NOMADS: The HCI Podcast‪!‬ Sunny M & Connie Chau

Breaking away from typical western perspectives, Alexander Muir joins NOMADS: The HCI Podcast in our season finale to explore the meaning and value of Vedantic Philosophy and spirituality in the world of UX. From computer science to yoga to UX, Alexander pieces together the patterns he's seen in modern HCI practice and in life to elevate our empathy, sense of self, and awareness of the world to the next level. In his own words, "People may feel drawn to connect their research work and careers to their soul and their spiritual life. For the sake of mental health and a fulfilling life, it is important to find  a way to grow as people, to gain self knowledge, even while we carry out our daily research." 

Reference Links: 
1:15 - Alexander's talk at The BAD Conference 2020: https://techcircus.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Alexander_Muir_-_final.pdf 6:50 - Alexander's Article: https://medium.com/@alexandermuir/the-four-varnas-and-phd-research-draft-708d8a7e6099, Geek Heresy by Kentaro Toyama https://geekheresy.org/ 11:22 - Vedantic Philosophy https://vedanta.org/what-is-vedanta/ 15:40 - Amrita University in India https://www.amrita.edu/, Alexander's work with Amrita Labs https://medium.com/@alexandermuir/the-psychology-of-seva-an-effective-basis-for-humanitarian-ux-work-60df1c1c0e5818:02 - mono no aware (物の哀れ) Japanese aesthetic https://www.faena.com/aleph/articles/mono-no-aware-the-gentle-sadness-of-things/ 26:00 - Takuan Soho's essays https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unfettered-Mind-Writings-Master-Swordsman/dp/1590309863/ref=sr_1_2dchild=1&qid=1603725349&refinements=p_27%3ATakuan+Soho&s=books&sr=1-228:55 - The West & Spirituality and "starting where you are" 33:35 - Gender inequity and UX35:50 - Being wary of another wave of cultural imperialism Check out this Google Doc for extended resources and readings, generously provided by Alexander (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E1FyxyXtLK0Yohy3dA-d-U0AE2cuduJGSE5xh4yac7Q/edit?usp=sharing)
If you'd like to connect with Alexander, send [Connie Chau or Sunny M. ] a message via LinkedIn or email us at nomadspodcast@gmail.com. 
Thank you so much to all our wonderful listeners for Season 1 of NOMADS: The HCI Podcast and we hope to see you in the next part of our journey together! Feel free to keep the conversation going and reach out to us either at our individual LinkedIn profiles (Connie Chau or Sunny M.) Until next time, Nomads! ❤️

Phnam Bagley, a French Designer, Futurist, Space Architect, Public speaker and Founding partner of Non-Fiction joins NOMADS: The HCI Podcast to share her story of designing groundbreaking user experiences at places like IDEO, NASA, Lunar Design (now McKinsey Design) among others. She reveals her vision for future, the role of Designers to make this planet more sustainable, peaceful and humane environment in this episode! 


Connect with Phnam:
 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phnambagley/ Design Studio: https://www.nonfiction.designLinks and Things:
Transtech Conference: https://www.transformativetech.orgAkili Interactive (example of Transtech): https://www.akiliinteractive.com/who-we-are17 Goals to Sustainable Development:  https://sdgs.un.org/goalsSustainability and Kaya (African Tech Company): https://kayaafrica.co The School of Lifelong Learning: https://www.nonfiction.design/projects/movida-educational-systemOrbital University: Design in space for life on Earth: https://www.nonfiction.design/projects/orbital-university Psychology of Color:  https://medium.com/ux-trends/color-psychology-brilliant-helping-hand-in-ux-design-cdca6b783f43 Kansei Engineering:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansei_engineering

About US:
Sunny and Connie are grad students majoring in Human-Computer Interaction and are passionate about designing experiences to empower people around the world.

Reality Canty joins NOMADS: The HCI Podcast to share, in his own words,  his experiences in life including  "excelling in school, commandeering the urban streets, fly fishing on Alaskan riverbanks, earning a PhD, starting several companies, and prevailing through worlds of challenge makes [him] a different". Now a User Experience Researcher at Google, Real gives us insight on applying the rigor of academic research to the fast-paced iterative world of design research in industry and talks about owning his identity and living true to one's values in life in the face work.

