to do. <--> Productivity framework. Today’s theme: recent happenings, events, (includingLTUX)
WE LOVE GRAPHIC DESIGN is an annual design community seminar, where we will celebrate the amazing world of graphic design on the 1st of October. Each year, we invite speakers from home and abroad to share the inspiration of the most creative graphic designers right now.
WE LOVE GRAPHIC DESIGN is arranged by HK Graphic Communications and ViF (DJ).
It has been a pleasure talking about such important matters but the hour has gone by really fast and we need to finish the show. But before... We’d like to leave you with the question to think about: what is it that you can give back (share your knowledge to the community)?
This episode’s guest is Trine Falbe - a user experience researcher, consultant, lecturer, author and speaker, focused on empowering people through ethical design. She believes that building honest and transparent experiences is not only the right thing to do: it’s also good for business.
With a focus on designing for, and with children Trine shares with us her practice and advice on how to avoid dark patterns and stay an ethical designer.
You can read more about ethical design on her book "White Hat UX"
Find, follow and contact Trine on her website www.trinefalbe.com or LinkedIn/Twitter @trinefalbe
What do we think the word creative means?
Laura paints in her free time, Xhensila writes and produces songs.
Telling yourself you have all the time in the world, all the money in the world, all the colors in the palette, anything you want—that just kills creativity. The thing is: It takes a lot of energy to be creative. You don’t have that energy if you waste it on other stuff. Being creative is all about constraints.
How do we set the right constraints?
How do we get inspired to become creative?
Every artist gets asked the question of where they get their ideas from. If they are honest they will say that they are under the influence of some substance,but if they are very honest they will admit stealing them. Because that’s about all there is to it. Nothing is original because nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds upon what came before. Even the bible says it: there is nothing new under the sun!
Ni Hao! At APIA program in Shenzhen, China we met many inspiring people one of whom we are lucky to have as this episode’s guest. He had always had a need to build things that solve real problems, but he never imagined it would lead him to move to the Philippines, then Silicon Valley and ultimately New York to do that. When passion leads the way, you have to follow and Elijah Murray, the engineer, designer, and co-founder of Matter Studio, stays true to this promise every day.
Elijah thinks that the startup environment of Silicon Valley will need to self-correct and hopes of a future of entrepreneurship where everyone will be more honest and authentic, that’s why he is contributing to building that future.
Find, follow and contact Elijah about all things design and entrepreneurship on LinkedIn and Twitter @elijahmurray or on
matterproductstudio.com/
To skip to the most interesting part about emotional intelligence skip to min 29.00
Emotional intelligence is the capacity to recognize, understand andmanageour own emotions, recognize, understand and influence the emotions of others. In practical terms, this means being aware that emotions can drive our behavior and impact people (positively and negatively), and learning how to manage those emotions — both our own and others — especially when we are under pressure.
I discuss all the points mentioned in this article: https://medium.com/personal-growth/the-10-qualities-of-an-emotionally-intelligent-person-f595440af4fb
This time we visited Stine Skaarup - Senior User Experience designer @ Designit.
When she was studying, user experience design wasn’t really a thing and with the big dream of changing public IT in Denmark, she thought she would go out of school and rock the world with her skills. It turns out it wasn’t as easy as she thought, but in the interesting path of her career she learned so many lessons that she shares with us today, as a way to give back to the design community.
Follow Stine and her work at Designit:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stineskaarup/
Website: www.designit.com
We discuss the book Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life is a book by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans that aims to help readers organize themselves through journaling and design thinking.
We attended UX Camp Copenhagen this month where we met one of the keynote speakers, Aral Balkan. Aral is a designer, coder, and human rights activist, who has spoken at over 75 events in different countries. His keynotes are inspirational talks where he introduces ethical design, criticizes surveillance capitalism and explores topics with great significance.
In this episode you will hear about his journey from becoming aware of his privileges and inequality in the world while growing up in Malaysia, to becoming an activist of human rights in the age of technology. With his work at ind.ie he aspires to create a fairer and more equal internet. Aral believes that everything that is build on the internet should be ethical, free and open. Learn how to be an individual contributor to this movement.
Listen to his talk “Design or Decoration”: vimeo.com/243516363
Check out Aral’s work:
The universal declaration of cyborg rights: www.cyborgrights.eu
ind.ie/
Follow Aral on:
Twitter: @aral
Website: ar.al
Mastodon: mastodon.ar.al
In this extraordinary episode the UX keynote speakers from Bulgaria Web Summit 2018 conference were invited in our remote studio with the hygge design team. You will have a blast listening to this episode, where Dave Hogue, UX Lead at Google in San Francisco 🇺🇲️ and Florence Okoye, UX designer of the natural history museum in London🇬🇧️ discuss their careers and experiences with complex systems.
