Category: Blog

As a UX skilled in today’s data-driven landscape, it’s extremely likely that you’ve been asked to design a personal digital experience, whether it’s a common website, user portal, or local application. Despite there still be a lot of advertising hype surrounding personalization systems, there are still very some standardized methods for implementing personalized UX.

That’s where we come in. We set ourselves the challenge of developing a systematic personalization construction tailored to UX practitioners after finishing dozens of personalization tasks over the past few years. The Personalization Pyramid is a designer-centric model for standing up human-centered personalisation programs, spanning information, classification, content delivery, and general goals. By using this strategy, you will be able to understand the core components of a modern, UX-driven personalization system ( or at the very least understand enough to get started ).

Getting Started

For the sake of this article, we’ll suppose you’re already familiar with the basics of online personalization. A nice guide can be found these: Website Personalization Planning. Although Graphic tasks in this field can take a variety of forms, they frequently start from the same place.

Popular circumstances for launching a personalization task:

• Your business or client made a purchase to support personalization with a content management system ( CMS ), marketing automation platform ( MAP ), or other related technology.
• The CMO, CDO, or CIO has identified customisation as a target
• User data is disjointed or confusing
• You are conducting some sporadic targeting strategies or A/B tests.
• On the personalisation approach, parties of contention
• Mandate of customer privacy rules ( e. g. GDPR ) requires revisiting existing user targeting practices

A powerful personalization plan will need the same fundamental building blocks regardless of where you begin. We’ve captured these as the “levels” on the tower. Whether you are a UX artist, scholar, or planner, understanding the core components may help make your contribution effective.

From top to bottom, the rates include:

North Star: What larger corporate goal is driving the personalization system?
1. Objectives: What are the specific, tangible benefits of the system?
2. Touchpoints: Where will the personalized experience been served?
3. Contexts and Campaigns: What personalization information does the person view?
4. User Segments: What constitutes a special, suitable market?
5. What trustworthy and credible information does our professional platform collect to enable personalization?
6. Natural Data: What wider set of data is potentially available ( now in our environment ) allowing you to optimize?

We’ll go through each of these amounts sequentially. An associated deck of cards serves as an example of each level’s specific cases to make this more meaningful. We’ve included example for you here because we think they’re useful for customisation brainstorming sessions.

Starting at the top

The elements of the pyramids are as follows:

North Star

Ultimately, you want a North Star in your personalization plan, whether big or small. The North Star identifies the personalization program’s (one ) overall goal. What do you wish to achieve? North Stars cast a ghost. The bigger the sun, the bigger the darkness. Example of North Starts may contain:

Function: Personalize based on basic customer input. Examples:” Raw” messages, basic search effects, system user settings and settings options, general flexibility, basic improvements
1. Feature: Self-contained customisation componentry. Examples:” Cooked” notifications, advanced optimizations ( geolocation ), basic dynamic messaging, customized modules, automations, recommenders
2. Experience: Personal user experiences across several interactions and consumer flows. Examples: Email campaigns, landing pages, advanced messaging ( i. e. C2C chat ) or conversational interfaces, larger user flows and content-intensive optimizations ( localization ).
3. Solution: Highly differentiating customized product experiences. Example: Standalone, branded encounters with personalization at their base, like the “algotorial” songs by Spotify quite as Discover Weekly.

Goals

As in any great UX design, personalization may help promote designing with client intentions. The goals are the military and tangible indicators that will support the success of the entire program. Start with your existing analytics and assessment system, as well as indicators you can benchmark against. In some cases, new targets may be suitable. The most important thing to keep in mind is that personalisation is never a desired outcome. It is a means to an end. Popular targets include:

• Conversion
• Time on work
• Net promoter score ( NPS)
• Consumer pleasure

Touchpoints

The personalisation takes place at connections. As a UX artist, this will be one of your largest areas of responsibility. The touchpoints you have will depend on how your personalization and the related technologies are configured, and they should be based on enhancing a person’s encounter at a specific point in the journey. Touchpoints can be multi-device ( mobile, in-store, website ) but also more granular ( web banner, web pop-up etc. ). Here are some examples:

Channel-level Touchpoints

• Email: Role
• Email: Occasion of available
• In-store display ( JSON endpoint )
• Native game
• Search

Wireframe-level Touchpoints

• Web overlay
• Web call club
• Web symbol
• Web content stop
• Web restaurant

If you’re designing for web interface, for instance, you will likely need to include personal “zones” in your wireframes. Based on our next stage, context, and campaigns, the articles for these can be presented dynamically in touchpoints.

Contexts and Campaigns

After you’ve outlined some touchpoints, you may consider the actual personal information a user may get. Many personalization tools will refer to these as” campaigns” ( so, for example, a campaign on a web banner for new visitors to the website ). These will be displayed automatically to specific consumer sections, as defined by consumer data. At this stage, we find it helpful to consider two distinct concepts: a framework design and a willing design. The context helps you consider the level of user engagement at the personalization moment, for instance, if they are just casually browsing information rather than engaging in a deep dive. Think of it in terms of behaviors for information retrieval. The content model can then guide you in deciding what kind of personalization to use in the context ( for instance, an” Enrich” campaign that features related articles might be a good substitute for extant content ).

Personalization Context Model:

1. Browse
2. Skim
3. Nudge
4. Feast

Personalization Content Model:

1. Alert
2. Make Easier
3. Cross-Sell
4. Enrich

We’ve written a lot more in depth about each of these models elsewhere, so be sure to check out Colin’s Personalization Content Model and Jeff’s Personalization Context Model.

User Segments

User segments can be created based on user research, either prescriptively or adaptively ( e .g., through rules and logic tied to set user behaviors or through A/B testing ). You will need to consider how to treat the logged-in visitor, the guest or returning visitor, for whom you may have a stateful cookie ( or another post-cookie identifier ), or the authenticated visitor at the least. The personalization pyramid has some of the following examples:

• Unknown
• Guest
• Authenticated
• Default
• Referred
• Role
• Cohort
• Unique ID

Actionable Data

Every business with a digital presence has information. It’s important to inquire about how to use the data you can ethically collect on users, its inherent reliability and value, and how to use it ( sometimes referred to as “data activation” ). Fortunately, the tide is turning to first-party data: a recent study by Twilio estimates some 80 % of businesses are using at least some type of first-party data to personalize the customer experience.

First-party data represents multiple advantages on the UX front, including being relatively simple to collect, more likely to be accurate, and less susceptible to the” creep factor” of third-party data. Therefore, determining which method of data collection is best for your audiences should be a crucial component of your UX strategy. Here are some examples:

When it comes to recognizing and making decisions about various audiences and their signals, there is a trend of profiling. As time and confidence and data volume increase, it varies to more granular constructs about smaller and smaller cohorts of users.

Although some combination of implicit and explicit data is typically required for any implementation ( more commonly known as first party and third-party data ), ML efforts are typically not cost-effective right away. This is because optimization requires a strong data backbone and content repository. These approaches, however, should be taken into account as part of the overall plan and may in fact help to speed up the organization’s progress overall. At this point, you will typically work with key stakeholders and product owners to create a profiling model. The profiling model includes a defining framework for setting up profiles, profile keys, profile cards, and pattern cards. A multi-faceted approach to profiling which makes it scalable.

Pulling it Together

The cards serve as a starting point for an inventory of sorts ( we offer blanks for you to customize your own ), a set of potential levers and motivations for the personalization activities you aspire to deliver, but they are more valuable when grouped together.

One can begin to chart the entire course of a card’s “hand” from leadership focus to tactical and tactical execution. It serves as the foundation for the workshops that both co-authors have conducted to build a program backlog, which would make a good article topic.

In the meantime, it is important to note that each colored class of cards is helpful in understanding the range of options that you might have, as well as making informed choices about who, where, when, and how, will be made these choices.

Lay Down Your Cards

Any sustainable personalization strategy must consider near, mid and long-term goals. There is simply no “easy button” where a personalization program can be stood up and immediately see meaningful results, even with the leading CMS platforms like Sitecore and Adobe or the most exciting composable CMS DXP out there. That said, there is a common grammar to all personalization activities, just like every sentence has nouns and verbs. These cards attempt to map that territory.

The personalization space is real, between the dream of getting it right and the worry of it going wrong ( like when we encounter “persofails” similar to a company’s constant plea to regular people to purchase additional bathroom seats ). It’s an particularly confusing place to be a modern professional without a map, a map, or a strategy.

Because successful personalization is so dependent on each group’s skill, technology, and market position, there are no Lonely Planet and some tour guides for those of you who want to personalize.

However, you can make sure your team has properly packed its luggage.

There’s a DIY method to increase your chances for victory. You’ll at least at least disarm your boss ‘ irrational exuberance. You’ll need to properly plan before the celebration.

We call it prepersonalization.

Behind the song

Take into account Spotify’s DJ element, which debuted this year.

We’re used to seeing the polished final outcome of a personalization have. A personal have had to be developed, budgeted, and given priority before the year-end prize, the making-of-backstory, or the behind-the-scenes success chest. Before any customisation function is implemented in your product or service, it lives among a long list of thought-provoking concepts that can be used to enhance customer experience more automatically.

So how do you understand where to position your personalization bet? How can you create regular interactions that didn’t irritate users or worse, breed trust? We’ve discovered that several budgeted programs foremost needed one or more workshops to join key stakeholders and domestic customers of the technology to justify their continuing investments. Create it count.

