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Always since I was a child, I’ve been fascinated with videos. I loved the figures and the excitement—but most of all the reports. I wanted to be an actor. And I believed that I’d get to do the things that Indiana Jones did and go on exciting activities. I also dreamed up suggestions for videos that my friends and I could render and sun in. But they never went any farther. I did, however, end up working in user experience ( UX). Today, I realize that there’s an element of drama to UX— I hadn’t actually considered it before, but consumer research is story. And to get the most out of consumer research, you need to show a good account where you bring stakeholders—the solution team and choice makers—along and getting them interested in learning more.

Think of your favourite film. More than likely it follows a three-act construction that’s frequently seen in story: the layout, the fight, and the quality. The second act shows what exists now, and it helps you get to know the characters and the challenges and problems that they face. Act two introduces the fight, where the action is. Here, difficulties grow or get worse. And the third and final work is the solution. This is where the issues are resolved and the figures learn and change. I believe that this architecture is also a great way to think about customer study, and I think that it can be particularly helpful in explaining person exploration to others.

Use story as a framework to complete research

It’s sad to say, but many have come to see studies as being inconsequential. If finances or timelines are strong, analysis tends to be one of the first points to go. Instead of investing in study, some goods professionals rely on manufacturers or—worse—their personal judgment to make the “right” options for users based on their experience or accepted best practices. That may get clubs some of the way, but that strategy is so easily miss out on solving people ‘ real problems. To be user-centered, this is something we really avoid. User studies puts style. It keeps it on record, pointing to problems and opportunities. Being aware of the issues with your product and reacting to them can help you stay ahead of your competition.

In the three-act structure, each action corresponds to a part of the process, and each part is important to telling the whole story. Let’s look at the different functions and how they align with consumer analysis.

Act one: layout

The layout is all about understanding the background, and that’s where basic research comes in. Basic research ( also called conceptual, discovery, or original research ) helps you understand people and identify their problems. You’re learning about what exists immediately, the problems people have, and how the problems affect them—just like in the videos. To do foundational research, you can conduct contextual inquiries or diary studies ( or both! ), which can help you start to identify problems as well as opportunities. It doesn’t need to be a huge investment in time or money.

Erika Hall writes about minimum viable ethnography, which can be as simple as spending 15 minutes with a user and asking them one thing:”‘ Walk me through your day yesterday.’ That’s it. Present that one request. Shut up and listen to them for 15 minutes. Do your damndest to keep yourself and your interests out of it. Bam, you’re doing ethnography”. According to Hall, “]This ] will probably prove quite illuminating. In the highly unlikely case that you didn’t learn anything new or useful, carry on with enhanced confidence in your direction”.

This makes total sense to me. And I love that this makes user research so accessible. You don’t need to prepare a lot of documentation, you can just recruit participants and do it! This can yield a wealth of information about your users, and it’ll help you better understand them and what’s going on in their lives. That’s really what act one is all about: understanding where users are coming from.

Jared Spool talks about the importance of foundational research and how it should form the bulk of your research. If you can draw from any additional user data that you can get your hands on, such as surveys or analytics, that can supplement what you’ve heard in the foundational studies or even point to areas that need further investigation. Together, all this data paints a clearer picture of the state of things and all its shortcomings. And that’s the beginning of a compelling story. It’s the point in the plot where you realize that the main characters—or the users in this case—are facing challenges that they need to overcome. Like in the movies, this is where you start to build empathy for the characters and root for them to succeed. And hopefully stakeholders are now doing the same. Their sympathy may be with their business, which could be losing money because users can’t complete certain tasks. Or maybe they do empathize with users ‘ struggles. Either way, act one is your initial hook to get the stakeholders interested and invested.

Once stakeholders begin to understand the value of foundational research, that can open doors to more opportunities that involve users in the decision-making process. And that can guide product teams toward being more user-centered. This benefits everyone—users, the product, and stakeholders. It’s like winning an Oscar in movie terms—it often leads to your product being well received and successful. And this can be an incentive for stakeholders to repeat this process with other products. Storytelling is the key to this process, and knowing how to tell a good story is the only way to get stakeholders to really care about doing more research.

This brings us to act two, where you iteratively evaluate a design or concept to see whether it addresses the issues.

Act two: conflict

Act two is all about digging deeper into the problems that you identified in act one. This usually involves directional research, such as usability tests, where you assess a potential solution ( such as a design ) to see whether it addresses the issues that you found. The issues could include unmet needs or problems with a flow or process that’s tripping users up. Like act two in a movie, more issues will crop up along the way. It’s here that you learn more about the characters as they grow and develop through this act.

Usability tests should typically include around five participants according to Jakob Nielsen, who found that that number of users can usually identify most of the problems:” As you add more and more users, you learn less and less because you will keep seeing the same things again and again… After the fifth user, you are wasting your time by observing the same findings repeatedly but not learning much new”.

There are parallels with storytelling here too, if you try to tell a story with too many characters, the plot may get lost. Having fewer participants means that each user’s struggles will be more memorable and easier to relay to other stakeholders when talking about the research. This can help convey the issues that need to be addressed while also highlighting the value of doing the research in the first place.

Researchers have run usability tests in person for decades, but you can also conduct usability tests remotely using tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or other teleconferencing software. This approach has become increasingly popular since the beginning of the pandemic, and it works well. You can think of in-person usability tests like going to a play and remote sessions as more like watching a movie. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. In-person usability research is a much richer experience. Stakeholders can experience the sessions with other stakeholders. You also get real-time reactions—including surprise, agreement, disagreement, and discussions about what they’re seeing. Much like going to a play, where audiences get to take in the stage, the costumes, the lighting, and the actors ‘ interactions, in-person research lets you see users up close, including their body language, how they interact with the moderator, and how the scene is set up.

If in-person usability testing is like watching a play—staged and controlled—then conducting usability testing in the field is like immersive theater where any two sessions might be very different from one another. You can take usability testing into the field by creating a replica of the space where users interact with the product and then conduct your research there. Or you can go out to meet users at their location to do your research. With either option, you get to see how things work in context, things come up that wouldn’t have in a lab environment—and conversion can shift in entirely different directions. As researchers, you have less control over how these sessions go, but this can sometimes help you understand users even better. Meeting users where they are can provide clues to the external forces that could be affecting how they use your product. In-person usability tests provide another level of detail that’s often missing from remote usability tests.

That’s not to say that the “movies” —remote sessions—aren’t a good option. Remote sessions can reach a wider audience. They allow a lot more stakeholders to be involved in the research and to see what’s going on. And they open the doors to a much wider geographical pool of users. But with any remote session there is the potential of time wasted if participants can’t log in or get their microphone working.

The benefit of usability testing, whether remote or in person, is that you get to see real users interact with the designs in real time, and you can ask them questions to understand their thought processes and grasp of the solution. This can help you not only identify problems but also glean why they’re problems in the first place. Furthermore, you can test hypotheses and gauge whether your thinking is correct. By the end of the sessions, you’ll have a much clearer picture of how usable the designs are and whether they work for their intended purposes. Act two is the heart of the story—where the excitement is—but there can be surprises too. This is equally true of usability tests. Often, participants will say unexpected things, which change the way that you look at things —and these twists in the story can move things in new directions.

Unfortunately, user research is sometimes seen as expendable. And too often usability testing is the only research process that some stakeholders think that they ever need. In fact, if the designs that you’re evaluating in the usability test aren’t grounded in a solid understanding of your users ( foundational research ), there’s not much to be gained by doing usability testing in the first place. That’s because you’re narrowing the focus of what you’re getting feedback on, without understanding the users ‘ needs. As a result, there’s no way of knowing whether the designs might solve a problem that users have. It’s only feedback on a particular design in the context of a usability test.

On the other hand, if you only do foundational research, while you might have set out to solve the right problem, you won’t know whether the thing that you’re building will actually solve that. This illustrates the importance of doing both foundational and directional research.

In act two, stakeholders will—hopefully—get to watch the story unfold in the user sessions, which creates the conflict and tension in the current design by surfacing their highs and lows. And in turn, this can help motivate stakeholders to address the issues that come up.

Act three: resolution

While the first two acts are about understanding the background and the tensions that can propel stakeholders into action, the third part is about resolving the problems from the first two acts. While it’s important to have an audience for the first two acts, it’s crucial that they stick around for the final act. That means the whole product team, including developers, UX practitioners, business analysts, delivery managers, product managers, and any other stakeholders that have a say in the next steps. It allows the whole team to hear users ‘ feedback together, ask questions, and discuss what’s possible within the project’s constraints. And it lets the UX research and design teams clarify, suggest alternatives, or give more context behind their decisions. So you can get everyone on the same page and get agreement on the way forward.

This act is mostly told in voiceover with some audience participation. The researcher is the narrator, who paints a picture of the issues and what the future of the product could look like given the things that the team has learned. They give the stakeholders their recommendations and their guidance on creating this vision.

Nancy Duarte in the Harvard Business Review offers an approach to structuring presentations that follow a persuasive story. ” The most effective presenters use the same techniques as great storytellers: By reminding people of the status quo and then revealing the path to a better way, they set up a conflict that needs to be resolved”, writes Duarte. ” That tension helps them persuade the audience to adopt a new mindset or behave differently”.

This type of structure aligns well with research results, and particularly results from usability tests. It provides evidence for “what is “—the problems that you’ve identified. And “what could be “—your recommendations on how to address them. And so on and so forth.

You can reinforce your recommendations with examples of things that competitors are doing that could address these issues or with examples where competitors are gaining an edge. Or they can be visual, like quick mockups of how a new design could look that solves a problem. These can help generate conversation and momentum. And this continues until the end of the session when you’ve wrapped everything up in the conclusion by summarizing the main issues and suggesting a way forward. This is the part where you reiterate the main themes or problems and what they mean for the product—the denouement of the story. This stage gives stakeholders the next steps and hopefully the momentum to take those steps!

While we are nearly at the end of this story, let’s reflect on the idea that user research is storytelling. All the elements of a good story are there in the three-act structure of user research:

Act one: You meet the protagonists ( the users ) and the antagonists ( the problems affecting users ). This is the beginning of the plot. In act one, researchers might use methods including contextual inquiry, ethnography, diary studies, surveys, and analytics. The output of these methods can include personas, empathy maps, user journeys, and analytics dashboards.

Act two: Next, there’s character development. There’s conflict and tension as the protagonists encounter problems and challenges, which they must overcome. In act two, researchers might use methods including usability testing, competitive benchmarking, and heuristics evaluation. The output of these can include usability findings reports, UX strategy documents, usability guidelines, and best practices.

Act three: The protagonists triumph and you see what a better future looks like. In act three, researchers may use methods including presentation decks, storytelling, and digital media. The output of these can be: presentation decks, video clips, audio clips, and pictures.

The researcher has multiple roles: they’re the storyteller, the director, and the producer. The participants have a small role, but they are significant characters ( in the research ). And the stakeholders are the audience. But the most important thing is to get the story right and to use storytelling to tell users ‘ stories through research. By the end, the stakeholders should walk away with a purpose and an eagerness to resolve the product’s ills.

