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Boagworld: UX, Design Leadership, Marketing & Conversion Optimization

Boagworld: UX, Design Leadership, Marketing & Conversion Optimization

Auteur(s): Paul Boag Marcus Lillington
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 Boagworld: The podcast where digital best practices meets a terrible sense of humor! Join us for a relaxed chat about all things digital design. We dish out practical advice and industry insights, all wrapped up in friendly conversation. Whether you're looking to improve your user experience, boost your conversion or be a better design lead, we've got something for you. With over 400 episodes, we're like the cool grandads of web design podcasts – experienced, slightly inappropriate, but always entertaining. So grab a drink, get comfy, and join us for an entertaining journey through the life of a digital professional.Boagworks Ltd Économie
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  • Scaling UX in a Decentralized World: Inside Oxford

    Scaling UX in a Decentralized World: Inside Oxford
    Jul 22 2025
    In this episode, we chat with Sarah Zama from the University of Oxford about how she's helping to influence UX across one of the most complex and decentralized organizations in the world.We explore how she built a UX center of excellence almost from scratch, how the team is transforming culture through coaching and community, and what it takes to push UX forward in a challenging environment. There's also a digression into Apple's questionable design choices, a fantastic app recommendation, and of course, Marcus' joke.App Of The WeekThis week’s app recommendation is Zuko Form Analytics. It’s an incredibly helpful tool for anyone involved in conversion rate optimization or form design.Zuko tracks detailed interactions with every field in a form—like how long someone spends in a field, where they drop off, and what fields trigger abandonment.You get session-level insights, and it all works via a simple JavaScript snippet. There's a free tier to get started (up to 1,000 sessions), and pricing starts around £40/month for 5,000 tracked sessions. It’s the kind of tool we wish we’d known about sooner.Topic Of The Week: Building UX Capability at Oxford UniversityWe were thrilled to be joined by Sarah Zama, UX Lead at the University of Oxford, to discuss a journey we’ve had the privilege of being part of: building a UX center of excellence in one of the most decentralized institutions in the world.Getting Started With Limited ResourcesPaul originally worked with a small team at Oxford to create the business case for a UX team, ultimately recommending a center of excellence model rather than a centralized tactical team.Why? Because hiring enough UXers to match developer headcount across such a massive organization was never going to be viable. Instead, a small, strategic team could focus on enabling others.Sarah took that vision and ran with it. She started with a written plan—not just a strategy that collects dust but a living, practical document with measurable outcomes. She quickly assembled a lean team, brought in an existing accessibility lead, and even secured a six-month secondee to help with projects and spread good UX practice further into the organization.A Consultative, Empowering ApproachThe Oxford UX team doesn’t do UX for people. Instead, they help others do UX better. Through consulting, coaching, training, and providing reusable assets (like a design system), the team makes itself useful across a broad landscape without getting dragged into execution.This consultative model includes:Workshops to support high-profile projectsGuest training sessions with external speakersCustom-built resources tailored to Oxford’s contextSupportive relationships with departments already doing good UXThey’ve also cleverly leveraged accessibility requirements as a wedge to introduce better UX thinking, combining compliance with best practices to gain traction.Growing a UX CulturePerhaps most impressively, Sarah and her team have focused on growing a UX culture through grassroots advocacy. They’ve built a UX Champions network that now includes over 150 people from across the university. This community shares knowledge, resources, and a passion for improving user experience, even when UX isn’t in their job title.It’s a smart way to scale. By empowering individuals and embedding UX thinking across departments, Sarah's team extends its reach far beyond what any centralized team could manage.The Frustrations and the WinsSarah admits the biggest challenge is visibility. Getting buy-in across such a large institution takes time and constant communication. There’s also the frustration that people still perceive UX as a cost or blocker rather than an enabler of success.But the wins are meaningful. A growing, skilled team. A network of passionate advocates. And projects where UX clearly moved the needle. Sarah credits much of the team’s progress to strong collaboration, openness to learning, and sheer persistence. It’s a long game, but one that’s already paying off.You can follow Sarah’s team and explore their resources at staff.admin.ox.ac.uk/ux. They welcome feedback, iteration, and anyone who wants to borrow from their growing UX playbook.Read Of The WeekThis episode’s recommended read is The Leadership Dilemma, an article Paul wrote for Smashing Magazine. It reflects on the exact challenges Oxford faced: how do you scale UX influence when your team is too small to do all the work? The article walks through a strategic approach to UX leadership that empowers others, shifts the organizational mindset, and creates lasting change.If you’re trying to build UX maturity in a large or slow-moving organization, this is worth your time.Question Of The WeekThis week’s question wasn’t submitted via email but came up naturally during the show: "What does a typical week look like for a small UX team in a large organization?"Sarah’s answer? There’s no such thing as a typical week. Her team ...
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    56 min
  • Scaling UX Impact with Limited Resources