We’ve closely observed the same evolution with our consumers, from major software to young companies. How effective these prepersonalization actions play out, in our experiences working on small and large customisation efforts, and how effective is the program’s greatest track record and its ability to weather challenging questions, work steadily toward shared answers, and manage its design and engineering efforts.

Time and again, we’ve seen successful workshops individual coming success stories from fruitless efforts, saving many time, resources, and social well-being in the process.

A personalization process involves a year-long process of testing and have creation. Your technical stack is not experiencing a switch-flip. It’s ideal managed as a queue that usually evolves through three methods:

1. customer experience optimization ( CXO, also known as A/B testing or experimentation )
2. always-on machines, whether rules-based or machine-generated.
3. mature features or standalone product development ( such as Spotify’s DJ experience )

We think there is a basic language, a set of “nouns and verbs” that your business can use to create personalized, personalized, or automatic experiences, which is why we created our democratic personalization platform and why we’re testing an accompanying deck of cards. You didn’t require these accounts. But we highly recommend that you create something similar, whether that might be online or natural.

Set the timer for the house.

How long does it take to prepare a factory on prepersonalization? The surrounding assessment activities that we recommend including can ( and often do ) span weeks. We suggest aiming for two to three days for the main workshop. Here’s a summary of our more general approach as well as information on the crucial first-day actions.

The whole episode of the wider studio is twofold:

Kickstart: This specifies the terms of relationship as you concentrate on both the potential and the team’s and leadership’s readiness and generate.
1. Plan your function: This is where the card-based factory activities take place, giving you a work plan and the work scope.
2. Work your plan: This stage is all about creating a competitive environment for staff participants to singularly pitch their personal pilots that each contain a proof-of-concept task, its business situation, and its operating model.

Give yourself at least two days, divided into two long time periods, to work through those initial two phases more effectively.

Kickstart: Apt your appetite

We call the first lesson the “landscape of connected experience“. It looks at the possibilities for personalization in your organization. Any UX that necessitates the orchestration of multiple systems of record on the backend is a connected experience, in our opinion. This could be a content-management system combined with a marketing-automation platform. It might be a customer-data platform combined with a digital asset manager.

Create a conversation by mentioning consumer and business-to-business examples of connected experience interactions that you admire, find familiar, or even dislike. This should cover a representative range of personalization patterns, including automated app-based interactions ( such as onboarding sequences or wizards ), notifications, and recommenders. These cards contain a catalog, which we have. To jog your mind, here is a list of 142 different interactions.

This is all about setting the table. What potential avenues might the practice take in your organization? Here’s a long-form primer and a strategic framework for a broader view.

Assess each example that you discuss for its complexity and the level of effort that you estimate that it would take for your team to deliver that feature ( or something similar ). In our cards, we break down connected experiences into five categories: functions, features, experiences, complete products, and portfolios. Here, you can size your own build. This will help to focus the conversation on the merits of ongoing investment as well as the gap between what you deliver today and what you want to deliver in the future.

Next, have your team plot each concept on the following 2x grid, which lists the four enduring justifications for a personalized experience. This is crucial because it emphasizes how personalization can affect your own methods of working as well as your external customers. It’s also a reminder ( which is why we used the word argument earlier ) of the broader effort beyond these tactical interventions.

Each team member should vote on where they see your product or service putting its emphasis. Naturally, you can’t give them all a prioritization. Here, the goal is to show how various departments may view their own benefits from the effort, which can vary from one department to the next. Documenting your desired outcomes lets you know how the team internally aligns across representatives from different departments or functional areas.

The third and final Kickstart activity is about filling in the personalization gap. How well documented is your customer journey? Will data and privacy compliance be too big of a challenge? Do you have any needs for content metadata that you must address? It’s just a matter of acknowledging the magnitude of that need and finding a solution ( we’re fairly certain that you do ). In our cards, we’ve noted a number of program risks, including common team dispositions. For instance, our Detractor card lists six intractable stakeholder attitudes that prevent progress.

It is crucial to your success to effectively coexist and manage expectations. Consider the potential barriers to your future progress. Ask the participants to list specific actions you can take to help your organization overcome or reduce those obstacles. As research has shown, personalization initiatives face a number of common obstacles.

You should have at this point discussed sample interactions, emphasized a significant benefit area, and identified significant gaps. Good—you’re ready to continue.

Hit the test kitchen

Next, let’s take a look at what you’ll need to create personalization recipes. Personalization engines, which are robust software suites for automating and expressing dynamic content, can intimidate new customers. They give you a variety of options for how your organization can conduct its activities because of their broad and potent capabilities. When creating a connected experience, where do you start?

What’s important here is to avoid treating the installed software like it were a dream kitchen from some fantasy remodeling project ( as one of our client executives memorably put it ). Your team can begin creating, testing, and improving the snacks and meals that will be included on your personalizedization program’s regularly evolving menu by using these software engines.

Over the course of the workshop, the final menu of the prioritized backlog will be created. And making “dishes” is the way that you’ll have different team members create customized interactions that either serve their or others ‘ needs.

The dishes will come from recipes, and those recipes have set ingredients.

Verify your ingredients

Like a good product manager, you’ll make sure you have everything ready to cook up your desired interaction ( or figure out what needs to be added to your pantry ) and that you validate with the right stakeholders present. These elements include the audience you’re targeting, the content and design elements, the interaction’s context, and your overall ensemble.

This isn’t just about discovering requirements. The team can: Identify your personalizations as a series of if-then statements by documenting them as a series of if-then statements.

1. compare findings to a unified approach for developing features, similar to how artists paint with the same color palette,
2. specify a consistent set of interactions that users find uniform or familiar,
3. and establish parity between all important performance indicators and performance metrics.

This enables you to streamline your technical and design efforts while delivering a common color palette of the fundamental motifs of your personalized or automated experience.

Compose your recipe

What elements are most important to you? Consider the construct of a who-what-when-why

• Who are your key audience segments or groups?
• What kind of content will you provide for them, what design elements, and under what circumstances?
• And what are the business and user benefits?

We first developed these cards and card categories five years ago. We regularly test their suitability with clients and audience members at conferences. And there are still fresh possibilities. But they all follow an underlying who-what-when-why logic.

In the cards in the accompanying photo below, you can typically follow along with right to left in three examples of subscription-based reading apps.

1. A guest or an unidentified visitor interacts with a product title and receives a banner or alert bar that makes it simpler for them to read the related title, saving time.
2. Welcome automation: When there’s a newly registered user, an email is generated to call out the breadth of the content catalog and to make them a happier subscriber.
3. A user receives an email requesting a promotional offer to suggest they reconsider renewing or to remind them to renew before their subscription expires or after a recent failed renewal.

We’ve also found that cocreating the recipes themselves can sometimes be the most effective way to start brainstorming about what these cards might be for your organization. Start with a set of blank cards, and begin labeling and grouping them through the design process, eventually distilling them to a refined subset of highly useful candidate cards.

The later stages of the workshop could be characterized as moving from focusing on a cookbook to a more nuanced customer-journey mapping. The team will receive individual” cooks” who will pitch their recipes using a standard jobs-to-be-done format, which will allow for measurement and outcomes, and then prioritize the finished design and production delivery.

Better kitchens require better architecture

For those who are inside delivering it, simplifying a customer experience is a challenging task. Avoid those who make up their mind. With that being said,” Complicated problems can be hard to solve, but they are addressable with rules and recipes“.

When a team overfits: they aren’t designing with their best data, personalization turns into a laughing line. Every organization has metadata debt to go along with its technical debt, which causes a drag on the effectiveness of personalization, much like a sparse pantry. Your AI’s output quality, for example, is indeed limited by your IA. Before they acquired a seemingly modest metadata startup that now powers its underlying information architecture, Spotify’s poster-child prowess today was beyond belief.

You can’t stand the heat, unquestionably…

Personalization technology opens a doorway into a confounding ocean of possible designs. Only a disciplined and highly collaborative approach will produce the necessary concentration and intention for success. Banish your ideal kitchen. Instead, hit the test kitchen to save time, preserve job satisfaction and security, and safely dispense with the fanciful ideas that originate upstairs of the doers in your organization. There are mouths to feed and meals to be served.

This framework of the workshop gives you a strong chance at long-term success as well as solid ground. Wiring up your information layer isn’t an overnight affair. However, you’ll have solid ground for success if you use the same cookbook and the same recipes. We created these activities to ensure that your organization’s needs are clear and concise before the risks start to accumulate.

While there are associated costs toward investing in this kind of technology and product design, your ability to size up and confront your unique situation and your digital capabilities is time well spent. Don’t waste it. The pudding is the proof, as they say.

The same holds true for those of us who are currently employed in design and development. Having worked on the web for about three years at this point, I’ve seen the typical wax and wane of concepts, strategies, and systems. Every day we as developers and designers re-enter a routine pattern, a brand-new concept or technology emerges to shake things up and completely alter our world.

How we got below

I built my first website in the mid-’90s. Design and development on the web back then was a free-for-all, with few established norms. For any layout aside from a single column, we used table elements, often with empty cells containing a single pixel spacer GIF to add empty space. We styled text with numerous font tags, nesting the tags every time we wanted to vary the font style. And we had only three or four typefaces to choose from: Arial, Courier, or Times New Roman. When Verdana and Georgia came out in 1996, we rejoiced because our options had nearly doubled. The only safe colors to choose from were the 216 “web safe” colors known to work across platforms. The few interactive elements (like contact forms, guest books, and counters) were mostly powered by CGI scripts (predominantly written in Perl at the time). Achieving any kind of unique look involved a pile of hacks all the way down. Interaction was often limited to specific pages in a site.