So the next time that you’re planning research with clients or you’re speaking to stakeholders about research that you’ve done, think about how you can weave in some storytelling. Ultimately, user research is a win-win for everyone, and you just need to get stakeholders interested in how the story ends.

Late last year, it was reported that director Luca Guadagnino is developing a new movie adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis ‘ 1991 book, American Psycho. Ellis has cast doubts on that statement by suggesting it’s more of an idea than a dedicated project, but the announcement sparked mixed emotions. Guadagnino tackling this relevant text through a]… ]

The article 25 Times On, American Psycho’s Finishing Is Also Misunderstood appeared first on Den of Geek.

Whether it &#8217, s in your living space on a flatscreen, in sleep on a product, or at your office on a computer, watching tv is usually a relatively private practice. That&#8217, s not the case at South by Southwest.

The 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival is filled with smaller screen collection getting their common debut on large screens. Some are properly great like the star-studded Apple Television + humor The Studio, while others are lowkey independent and global planes looking for a home. Here are all the shows you &#8217, re going to want to keep an eye on from this year &#8217, s event.

# 1 Happy Family USA

When the Hussein family’s neighbors start to see them as enemy #1 in the aftermath of 9/11, they only have one option: to become # 1 Happy Family USA. Patriotism! Smiles! Fitting in! This satirical adult animated series, created by Ramy Youssef with South Park producer Pam Brady and A24, mines the early 2000s Muslim-American experience for sharp, absurd comedy. It’ll make its world premiere at SXSW before launching the first of two already-commissioned seasons on Prime Video in March. 

Government Cheese

The optimistic, innovative Chambers relatives were doing just fine in 1969 San Fernando Valley without father Virginia while he served his prison time. Now, he’s a free man hoping to shake off his criminal past, reunite with his wife and sons, and make sense of what appear to be episodes of divine intervention in his life. &nbsp,

Created by acclaimed music video director Paul Hunter and screenwriter-producer Ayesha Carr, Government Cheese is a surrealist dramedy based on Hunter’s short film of the same name, which will stream on Apple TV + in April. The 10-episode series stars Silo and Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ David Oyelowo as Hampton Chambers, with Simone Missick (Luke Cage’s Misty Knight) as his wife, Astoria. Expect strangeness.

Happy Face

The Dropout, Dirty John, Dr. Death … behind every hit true crime TV show is a podcast telling the same story, but without pictures and with more ads for Mailchimp. Eight-episode Paramount + series Happy Face is based on the pod of the same name by Melissa G. Moore, a creator with a unique perspective on real-life serial killer Keith” Happy Face” Hunter Jesperson by dint of being his daughter. Starring Dennis Quaid as Jesperson and Annaleigh Ashford as Moore, it lands on March 20.

Spy High

You remember that one teacher with eyes in the back of their head? In 2010, a Philadelphia school district decided to go one better. Using webcams in school-issued laptops, they were alleged to have spied on students in their bedrooms at home, leading to an accusation that 15-year-old Blake Robbins was selling drugs. Robbins brought a lawsuit against them and successfully won damages, and Mark Wahlberg’s production company is here to tell the story in this four-part Prime Video docuseries.

The Studio

Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) got into the film biz because he loves movies, but now that he’s the head of Continental Studios, he’s worried that his job is to ruin them. Thanks to bottom lines, in-fighting execs, and narcissist creatives, it’ll certainly ruin him in this 10-episode industry satire coming to Apple TV + on March 26.

From longtime collaborators Rogen and Evan Goldberg ( Superbad, Knocked Up, This is the End ), The Studio stars Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s CatherineO’Hara and Agatha All Along‘s Kathryn Hahn, with Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston, The Batman‘s Paul Dano, and star cameos aplenty ( Rogen and Goldberg are connected, so expect to see appearances by Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, and more ). Can The Studio reach the same cynical depths as Robert Altman’s 1992 classic The Player? It can try! With any luck, it’ll fare better than HBO’s superhero movie satire The Franchise, which didn’t last longer than a season.

Dates in Real Life

From Norway comes the dramedy Dates in Real Life, a sideways look at dating in the age of technology. Dates in Real Life stars Gina Bernhoft Gørvell as Ida, a woman who thought her virtual relationship with her boyfriend was fulfilling—that is until she sees him in person with another woman. Her virtual reality shattered, Ida must figure out how to relate with others face-to-face. Creator Jakob Rørvik goes beyond banal observations for his award-winning series. &nbsp,

Mix Tape

Jim Sturgess is no stranger to the intersection of romance and music, having starred in the 2007 Beatles jukebox musical Across the Universe. Now, music is set to take him someplace even more exotic than across the universe: a 1989 house party in Sheffield.

A collaborative effort among Canadian, Australian, Finnish, and Irish producers, Mix Tape follows two teens who bond over their love of music and then meet again 20 years later to reflect on what could have been. &nbsp,

Bulldozer

Amid a successful career in casting, voice acting, and playing background roles in sitcoms ( perhaps you remember” Vanessa’s Friend” in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 9? ), Joanna Leeds takes center stage by creating and starring in comedy pilot Bulldozer. &nbsp,

Assisted by notable performers like Nat Faxon, Harvey Guillen, and Mary Steenburgen, Bulldozer depicts one passionate, if misguided, woman trying to find love while lurching from crisis to crisis like some kind of…motorized construction machine. &nbsp,

Stars Diner

Fun fact: the statistic that 90 % of restaurants fail in their first year is a myth. Truthfully, “only” 17 % of restaurants close after year one. But what are the statistics for restaurants that happen to be situated next to a massive volcano that could end all life in Fresno, California?

That’s the situation facing the employees of Stars Diner. This indie TV pilot is directed by Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker and features&nbsp, Natalie Palamides ( who stopped by last year’s SXSW to promote fellow indie TV project The Broadcast ).

The post SXSW 2025 TV Preview: The Studio, Happy Face, # 1 Happy Family USA, and More appeared first on Den of Geek.

Individuals think it’s really questions and answers. It’s not just questions and answers. The best TV survey shows are areas you drop into that feeling immediately like home. They’re a school common room, or a friend’s sofa, or your local pub – somewhere familiar and unchanging that lets you relax and know that you belong… ]…]

The article The Best British TV Quiz Shows Ranked appeared initially on Den of Geek.

Whether it &#8217, s in your living space on a flatscreen, in sleep on a product, or at your office on a computer, watching tv is usually a relatively private practice. That&#8217, s not the case at South by Southwest.

The 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival is filled with smaller screen collection getting their common debut on large screens. Some are correctly great like the star-studded Apple Television + humor The Studio, while others are lowkey independent and global planes looking for a home. Here are all the shows you &#8217, re going to want to keep an eye on from this year &#8217, s event.

# 1 Happy Family USA

When the Hussein family’s neighbors start to see them as enemy #1 in the aftermath of 9/11, they only have one option: to become # 1 Happy Family USA. Patriotism! Smiles! Fitting in! This satirical adult animated series, created by Ramy Youssef with South Park producer Pam Brady and A24, mines the early 2000s Muslim-American experience for sharp, absurd comedy. It’ll make its world premiere at SXSW before launching the first of two already-commissioned seasons on Prime Video in March. 

Government Cheese

The ambitious, unconventional Chambers family were doing just fine in 1969 San Fernando Valley without patriarch Hampton while he served his jail time. Now, he’s a free man hoping to shake off his criminal past, reunite with his wife and sons, and make sense of what appear to be episodes of divine intervention in his life. &nbsp,

Created by acclaimed music video director Paul Hunter and screenwriter-producer Ayesha Carr, Government Cheese is a surrealist dramedy based on Hunter’s short film of the same name, which will stream on Apple TV + in April. The 10-episode series stars Silo and Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ David Oyelowo as Hampton Chambers, with Simone Missick (Luke Cage’s Misty Knight) as his wife, Astoria. Expect strangeness.

Happy Face

The Dropout, Dirty John, Dr. Death … behind every hit true crime TV show is a podcast telling the same story, but without pictures and with more ads for Mailchimp. Eight-episode Paramount + series Happy Face is based on the pod of the same name by Melissa G. Moore, a creator with a unique perspective on real-life serial killer Keith” Happy Face” Hunter Jesperson by dint of being his daughter. Starring Dennis Quaid as Jesperson and Annaleigh Ashford as Moore, it lands on March 20.

Spy High

You remember that one teacher with eyes in the back of their head? In 2010, a Philadelphia school district decided to go one better. Using webcams in school-issued laptops, they were alleged to have spied on students in their bedrooms at home, leading to an accusation that 15-year-old Blake Robbins was selling drugs. Robbins brought a lawsuit against them and successfully won damages, and Mark Wahlberg’s production company is here to tell the story in this four-part Prime Video docuseries.

The Studio

Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) got into the film biz because he loves movies, but now that he’s the head of Continental Studios, he’s worried that his job is to ruin them. Thanks to bottom lines, in-fighting execs, and narcissist creatives, it’ll certainly ruin him in this 10-episode industry satire coming to Apple TV + on March 26.

From longtime collaborators Rogen and Evan Goldberg ( Superbad, Knocked Up, This is the End ), The Studio stars Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s CatherineO’Hara and Agatha All Along‘s Kathryn Hahn, with Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston, The Batman‘s Paul Dano, and star cameos aplenty ( Rogen and Goldberg are connected, so expect to see appearances by Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, and more ). Can The Studio reach the same cynical depths as Robert Altman’s 1992 classic The Player? It can try! With any luck, it’ll fare better than HBO’s superhero movie satire The Franchise, which didn’t last longer than a season.

Dates in Real Life

From Norway comes the dramedy Dates in Real Life, a sideways look at dating in the age of technology. Dates in Real Life stars Gina Bernhoft Gørvell as Ida, a woman who thought her virtual relationship with her boyfriend was fulfilling—that is until she sees him in person with another woman. Her virtual reality shattered, Ida must figure out how to relate with others face-to-face. Creator Jakob Rørvik goes beyond banal observations for his award-winning series. &nbsp,

Mix Tape

Jim Sturgess is no stranger to the intersection of romance and music, having starred in the 2007 Beatles jukebox musical Across the Universe. Now, music is set to take him someplace even more exotic than across the universe: a 1989 house party in Sheffield.

A collaborative effort among Canadian, Australian, Finnish, and Irish producers, Mix Tape follows two teens who bond over their love of music and then meet again 20 years later to reflect on what could have been. &nbsp,

Bulldozer

Amid a successful career in casting, voice acting, and playing background roles in sitcoms ( perhaps you remember” Vanessa’s Friend” in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 9? ), Joanna Leeds takes center stage by creating and starring in comedy pilot Bulldozer. &nbsp,

Assisted by notable performers like Nat Faxon, Harvey Guillen, and Mary Steenburgen, Bulldozer depicts one passionate, if misguided, woman trying to find love while lurching from crisis to crisis like some kind of…motorized construction machine. &nbsp,

Stars Diner

Fun fact: the statistic that 90 % of restaurants fail in their first year is a myth. Truthfully, “only” 17 % of restaurants close after year one. But what are the statistics for restaurants that happen to be situated next to a massive volcano that could end all life in Fresno, California?