    Scaling UX Impact with Limited Resources
    Jun 19 2025
    Welcome back. In my previous emails, we explored how to plan and present your UX strategy and gain support from the people who matter. We talked about getting buy-in and navigating the occasional tricky political waters. It was all about setting the stage, wouldn't you say? But I'm also keenly aware that we didn't dive deep into what that strategy should actually contain. We just scratched the surface of how to sell it and discussed the big picture.Now, it's time to roll up our sleeves and talk about the nuts and bolts. We're going to get into the specific actions and approaches that will define your work as a UX leader. This is where your vision starts to become a tangible reality, shaping how your entire organization thinks about and delivers user experience.The Big Challenge: Too Much Work, Too Few HandsLet's address something we all feel in our bones: the elephant in the room. Most of us in UX, and I mean most, operate with teams that are just plain under-resourced. There's always more work to be done than there are people to do it. You look around, and for every UX professional, you often see multiple product owners, project managers, and developers. In my agency days, a 1:2 ratio of UX to developers was our ideal scenario, and it's why so many of us feel stretched thin.We want to make a difference, right? We want to ensure every digital touchpoint is delightful, efficient, and user-friendly. But if you're like me, you've probably felt that familiar tug of war: the desire to be involved in everything, versus the crushing reality of limited time and energy. Trying to be the "UX person" for every project just spreads you too thin. It often results in hurried, mediocre work, and that's not why we got into this field.I know what you're thinking. "More people! We need more budget, more headcount!" And believe me, I hear you. I've been there, banging that drum. But the truth is, until your organization truly understands and values UX, getting those extra resources is an uphill battle. It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation, isn't it? You need more resources to show value, but you need to show value to get more resources.So, how do we break this cycle? We can't keep trying to do all the UX ourselves. It's simply not scalable.A Powerful Shift: From Implementer to EnablerThis is where we introduce a fundamental shift in how you view your role and, crucially, how your colleagues view UX. We need to stop being the go-to team for simply "doing the UX work." We need to stop being the implementers who just take orders and churn out wireframes or conduct isolated tests.Instead, your primary role becomes that of a coach, an evangelist, and a guide. Your job is to instill a user-centric culture across the entire organization. It's about empowering and equipping your colleagues; the product owners, developers, marketers, and customer service teams – to do user experience work themselves.Think about it this way: there are far more of them than there are of you. If you can enable them to do even a small part of UX well, the collective impact on your overall user experience will be enormous. It's about leveraging the entire organization as a force multiplier for UX, rather than trying to handle everything with your small, dedicated team. This frees you up to be more strategic and to tackle the bigger, thornier UX challenges.This is the very heart of your UX strategy. It's a strategic move that shifts you from tactical execution to widespread influence. And it's precisely what we're going to explore over the next few weeks.The Three Pillars of Widespread UX ImpactTo achieve this widespread impact, there are four key areas we need to focus on. They are like the foundations of a solid house for your UX strategy.Offering Supportive Services: This is about providing guidance and assistance to your colleagues, helping them implement UX best practices in their own work. It's not about doing the work for them, but helping them do it.Providing Resources, Tools, and Information: We need to give our colleagues the right instruments and knowledge so they can create great experiences without always needing to come to us for every little thing.Setting Standards, Policies, and Standard Operating Procedures: This ensures that best practices are consistently applied across all projects, creating a baseline of quality even when you're not directly involved.Education and Training: This involves developing and delivering structured learning opportunities to help colleagues understand UX principles and apply them effectively in their daily work.Outies AsideIf you run an agency or work as a freelancer, you might be thinking, "This sounds great for in-house teams, but how does it apply to me?" Well, I'd argue it applies even more so.Too often, agencies and freelancers can fall into the trap of being seen as just "order takers" or "extra hands." Clients come to you, they tell you what they want built, and you build it. You might deliver...
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    6 min
  • The Future Of UX With Jared Spool