The beginning of website standards

At the turn of the century, a new cycle started. Crufty code littered with table layouts and font tags waned, and a push for web standards waxed. Newer technologies like CSS got more widespread adoption by browsers makers, developers, and designers. This shift toward standards didn’t happen accidentally or overnight. It took active engagement between the W3C and browser vendors and heavy evangelism from folks like the Web Standards Project to build standards. A List Apart and books like Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman played key roles in teaching developers and designers why standards are important, how to implement them, and how to sell them to their organizations. And approaches like progressive enhancement introduced the idea that content should be available for all browsers—with additional enhancements available for more advanced browsers. Meanwhile, sites like the CSS Zen Garden showcased just how powerful and versatile CSS can be when combined with a solid semantic HTML structure.

Server-side language like PHP, Java, and.NET took Perl as the primary back-end computers, and the cgi-bin was tossed in the garbage bin. With these better server-side instruments came the first time of online applications, starting with content-management systems ( especially in the blog space with tools like Blogger, Grey Matter, Movable Type, and WordPress ). AJAX opened the door for sequential interaction between the front end and back end in the middle of the 2000s. Immediately, websites may update their information without needing to refresh. A grain of JavaScript structures, including Prototype, YUI, and jQuery, were created to aid designers in creating more trustworthy client-side interactions across browsers with wildly varying standards support. Techniques like photo alternative enable skilled manufacturers and developers to use fonts of their choosing. And technology like Flash made it possible to include movies, sports, and even more engagement.

These new technology, standards, and approaches reinvigorated the market in many ways. As developers and designers explored more diversified styles and designs, website design flourished. However, we also relied heavily on numerous tricks. When it came to basic layout and text styling, early CSS was a significant improvement over table-based layouts, but its limitations at the time meant that designers and developers still rely heavily on images for complex shapes ( such as rounded or angled corners ) and tiled backgrounds (among other hacks ) for the appearance of full-length columns. All kinds of nested floats or absolute positioning ( or both ) were necessary for complicated layouts. The big five typefaces were initially influenced by display and photo replacement, but both tricks caused accessibility and performance issues. Additionally, JavaScript libraries made it simple to add a dash of conversation to pages without having to spend the money to double or even quadruple the download size for basic websites.

The internet as technology platform

The balance between the front end and the back end continued to improve, leading to the development of the existing web application time. Between expanded server-side programming languages ( which kept growing to include Ruby, Python, Go, and others ) and newer front-end tools like React, Vue, and Angular, we could build fully capable software on the web. Alongside these equipment came others, including creative type control, build technology, and shared bundle libraries. What was once mainly a place for linked records evolved into a world with endless possibilities.

At the same time, wireless equipment became more ready, and they gave us online access in our wallets. Mobile applications and flexible style opened up possibilities for new contacts anytime, anywhere.

This fusion of potent portable devices and potent creation tools contributed to the growth of social media and other consolidated tools for user interaction and consumption. As it became easier and more popular to interact with others immediately on Twitter, Facebook, and yet Slack, the need for held private websites waned. Social media provided relationships on a global level, with both positive and negative outcomes.

Want to learn more about how we came to be where we are today, along with some other suggestions for improvement? ” Of Time and the Web” was written by Jeremy Keith. Or check out the” Web Design History Timeline” at the Web Design Museum. Additionally, Neal Agarwal takes a fascinating journey of” Internet Artifacts.”

Where we are now

In the last couple of years, it’s felt like we’ve begun to achieve another big tone place. As social-media systems bone and fade, there’s been a growing interest in owning our personal information again. From the tried-and-true classic of hosting plain HTML files to static site generators and content management systems of all kinds, there are many different ways to create websites. Social media fracturing also has a price: we lose essential infrastructure for discovery and connection. Webmentions, RSS, ActivityPub, and other tools of the IndieWeb can help with this, but they’re still relatively underimplemented and hard to use for the less nerdy. We can create incredible personal websites and update them frequently, but without discovery and connection, it can feel as though we should be yelling into the void.

Browser support for CSS, JavaScript, and other standards like web components has accelerated, especially through efforts like Interop. In a fraction of the time that they once did, new technologies receive universal support. I frequently find out about a new feature and check its browser support only to discover that its coverage is already over 80 %. Browser support is frequently the only obstacle to using newer techniques today, rather than the time it takes to train and adopt new techniques.

Today, with a few commands and a couple of lines of code, we can prototype almost any idea. With all the tools we currently have, it is simpler than ever to launch a new venture. However, the upfront cost these frameworks may save in initial delivery eventually comes down as the maintenance and upgrading they become a part of our technical debt.

Adopting new standards can sometimes take longer if we rely on third-party frameworks because we might have to wait for those frameworks to adopt them. These frameworks—which used to let us adopt new techniques sooner—have now become hindrances instead. Users must wait for scripts to load before being able to read or interact with pages because these same frameworks frequently come with performance costs. And when scripts fail ( whether through poor code, network issues, or other environmental factors ), there’s often no alternative, leaving users with blank or broken pages.

Where do we go from here?

Today’s hacks help to shape tomorrow’s standards. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with embracing hacks —for now—to move the present forward. Problems only arise when we refuse to acknowledge that they are hacks or when we refuse to take their place. What can we do to create the web’s future that we desire?

Build for the long haul. Optimize for performance, for accessibility, and for the user. Weigh the costs of those developer-friendly tools. They may make your job a little easier right now, but how do they affect everything else? What’s the cost to users? To future developers? To standards adoption? The convenience may be worthwhile in some circumstances. Sometimes it’s just a hack that you’ve gotten used to. And occasionally, it prevents you from pursuing better options.

Start from standards. Although standards change over time, browsers have done a remarkably good job of staying current with outdated standards. The same isn’t always true of third-party frameworks. Even the most heinous of HTML from the 1990s still function perfectly today. The same can’t be said about websites created with frameworks even after a few years.

Design with care. Whether your craft is code, pixels, or processes, consider the impacts of each decision. Many modern tools have the convenience of having the ability to always understand the decisions that underlie their creation and to never consider the effects those decisions may have. Use the time saved by modern tools to consider more carefully and design with consideration rather than rush to “move fast and break things”

Always be learning. If you’re always learning, you’re also growing. Sometimes it may be hard to pinpoint what’s worth learning and what’s just today’s hack. Even if you were to concentrate solely on learning standards, you might end up focusing on something that won’t matter next year. ( Remember XHTML? ) However, ongoing learning opens up new neural connections in your brain, and the techniques you learn in one day may be used to inform different experiments in the future.

Play, experiment, and be weird! This web that we’ve built is the ultimate experiment. Despite being the single largest human endeavor in human history, each of us has the ability to make their own money there. Be courageous and try new things. Build a playground for ideas. Create absurd experiments in your own crazy science lab. Start your own small business. There has never been a more empowering place to be creative, take risks, and explore what we’re capable of.

Share and amplify. As you experiment, play, and learn, share what’s worked for you. Write on your own website, post on whichever social media site you prefer, or shout it from a TikTok. Write something for A List Apart! But take the time to amplify others too: find new voices, learn from them, and share what they’ve taught you.

Go forth and make

As designers and developers for the web ( and beyond ), we’re responsible for building the future every day, whether that may take the shape of personal websites, social media tools used by billions, or anything in between. Let’s imbue our values into the things that we create, and let’s make the web a better place for everyone. Create something special for yourself that you are only qualified to create. Then share it, make it better, make it again, or make something new. Learn. Make. Share. Grow. Rinse and repeat. Every time you think that you’ve mastered the web, everything will change.

I’d like you to consider this a “yes … and” piece to complement Joe’s post. Instead of refuting everything he’s saying, I’m pointing out some areas where AI may make real, positive impacts on people with disabilities. To be clear, I’m not saying that there aren’t true threats or pressing problems with AI that need to be addressed—there are, and we’ve needed to address them, like, yesterday—but I want to take a little time to talk about what’s possible in hope that we’ll get there one day.

Other words

Joe’s article spends a lot of time examining how computer vision models can create other words. He raises a number of true points about the state of affairs right now. And while computer-vision concepts continue to improve in the quality and complexity of information in their information, their benefits aren’t wonderful. He argues to be accurate that the state of image research is currently very poor, especially for some image types, in large part due to the absence of contextual contexts in which to look at images ( as a result of having separate “foundation” models for words analysis and image analysis ). Today’s models aren’t trained to distinguish between images that are contextually relevant ( that should probably have descriptions ) and those that are purely decorative ( which might not need a description ) either. However, I still think there’s possible in this area.

As Joe mentions, human-in-the-loop publishing of alt word should definitely be a factor. And if AI can intervene to provide a starting place for alt text, even if the rapid might say What is this BS? That’s certainly correct at all … Let me try to offer a starting point— I think that’s a win.

If we can specifically teach a design to consider image usage in context, it might be able to help us more swiftly distinguish between images that are likely to be beautiful and those that are more descriptive. That will clarify which situations require image descriptions, and it will increase authors ‘ effectiveness in making their sites more visible.

The image example provided in the GPT4 announcement provides an interesting opportunity as well, even though complex images like graphs and charts are challenging to describe in any kind of succinct way ( even for humans ). Let’s say you came across a map that merely stated the chart’s name and the type of representation it was:” Pie chart comparing smartphone use to have phone usage in US households making under$ 30, 000 annually.” ( That would be a pretty bad alt text for a chart because it would frequently leave many unanswered questions about the data, but let’s just assume that that was the description in place. ) Imagine a world where people could ask questions about the vivid if your computer knew that that picture was a dessert chart ( because an ship model concluded this ).