That’s the situation facing the employees of Stars Diner. This indie TV pilot is directed by Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker and features&nbsp, Natalie Palamides ( who stopped by last year’s SXSW to promote fellow indie TV project The Broadcast ).

The post SXSW 2025 TV Preview: The Studio, Happy Face, # 1 Happy Family USA, and More appeared first on Den of Geek.

Spring has sprung in Austin, which may mean only one thing: it’s time for the many-hyphenated SXSW Festival! A strange, beautiful, and utterly Austin crossing of music, systems, games, and of course film and television, this event in many ways kicks off the next month’s itinerary in culture and fun. But there is so much ]… ]

The article SXSW 2025 Narrative Film Preview Guide appeared second on Den of Geek.

Whether it &#8217, s in your living space on a flatscreen, in bed on a product, or at your office on a computer, watching tv is usually a relatively private practice. That&#8217, s not the case at South by Southwest.

The 2025 SXSW Film and TV Festival is filled with small screen series getting their public debut on big screens. Some are appropriately huge like the star-studded Apple TV + comedy The Studio, while others are lowkey indie and international pilots looking for a home. Here are all the shows you &#8217, re going to want to keep an eye on from this year &#8217, s festival.

# 1 Happy Family USA

When the Hussein family’s neighbors start to see them as enemy #1 in the aftermath of 9/11, they only have one option: to become # 1 Happy Family USA. Patriotism! Smiles! Fitting in! This satirical adult animated series, created by Ramy Youssef with South Park producer Pam Brady and A24, mines the early 2000s Muslim-American experience for sharp, absurd comedy. It’ll make its world premiere at SXSW before launching the first of two already-commissioned seasons on Prime Video in March. 

Government Cheese

The ambitious, unconventional Chambers family were doing just fine in 1969 San Fernando Valley without patriarch Hampton while he served his jail time. Now, he’s a free man hoping to shake off his criminal past, reunite with his wife and sons, and make sense of what appear to be episodes of divine intervention in his life. &nbsp,

Created by acclaimed music video director Paul Hunter and screenwriter-producer Ayesha Carr, Government Cheese is a surrealist dramedy based on Hunter’s short film of the same name, which will stream on Apple TV + in April. The 10-episode series stars Silo and Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ David Oyelowo as Hampton Chambers, with Simone Missick (Luke Cage’s Misty Knight) as his wife, Astoria. Expect strangeness.

Happy Face

The Dropout, Dirty John, Dr. Death … behind every hit true crime TV show is a podcast telling the same story, but without pictures and with more ads for Mailchimp. Eight-episode Paramount + series Happy Face is based on the pod of the same name by Melissa G. Moore, a creator with a unique perspective on real-life serial killer Keith” Happy Face” Hunter Jesperson by dint of being his daughter. Starring Dennis Quaid as Jesperson and Annaleigh Ashford as Moore, it lands on March 20.

Spy High

You remember that one teacher with eyes in the back of their head? In 2010, a Philadelphia school district decided to go one better. Using webcams in school-issued laptops, they were alleged to have spied on students in their bedrooms at home, leading to an accusation that 15-year-old Blake Robbins was selling drugs. Robbins brought a lawsuit against them and successfully won damages, and Mark Wahlberg’s production company is here to tell the story in this four-part Prime Video docuseries.

The Studio

Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) got into the film biz because he loves movies, but now that he’s the head of Continental Studios, he’s worried that his job is to ruin them. Thanks to bottom lines, in-fighting execs, and narcissist creatives, it’ll certainly ruin him in this 10-episode industry satire coming to Apple TV + on March 26.

From longtime collaborators Rogen and Evan Goldberg ( Superbad, Knocked Up, This is the End ), The Studio stars Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s CatherineO’Hara and Agatha All Along‘s Kathryn Hahn, with Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston, The Batman‘s Paul Dano, and star cameos aplenty ( Rogen and Goldberg are connected, so expect to see appearances by Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, and more ). Can The Studio reach the same cynical depths as Robert Altman’s 1992 classic The Player? It can try! With any luck, it’ll fare better than HBO’s superhero movie satire The Franchise, which didn’t last longer than a season.

Dates in Real Life

From Norway comes the dramedy Dates in Real Life, a sideways look at dating in the age of technology. Dates in Real Life stars Gina Bernhoft Gørvell as Ida, a woman who thought her virtual relationship with her boyfriend was fulfilling—that is until she sees him in person with another woman. Her virtual reality shattered, Ida must figure out how to relate with others face-to-face. Creator Jakob Rørvik goes beyond banal observations for his award-winning series. &nbsp,

Mix Tape

Jim Sturgess is no stranger to the intersection of romance and music, having starred in the 2007 Beatles jukebox musical Across the Universe. Now, music is set to take him someplace even more exotic than across the universe: a 1989 house party in Sheffield.

A collaborative effort among Canadian, Australian, Finnish, and Irish producers, Mix Tape follows two teens who bond over their love of music and then meet again 20 years later to reflect on what could have been. &nbsp,

Bulldozer

Amid a successful career in casting, voice acting, and playing background roles in sitcoms ( perhaps you remember” Vanessa’s Friend” in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 9? ), Joanna Leeds takes center stage by creating and starring in comedy pilot Bulldozer. &nbsp,

Assisted by notable performers like Nat Faxon, Harvey Guillen, and Mary Steenburgen, Bulldozer depicts one passionate, if misguided, woman trying to find love while lurching from crisis to crisis like some kind of…motorized construction machine. &nbsp,

Stars Diner

Fun fact: the statistic that 90 % of restaurants fail in their first year is a myth. Truthfully, “only” 17 % of restaurants close after year one. But what are the statistics for restaurants that happen to be situated next to a massive volcano that could end all life in Fresno, California?

That’s the situation facing the employees of Stars Diner. This indie TV pilot is directed by Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker and features&nbsp, Natalie Palamides ( who stopped by last year’s SXSW to promote fellow indie TV project The Broadcast ).

The post SXSW 2025 TV Preview: The Studio, Happy Face, # 1 Happy Family USA, and More appeared first on Den of Geek.

Jenna Ortega has more than once acknowledged that before Wednesday came down, friends and family in her life were now comparing her to the Addams Family’s sad girl, a figure originally created by Charles Addams more than 90 decades earlier. With season 2 almost upon us, she appears poised to create that image specific. During ]… ]

The article Wednesday: Jenna Ortega Confirms Season 2 May Swim Deeper into Addams Family Lore appeared first on Den of Geek.

Whether it &#8217, s in your living space on a flatscreen, in sleep on a product, or at your office on a computer, watching tv is usually a relatively private practice. That&#8217, s not the case at South by Southwest.

The 2025 SXSW Film and TV Festival is filled with small screen series getting their public debut on big screens. Some are appropriately huge like the star-studded Apple TV + comedy The Studio, while others are lowkey indie and international pilots looking for a home. Here are all the shows you &#8217, re going to want to keep an eye on from this year &#8217, s festival.

# 1 Happy Family USA

When the Hussein family’s neighbors start to see them as enemy #1 in the aftermath of 9/11, they only have one option: to become # 1 Happy Family USA. Patriotism! Smiles! Fitting in! This satirical adult animated series, created by Ramy Youssef with South Park producer Pam Brady and A24, mines the early 2000s Muslim-American experience for sharp, absurd comedy. It’ll make its world premiere at SXSW before launching the first of two already-commissioned seasons on Prime Video in March. 

Government Cheese

The ambitious, unconventional Chambers family were doing just fine in 1969 San Fernando Valley without patriarch Hampton while he served his jail time. Now, he’s a free man hoping to shake off his criminal past, reunite with his wife and sons, and make sense of what appear to be episodes of divine intervention in his life. &nbsp,

Created by acclaimed music video director Paul Hunter and screenwriter-producer Ayesha Carr, Government Cheese is a surrealist dramedy based on Hunter’s short film of the same name, which will stream on Apple TV + in April. The 10-episode series stars Silo and Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ David Oyelowo as Hampton Chambers, with Simone Missick (Luke Cage’s Misty Knight) as his wife, Astoria. Expect strangeness.

Happy Face

The Dropout, Dirty John, Dr. Death … behind every hit true crime TV show is a podcast telling the same story, but without pictures and with more ads for Mailchimp. Eight-episode Paramount + series Happy Face is based on the pod of the same name by Melissa G. Moore, a creator with a unique perspective on real-life serial killer Keith” Happy Face” Hunter Jesperson by dint of being his daughter. Starring Dennis Quaid as Jesperson and Annaleigh Ashford as Moore, it lands on March 20.

Spy High

You remember that one teacher with eyes in the back of their head? In 2010, a Philadelphia school district decided to go one better. Using webcams in school-issued laptops, they were alleged to have spied on students in their bedrooms at home, leading to an accusation that 15-year-old Blake Robbins was selling drugs. Robbins brought a lawsuit against them and successfully won damages, and Mark Wahlberg’s production company is here to tell the story in this four-part Prime Video docuseries.

The Studio

Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) got into the film biz because he loves movies, but now that he’s the head of Continental Studios, he’s worried that his job is to ruin them. Thanks to bottom lines, in-fighting execs, and narcissist creatives, it’ll certainly ruin him in this 10-episode industry satire coming to Apple TV + on March 26.

From longtime collaborators Rogen and Evan Goldberg ( Superbad, Knocked Up, This is the End ), The Studio stars Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s CatherineO’Hara and Agatha All Along‘s Kathryn Hahn, with Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston, The Batman‘s Paul Dano, and star cameos aplenty ( Rogen and Goldberg are connected, so expect to see appearances by Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, and more ). Can The Studio reach the same cynical depths as Robert Altman’s 1992 classic The Player? It can try! With any luck, it’ll fare better than HBO’s superhero movie satire The Franchise, which didn’t last longer than a season.

Dates in Real Life

From Norway comes the dramedy Dates in Real Life, a sideways look at dating in the age of technology. Dates in Real Life stars Gina Bernhoft Gørvell as Ida, a woman who thought her virtual relationship with her boyfriend was fulfilling—that is until she sees him in person with another woman. Her virtual reality shattered, Ida must figure out how to relate with others face-to-face. Creator Jakob Rørvik goes beyond banal observations for his award-winning series. &nbsp,

Mix Tape

Jim Sturgess is no stranger to the intersection of romance and music, having starred in the 2007 Beatles jukebox musical Across the Universe. Now, music is set to take him someplace even more exotic than across the universe: a 1989 house party in Sheffield.