Connect with Real:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/realitycanty/ 
Links and Things:
The Spook Who Sat By The Door (movie): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/movies/spook-who-sat-by-the-door.htmlGoogle invests $10 Billions to promote Education in India https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/13/google-makes-education-push-in-india/Situated Cognition: Origins: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/situated-cognitionRural Population in India: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS?locations=INMental Models and UX: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/mental-models/Mythic Quest (series) - Women in Gaming: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8879940/episodes?season=1&ref_=tt_eps_sn_1Distribution of game developers worldwide from 2014 to 2019, by gender: https://www.statista.com/statistics/453634/game-developer-gender-distribution-worldwide/Level up on diversity: Three changes to get more women into games: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-09-14-level-up-on-diversity-three-changes-to-get-more-women-into-gamesIndians on TV, Master of None (series): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4658458/?ref_=ttep_ep4About US:
Sunny and Connie are grad students majoring in Human-Computer Interaction and are passionate about designing experiences to empower people around the world. 

In today's episode of NOMADS: The HCI Podcast, Anmol Anubhai (currently a UX Researcher at Amazon Web Services) shares her own journey into HCI, from growing up trying to find her passion towards technology, art and hand-on experiences to solve problems to studying Master in HCI+D at University of Washington. She tells her ultimate goal to solve the problems centered around the Rural communities in India, and around the world by harnessing her skills of UX Research and more. We also touch on topics like Identity, her passion for Designing for Machine Learning and the life lessons she learned from her Mentors, from places like UWash, Google AI, Uber and more! 

Connect with Anmol:
Lindkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anmolanubhai
Twitter: https://twitter.com/anmol9410
Website: https://anmol.anubhai.com/


Links & Things:
People + AI Research (PAIR): https://pair.withgoogle.com/  Society-Centered Design: https://societycentered.design/Humanizing AI: Design Is [Smart] – Jess Holbrook and Josh Lovejoy: Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions: http://www.sristi.org/about-us/anil-k-gupta/Kahinee, a rural Healthcare Startup co-founded by Anmol Anubhai: http://kahinee.azurewebsites.net/kahinee_web/Machine Learning User Experience Resources by Michelle Carney: Medium Article Adobe Character Animator + 'Kathputli'(traditional Indian form of puppetry) + Healthcare by Anmol Anubhai: Medium ArticleCommunity-based, Human-Centered Design: https://jnd.org/community-based-human-centered-design/ 

About Us:
Sunny and Connie are grad students majoring in Human-Computer Interaction who are passionate about designing experiences to empower people around the world. 

PS: Sunny hosts this week's episode for podcast as Connie is busy with her coursework.

NOMADS: The HCI Podcast, we welcome Syp Vandy Siligato (she/her),a Senior Product Designer for Intuit's Consumer Group Design Systems team, co-founder of startup, Live Offline, and creator and co-driver of the SD Design Trek. In this episode, Syp shares her insights on accessibility in design and Intuit's framework, "Design for Delight".

Connect with Syp:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/svandy/
Live Offline: https://www.letsliveoffline.com
San Diego Design Trek: http://www.sddesigntrek.com/

Links & Things:
- World Wide Web Consortium: http://w3.org/
- VentureBeat: https://venturebeat.com/
- Accessible Ideation: https://www.washington.edu/doit/programs/accessengineering/adept/adept-accessibility-briefs/accessible-ideation
- Kylie Jenner Website Inaccessible to Blind: https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/kylie-jenner-s-company-is-being-sued-for-being-inaccessible-to-the-blind
- Design for Delight (D4D): http://www.intuitlabs.com/design-for-delight
- Ted Drake: https://fyvr.net/

About Us:
Sunny and Connie are grad students majoring in Human-Computer Interaction who are passionate about designing experiences to empower people around the world. 

What's it like working as a one-woman UX team when your users are also the very people you sit next to in the office? And what can you do when you're the only one dedicated to advocating for user experience? Join us as we talk about Darshini's experiences working at Samsung, Ford, and now at Ashley Furniture and her tips on how to navigate being the only UX'er in the room.

Connect with Darshini:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darshinishankarnarayan/
Website: https://darshinisn.wixsite.com/uxdesign

Links & Things:
UX Debt: How to Identify, Prioritize, and Resolve: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-debt/Darshini's Talk at UXPA About Confluence UI: https://youtu.be/dnuK4giIM2sAbout Us:
Sunny and Connie are grad students majoring in Human-Computer Interaction who are passionate about designing experiences to empower people around the world.