• Are there more smartphone users than have phones?
• How many more?
• Exists a group of people who don’t fall under either of these categories?
• How many is that?

Setting aside the realities of large language model ( LLM) hallucinations—where a model just makes up plausible-sounding “facts” —for a moment, the opportunity to learn more about images and data in this way could be revolutionary for blind and low-vision folks as well as for people with various forms of color blindness, cognitive disabilities, and so on. It might also be useful in educational settings to assist those who can, while is, comprehend the data contained in these charts.

What if you could request your website to make a complicated chart simpler? What if you asked it to separate a single line from a range graph? What if you could request your computer to transform the different lines ‘ colors so they match your color blindness better? What if you asked it to switch shades in favor of habits? Given these resources ‘ chat-based interface and our existing ability to manipulate photos in today’s AI devices, that seems like a chance.

Imagine a specially designed unit that could extract the data from that chart and transfer it to another format. For example, perhaps it could turn that pie chart ( or better yet, a series of pie charts ) into more accessible ( and useful ) formats, like spreadsheets. That would be awesome!

Matching techniques

When Safiya Umoja Noble chose to write her reserve Algorithms of Oppression, she hit the nail on the head. Although her book focused on the ways that search engines can foster racism, I believe it to be extremely accurate to say that all laptop models have the potential to intensify issue, discrimination, and intolerance. We all know that poorly designed and maintained algorithms are incredibly harmful, whether it’s Twitter that keeps bringing you the most recent tweet from a drowsy billionaire, YouTube that keeps us in a q-hole, or Instagram that keeps us guessing what natural bodies look like. Many of these are the result of a lack of diversity in the people who create and build them. When these platforms are built with inclusively baked in, however, there’s real potential for algorithm development to help people with disabilities.

Take Mentra, for example. They serve as a network of employment for people who are neurodivers. They match job seekers with potential employers using an algorithm based on more than 75 data points. On the job-seeker side of things, it considers each candidate’s strengths, their necessary and preferred workplace accommodations, environmental sensitivities, and so on. On the employer side, it considers each work environment, communication factors related to each job, and the like. Mentra made the decision to change the script when it came to typical employment websites because it was run by neurodivergent people. They lower the emotional and physical labor on the job-seeker side of things by recommending available candidates to companies who can then connect with job seekers that they are interested in.

When more people with disabilities are involved in developing algorithms, this can lower the likelihood that these algorithms will harm their communities. That’s why diverse teams are so important.

Imagine if the social media company’s recommendation engine was tuned to prioritize follow recommendations for people who discussed topics similar to those that were important but who were not in your current sphere of influence in any significant way. For instance, if you were to follow a group of non-disabled white male academics who talk about AI, it might be advisable to follow those who are disabled, aren’t white, or aren’t men who also talk about AI. If you took its recommendations, perhaps you’d get a more holistic and nuanced understanding of what’s happening in the AI field. These same systems should also use their understanding of biases about particular communities—including, for instance, the disability community—to make sure that they aren’t recommending any of their users follow accounts that perpetuate biases against (or, worse, spewing hate toward ) those groups.

Other ways that AI can helps people with disabilities

I’m sure I could go on and on about using AI to assist people with disabilities, but I’m going to make this last section into a bit of a lightning round. In no particular order:

Voice preservation. You may have seen the VALL-E paper or Apple’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day announcement or you may be familiar with the voice-preservation offerings from Microsoft, Acapela, or others. It’s possible to train an artificial intelligence model to mimic your voice, which can be incredibly helpful for those who have ALS ( Lou Gehrig’s disease ), motor neuron disease, or other medical conditions that can make it difficult to talk. This is, of course, the same tech that can also be used to create audio deepfakes, so it’s something that we need to approach responsibly, but the tech has truly transformative potential.
• Voice recognition. Researchers are assisting people with disabilities in the collection of recordings of people with atypical speech, thanks to the assistance of the Speech Accessibility Project. As I type, they are actively recruiting people with Parkinson’s and related conditions, and they have plans to expand this to other conditions as the project progresses. More people with disabilities will be able to use voice assistants, dictation software, and voice-response services, as well as to use only their voices to control computers and other devices, according to this research.
• Text transformation. LLMs of the current generation are quite capable of changing text without creating hallucinations. This is incredibly empowering for those who have cognitive disabilities and who may benefit from text summaries or simplified versions, or even text that has been prepared for Bionic Reading.

The value of various teams and sources of data

We must acknowledge that our differences matter. The intersections of the identities that we exist in have an impact on our lived experiences. These lived experiences—with all their complexities ( and joys and pain ) —are valuable inputs to the software, services, and societies that we shape. Our differences must be reflected in the data we use to develop new models, and those who provide it need to be compensated for doing so. More robust models are produced by inclusive data sets, which promote more justifiable outcomes.

Want a model that doesn’t demean or patronize or objectify people with disabilities? Make sure that the training data includes information about disabilities written by people with a range of disabilities.

Want a model that doesn’t use ableist language? You might be able to use already-existing data sets to create a filter that can read ableist language before it is read. That being said, when it comes to sensitivity reading, AI models won’t be replacing human copy editors anytime soon.

Want a coding copilot who can provide you with useful recommendations after the jump? Train it on code that you know to be accessible.

I have no doubt that AI can and will harm people … today, tomorrow, and well into the future. But I also believe that we can acknowledge that and, with an eye towards accessibility ( and, more broadly, inclusion ), make thoughtful, considerate, and intentional changes in our approaches to AI that will reduce harm over time as well. Today, tomorrow, and well into the future.

Many thanks to Kartik Sawhney for helping me with the development of this piece, Ashley Bischoff for her invaluable editorial assistance, and, of course, Joe Dolson for the prompt.

I am a artistic. What I do is alchemy. It is a secret. Instead of letting it get done by me, I do it.

I am a artistic. This brand is not appropriate for all creatives. Not all people see themselves in this manner. Some innovative individuals incorporate technology into their work. That is their reality, and I respect it. Sometimes I even envy them, a minor. But my approach is different—my becoming is unique.

Apologizing and qualifying in progress is a diversion. My head uses that to destroy me. I’ll leave it alone for today. I may come back later to make amends and count. after I’ve said what I should have. Which is challenging enough.

Except when it is simple and flows like a beverage valley.

Sometimes it does go that approach. Maybe what I need to make arrives in a flash. When I say something at that time, I’ve learned not to say it because people often don’t work hard enough to acknowledge that the idea is the best idea even when you know it’s the best idea.

Maybe I just work until the thought strikes me. Maybe it arrives right away and I don’t remind people for three weeks. Sometimes I get so excited about something that just happened that I blurt it out and didn’t stop myself. like a child who discovered a medal in one of his Cracker Jacks. Maybe I get away with this. Maybe other people agree: yes, that is the best plan. Most days they don’t and I regret having given way to joy.

Passion should only be saved for the meet, when it will matter. not the informal gathering that two different gatherings precede that appointment. Anyone knows why we have all these sessions. We keep saying we’re going to get rid of them, but we just keep trying to find different ways to get them. They occasionally yet excel. But occasionally they are a hindrance to the real job. The percentages between when conferences are important, and when they are a sad distraction, vary, depending on what you do and where you do it. And who you are and how you go about doing it. Suddenly I digress. I am a innovative. That is the design.

Sometimes, despite many hours of diligent effort, someone is hardly useful. Often I have to accept that and move on to the next task.

Don’t question about method. I am a artistic.

I am a innovative. I don’t handle my desires. And I don’t handle my best tips.

I can nail aside, surround myself with information or photos, and maybe that works. I can go for a walk, and occasionally that functions. There is a Eureka, which has nothing to do with boiling pots and sizzling petrol, and I may be making dinner. I frequently know what to do when I awaken. The idea that may have saved me disappears almost as frequently as I become aware and part of the world once more in a mindless weather of oblivion. For imagination, I believe, comes from that other planet. The one we enter in aspirations, and possibly, before conception and after death. But that’s for writers to know, and I am not a writer. I am a innovative. And it’s for philosophers to build massive forces in their imaginative world that they claim to be true. But that is another diversion. And a miserable one. Whether or not I am innovative or not, this may be on a much larger issue. But this is still a departure from what I said when I came around.

Often the process is mitigation. And horror. You know the cliché about the abused designer? It’s true, even when the artist ( and let’s put that noun in quotes ) is trying to write a soft drink jingle, a callback in a tired sitcom, a budget request.

Some individuals who detest the idea of being called artistic perhaps been closeted artists, but that’s between them and their gods. No offence meant. Your wisdom is correct, too. However, mine is for me.

Creatives understand artists.

Disadvantages are aware of cons, just like queers are aware of queers, just like real rappers are aware of genuine rappers. Creatives feel enormous regard for creatives. We love, respect, emulate, and almost deify the excellent ones. To revere any man is, of course, a dreadful mistake. We have been warned. We know much. We know people are really people. They dispute, they are depressed, they regret their most critical decisions, they are weak and thirsty, they can be cruel, they can be just as terrible as we can, if, like us, they are clay. But. But. However, they produce this incredible point. They give birth to something that may never occur without them and did not exist before them. They are the inspirations ‘ parents. And I suppose, since it’s only lying it, I have to put that they are the mother of technology. Ba ho backside! Okay, that’s done. Continue.