A collaborative effort among Canadian, Australian, Finnish, and Irish producers, Mix Tape follows two teens who bond over their love of music and then meet again 20 years later to reflect on what could have been. &nbsp,

Bulldozer

Amid a successful career in casting, voice acting, and playing background roles in sitcoms ( perhaps you remember” Vanessa’s Friend” in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 9? ), Joanna Leeds takes center stage by creating and starring in comedy pilot Bulldozer. &nbsp,

Assisted by notable performers like Nat Faxon, Harvey Guillen, and Mary Steenburgen, Bulldozer depicts one passionate, if misguided, woman trying to find love while lurching from crisis to crisis like some kind of…motorized construction machine. &nbsp,

Stars Diner

Fun fact: the statistic that 90 % of restaurants fail in their first year is a myth. Truthfully, “only” 17 % of restaurants close after year one. But what are the statistics for restaurants that happen to be situated next to a massive volcano that could end all life in Fresno, California?

That’s the situation facing the employees of Stars Diner. This indie TV pilot is directed by Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker and features&nbsp, Natalie Palamides ( who stopped by last year’s SXSW to promote fellow indie TV project The Broadcast ).

The post SXSW 2025 TV Preview: The Studio, Happy Face, # 1 Happy Family USA, and More appeared first on Den of Geek.

The Star Wars” Power The Force” series from RSVLTS enjoys several fan-favorite characters and special devices that have powered the world throughout the ages. ” The collection includes fantastical tech-themed array of Star Wars designs that feature some classic and new droids and lightsabers from over the decades, all available on RSVLTS signature KUNUFLEX™ material with ]… ]

The article Link Tank: New RSVLTS Collection Will ‘ Power The Force ‘ for Star Wars Fans appeared second on Den of Geek.

Whether it &#8217, s in your living space on a flatscreen, in sleep on a product, or at your office on a computer, watching tv is usually a relatively private practice. That&#8217, s not the case at South by Southwest.

The 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival is filled with smaller screen collection getting their common debut on large screens. Some are properly great like the star-studded Apple TV + humor The Studio, while others are lowkey independent and global planes looking for a home. Here are all the shows you &#8217, re going to want to keep an eye on from this year &#8217, s festival.

# 1 Happy Family USA

When the Hussein family’s neighbors start to see them as enemy #1 in the aftermath of 9/11, they only have one option: to become # 1 Happy Family USA. Patriotism! Smiles! Fitting in! This satirical adult animated series, created by Ramy Youssef with South Park producer Pam Brady and A24, mines the early 2000s Muslim-American experience for sharp, absurd comedy. It’ll make its world premiere at SXSW before launching the first of two already-commissioned seasons on Prime Video in March. 

Government Cheese

The ambitious, unconventional Chambers family were doing just fine in 1969 San Fernando Valley without patriarch Hampton while he served his jail time. Now, he’s a free man hoping to shake off his criminal past, reunite with his wife and sons, and make sense of what appear to be episodes of divine intervention in his life. &nbsp,

Created by acclaimed music video director Paul Hunter and screenwriter-producer Ayesha Carr, Government Cheese is a surrealist dramedy based on Hunter’s short film of the same name, which will stream on Apple TV + in April. The 10-episode series stars Silo and Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ David Oyelowo as Hampton Chambers, with Simone Missick (Luke Cage’s Misty Knight) as his wife, Astoria. Expect strangeness.

Happy Face

The Dropout, Dirty John, Dr. Death … behind every hit true crime TV show is a podcast telling the same story, but without pictures and with more ads for Mailchimp. Eight-episode Paramount + series Happy Face is based on the pod of the same name by Melissa G. Moore, a creator with a unique perspective on real-life serial killer Keith” Happy Face” Hunter Jesperson by dint of being his daughter. Starring Dennis Quaid as Jesperson and Annaleigh Ashford as Moore, it lands on March 20.

Spy High

You remember that one teacher with eyes in the back of their head? In 2010, a Philadelphia school district decided to go one better. Using webcams in school-issued laptops, they were alleged to have spied on students in their bedrooms at home, leading to an accusation that 15-year-old Blake Robbins was selling drugs. Robbins brought a lawsuit against them and successfully won damages, and Mark Wahlberg’s production company is here to tell the story in this four-part Prime Video docuseries.

The Studio

Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) got into the film biz because he loves movies, but now that he’s the head of Continental Studios, he’s worried that his job is to ruin them. Thanks to bottom lines, in-fighting execs, and narcissist creatives, it’ll certainly ruin him in this 10-episode industry satire coming to Apple TV + on March 26.

From longtime collaborators Rogen and Evan Goldberg ( Superbad, Knocked Up, This is the End ), The Studio stars Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s CatherineO’Hara and Agatha All Along‘s Kathryn Hahn, with Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston, The Batman‘s Paul Dano, and star cameos aplenty ( Rogen and Goldberg are connected, so expect to see appearances by Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, and more ). Can The Studio reach the same cynical depths as Robert Altman’s 1992 classic The Player? It can try! With any luck, it’ll fare better than HBO’s superhero movie satire The Franchise, which didn’t last longer than a season.

Dates in Real Life

From Norway comes the dramedy Dates in Real Life, a sideways look at dating in the age of technology. Dates in Real Life stars Gina Bernhoft Gørvell as Ida, a woman who thought her virtual relationship with her boyfriend was fulfilling—that is until she sees him in person with another woman. Her virtual reality shattered, Ida must figure out how to relate with others face-to-face. Creator Jakob Rørvik goes beyond banal observations for his award-winning series. &nbsp,

Mix Tape

Jim Sturgess is no stranger to the intersection of romance and music, having starred in the 2007 Beatles jukebox musical Across the Universe. Now, music is set to take him someplace even more exotic than across the universe: a 1989 house party in Sheffield.

A collaborative effort among Canadian, Australian, Finnish, and Irish producers, Mix Tape follows two teens who bond over their love of music and then meet again 20 years later to reflect on what could have been. &nbsp,

Bulldozer

Amid a successful career in casting, voice acting, and playing background roles in sitcoms ( perhaps you remember” Vanessa’s Friend “in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 9? ), Joanna Leeds takes center stage by creating and starring in comedy pilot Bulldozer. &nbsp,

Assisted by notable performers like Nat Faxon, Harvey Guillen, and Mary Steenburgen, Bulldozer depicts one passionate, if misguided, woman trying to find love while lurching from crisis to crisis like some kind of…motorized construction machine. &nbsp,

Stars Diner

Fun fact: the statistic that 90 % of restaurants fail in their first year is a myth. Truthfully”, only” 17 % of restaurants close after year one. But what are the statistics for restaurants that happen to be situated next to a massive volcano that could end all life in Fresno, California?

That’s the situation facing the employees of Stars Diner. This indie TV pilot is directed by Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker and features&nbsp, Natalie Palamides ( who stopped by last year’s SXSW to promote fellow indie TV project The Broadcast ).

The post SXSW 2025 TV Preview: The Studio, Happy Face, # 1 Happy Family USA, and More appeared first on Den of Geek.

Whether it’s in your living space on a flatscreen, in bed on a product, or at your office on a computer, watching tv is usually a fairly personal experience. That’s not the situation at South by Southwest. The 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival is filled with smaller screen set getting their common debut on ]…]

The article SXSW 2025 Screen Preview: The Studio, Happy Face,# 1 Happy Family USA, and More appeared first on Den of Geek.

Whether it &#8217, s in your living space on a flatscreen, in sleep on a product, or at your office on a computer, watching tv is usually a relatively private practice. That&#8217, s not the case at South by Southwest.

The 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival is filled with smaller screen collection getting their common debut on large screens. Some are properly great like the star-studded Apple Television + sitcom The Studio, while others are lowkey indie and global planes looking for a home. Here are all the shows you &#8217, re going to want to keep an eye on from this year &#8217, s festival.

# 1 Happy Family USA

When the Hussein family’s neighbors start to see them as enemy #1 in the aftermath of 9/11, they only have one option: to become # 1 Happy Family USA. Patriotism! Smiles! Fitting in! This satirical adult animated series, created by Ramy Youssef with South Park producer Pam Brady and A24, mines the early 2000s Muslim-American experience for sharp, absurd comedy. It’ll make its world premiere at SXSW before launching the first of two already-commissioned seasons on Prime Video in March. 

Government Cheese

The ambitious, unconventional Chambers family were doing just fine in 1969 San Fernando Valley without patriarch Hampton while he served his jail time. Now, he’s a free man hoping to shake off his criminal past, reunite with his wife and sons, and make sense of what appear to be episodes of divine intervention in his life. &nbsp,

Created by acclaimed music video director Paul Hunter and screenwriter-producer Ayesha Carr, Government Cheese is a surrealist dramedy based on Hunter’s short film of the same name, which will stream on Apple TV + in April. The 10-episode series stars Silo and Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ David Oyelowo as Hampton Chambers, with Simone Missick (Luke Cage’s Misty Knight) as his wife, Astoria. Expect strangeness.

Happy Face

The Dropout, Dirty John, Dr. Death … behind every hit true crime TV show is a podcast telling the same story, but without pictures and with more ads for Mailchimp. Eight-episode Paramount + series Happy Face is based on the pod of the same name by Melissa G. Moore, a creator with a unique perspective on real-life serial killer Keith” Happy Face” Hunter Jesperson by dint of being his daughter. Starring Dennis Quaid as Jesperson and Annaleigh Ashford as Moore, it lands on March 20.

Spy High

You remember that one teacher with eyes in the back of their head? In 2010, a Philadelphia school district decided to go one better. Using webcams in school-issued laptops, they were alleged to have spied on students in their bedrooms at home, leading to an accusation that 15-year-old Blake Robbins was selling drugs. Robbins brought a lawsuit against them and successfully won damages, and Mark Wahlberg’s production company is here to tell the story in this four-part Prime Video docuseries.

The Studio

Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) got into the film biz because he loves movies, but now that he’s the head of Continental Studios, he’s worried that his job is to ruin them. Thanks to bottom lines, in-fighting execs, and narcissist creatives, it’ll certainly ruin him in this 10-episode industry satire coming to Apple TV + on March 26.

From longtime collaborators Rogen and Evan Goldberg ( Superbad, Knocked Up, This is the End ), The Studio stars Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s CatherineO’Hara and Agatha All Along‘s Kathryn Hahn, with Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston, The Batman‘s Paul Dano, and star cameos aplenty ( Rogen and Goldberg are connected, so expect to see appearances by Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, and more ). Can The Studio reach the same cynical depths as Robert Altman’s 1992 classic The Player? It can try! With any luck, it’ll fare better than HBO’s superhero movie satire The Franchise, which didn’t last longer than a season.

Dates in Real Life

From Norway comes the dramedy Dates in Real Life, a sideways look at dating in the age of technology. Dates in Real Life stars Gina Bernhoft Gørvell as Ida, a woman who thought her virtual relationship with her boyfriend was fulfilling—that is until she sees him in person with another woman. Her virtual reality shattered, Ida must figure out how to relate with others face-to-face. Creator Jakob Rørvik goes beyond banal observations for his award-winning series. &nbsp,

Mix Tape

Jim Sturgess is no stranger to the intersection of romance and music, having starred in the 2007 Beatles jukebox musical Across the Universe. Now, music is set to take him someplace even more exotic than across the universe: a 1989 house party in Sheffield.