If you want to connect with the guests find them on Twitter at @DaveHogue and @FINOkoye.
You can find out more about complexity of systems in our hosts (Xhensila Reci) medium blog post: medium.com/@xensila/when-simpl…omplex-290f11774799
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Experience is the best teacher.
We’ve all heard that saying, and it really is true. No matter how intelligent you are or how many diplomas and certificates you’ve got under your belt, until you’re actually working in the real world—with real deadlines, real budgets, and real products—everything is theory.
First, you need experience somewhere, anywhere. The best place to build foundations is in idea generation, working quickly with real briefs/live jobs, internal collaboration opportunities, presenting to clients, and understanding how businesses processes work—and that’s best found in an agency. They usually have many different clients, many types of deliverables, and a diverse range of projects. You’ll hit the ground running and be thrown in the deep end. This is a good thing. You’ll survive, don't worry, but you need to be a sponge in order to accelerate your progress.
In house vs agency vs freelance
Three very different styles of work. One of our previous guests Mark Bowers talked about his experience when changing from one to the other and he said that they all have their different pros and cons but there is also a common through line.
The future of workplaces
Digital nomads
Remote workers
http://s.muz.li/N2VhNTY1Zjgz
Nordic roots and designer heart Get to know Mark Bower - interaction designer @ Google in San Francisco. The different challenges he has encountered on the way to Google, and his life hacks will not only get you through your bike trip to school, but also help you understand how to make the leap from student to professional designer. Â Mark gave a talk at UX Copenhagen 2018,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfOQVefeeNg
The interview with Mark was an overseas phone call and it was hard to keep the high quality of recording. We apologize in advance and we’re working on improving the quality with each episode. Thanks for your understanding and support.
Helle Jensen tells us about her career path into becoming a user experience consultant. What are the possible ways to become a UX designer and why taking it with a light heart will save you a lot of hardships. She is a great storyteller, and in a fun way can really give you the boost that you need to pursue your career.
This is a conversational show focused tech, digital, design, psychology and more. What specifically? Well, you wake up every day and you check a few of your apps. You go to work you look at the screen, you use a lot of websites and maybe a desktop application for work. You go home and read from a tablet or stream a show on Netflix or your smart TV. Digital interfaces surround you everywhere you go. We are going to discuss how these apps and interfaces are created and especially - what is the role of design in it. What is a designer? A designer, beit a product- fashion- or car designer is, by its most traditional definition, the link between form and function. A designer is anyone who makes a plan to create a new tangible or intangible object. To design is to make something that will help people get something done, and to quote Steve Jobs, design is not what it looks like or feels like. Design is how it works. It is a very general term covering almost all areas of expertise but today we focus on the design roles in the digital world since digitalization has taken over the world and now we are shifting towards the experience economy where digital design is the leading success factor. The rise of experience economy If we look at how the economy has evolved, then in the 60’s and 70’s the western corporations only competed over quality and the engineer was the ultimate role model. In the 80s and 90s companies were engaged in price wars and business economics became the central discipline. In the 2000 and 2010s, with the lead of digital revolution, the distinguishing factor for companies has been design. According to many beliefs, since the 90s the experience of a product has become the driving force of economic development, with the “experience economy” replacing the service economy of 80s and 90s. Roles of a designer In the digital design world, planning takes up an important part of the whole process which means there are a lot of different types of jobs to be done. For example, we have the user researcher, information architect, user experience designer, interaction designer, user interface designer, visual designer. So many roles! Since the area is quite new, the titles for those roles are still blurry but we could generalize that there are 3 types of designers: 1. Ones who do the research 2. who plan the structure of the website or app, 3. and those who create the visual graphic design for it.  Now, it depends on the company and the project whether those roles are covered by many specialised experts, or just one person. This was the first radio episode of Digital Nordic Creatives podcast, where we discussed our podcast that started as a school project but our ambition is to make it a conversational platform that brings awareness on all things tech, digital, design, psychology and more. Your feedback is invaluable to us, facebook and twitter as digital nordic creatives. Please throw us a message and let us know what you want us to discuss next. Thank you for listening this time and we’ll see you next time here on Digital Nordic Creatives.