Creatives disparage our personal small successes, because we compare them to those of the wonderful people. Wonderful video! Also, I‘m no Miyazaki. Now THAT is glory. That is brilliance directly from God’s heart. This half-starved small item that I made? It essentially fell off the turnip trailer. And the carrots weren’t actually new.

Creatives knows that, at best, they are Salieri. That is what Mozart’s artists do, also.

I am a artistic. I haven’t worked in advertising in 30 times, but in my hallucinations, it’s my former artistic managers who judge me. They are correct in doing so. I am very lazy, overly simplistic, and when it actually counts, my mind goes blank. There is no medication for artistic function.

I am a artistic. Every experience I create has the potential to make Indiana Jones look older while snoring in a deck head. The more I pursue creativity, the faster I can complete my work, and the longer I obsess over my ideas and whizz around in circles before I can complete that task.

I can move ten times more quickly than those who aren’t creative, those who have just been creative for a short while, and those who have only been creative for a short time in their careers. Only that I spend twice as long putting the job off as they do before I work ten times as quickly as they do. When I put my mind to it, I am so confident in my ability to do a wonderful career. I am that attached to the excitement rush of delay. I also have a fear of the climb.

I am not an actor.

I am a artistic. Not an actor. Though I dreamed, as a boy, of eventually being that. Some of us like and criticize our talents because we are not Michelangelos and Warhols. That is narcissism—but at least we aren’t in elections.

I am a innovative. Though I believe in reason and science, I decide by intelligence and desire. And sit with what follows—the disasters as well as the achievements.

I am a artistic. Every term I’ve said these may offend another artists, who see things differently. Ask two artists a problem, get three ideas. Our dispute, our enthusiasm about it, and our responsibility to our own reality are, at least to me, the facts that we are artists, no matter how we may think about it.

I am a artistic. I lament my lack of taste in almost all of the areas of human understanding, which I know very little about. And I trust my preference above all other items in the regions closest to my soul, or perhaps, more precisely, to my passions. Without my passions, I had probably have to spend time staring living in the eye, which almost none of us can do for very long. No actually. No truly. Because many in existence, if you really look at it, is intolerable.

I am a innovative. I believe, as a family believes, that when I am gone, some little good part of me will take on in the head of at least one other people.

Working frees me from worrying about my job.

I am a innovative. I fear that my little product will disappear.

I am a innovative. I’m too busy making the next thing to devote too much time to it, especially since practically everything I create did achieve the level of success I conceive of.

I am a innovative. I think that method is the greatest secret. I think so strongly that I am actually foolish enough to post an essay I wrote into a small machine without having to go through or edit it. I didn’t do this generally, I promise. But I did it right away because I was even more frightened of forgetting what I was saying because I was afraid of you seeing through my sad movements toward the beautiful.

There. I think I’ve said it.

Weekend Favs February 15th written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but I encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online […]

Why Storytelling is the Most Powerful Business Skill (and How to Master It) written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with Mike Ganino

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Mike Ganino, a keynote speaker, storytelling expert, and the author of Make a Scene. Mike has helped shape viral TEDx talks, launch bestselling books, and coach leaders at Disney, Netflix, and Adobe to become dynamic, magnetic performers.

During our conversation, Mike shared why storytelling is not just a tool but a fundamental business skill that can transform public speaking, business communication, and leadership. He emphasized that while many professionals understand the importance of storytelling, few know how to craft engaging narratives that captivate audiences. By focusing on stage presence, storytelling techniques, and audience engagement, business leaders, marketers, and speakers can elevate their executive communication and brand storytelling to drive deeper connections and influence.

Mike Ganino’s insights prove that mastering storytelling techniques isn’t just for keynote speakers—it’s an essential skill for anyone in business communication, executive leadership, and brand storytelling. By refining public speaking tips, presentation skills, and speaker coaching, professionals can become more persuasive, engaging, and memorable in any business setting.

Key Takeaways:

• Storytelling is a Business Superpower – Whether in public speaking, marketing, or leadership, compelling stories create emotional connections and make ideas memorable.
• Start with a Scene – Great stories don’t always begin at the beginning. Mike advises speakers to drop the audience into a scene to create instant engagement.
• Performance Matters – Beyond words, stage presence, voice modulation, and body language are key factors in delivering a powerful message.
• Mastering Public Speaking – Effective speakers understand how to use storytelling frameworks to enhance presentation skills and keep audiences engaged.
• Storytelling in Leadership Communication – Executives can use storytelling to inspire teams, navigate change, and build trust, making it a critical tool for business storytelling.
• Practice in Low-Stakes Settings – Before taking the stage, hone your storytelling skills in meetings, presentations, and marketing content to build confidence and clarity.

Chapters:

• [00:09] Introducing Mike Ganino
• [00:57] Why is Storytelling a Hot Topic?
• [02:09] What Draws Us to Storytelling?
• [03:29] What Does Make a Scene Mean?
• [05:44] Are There Any Rules to Storytelling?
• [07:15] What if You’re Not Good at Storytelling?
• [09:12] Benefits of Being a Good Storyteller
• [12:45] Performance in Storytelling
• [15:32] How to Get Better at Storytelling
• [17:31] Do Different Platforms Need Different Approaches?

More About Mike Ganino: 

• Check out Mike Ganino’s Website
• Connect with Mike Ganino on LinkedIn
• Read Make a Scene: Storytelling, Stage Presence, and the Art of Being Unforgettable in Every Spotlight by Mike Ganino

I’ve been fascinated by movies since I was a child. I loved the heroes and the excitement—but most of all the reports. I aspired to be an artist. And I backed up the idea that I would get to do the things Indiana Jones did and have interesting activities. I also dreamed up suggestions for videos that my friends and I could render and sun in. But they never advanced. However, I did end up in the user experience ( UX) field. Today, I realize that there’s an element of drama to UX— I hadn’t actually considered it before, but consumer analysis is story. And you must show a compelling story to entice stakeholders, such as the product team and decision-makers, to learn more in order to get the most out of consumer research.

Consider your preferred drama. 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 provides an overview of the current events and allows you to understand the characters, their difficulties, and issues. The fight begins in Act 2, which introduces the issue. Here, difficulties grow or get worse. The decision comes in the third and final action. The figures learn and change as a result of the resolutions and issues are resolved. 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 for conducting research

Unfortunately, some people now believe that study is unprofitable. If finances or timelines are strong, analysis tends to be one of the first points to go. Some goods managers rely on designers or, worse, their own mind to make the “right” decisions for users based on their own knowledge or accepted best practices rather than investing in research. That may lead some groups, but that approach can so easily miss the chance to solve people ‘ real issues. To be user-centered, this is something we really avoid. User study improves pattern. It provides opportunities and problems while keeping it on record. Being aware of the issues with your product and reacting to them can help you stay away of your competition.

Each action in the three-act construction corresponds to a specific stage of the process, and each stage is crucial to delivering the full narrative. Let’s examine the various functions and how they relate to consumer analysis.

Act one: layout

The setup consists entirely in comprehending the history, and that’s where basic research comes in. Basic research ( also known as conceptual, discovery, or preliminary research ) aids in understanding users and identifying their issues. You’re learning about what exists now, the obstacles people have, and how the problems affect them—just like in the videos. You can conduct contextual inquiries or diary studies ( or both! ) to conduct foundational research. ), which may assist you in identifying both challenges and options. It doesn’t need to get a great investment in time or money.

Erika Hall writes about the most effective anthropology, which can be as straightforward as spending 15 hours with a customer and asking them to” Walk me through your morning yesterday.” That’s it. Provide that one ask. Locked up and spend fifteen minutes listening to them. Do everything in your power to protect both your objectives and yourself. Bam, you’re doing ethnography”. According to Hall, “[This ] will definitely prove quite fascinating. In the unlikely event that you don’t learn anything important or novel, you can move forward with greater self-assurance.

This makes total sense to me. And I adore how customer research is made so simple. You can only attract participants and do it! You don’t need to make a lot of documentation. This can offer a wealth of knowledge about your customers, and it’ll help you better understand them and what’s going on in their life. Understanding where people are coming from is what action one is really all about.

Jared Spool discusses the significance of basic research and how it does make up the majority of your study. If you can pick from any further user data that you can get your hands on, such as surveys or analytics, that can complement what you’ve heard in the fundamental studies or even time to areas that need more research. All of this information helps to reveal both the state of items and its flaws more clearly. And that’s the start of a gripping tale. It’s the place in the story where you realize that the principal characters—or the people in this case—are facing issues that they need to conquer. This is where you begin to develop compassion for the characters and support their success, much like in films. And presumably, partners are now doing the same. Their love may be with their company, which could be losing wealth because people didn’t complete certain tasks. Or perhaps they have empathy for people ‘ problems. In any case, work one serves as your main strategy to pique the interest and interest of the participants.

When partners begin to understand the value of basic research, that is open doors to more opportunities that involve users in the decision-making method. And that can help product teams become more user-centric. Everyone benefits from this, including the product, stakeholders, and users. It’s like winning an Oscar in movie terms—it often leads to your product being well received and successful. And this might serve as a motivator for stakeholders to carry this out with other goods. Knowing how to tell a good story is the only way to convince stakeholders to care about doing more research, and storytelling is the key to this process.

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 resolving the issues you first raised. 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. Unmet needs or issues with a flow or process that are making users uncomfortable could be the causes. More issues will come up in the process, much like in act two of a movie. It’s here that you learn more about the characters as they grow and develop through this act.