A collaborative effort among Canadian, Australian, Finnish, and Irish producers, Mix Tape follows two teens who bond over their love of music and then meet again 20 years later to reflect on what could have been. &nbsp,

Bulldozer

Amid a successful career in casting, voice acting, and playing background roles in sitcoms ( perhaps you remember” Vanessa’s Friend” in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 9? ), Joanna Leeds takes center stage by creating and starring in comedy pilot Bulldozer. &nbsp,

Assisted by notable performers like Nat Faxon, Harvey Guillen, and Mary Steenburgen, Bulldozer depicts one passionate, if misguided, woman trying to find love while lurching from crisis to crisis like some kind of…motorized construction machine. &nbsp,

Stars Diner

Fun fact: the statistic that 90 % of restaurants fail in their first year is a myth. Truthfully, “only” 17 % of restaurants close after year one. But what are the statistics for restaurants that happen to be situated next to a massive volcano that could end all life in Fresno, California?

That’s the situation facing the employees of Stars Diner. This indie TV pilot is directed by Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker and features&nbsp, Natalie Palamides ( who stopped by last year’s SXSW to promote fellow indie TV project The Broadcast ).

The article SXSW 2025 Screen Preview: The Studio, Happy Face,# 1 Happy Family USA, and More appeared first on Den of Geek.

We agree: the computer-generated heads could be a great fit for personas—but not for the purpose you might think. Ironically, the website highlights the core issue of this very common design method: the person ( a ) does not exist. Like the photographs, identities are artificially made. Knowledge is taken out of natural environment and recombined into an isolated preview that’s detached from reality.

But strangely enough, manufacturers use personalities to encourage their style for the real world.

Personas: A action up

Most manufacturers have created, used, or come across personalities at least once in their profession. In their content” Personas- A Plain Introduction”, the Interaction Design Foundation defines profile as “fictional characters, which you create based upon your study in order to reflect the unique user types that might use your service, product, site, or brand”. In their most complete expression, personas typically consist of a name, profile picture, quotes, demographics, goals, needs, behavior in relation to a certain service/product, emotions, and motivations ( for example, see Creative Companion’s Persona Core Poster ). The purpose of personas, as stated by design agency Designit, is” to make the research relatable, ]and ] easy to communicate, digest, reference, and apply to product and service development”.

The decontextualization of personalities

Personas are common because they make “dry” research information more realistic, more people. However, this strategy constrains the study’s data research in such a way that the investigated customers are removed from their unique settings. As a result, personalities don’t describe important factors that make you realize their decision-making method or allow you to connect to users ‘ thoughts and behavior, they lack stories. You understand what the image did, but you don’t have the background to know why. You end up with depictions of people that are really less people.

This “decontextualization” we see in identities happens in four way, which we’ll discuss below.

Identities assume people are dynamic

Although many companies still try to box in their employees and customers with outdated personality tests ( referring to you, Myers-Briggs ), here’s a painfully obvious truth: people are not a fixed set of features. You act, think, and feel different according to the conditions you experience. You appear distinct to different people, you may act helpful to some, tough to others. And you change your mind all the time about selections you’ve taken.

Modern psychology agree that while persons usually behave according to certain styles, it’s actually a combination of history and culture that determines how people act and take decisions. The context—the atmosphere, the effect of other people, your feelings, the whole story that led up to a situation—determines the kind of person you are in each particular time.

In their effort to reduce reality, personalities do not take this variability into consideration, they present a person as a predetermined set of features. Like personality tests, personas snatch people away from real life. Even worse, people are reduced to a label and categorized as” that kind of person” with no means to exercise their innate flexibility. This practice reinforces stereotypes, lowers diversity, and doesn’t reflect reality.

Personas focus on individuals, not the environment

In the real world, you’re designing for a context, not for an individual. Each person lives in a family, a community, an ecosystem, where there are environmental, political, and social factors you need to consider. A design is never meant for a single user. Rather, you design for one or more particular contexts in which many people might use that product. Personas, however, show the user alone rather than describe how the user relates to the environment.

Would you always make the same decision over and over again? Maybe you’re a committed vegan but still decide to buy some meat when your relatives are coming over. As they depend on different situations and variables, your decisions—and behavior, opinions, and statements —are not absolute but highly contextual. The persona that “represents” you wouldn’t take into account this dependency, because it doesn’t specify the premises of your decisions. It doesn’t provide a justification of why you act the way you do. Personas enact the well-known bias called fundamental attribution error: explaining others ‘ behavior too much by their personality and too little by the situation.

As mentioned by the Interaction Design Foundation, personas are usually placed in a scenario that’s a” specific context with a problem they want to or have to solve “—does that mean context actually is considered? Unfortunately, what often happens is that you take a fictional character and based on that fiction determine how this character might deal with a certain situation. This is made worse by the fact that you haven’t even fully investigated and understood the current context of the people your persona seeks to represent, so how could you possibly understand how they would act in new situations?

Personas are meaningless averages

As mentioned in Shlomo Goltz’s introductory article on Smashing Magazine,” a persona is depicted as a specific person but is not a real individual, rather, it is synthesized from observations of many people”. A well-known critique to this aspect of personas is that the average person does not exist, as per the famous example of the USA Air Force designing planes based on the average of 140 of their pilots ‘ physical dimensions and not a single pilot actually fitting within that average seat.

The same limitation applies to mental aspects of people. Have you ever heard a famous person say,” They took what I said out of context! They used my words, but I didn’t mean it like that”. The celebrity’s statement was reported literally, but the reporter failed to explain the context around the statement and didn’t describe the non-verbal expressions. As a result, the intended meaning was lost. You do the same when you create personas: you collect somebody’s statement ( or goal, or need, or emotion ), of which the meaning can only be understood if you provide its own specific context, yet report it as an isolated finding.

But personas go a step further, extracting a decontextualized finding and joining it with another decontextualized finding from somebody else. The resulting set of findings often does not make sense: it’s unclear, or even contrasting, because it lacks the underlying reasons on why and how that finding has arisen. It lacks meaning. And the persona doesn’t give you the full background of the person ( s ) to uncover this meaning: you would need to dive into the raw data for each single persona item to find it. What, then, is the usefulness of the persona?

The relatability of personas is deceiving

To a certain extent, designers realize that a persona is a lifeless average. To overcome this, designers invent and add “relatable” details to personas to make them resemble real individuals. Nothing captures the absurdity of this better than a sentence by the Interaction Design Foundation:” Add a few fictional personal details to make the persona a realistic character”. In other words, you add non-realism in an attempt to create more realism. You deliberately obscure the fact that” John Doe” is an abstract representation of research findings, but wouldn’t it be much more responsible to emphasize that John is only an abstraction? If something is artificial, let’s present it as such.

It’s the finishing touch of a persona’s decontextualization: after having assumed that people’s personalities are fixed, dismissed the importance of their environment, and hidden meaning by joining isolated, non-generalizable findings, designers invent new context to create ( their own ) meaning. In doing so, as with everything they create, they introduce a host of biases. As phrased by Designit, as designers we can” contextualize]the persona ] based on our reality and experience. We create connections that are familiar to us“. This practice reinforces stereotypes, doesn’t reflect real-world diversity, and gets further away from people’s actual reality with every detail added.

To do good design research, we should report the reality “as-is” and make it relatable for our audience, so everyone can use their own empathy and develop their own interpretation and emotional response.

Dynamic Selves: The alternative to personas

If we shouldn’t use personas, what should we do instead?

Designit has proposed using Mindsets instead of personas. Each Mindset is a” spectrum of attitudes and emotional responses that different people have within the same context or life experience”. It challenges designers to not get fixated on a single user’s way of being. Unfortunately, while being a step in the right direction, this proposal doesn’t take into account that people are part of an environment that determines their personality, their behavior, and, yes, their mindset. Therefore, Mindsets are also not absolute but change in regard to the situation. The question remains, what determines a certain Mindset?

Another alternative comes from Margaret P., author of the article” Kill Your Personas“, who has argued for replacing personas with persona spectrums that consist of a range of user abilities. For example, a visual impairment could be permanent ( blindness ), temporary ( recovery from eye surgery ), or situational (screen glare ). Persona spectrums are highly useful for more inclusive and context-based design, as they’re based on the understanding that the context is the pattern, not the personality. Their limitation, however, is that they have a very functional take on users that misses the relatability of a real person taken from within a spectrum.

In developing an alternative to personas, we aim to transform the standard design process to be context-based. Contexts are generalizable and have patterns that we can identify, just like we tried to do previously with people. So how do we identify these patterns? How do we ensure truly context-based design?

Understand real individuals in multiple contexts

Nothing is more relatable and inspiring than reality. Therefore, we have to understand real individuals in their multi-faceted contexts, and use this understanding to fuel our design. We refer to this approach as Dynamic Selves.

Let’s take a look at what the approach looks like, based on an example of how one of us applied it in a recent project that researched habits of Italians around energy consumption. We drafted a design research plan aimed at investigating people’s attitudes toward energy consumption and sustainable behavior, with a focus on smart thermostats.

1. Choose the right sample

When we argue against personas, we’re often challenged with quotes such as” Where are you going to find a single person that encapsulates all the information from one of these advanced personas]? ]” The answer is simple: you don’t have to. You don’t need to have information about many people for your insights to be deep and meaningful.

In qualitative research, validity does not derive from quantity but from accurate sampling. You select the people that best represent the “population” you’re designing for. If this sample is chosen well, and you have understood the sampled people in sufficient depth, you’re able to infer how the rest of the population thinks and behaves. There’s no need to study seven Susans and five Yuriys, one of each will do.

Similarly, you don’t need to understand Susan in fifteen different contexts. Once you’ve seen her in a couple of diverse situations, you’ve understood the scheme of Susan’s response to different contexts. Not Susan as an atomic being but Susan in relation to the surrounding environment: how she might act, feel, and think in different situations.

Given that each person is representative of a part of the total population you’re researching, it becomes clear why each should be represented as an individual, as each already is an abstraction of a larger group of individuals in similar contexts. You don’t want abstractions of abstractions! These selected people need to be understood and shown in their full expression, remaining in their microcosmos—and if you want to identify patterns you can focus on identifying patterns in contexts.

Yet the question remains: how do you select a representative sample? First of all, you have to consider what’s the target audience of the product or service you are designing: it might be useful to look at the company’s goals and strategy, the current customer base, and/or a possible future target audience.

In our example project, we were designing an application for those who own a smart thermostat. In the future, everyone could have a smart thermostat in their house. Right now, though, only early adopters own one. To build a significant sample, we needed to understand the reason why these early adopters became such. We therefore recruited by asking people why they had a smart thermostat and how they got it. There were those who had chosen to buy it, those who had been influenced by others to buy it, and those who had found it in their house. So we selected representatives of these three situations, from different age groups and geographical locations, with an equal balance of tech savvy and non-tech savvy participants.