    The Future Of UX With Jared Spool
    Jun 16 2025
    Joining me, Paul, are Marcus Lillington and Jared Spool, and together we explore how UX needs to reposition itself, what AI really means for designers, and how to navigate the current UX job landscape without losing hope. We also touch on some interesting new tools from Figma and an exciting AI-assisted prototyping app that could change how we work.App of the WeekThis episode highlights two key apps making waves in the design space:Figma SitesAnnounced recently at the Figma conference, this new tool aims to let you publish websites directly from Figma, competing with players like Webflow and Framer. However, we share a healthy dose of skepticism about its current capabilities—especially its accessibility issues and lack of data entry support, which limits its usefulness beyond very simple sites.ReaddyThis AI-powered assisted coding tool stands out as a promising alternative. Unlike traditional prototyping in Figma, Ready lets you describe your UI in natural language, and it generates real HTML and CSS code that’s responsive and supports data entry. This means you can create interactive prototypes faster, test them in real-world conditions, and iterate with ease. It’s not about replacing designers but augmenting their productivity, and it offers a glimpse into how AI can support design workflows in practical ways.The Future of UX, AI, and the Job MarketWe begin by reflecting on the state of UX and where it’s headed, especially with AI’s rapid development changing the landscape. Jared shares his ongoing work guiding UX professionals to unlock their full potential within organizations, emphasizing the gap between what UX can deliver and what’s often realized. This disconnect often results from a lack of awareness or understanding within teams, and Jared’s leadership sessions aim to close that gap.AI’s Impact on UX DesignWe delve into AI tools emerging in design, focusing particularly on generative AI and assisted coding. While AI is often hyped as a threat to designers, we agree it’s more of a productivity booster than a replacement. AI lets us do more with less effort, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for thoughtful, skilled UX design. The analogy Jared uses — comparing AI’s rise to previous tech shifts like blacksmiths transitioning to new materials — reminds us that professions evolve rather than vanish overnight.We discuss the limitations of current AI design tools, such as Figma Sites, which lack the sophistication needed for anything beyond very basic websites. On the other hand, Readdy offers a more practical approach by generating actual working code through conversational commands. It’s a step forward but still not a magic bullet. The process requires human input, iteration, and adjustment, which is where UX professionals continue to add value.An interesting angle comes from the critique of AI as reinventing the command line — a somewhat clunky, text-based interface for describing complex UIs. This makes it tricky to fully express the nuances of design and iterate quickly, especially in production environments where prototyping demands fast, precise changes.The UX Job Market RealityTurning to the job market, Jared offers a clear-eyed analysis: although there are more UX jobs available now than ever before, there are also far more UX professionals competing for them. The result? Overcrowded job listings and intense competition, especially for junior roles. The industry isn’t shrinking; rather, it’s saturated.He points out that the issue isn’t job scarcity but a mismatch between experience levels and job requirements. Many bootcamp graduates enter the market with limited experience, and companies often prefer hiring senior candidates to junior ones due to cost efficiency and immediate impact. For those struggling to find work, Jared advises gaining real-world experience by volunteering on meaningful projects with tangible outcomes, like improving a local charity’s website to boost adoption rates.For senior professionals, the key is precision: tailoring applications meticulously to each job posting and clearly demonstrating how your skills match the role. Generic resumes won’t cut it when hiring managers sift through hundreds of applicants. This targeted approach greatly improves the chances of landing interviews and offers.Looking Ahead: Will AI Replace UX?We debate an intriguing prediction by Jakob Nielsen that many UX battles are “won” and that AI might replace human interaction with websites entirely, as AI agents fetch and personalize content for users. While fascinating, we question the commercial and practical realities. Advertisers still rely on website visits for revenue, and user experience involves more than information retrieval; it’s about connection, context, and trust.We emphasize the enduring importance of educating organizations about real UX issues, including accessibility and ethical design topics that remain under appreciated despite...
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    55 min

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