Usability tests should typically consist of five participants, according to Jakob Nielsen, who found that that number of users can typically identify the majority of the issues:” 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 also similarities to storytelling here: if you try to tell a story with too many characters, the plot may become 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 problems that need to be solved while also highlighting the worth of conducting the research in the first place.

Usability tests have been conducted in person for decades, but you can also do them remotely using software 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 might interpret in-person usability tests as a form of theater watching as opposed to remote testing. Each has advantages and disadvantages. In-person usability research is a much richer experience. The sessions can be had by stakeholders with other stakeholders. Additionally, you get real-time reactions, including surprises, disagreements, 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 conducting usability testing in the field is like watching a play that is staged and controlled, where any two sessions may be very different from one another. You can conduct usability testing in the real world by creating a replica of the environment where users interact with the product and conducting your research there. Or you can go out to meet users at their location to do your research. With either option, you can see how things work in context, how things develop, and how conversion can take a completely different turn. You have less control over how these sessions end as researchers, but this can occasionally 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 add a level of detail that is frequently absent 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 make it possible for much more people to participate in the research and to observe what is happening. Additionally, they make the doors accessible to a much wider range 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 advantage of usability testing, whether conducted remotely or in person, is that you can ask real users questions to understand their reasoning and understanding of the problem. This can help you identify issues as well as understand why they were initially issues. Furthermore, you can test hypotheses and gauge whether your thinking is correct. By the end of the sessions, you’ll have a much clearer understanding of how useful the designs are and whether or not they fulfill their intended purpose. The excitement is in the second act, but there are also potential surprises in the third. This is equally true of usability tests. Unexpected things that are said by participants frequently alter how you view things, and these unexpected developments in the story can lead to unexpected turns in your perception.

Unfortunately, user research can occasionally be viewed as wasteful. And too often usability testing is the only research process that some stakeholders think that they ever need. In fact, if the designs you’re evaluating in the usability test aren’t grounded in a thorough understanding of your users ( foundational research ), there isn’t much to be gained by conducting usability testing in the first place. Because you’re narrowing the scope of what you’re receiving feedback on without understanding the needs of the users. As a result, there’s no way of knowing whether the designs might solve a problem that users have. In the context of a usability test, it’s only feedback on a particular design.

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

In act two, stakeholders will hopefully be able to observe the story develop during the user sessions, which reveal the conflict and tension in the current design’s highs and lows. And in turn, this can encourage stakeholders to take action on the issues raised.

Act three: resolution

The third act is about resolving the issues from the first two acts, whereas the first two acts are about understanding the context and the tensions that can compel stakeholders to act. While it’s crucial to have an audience for the first two acts, it’s crucial that they stay 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 entire team to discuss what is possible within the project’s constraints, ask questions, and discuss user feedback together. Additionally, it enables the UX design and research teams to clarify, suggest alternatives, or provide more context for their decisions. So you can get everyone on the same page and get agreement on the way forward.

This act is primarily told in voiceover with some audience participation. The researcher serves as the narrator, who depicts the issues and what the product’s future might look like given the lessons the team has learned. They give the stakeholders their recommendations and their guidance on creating this vision.

In the Harvard Business Review, Nancy Duarte describes a method for structuring presentations that follow a persuasive narrative. The most effective presenters employ the same methods as great storytellers: By reaffirming the status quo and then revealing a better way, they create 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 kind of structure is in line with research findings, particularly those from usability tests. It provides evidence for “what is “—the problems that you’ve identified. And your suggestions for how to deal with them are “what could be.” And so forth and 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 as visual as quick sketches of a potential solution to a problem. These can help create momentum and conversation. 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. The denouement of the story is where you make the main points or problems and what they mean for the product. This stage provides stakeholders with the next steps and, hoped, the motivation 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. The three-act structure of user research contains all the components for a good story:

Act one: You encounter the protagonists ( the users ) and the antagonists ( the issues affecting users ). This is the beginning of the plot. Researchers might employ techniques like contextual inquiry, ethnography, diary studies, surveys, and analytics in act one. These techniques can produce personas, empathy maps, user journeys, and analytics dashboards.

Act two: Next, there’s character development. The protagonists encounter problems and challenges, which they must overcome, and there is conflict and tension. Researchers might employ heuristics evaluation, competitive benchmarking, and usability testing in act two. The output of these can include usability findings reports, UX strategy documents, usability guidelines, and best practices.

Act three: The protagonists win, and you can see what a better future might look like. Researchers may use techniques like presentation decks, storytelling, and digital media in act three. The output of these can be: presentation decks, video clips, audio clips, and pictures.

The researcher plays a variety of roles, including producer, director, and storyteller. The participants play a small part, but they are significant characters ( in the study ). And the stakeholders are the audience. However, the most crucial thing is to get the narrative straight and to use storytelling to research users ‘ stories. In the end, the parties should leave with a goal and an eagerness to fix the product’s flaws.

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. User research is ultimately a win-win situation for everyone, and all you need to do is pique stakeholders ‘ interest in how the story ends.

Big SPOILERS FOR THE GORGE are included in this article. There is a collection of discourse in the first act of The Gorge which is so prolix, so full of music assurance, that it will give almost everyone pause. This includes Scott Derrickson, a chairman with more than 20 years in the business of crafting style promises, ]…]

The first article on Den of Geek was Scott Derrickson explaining what’s in The Gorge, What It Means, and How the Ending Changed.

Anyone who isn’t missing Luther could do worse than watch the latest crime crisis from Bradford, Virdee. Captain Harry Virdee may not be as smart as DCI John Luther, but he does have a similar gray area between the law and criminal justice. He also is useful with his fists, and he fights a villain in collection one whose methods are so crude and outrageous that they could have stepped straight out of the Idris Elba-led episode. You thought Luther&#8216, s sisters were deranged? Keep tuned.

What sets Virdee apart from Luther, aside from their differing British cultural contexts ( Harry is Sikh with Indian heritage and lives in Bradford, John is a Black Londoner ), are their marriages. Harry and his wife Saima are very much a group, even if he keeps items from her, in contrast to the separated and painfully widowed Luther who were later separated. The foundation of both their lives are their children, and Harry Virdee should not go too far down a dark way, according to their relationship.

Match the Virdee characters and observe where the actors may be recognizable from above.

Staz Nair as Harry Virdee

Captain Hardeep &#8220, Harry &#8221, Virdee is a 39-year-old Bradford officer with troubled interests to his beloved woman Saima and younger brother Aaron, his brother-in-law Riaz, his career, and his town. He&#8217, s the lead character in AA Dhand&#8217, s five-strong Harry Virdee book series ( Streets of Darkness, Girl Zero, City of Sinners, One Way Out, The Blood Divide ) and is played in this BBC One series by actor and singer Staz Nair.

Television viewers will understand English actor Nair for his roles in US dramas Game of Thrones, in which he played Dothraki public Qhono, Krypton, in which he appeared as Dax-Baron, and for his regular position in Supergirl as William Dey, and in Zack Snyder&#8217, s Rebel Sun. He previously played the guitar in the X Factor band Times Red and made an appearance as Rocky in a 2016 TV show called The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Vikash Bhai as Riaz Hyatt

Riaz is a Bradford crime kingpin, and Harry &#8217, s brother-in-law. The two grew up together, and despite going in different directions after Riaz was sentenced to prison, the bond between them remains &#8211, unbeknownst to Harry &#8217, s wife and Riaz&#8217, s sister Saima. He&#8217, s played by Vikash Bhai, an actor familiar to fans of sci-fi series Pandora, as well as BBC thriller Crossfire, US sci-fi series Hanna, and many more. Bhai&#8217, s voice might also be recognised by listeners to Big Finish&#8217, s audio Doctor Who adventures, of which he&#8217, s recorded many.

Aysha Kala as Saima Hyatt

Saima Hyatt is a nurse, mother of young son Aaron, married to Harry, and the sister of drug kingpin Riaz &#8211, not that she knows that her brother &#8217, s operating an organised crime group out of his cash-and-carry warehouse. Clever and independent, Saima is a proud Muslim of Pakistani heritage who&#8217, s not prepared to compromise her faith to placate her bigoted father-in-law. She&#8217, s played by screen and stage actor Aysha Kala, seen recently in Apple TV + crime drama Criminal Record and known previously on TV for ITV&#8217, s Indian Summers, as well as recent National Theatre roles in The Motive and the Cue, and The Father and the Assassin.

Kulvinder Ghir as Ranjit Virdee

Ranjit is Harry &#8217, s father, though he has n&#8217, t seen him &#8211, or met his grandson Aaron &#8211, for eight years by the time that Virdee begins. An Indian Sikh who has a strong bias against Pakistani Muslims, he disowned his son when he wed Saima and continues to refuse to acknowledge him. He&#8217, s played by Kulvinder Ghir, a very familiar face on British TV for his time as a castmember on beloved comedy series Goodness Gracious Me, as well as Beecham House, Still Open All Hours, and recently, Apple TV + sci-fi Foundation.

Tomi May as Enzo Tobin

Enzo is Riaz&#8217, s right-hand man in Bradford West, and the one who gets his hands dirty when violence is called for in the fight against Vasil Sharma&#8217, s rival gang. Fans of Line of Duty will recognize actor Tomi May for playing Miroslav Minkovicz, a member of the organized crime group being hunted by AC-12&#8217, s police officers. May has also appeared in Killing Eve, The Trouble With Maggie Cole, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Headhunters and an episode of the videogame-to-TV adaptation Halo.