2. Conduct your research

After having chosen and recruited your sample, conduct your research using ethnographic methodologies. This will make your qualitative data rich with anecdotes and examples. In our example project, given COVID-19 restrictions, we converted an in-house ethnographic research effort into remote family interviews, conducted from home and accompanied by diary studies.

To gain an in-depth understanding of attitudes and decision-making trade-offs, the research focus was not limited to the interviewee alone but deliberately included the whole family. Each interviewee would tell a story that would then become much more lively and precise with the corrections or additional details coming from wives, husbands, children, or sometimes even pets. We also focused on the relationships with other meaningful people ( such as colleagues or distant family ) and all the behaviors that resulted from those relationships. This wide research focus allowed us to shape a vivid mental image of dynamic situations with multiple actors.

It’s essential that the scope of the research remains broad enough to be able to include all possible actors. Therefore, it normally works best to define broad research areas with macro questions. Interviews are best set up in a semi-structured way, where follow-up questions will dive into topics mentioned spontaneously by the interviewee. This open-minded “plan to be surprised” will yield the most insightful findings. When we asked one of our participants how his family regulated the house temperature, he replied,” My wife has not installed the thermostat’s app—she uses WhatsApp instead. If she wants to turn on the heater and she is not home, she will text me. I am her thermostat”.

3. Analysis: Create the Dynamic Selves

During the research analysis, you start representing each individual with multiple Dynamic Selves, each” Self” representing one of the contexts you have investigated. The core of each Dynamic Self is a quote, which comes supported by a photo and a few relevant demographics that illustrate the wider context. The research findings themselves will show which demographics are relevant to show. In our case, as our research focused on families and their lifestyle to understand their needs for thermal regulation, the important demographics were family type, number and nature of houses owned, economic status, and technological maturity. ( We also included the individual’s name and age, but they’re optional—we included them to ease the stakeholders ‘ transition from personas and be able to connect multiple actions and contexts to the same person ).

To capture exact quotes, interviews need to be video-recorded and notes need to be taken verbatim as much as possible. This is essential to the truthfulness of the several Selves of each participant. In the case of real-life ethnographic research, photos of the context and anonymized actors are essential to build realistic Selves. Ideally, these photos should come directly from field research, but an evocative and representative image will work, too, as long as it’s realistic and depicts meaningful actions that you associate with your participants. For example, one of our interviewees told us about his mountain home where he used to spend every weekend with his family. Therefore, we portrayed him hiking with his little daughter.

At the end of the research analysis, we displayed all of the Selves ‘” cards” on a single canvas, categorized by activities. Each card displayed a situation, represented by a quote and a unique photo. All participants had multiple cards about themselves.

4. Identify design opportunities

Once you have collected all main quotes from the interview transcripts and diaries, and laid them all down as Self cards, you will see patterns emerge. These patterns will highlight the opportunity areas for new product creation, new functionalities, and new services—for new design.

In our example project, there was a particularly interesting insight around the concept of humidity. We realized that people don’t know what humidity is and why it is important to monitor it for health: an environment that’s too dry or too wet can cause respiratory problems or worsen existing ones. This highlighted a big opportunity for our client to educate users on this concept and become a health advisor.

Benefits of Dynamic Selves

When you use the Dynamic Selves approach in your research, you start to notice unique social relations, peculiar situations real people face and the actions that follow, and that people are surrounded by changing environments. In our thermostat project, we have come to know one of the participants, Davide, as a boyfriend, dog-lover, and tech enthusiast.

Davide is an individual we might have once reduced to a persona called “tech enthusiast”. But we can have tech enthusiasts who have families or are single, who are rich or poor. Their motivations and priorities when deciding to purchase a new thermostat can be opposite according to these different frames.

Once you have understood Davide in multiple situations, and for each situation have understood in sufficient depth the underlying reasons for his behavior, you’re able to generalize how he would act in another situation. You can use your understanding of him to infer what he would think and do in the contexts ( or scenarios ) that you design for.

The Dynamic Selves approach aims to dismiss the conflicted dual purpose of personas—to summarize and empathize at the same time—by separating your research summary from the people you’re seeking to empathize with. This is important because our empathy for people is affected by scale: the bigger the group, the harder it is to feel empathy for others. We feel the strongest empathy for individuals we can personally relate to.

If you take a real person as inspiration for your design, you no longer need to create an artificial character. No more inventing details to make the character more “realistic”, no more unnecessary additional bias. It’s simply how this person is in real life. In fact, in our experience, personas quickly become nothing more than a name in our priority guides and prototype screens, as we all know that these characters don’t really exist.

Another powerful benefit of the Dynamic Selves approach is that it raises the stakes of your work: if you mess up your design, someone real, a person you and the team know and have met, is going to feel the consequences. It might stop you from taking shortcuts and will remind you to conduct daily checks on your designs.

And finally, real people in their specific contexts are a better basis for anecdotal storytelling and therefore are more effective in persuasion. Documentation of real research is essential in achieving this result. It adds weight and urgency behind your design arguments:” When I met Alessandra, the conditions of her workplace struck me. Noise, bad ergonomics, lack of light, you name it. If we go for this functionality, I’m afraid we’re going to add complexity to her life”.

Conclusion

Designit mentioned in their article on Mindsets that “design thinking tools offer a shortcut to deal with reality’s complexities, but this process of simplification can sometimes flatten out people’s lives into a few general characteristics”. Unfortunately, personas have been culprits in a crime of oversimplification. They are unsuited to represent the complex nature of our users ‘ decision-making processes and don’t account for the fact that humans are immersed in contexts.

Design needs simplification but not generalization. You have to look at the research elements that stand out: the sentences that captured your attention, the images that struck you, the sounds that linger. Portray those, use them to describe the person in their multiple contexts. Both insights and people come with a context, they cannot be cut from that context because it would remove meaning.

It’s high time for design to move away from fiction, and embrace reality—in its messy, surprising, and unquantifiable beauty—as our guide and inspiration.

But what on earth is a zealous stress?

Envision a person determined to do it all. She has two wonderful children whom she, along with her father who is also working mildly, is homeschooling during a crisis. She has a demanding customer fill at work—all of whom she loves. She gets up early to get some movement in ( or frequently catch up on work ), does meal training as the children are eating breakfast, and gets to work while positioning herself near “fourth quality” to listen in as she juggles clients, jobs, and expenses. Sound like a bit? Yet with a supportive group both at home and at work, it is.

Sounds like this person has too much on her disk and needs self-care. But no, she doesn’t have occasion for that. In truth, she starts to feel like she’s dropping balloons. Never accomplishing much. There’s not enough of her to be here and that, she is trying to divide her head in two all the time, all day, every day. She starts to fear herself. And as those thoughts creep in more and more, her domestic tale becomes more and more important.

Immediately she KNOWS what she needs to do! She may DO MORE.

This is a painful and dangerous period. Understand why? Because when she doesn’t end that new purpose, that storyline will get worse. Immediately she’s failing. She isn’t doing much. SHE is not enough. She may fail, she might fail her home… so she’ll get more she should accomplish. She doesn’t nap as much, proceed because much, all in the attempts to do more. Caught in this period of trying to prove herself to herself, not reaching any purpose. Always feeling “enough”.

But, yeah, that’s what zealous burnout looks like for me. It doesn’t happen overnight in some magnificent sign but rather carefully builds over weeks and months. My burning out process looks like speeding up, not a man losing target. I rate up and up and up… and therefore I simply stop.

I am the one who had

It’s amusing the things that shape us. Through the glass of youth, I viewed the worries, problems, and sacrifices of someone who had to make it all work without having much. I was happy that my mom was so competent and my dad sympathetic, I never went without and also got an extra here or there.

Growing up, I did not think pity when my family paid with meal stamps, in truth, I’d have probably taken on any debate on the topic, orally eviscerating anyone who dared to criticize the disabled person trying to make sure all our needs were met with so little. As a child, I watched the way the worry of not making those begins meet impacted people I love. As the non-disabled people in my home, I did take on many of the real things because I was” the one who was” make our lives a little easier. I learned early to associate fears or uncertainty with putting more of myself into it— I am the one who can. I learned early that when something frightens me, I can double down and work harder to make it better. I can own the challenge. When people have seen this in me as an adult, I’ve been told I seem fearless, but make no mistake, I’m not. If I seem fearless, it’s because this behavior was forged from other people’s fears.

And here I am, more than 30 years later still feeling the urge to mindlessly push myself forward when faced with overwhelming tasks ahead of me, assuming that I am the one who can and therefore should. I find myself driven to prove that I can make things happen if I work longer hours, take on more responsibility, and do more.

I do not see people who struggle financially as failures, because I have seen how strong that tide can be—it pulls you along the way. I truly get that I have been privileged to be able to avoid many of the challenges that were present in my youth. That said, I am still” the one who can” who feels she should, so if I were faced with not having enough to make ends meet for my own family, I would see myself as having failed. Though I am supported and educated, most of this is due to good fortune. I will, however, allow myself the arrogance of saying I have been careful with my choices to have encouraged that luck. My identity stems from the idea that I am” the one who can” so therefore feel obligated to do the most. I can choose to stop, and with some quite literal cold water splashed in my face, I’ve made the choice to before. But that choosing to stop is not my go-to, I move forward, driven by a fear that is so a part of me that I barely notice it’s there until I’m feeling utterly worn away.

So why all the history? You see, burnout is a fickle thing. I have heard and read a lot about burnout over the years. Burnout is real. Especially now, with COVID, many of us are balancing more than we ever have before—all at once! It’s hard, and the procrastinating, the avoidance, the shutting down impacts so many amazing professionals. There are important articles that relate to what I imagine must be the majority of people out there, but not me. That’s not what my burnout looks like.

The dangerous invisibility of zealous burnout

A lot of work environments see the extra hours, extra effort, and overall focused commitment as an asset ( and sometimes that’s all it is ). They see someone trying to rise to challenges, not someone stuck in their fear. Many well-meaning organizations have safeguards in place to protect their teams from burnout. But in cases like this, those alarms are not always tripped, and then when the inevitable stop comes, some members of the organization feel surprised and disappointed. And sometimes maybe even betrayed.

Parents—more so mothers, statistically speaking—are praised as being so on top of it all when they can work, be involved in the after-school activities, practice self-care in the form of diet and exercise, and still meet friends for coffee or wine. During COVID many of us have binged countless streaming episodes showing how it’s so hard for the female protagonist, but she is strong and funny and can do it. It’s a “very special episode” when she breaks down, cries in the bathroom, woefully admits she needs help, and just stops for a bit. Truth is, countless people are hiding their tears or are doom-scrolling to escape. We know that the media is a lie to amuse us, but often the perception that it’s what we should strive for has penetrated much of society.

Women and burnout

I love men. And though I don’t love every man ( heads up, I don’t love every woman or nonbinary person either ), I think there is a beautiful spectrum of individuals who represent that particular binary gender.

That said, women are still more often at risk of burnout than their male counterparts, especially in these COVID stressed times. Mothers in the workplace feel the pressure to do all the “mom” things while giving 110 %. Mothers not in the workplace feel they need to do more to” justify” their lack of traditional employment. Women who are not mothers often feel the need to do even more because they don’t have that extra pressure at home. It’s vicious and systemic and so a part of our culture that we’re often not even aware of the enormity of the pressures we put on ourselves and each other.

And there are prices beyond happiness too. Harvard Health Publishing released a study a decade ago that “uncovered strong links between women’s job stress and cardiovascular disease”. The CDC noted,” Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, killing 299, 578 women in 2017—or about 1 in every 5 female deaths”.

This relationship between work stress and health, from what I have read, is more dangerous for women than it is for their non-female counterparts.

But what if your burnout isn’t like that either?

That might not be you either. After all, each of us is so different and how we respond to stressors is too. It’s part of what makes us human. Don’t stress what burnout looks like, just learn to recognize it in yourself. Here are a few questions I sometimes ask friends if I am concerned about them.

Are you happy? This simple question should be the first thing you ask yourself. Chances are, even if you’re burning out doing all the things you love, as you approach burnout you’ll just stop taking as much joy from it all.

Do you feel empowered to say no? I have observed in myself and others that when someone is burning out, they no longer feel they can say no to things. Even those who don’t” speed up” feel pressure to say yes to not disappoint the people around them.

What are three things you’ve done for yourself? Another observance is that we all tend to stop doing things for ourselves. Anything from skipping showers and eating poorly to avoiding talking to friends. These can be red flags.

Are you making excuses? Many of us try to disregard feelings of burnout. Over and over I have heard,” It’s just crunch time”,” As soon as I do this one thing, it will all be better”, and” Well I should be able to handle this, so I’ll figure it out”. And it might really be crunch time, a single goal, and/or a skill set you need to learn. That happens—life happens. BUT if this doesn’t stop, be honest with yourself. If you’ve worked more 50-hour weeks since January than not, maybe it’s not crunch time—maybe it’s a bad situation that you’re burning out from.

Do you have a plan to stop feeling this way? If something is truly temporary and you do need to just push through, then it has an exit route with a
defined end.

Take the time to listen to yourself as you would a friend. Be honest, allow yourself to be uncomfortable, and break the thought cycles that prevent you from healing.

So now what?

What I just described is a different path to burnout, but it’s still burnout. There are well-established approaches to working through burnout:

• Get enough sleep.
• Eat healthy.
• Work out.
• Get outside.
• Take a break.
• Overall, practice self-care.

Those are hard for me because they feel like more tasks. If I’m in the burnout cycle, doing any of the above for me feels like a waste. The narrative is that if I’m already failing, why would I take care of myself when I’m dropping all those other balls? People need me, right?

If you’re deep in the cycle, your inner voice might be pretty awful by now. If you need to, tell yourself you need to take care of the person your people depend on. If your roles are pushing you toward burnout, use them to help make healing easier by justifying the time spent working on you.

To help remind myself of the airline attendant message about putting the mask on yourself first, I have come up with a few things that I do when I start feeling myself going into a zealous burnout.

Cook an elaborate meal for someone!

OK, I am a “food-focused” individual so cooking for someone is always my go-to. There are countless tales in my home of someone walking into the kitchen and turning right around and walking out when they noticed I was” chopping angrily”. But it’s more than that, and you should give it a try. Seriously. It’s the perfect go-to if you don’t feel worthy of taking time for yourself—do it for someone else. Most of us work in a digital world, so cooking can fill all of your senses and force you to be in the moment with all the ways you perceive the world. It can break you out of your head and help you gain a better perspective. In my house, I’ve been known to pick a place on the map and cook food that comes from wherever that is ( thank you, Pinterest ). I love cooking Indian food, as the smells are warm, the bread needs just enough kneading to keep my hands busy, and the process takes real attention for me because it’s not what I was brought up making. And in the end, we all win!

Vent like a foul-mouthed fool

Be careful with this one!

I have been making an effort to practice more gratitude over the past few years, and I recognize the true benefits of that. That said, sometimes you just gotta let it all out—even the ugly. Hell, I’m a big fan of not sugarcoating our lives, and that sometimes means that to get past the big pile of poop, you’re gonna wanna complain about it a bit.

When that is what’s needed, turn to a trusted friend and allow yourself some pure verbal diarrhea, saying all the things that are bothering you. You need to trust this friend not to judge, to see your pain, and, most importantly, to tell you to remove your cranium from your own rectal cavity. Seriously, it’s about getting a reality check here! One of the things I admire the most about my husband ( though often after the fact ) is his ability to break things down to their simplest. ” We’re spending our lives together, of course you’re going to disappoint me from time to time, so get over it” has been his way of speaking his dedication, love, and acceptance of me—and I could not be more grateful. It also, of course, has meant that I needed to remove my head from that rectal cavity. So, again, usually those moments are appreciated in hindsight.

Pick up a book!

There are many books out there that aren’t so much self-help as they are people just like you sharing their stories and how they’ve come to find greater balance. Maybe you’ll find something that speaks to you. Titles that have stood out to me include:

• Thrive by Arianna Huffington
• Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
• Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis
• Dare to Lead by Brené Brown

Or, another tactic I love to employ is to read or listen to a book that has NOTHING to do with my work-life balance. I’ve read the following books and found they helped balance me out because my mind was pondering their interesting topics instead of running in circles:

• The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart
• Superlife by Darin Olien
• A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford
• Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway

If you’re not into reading, pick up a topic on YouTube or choose a podcast to subscribe to. I’ve watched countless permaculture and gardening topics in addition to how to raise chickens and ducks. For the record, I do not have a particularly large food garden, nor do I own livestock of any kind… yet. I just find the topic interesting, and it has nothing to do with any aspect of my life that needs anything from me.

Forgive yourself

You are never going to be perfect—hell, it would be boring if you were. It’s OK to be broken and flawed. It’s human to be tired and sad and worried. It’s OK to not do it all. It’s scary to be imperfect, but you cannot be brave if nothing were scary.

This last one is the most important: allow yourself permission to NOT do it all. You never promised to be everything to everyone at all times. We are more powerful than the fears that drive us.

This is hard. It is hard for me. It’s what’s driven me to write this—that it’s OK to stop. It’s OK that your unhealthy habit that might even benefit those around you needs to end. You can still be successful in life.

I recently read that we are all writing our eulogy in how we live. Knowing that your professional accomplishments won’t be mentioned in that speech, what will yours say? What do you want it to say?

Look, I get that none of these ideas will “fix it”, and that’s not their purpose. None of us are in control of our surroundings, only how we respond to them. These suggestions are to help stop the spiral effect so that you are empowered to address the underlying issues and choose your response. They are things that work for me most of the time. Maybe they’ll work for you.

Does this sound familiar?

If this sounds familiar, it’s not just you. Don’t let your negative self-talk tell you that you “even burn out wrong”. It’s not wrong. Even if rooted in fear like my own drivers, I believe that this need to do more comes from a place of love, determination, motivation, and other wonderful attributes that make you the amazing person you are. We’re going to be OK, ya know. The lives that unfold before us might never look like that story in our head—that idea of “perfect” or “done” we’re looking for, but that’s OK. Really, when we stop and look around, usually the only eyes that judge us are in the mirror.

Do you remember that Winnie the Pooh sketch that had Pooh eat so much at Rabbit’s house that his buttocks couldn’t fit through the door? Well, I already associate a lot with Rabbit, so it came as no surprise when he abruptly declared that this was unacceptable. But do you recall what happened next? He put a shelf across poor Pooh’s ankles and decorations on his back, and made the best of the big butt in his kitchen.

At the end of the day we are resourceful and know that we are able to push ourselves if we need to—even when we are tired to our core or have a big butt of fluff’ n’ stuff in our room. None of us has to be afraid, as we can manage any obstacle put in front of us. And maybe that means we will need to redefine success to allow space for being uncomfortably human, but that doesn’t really sound so bad either.

So, wherever you are right now, please breathe. Do what you need to do to get out of your head. Forgive and take care.

Feedback, in whichever form it takes, and whatever it may be called, is one of the most powerful sweet skills that we have at our disposal to jointly get our models to a better position while growing our own skills and ideas.

Feedback is also one of the most underestimated equipment, and generally by assuming that we’re already good at it, we settle, forgetting that it’s a talent that can be trained, grown, and improved. Bad feedback can make confusion in projects, send down confidence, and change faith and team collaboration over the long term. Quality opinions can be a revolutionary force.

Practicing our knowledge is absolutely a good way to enhance, but the learning gets yet faster when it’s paired with a good base that programs and focuses the exercise. What are some basic aspects of giving great feedback? And how can input be adjusted for isolated and distributed function settings?

On the web, we can discover a long history of sequential suggestions: from the early weeks of open source, script was shared and discussed on email addresses. Today, developers engage on pull requests, designers comment in their favorite design tools, project managers and scrum masters exchange ideas on tickets, and so on.

Design critique is often the name used for a type of feedback that’s provided to make our work better, collaboratively. So it shares a lot of the principles with feedback in general, but it also has some differences.

The content

The foundation of every good critique is the feedback’s content, so that’s where we need to start. There are many models that you can use to shape your content. The one that I personally like best—because it’s clear and actionable—is this one from Lara Hogan.

While this equation is generally used to give feedback to people, it also fits really well in a design critique because it ultimately answers some of the core questions that we work on: What? Where? Why? How? Imagine that you’re giving some feedback about some design work that spans multiple screens, like an onboarding flow: there are some pages shown, a flow blueprint, and an outline of the decisions made. You spot something that could be improved. If you keep the three elements of the equation in mind, you’ll have a mental model that can help you be more precise and effective.

Here is a comment that could be given as a part of some feedback, and it might look reasonable at a first glance: it seems to superficially fulfill the elements in the equation. But does it?

Not sure about the buttons ‘ styles and hierarchy—it feels off. Can you change them?

Observation for design feedback doesn’t just mean pointing out which part of the interface your feedback refers to, but it also refers to offering a perspective that’s as specific as possible. Are you providing the user’s perspective? Your expert perspective? A business perspective? The project manager’s perspective? A first-time user’s perspective?

When I see these two buttons, I expect one to go forward and one to go back.

Impact is about the why. Just pointing out a UI element might sometimes be enough if the issue may be obvious, but more often than not, you should add an explanation of what you’re pointing out.

When I see these two buttons, I expect one to go forward and one to go back. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an” ×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow.

The question approach is meant to provide open guidance by eliciting the critical thinking in the designer receiving the feedback. Notably, in Lara’s equation she provides a second approach: request, which instead provides guidance toward a specific solution. While that’s a viable option for feedback in general, for design critiques, in my experience, defaulting to the question approach usually reaches the best solutions because designers are generally more comfortable in being given an open space to explore.

The difference between the two can be exemplified with, for the question approach:

When I see these two buttons, I expect one to go forward and one to go back. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an” ×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow. Would it make sense to unify them?