Danyal Ismail portrays DS Khalil Amin.

No TV crime drama would be complete without a new lead character to show us the ropes and explain things to ( and, consequently, to us ) along the way. In Virdee, that &#8217, s Khalil, a new recruit to Harry &#8217, s Bradford team. Khalil quickly understood that his new boss who &#8220, does n&#8217, t do desks &#8221, also does n&#8217, t quite follow the rules, and the question is, will he support or report Harry for it? This is Ismail&#8217, s fourth crime drama TV role, following parts in ITV&#8217, s Vera, Madonald &amp, Dobbs and Ridley.

Elizabeth Berrington portrays DS Clare Conway

DS Conway is Harry &#8217, s police colleague ( and are we sure that she&#8217, s only a DS as she&#8217, s credited? She acts more like DCI Virdee&#8217, s boss ). She&#8217, s a supporting character about whom little is known, and she&#8217, s played by Elizabeth Berrington. Where has Elizabeth Berrington previously been seen? Everywhere. From The Office to Waterloo Road to Stella to The Responder to Good Omens, via basically every British TV show made in the last 20 years, Berrington&#8217, s been in it.

Elaine Tan as Rebecca Armitage

Rebecca Armitage is part of the UK Crime Agency, a fictional organisation in Virdee&#8216, s world. A well-known investigation into a ritualistic killer is brought on by the UKCA. She&#8217, s played by Elaine Tan, who recently appeared in ITV thriller Red Eye and Sky sci-fi drama The Lazarus Project, and before that Tom Clancy &#8216, s Jack Ryan, Acquitted and multiple episodes of British soap EastEnders in the role of Li Chong.

Nicola Burley as Sophie Brodenham

Sophie is a mystery at the start of Virdee, but is soon established as Riaz&#8217, s confidante. As the series ‘ season draws to its conclusion, her backstory will be revealed. She&#8217, s played by Nichola Burley, who was recently in ITVX crime drama Protection, as well as playing Brenda in BBC true-crime drama The Gold, appearing in Netflix fantasy thriller Behind her Eyes, and many more.

Ramon Tikaram as Jai Pawa

No spoilers here for anyone who hasn’t yet binged every Virdee series one episode. Jai Pawa is a powerful figure from Virdee&#8217, s past who returns to Bradford set on vengeance. He&#8217, s played by another very familiar face on British TV: Ramon Tikaram, seen recently in Netflix fantasy KAOS, but also Brassic, Pennyworth, multiple Doctor Who audio adventures, Stella, EastEnders, and many others, including, of course, for the role of Ferdy in 1990s favourite This Life.

ALSO APPEARING

&#8211, The Lazarus Project and Waterloo Road&#8216, s Nina Singh as Harry &#8217, s niece Tara Virdee-Duggal.

&#8211, We Are Lady Parts, Mary Poppins Returns and theatre actor Sudha Bhuchar as Harry &#8217, s mother Jyoti Virdee

&#8211, Gangs of London and The Gentlemen&#8216, s Andi Jashy as Vasil Sharla, the leader of a rival drug operation going up against Bradford West.

&#8211, Newcomer Charlie Mann as Paul King, a local Bradford thief.

Virdee all episodes are currently available for streaming on BBC iPlayer.

The first post on Den of Geek was Virdee Cast: Meet the Bradford Crime Drama Characters.

The White Lotus year 3 episode 1 trailers are contained in this article. The White Lotus year 3’s first episode is all about introducing viewers to the numerous brand-new characters who live at the menacing resort. From Walton Goggins ‘ MVP-type start to 2025 ( this man is ]… ]

The White Lotus ‘ Biggest Villain Makes a Surprise Profit in Season 3 first appeared on Den of Geek.

Anyone who isn’t missing Luther could do worse than watch the newest crime crisis Virdee in Bradford. Captain Harry Virdee may not be as smart as DCI John Luther, but he does have a similar gray area between the law and criminal justice. He also is helpful with his fists, and he fights a villain in collection one whose methods are so crude and outrageous that they could have stepped straight out of the Idris Elba-led episode. You thought Luther&#8216, s sisters were deranged? Be tuned.

What sets Virdee apart from Luther, aside from their differing British cultural contexts ( Harry is Sikh with Indian heritage and lives in Bradford, John is a Black Londoner ), are their marriages. Harry and his wife Saima are very much a group, even though he keeps things from her, in contrast to the separated and painfully widowed Luther who later separated. The foundation of both their lives are their children, and finally what will prevent Harry Virdee from following too dangerously dark paths.

Match the Virdee characters and observe where the actors may be recognizable from above.

Staz Nair as Harry Virdee

Captain Hardeep &#8220, Harry &#8221, Virdee is a 39-year-old Bradford officer with troubled interests to his beloved woman Saima and younger brother Aaron, his brother-in-law Riaz, his career, and his town. He&#8217, s the lead character in AA Dhand&#8217, s five-strong Harry Virdee book series ( Streets of Darkness, Girl Zero, City of Sinners, One Way Out, The Blood Divide ) and is played in this BBC One series by actor and singer Staz Nair.

Television viewers will understand English actor Nair for his roles in US dramas Game of Thrones, in which he played Dothraki public Qhono, Krypton, in which he appeared as Dax-Baron, and for his regular position in Supergirl as William Dey, and in Zack Snyder&#8217, s Rebel Sun. He previously played the guitar in the X Factor band Times Red and made an appearance as Rocky in a 2016 TV show called The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Vikash Bhai as Riaz Hyatt

Riaz is a Bradford crime kingpin, and Harry &#8217, s brother-in-law. The two grew up together, and despite going in different directions after Riaz was sentenced to prison, the bond between them remains &#8211, unbeknownst to Harry &#8217, s wife and Riaz&#8217, s sister Saima. He&#8217, s played by Vikash Bhai, an actor familiar to fans of sci-fi series Pandora, as well as BBC thriller Crossfire, US sci-fi series Hanna, and many more. Bhai&#8217, s voice might also be recognised by listeners to Big Finish&#8217, s audio Doctor Who adventures, of which he&#8217, s recorded many.

Aysha Kala as Saima Hyatt

Saima Hyatt is a nurse, mother of young son Aaron, married to Harry, and the sister of drug kingpin Riaz &#8211, not that she knows that her brother &#8217, s operating an organised crime group out of his cash-and-carry warehouse. Clever and independent, Saima is a proud Muslim of Pakistani heritage who&#8217, s not prepared to compromise her faith to placate her bigoted father-in-law. She&#8217, s played by screen and stage actor Aysha Kala, seen recently in Apple TV + crime drama Criminal Record and known previously on TV for ITV&#8217, s Indian Summers, as well as recent National Theatre roles in The Motive and the Cue, and The Father and the Assassin.

Kulvinder Ghir as Ranjit Virdee

Ranjit is Harry &#8217, s father, though he has n&#8217, t seen him &#8211, or met his grandson Aaron &#8211, for eight years by the time that Virdee begins. An Indian Sikh who has a strong bias against Pakistani Muslims, he disowned his son when he wed Saima and continues to refuse to acknowledge him. He&#8217, s played by Kulvinder Ghir, a very familiar face on British TV for his time as a castmember on beloved comedy series Goodness Gracious Me, as well as Beecham House, Still Open All Hours, and recently, Apple TV + sci-fi Foundation.

Tomi May as Enzo Tobin

Enzo is Riaz&#8217, s right-hand man in Bradford West, and the one who gets his hands dirty when violence is called for in the fight against Vasil Sharma&#8217, s rival gang. Fans of Line of Duty will recognize Tomi May as the actor who played Miroslav Minkovicz, a member of the organized crime group that is being pursued by AC-12&#8217 police. May has also appeared in Killing Eve, The Trouble With Maggie Cole, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Headhunters and an episode of the videogame-to-TV adaptation Halo.

Danyal Ismail portrays DS Khalil Amin

No TV crime drama would be complete without a new DS for our lead to show the ropes and explain things to each other along the way ( and, consequently, to us ). In Virdee, that &#8217, s Khalil, a new recruit to Harry &#8217, s Bradford team. Khalil quickly understood that his new boss who &#8220, does n&#8217, t do desks &#8221, also does n&#8217, t quite follow the rules, and the question is, will he support or report Harry for it? This is Ismail&#8217, s fourth crime drama TV role, following parts in ITV&#8217, s Vera, Madonald &amp, Dobbs and Ridley.

Elizabeth Berrington portrays DS Clare Conway

DS Conway is Harry &#8217, s police colleague ( and are we sure that she&#8217, s only a DS as she&#8217, s credited? She acts more like DCI Virdee&#8217, s boss ). She&#8217, s a supporting character about whom little is known, and she&#8217, s played by Elizabeth Berrington. Where has Elizabeth Berrington previously been seen? Everywhere. From The Office to Waterloo Road to Stella to The Responder to Good Omens, via basically every British TV show made in the last 20 years, Berrington&#8217, s been in it.

Elaine Tan as Rebecca Armitage

Rebecca Armitage is part of the UK Crime Agency, a fictional organisation in Virdee&#8216, s world. A well-known investigation into a ritualistic killer is brought in by the UKCA. She&#8217, s played by Elaine Tan, who recently appeared in ITV thriller Red Eye and Sky sci-fi drama The Lazarus Project, and before that Tom Clancy &#8216, s Jack Ryan, Acquitted and multiple episodes of British soap EastEnders in the role of Li Chong.