Or, for the request approach:

When I see these two buttons, I expect one to go forward and one to go back. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an” ×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow. Let’s make sure that all screens have the same pair of forward and back buttons.

At this point in some situations, it might be useful to integrate with an extra why: why you consider the given suggestion to be better.

When I see these two buttons, I expect one to go forward and one to go back. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an” ×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow. Let’s make sure that all screens have the same two forward and back buttons so that users don’t get confused.

Choosing the question approach or the request approach can also at times be a matter of personal preference. A while ago, I was putting a lot of effort into improving my feedback: I did rounds of anonymous feedback, and I reviewed feedback with other people. After a few rounds of this work and a year later, I got a positive response: my feedback came across as effective and grounded. Until I changed teams. To my shock, my next round of feedback from one specific person wasn’t that great. The reason is that I had previously tried not to be prescriptive in my advice—because the people who I was previously working with preferred the open-ended question format over the request style of suggestions. But now in this other team, there was one person who instead preferred specific guidance. So I adapted my feedback for them to include requests.

One comment that I heard come up a few times is that this kind of feedback is quite long, and it doesn’t seem very efficient. No… but also yes. Let’s explore both sides.

No, this style of feedback is actually efficient because the length here is a byproduct of clarity, and spending time giving this kind of feedback can provide exactly enough information for a good fix. Also if we zoom out, it can reduce future back-and-forth conversations and misunderstandings, improving the overall efficiency and effectiveness of collaboration beyond the single comment. Imagine that in the example above the feedback were instead just,” Let’s make sure that all screens have the same two forward and back buttons”. The designer receiving this feedback wouldn’t have much to go by, so they might just apply the change. In later iterations, the interface might change or they might introduce new features—and maybe that change might not make sense anymore. Without the why, the designer might imagine that the change is about consistency… but what if it wasn’t? So there could now be an underlying concern that changing the buttons would be perceived as a regression.

Yes, this style of feedback is not always efficient because the points in some comments don’t always need to be exhaustive, sometimes because certain changes may be obvious (” The font used doesn’t follow our guidelines” ) and sometimes because the team may have a lot of internal knowledge such that some of the whys may be implied.

So the equation above isn’t meant to suggest a strict template for feedback but a mnemonic to reflect and improve the practice. Even after years of active work on my critiques, I still from time to time go back to this formula and reflect on whether what I just wrote is effective.

The tone

Well-grounded content is the foundation of feedback, but that’s not really enough. The soft skills of the person who’s providing the critique can multiply the likelihood that the feedback will be well received and understood. Tone alone can make the difference between content that’s rejected or welcomed, and it’s been demonstrated that only positive feedback creates sustained change in people.

Since our goal is to be understood and to have a positive working environment, tone is essential to work on. Over the years, I’ve tried to summarize the required soft skills in a formula that mirrors the one for content: the receptivity equation.

Respectful feedback comes across as grounded, solid, and constructive. It’s the kind of feedback that, whether it’s positive or negative, is perceived as useful and fair.

Timing refers to when the feedback happens. To-the-point feedback doesn’t have much hope of being well received if it’s given at the wrong time. Questioning the entire high-level information architecture of a new feature when it’s about to ship might still be relevant if that questioning highlights a major blocker that nobody saw, but it’s way more likely that those concerns will have to wait for a later rework. So in general, attune your feedback to the stage of the project. Early iteration? Late iteration? Polishing work in progress? These all have different needs. The right timing will make it more likely that your feedback will be well received.

Attitude is the equivalent of intent, and in the context of person-to-person feedback, it can be referred to as radical candor. That means checking before we write to see whether what we have in mind will truly help the person and make the project better overall. This might be a hard reflection at times because maybe we don’t want to admit that we don’t really appreciate that person. Hopefully that’s not the case, but that can happen, and that’s okay. Acknowledging and owning that can help you make up for that: how would I write if I really cared about them? How can I avoid being passive aggressive? How can I be more constructive?

Form is relevant especially in a diverse and cross-cultural work environments because having great content, perfect timing, and the right attitude might not come across if the way that we write creates misunderstandings. There might be many reasons for this: sometimes certain words might trigger specific reactions, sometimes nonnative speakers might not understand all the nuances of some sentences, sometimes our brains might just be different and we might perceive the world differently—neurodiversity must be taken into consideration. Whatever the reason, it’s important to review not just what we write but how.

A few years back, I was asking for some feedback on how I give feedback. I received some good advice but also a comment that surprised me. They pointed out that when I wrote” Oh, ]… ]”, I made them feel stupid. That wasn’t my intent! I felt really bad, and I just realized that I provided feedback to them for months, and every time I might have made them feel stupid. I was horrified … but also thankful. I made a quick fix: I added “oh” in my list of replaced words (your choice between: macOS’s text replacement, aText, TextExpander, or others ) so that when I typed “oh”, it was instantly deleted.

Something to highlight because it’s quite frequent—especially in teams that have a strong group spirit—is that people tend to beat around the bush. It’s important to remember here that a positive attitude doesn’t mean going light on the feedback—it just means that even when you provide hard, difficult, or challenging feedback, you do so in a way that’s respectful and constructive. The nicest thing that you can do for someone is to help them grow.

We have a great advantage in giving feedback in written form: it can be reviewed by another person who isn’t directly involved, which can help to reduce or remove any bias that might be there. I found that the best, most insightful moments for me have happened when I’ve shared a comment and I’ve asked someone who I highly trusted,” How does this sound”?,” How can I do it better”, and even” How would you have written it” ?—and I’ve learned a lot by seeing the two versions side by side.

The format

Asynchronous feedback also has a major inherent advantage: we can take more time to refine what we’ve written to make sure that it fulfills two main goals: the clarity of communication and the actionability of the suggestions.

Let’s imagine that someone shared a design iteration for a project. You are reviewing it and leaving a comment. There are many ways to do this, and of course context matters, but let’s try to think about some elements that may be useful to consider.

In terms of clarity, start by grounding the critique that you’re about to give by providing context. Specifically, this means describing where you’re coming from: do you have a deep knowledge of the project, or is this the first time that you’re seeing it? Are you coming from a high-level perspective, or are you figuring out the details? Are there regressions? Which user’s perspective are you taking when providing your feedback? Is the design iteration at a point where it would be okay to ship this, or are there major things that need to be addressed first?

Providing context is helpful even if you’re sharing feedback within a team that already has some information on the project. And context is absolutely essential when giving cross-team feedback. If I were to review a design that might be indirectly related to my work, and if I had no knowledge about how the project arrived at that point, I would say so, highlighting my take as external.

We often focus on the negatives, trying to outline all the things that could be done better. That’s of course important, but it’s just as important—if not more—to focus on the positives, especially if you saw progress from the previous iteration. This might seem superfluous, but it’s important to keep in mind that design is a discipline where there are hundreds of possible solutions for every problem. So pointing out that the design solution that was chosen is good and explaining why it’s good has two major benefits: it confirms that the approach taken was solid, and it helps to ground your negative feedback. In the longer term, sharing positive feedback can help prevent regressions on things that are going well because those things will have been highlighted as important. As a bonus, positive feedback can also help reduce impostor syndrome.

There’s one powerful approach that combines both context and a focus on the positives: frame how the design is better than the status quo ( compared to a previous iteration, competitors, or benchmarks ) and why, and then on that foundation, you can add what could be improved. This is powerful because there’s a big difference between a critique that’s for a design that’s already in good shape and a critique that’s for a design that isn’t quite there yet.

Another way that you can improve your feedback is to depersonalize the feedback: the comments should always be about the work, never about the person who made it. It’s” This button isn’t well aligned” versus” You haven’t aligned this button well”. This is very easy to change in your writing by reviewing it just before sending.

In terms of actionability, one of the best approaches to help the designer who’s reading through your feedback is to split it into bullet points or paragraphs, which are easier to review and analyze one by one. For longer pieces of feedback, you might also consider splitting it into sections or even across multiple comments. Of course, adding screenshots or signifying markers of the specific part of the interface you’re referring to can also be especially useful.

One approach that I’ve personally used effectively in some contexts is to enhance the bullet points with four markers using emojis. So a red square � � means that it’s something that I consider blocking, a yellow diamond � � is something that I can be convinced otherwise, but it seems to me that it should be changed, and a green circle � � is a detailed, positive confirmation. I also use a blue spiral � � for either something that I’m not sure about, an exploration, an open alternative, or just a note. But I’d use this approach only on teams where I’ve already established a good level of trust because if it happens that I have to deliver a lot of red squares, the impact could be quite demoralizing, and I’d reframe how I’d communicate that a bit.

Let’s see how this would work by reusing the example that we used earlier as the first bullet point in this list:

• 🔶 Navigation—When I see these two buttons, I expect one to go forward and one to go back. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an” ×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow. Let’s make sure that all screens have the same two forward and back buttons so that users don’t get confused.
• � � Overall— I think the page is solid, and this is good enough to be our release candidate for a version 1.0.
• � � Metrics—Good improvement in the buttons on the metrics area, the improved contrast and new focus style make them more accessible.
• � � Button Style—Using the green accent in this context creates the impression that it’s a positive action because green is usually perceived as a confirmation color. Do we need to explore a different color?
• 🔶Tiles—Given the number of items on the page, and the overall page hierarchy, it seems to me that the tiles shouldn’t be using the Subtitle 1 style but the Subtitle 2 style. This will keep the visual hierarchy more consistent.
• � � Background—Using a light texture works well, but I wonder whether it adds too much noise in this kind of page. What is the thinking in using that?

What about giving feedback directly in Figma or another design tool that allows in-place feedback? In general, I find these difficult to use because they hide discussions and they’re harder to track, but in the right context, they can be very effective. Just make sure that each of the comments is separate so that it’s easier to match each discussion to a single task, similar to the idea of splitting mentioned above.

One final note: say the obvious. Sometimes we might feel that something is obviously good or obviously wrong, and so we don’t say it. Or sometimes we might have a doubt that we don’t express because the question might sound stupid. Say it—that’s okay. You might have to reword it a little bit to make the reader feel more comfortable, but don’t hold it back. Good feedback is transparent, even when it may be obvious.

There’s another advantage of asynchronous feedback: written feedback automatically tracks decisions. Especially in large projects,” Why did we do this”? could be a question that pops up from time to time, and there’s nothing better than open, transparent discussions that can be reviewed at any time. For this reason, I recommend using software that saves these discussions, without hiding them once they are resolved.

Content, tone, and format. Each one of these subjects provides a useful model, but working to improve eight areas—observation, impact, question, timing, attitude, form, clarity, and actionability—is a lot of work to put in all at once. One effective approach is to take them one by one: first identify the area that you lack the most (either from your perspective or from feedback from others ) and start there. Then the second, then the third, and so on. At first you’ll have to put in extra time for every piece of feedback that you give, but after a while, it’ll become second nature, and your impact on the work will multiply.

Thanks to Brie Anne Demkiw and Mike Shelton for reviewing the first draft of this article.