Nicola Burley as Sophie Brodenham

Sophie is a mystery at the start of Virdee, but is soon established as Riaz&#8217, s confidante. As the series ‘ season draws to its conclusion, her backstory will be revealed. She&#8217, s played by Nichola Burley, who was recently in ITVX crime drama Protection, as well as playing Brenda in BBC true-crime drama The Gold, appearing in Netflix fantasy thriller Behind her Eyes, and many more.

Ramon Tikaram as Jai Pawa

No spoilers here for anyone who hasn’t yet binged every Virdee series one episode. Jai Pawa is a powerful figure from Virdee&#8217, s past who returns to Bradford set on vengeance. He&#8217, s played by another very familiar face on British TV: Ramon Tikaram, seen recently in Netflix fantasy KAOS, but also Brassic, Pennyworth, multiple Doctor Who audio adventures, Stella, EastEnders, and many others, including, of course, for the role of Ferdy in 1990s favourite This Life.

ALSO APPEARING

&#8211, The Lazarus Project and Waterloo Road&#8216, s Nina Singh as Harry &#8217, s niece Tara Virdee-Duggal.

&#8211, We Are Lady Parts, Mary Poppins Returns and theatre actor Sudha Bhuchar as Harry &#8217, s mother Jyoti Virdee

&#8211, Gangs of London and The Gentlemen&#8216, s Andi Jashy as Vasil Sharla, the leader of a rival drug operation going up against Bradford West.

&#8211, Newcomer Charlie Mann as Paul King, a local Bradford thief.

Virdee all episodes are currently available for streaming on BBC iPlayer.

The first post on Den of Geek was Virdee Cast: Meet the Bradford Crime Drama Characters.

Captain America: Brave New World is crossing$ 100 million over the four-day trip according to Disney. That is the third highest-earning album of any video that opens on Presidents ‘ Day weekend ever, breaking a record for the most recent entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When you consider the other, that is even more respectable. ]

The second article on Den of Geek was about Captain America: Brave New World Box Office and Measuring a Glass Half Full.

Anyone who isn’t missing Luther could do worse than watch the newest violence crisis Virdee in Bradford. Captain Harry Virdee may not be as smart as DCI John Luther, but he does have a similar gray area between the law and criminal justice. He also has good fists, and he fights a monster in series one whose methods are so crude and outrageous that they could have stepped straight out of the Idris Elba-led episode. You thought Luther&#8216, s sisters were deranged? Keep tuned.

What sets Virdee apart from Luther, aside from their differing British cultural contexts ( Harry is Sikh with Indian heritage and lives in Bradford, John is a Black Londoner ), are their marriages. Harry and his wife Saima are very much a group, even though he keeps things from her, in contrast to the separated and cruelly widowed Luther who later separated. The foundation of both their lives are their children, and finally what will prevent Harry Virdee from following too dangerously dark paths.

Join the Virdee characters, and observe where the actors from above may be recognizable.

Staz Nair as Harry Virdee

Captain Hardeep &#8220, Harry &#8221, Virdee is a 39-year-old Bradford officer with troubled interests to his beloved woman Saima and younger brother Aaron, his brother-in-law Riaz, his career, and his town. He&#8217, s the lead character in AA Dhand&#8217, s five-strong Harry Virdee book series ( Streets of Darkness, Girl Zero, City of Sinners, One Way Out, The Blood Divide ) and is played in this BBC One series by actor and singer Staz Nair.

Television viewers will understand English actor Nair for his roles in US dramas Game of Thrones, in which he played Dothraki public Qhono, Krypton, in which he appeared as Dax-Baron, and for his regular function in Supergirl as William Dey, and in Zack Snyder&#8217, s Rebel Sun. He previously played the guitar in the X Factor band Times Red and made an appearance as Rocky in a 2016 TV show called The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Vikash Bhai as Riaz Hyatt

Riaz is a Bradford crime kingpin, and Harry &#8217, s brother-in-law. The two grew up together, and despite going in different directions after Riaz was sentenced to prison, the bond between them remains &#8211, unbeknownst to Harry &#8217, s wife and Riaz&#8217, s sister Saima. He&#8217, s played by Vikash Bhai, an actor familiar to fans of sci-fi series Pandora, as well as BBC thriller Crossfire, US sci-fi series Hanna, and many more. Bhai&#8217, s voice might also be recognised by listeners to Big Finish&#8217, s audio Doctor Who adventures, of which he&#8217, s recorded many.

Aysha Kala as Saima Hyatt

Saima Hyatt is a nurse, mother of young son Aaron, married to Harry, and the sister of drug kingpin Riaz &#8211, not that she knows that her brother &#8217, s operating an organised crime group out of his cash-and-carry warehouse. Clever and independent, Saima is a proud Muslim of Pakistani heritage who&#8217, s not prepared to compromise her faith to placate her bigoted father-in-law. She&#8217, s played by screen and stage actor Aysha Kala, seen recently in Apple TV + crime drama Criminal Record and known previously on TV for ITV&#8217, s Indian Summers, as well as recent National Theatre roles in The Motive and the Cue, and The Father and the Assassin.

Kulvinder Ghir as Ranjit Virdee

Ranjit is Harry &#8217, s father, though he has n&#8217, t seen him &#8211, or met his grandson Aaron &#8211, for eight years by the time that Virdee begins. An Indian Sikh who has a strong bias against Pakistani Muslims, he disowned his son when he wed Saima and continues to refuse to acknowledge him today. He&#8217, s played by Kulvinder Ghir, a very familiar face on British TV for his time as a castmember on beloved comedy series Goodness Gracious Me, as well as Beecham House, Still Open All Hours, and recently, Apple TV + sci-fi Foundation.

Tomi May as Enzo Tobin

Enzo is Riaz&#8217, s right-hand man in Bradford West, and the one who gets his hands dirty when violence is called for in the fight against Vasil Sharma&#8217, s rival gang. Tomi May is best known for playing Miroslav Minkovicz, a member of the organized crime group that is being pursued by AC-12&#8217, s police officers, in the film Line of Duty. May has also appeared in Killing Eve, The Trouble With Maggie Cole, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Headhunters and an episode of the videogame-to-TV adaptation Halo.

Danyal Ismail portrays DS Khalil Amin

No TV crime drama would be complete without a new lead character to show us the ropes and explain things to ( and, consequently, to us ) along the way. In Virdee, that &#8217, s Khalil, a new recruit to Harry &#8217, s Bradford team. Khalil quickly understood that his new boss who &#8220, does n&#8217, t do desks &#8221, also does n&#8217, t quite follow the rules, and the question is, will he support or report Harry for it? This is Ismail&#8217, s fourth crime drama TV role, following parts in ITV&#8217, s Vera, Madonald &amp, Dobbs and Ridley.

Elizabeth Berrington portrays DS Clare Conway

DS Conway is Harry &#8217, s police colleague ( and are we sure that she&#8217, s only a DS as she&#8217, s credited? She acts more like DCI Virdee&#8217, s boss ). She&#8217, s a supporting character about whom little is known, and she&#8217, s played by Elizabeth Berrington. Where has Elizabeth Berrington previously been seen? Everywhere. From The Office to Waterloo Road to Stella to The Responder to Good Omens, via basically every British TV show made in the last 20 years, Berrington&#8217, s been in it.

Elaine Tan as Rebecca Armitage

Rebecca Armitage is part of the UK Crime Agency, a fictional organisation in Virdee&#8216, s world. The UKCA is requested to take over a significant investigation into a ritual killer. She&#8217, s played by Elaine Tan, who recently appeared in ITV thriller Red Eye and Sky sci-fi drama The Lazarus Project, and before that Tom Clancy &#8216, s Jack Ryan, Acquitted and multiple episodes of British soap EastEnders in the role of Li Chong.

Nicola Burley as Sophie Brodenham

Sophie is a mystery at the start of Virdee, but is soon established as Riaz&#8217, s confidante. As the series ‘ season draws to its conclusion, her backstory will be revealed. She&#8217, s played by Nichola Burley, who was recently in ITVX crime drama Protection, as well as playing Brenda in BBC true-crime drama The Gold, appearing in Netflix fantasy thriller Behind her Eyes, and many more.

Ramon Tikaram as Jai Pawa

No spoilers here for anyone who hasn’t yet binged every episode of the Virdee series one. Jai Pawa is a powerful figure from Virdee&#8217, s past who returns to Bradford set on vengeance. He&#8217, s played by another very familiar face on British TV: Ramon Tikaram, seen recently in Netflix fantasy KAOS, but also Brassic, Pennyworth, multiple Doctor Who audio adventures, Stella, EastEnders, and many others, including, of course, for the role of Ferdy in 1990s favourite This Life.

ALSO APPEARING

&#8211, The Lazarus Project and Waterloo Road&#8216, s Nina Singh as Harry &#8217, s niece Tara Virdee-Duggal.

&#8211, We Are Lady Parts, Mary Poppins Returns and theatre actor Sudha Bhuchar as Harry &#8217, s mother Jyoti Virdee

&#8211, Gangs of London and The Gentlemen&#8216, s Andi Jashy as Vasil Sharla, the leader of a rival drug operation going up against Bradford West.

&#8211, Newcomer Charlie Mann as Paul King, a local Bradford thief.

On BBC iPlayer, you can now stream every Virdee episode.

The first post on Den of Geek: Virdee Cast: Meet the Bradford Crime Drama Characters appeared first.