Practical UX: Methods, Research, and Design Thinking – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of Practical UX Methods: Research and Design Thinking, host Dr Chris Parker sits down with Douglas Ferguson — entrepreneur, human-centered technologist, and president of Voltage Control, an Austin-based agency known for its Design Sprints and innovation workshops.

Douglas shares actionable insights from his book Beyond The Prototype, revealing six practical steps to move from idea discovery to product launch. We explore the most powerful life lessons in design, the mindset behind lasting innovation, and how design thinking can drive change in today’s rapidly evolving world — from the challenges of COVID-19 to the cultural impact of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Whether you’re a UX designer, product leader, or creative strategist, this episode is packed with inspiration and methods to help you design with purpose, empathy, and real-world impact.

Connect With Douglas:

• ⁠Voltage Control⁠
• ⁠LinkedIn⁠

Douglas’s Books

• ⁠Beyond the Prototype⁠
• ⁠Start Within

Host: Dr Chris Parker
Email: c.parker@lboro.ac.uk

In this episode of Practical UX, we go beyond buttons and screens to explore what’s next for user experience: trustworthy AI, physiological synchrony in social VR, foldable device ergonomics, designing for the moments after a crash, and a bold provocation to design for human connection, not screen time.

• Why explainable AI changes user behaviour by improving trust calibration (and why “AI literacy” talks aren’t enough).

• How people’s heart rate and skin responses can sync in VR, offering a powerful new metric for co-experience.

• What a foldable phone’s hinge teaches us about emotional ergonomics and multi-state interface design.

• How post-crash UX should prioritise clarity, calm, and familiarity when fear overwhelms cognition.

• A provocative case for Relation Artefact Design (RAD): tools that help us look at people rather than screens.

1. Explainable AI & Trust (mushroom task) — journal article
   Leichtmann, B., Humer, C., Hinterreiter, A., Streit, M., & Mara, M. (2023). Effects of Explainable Artificial Intelligence on Trust and Human Behavior in a High-Risk Decision Task. Computers in Human Behavior, 139, 107539.
   Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563222003594 (ScienceDirect)

2. Physiological synchrony in Social VR — preprint
   Kloft, A. M., Fabinc, J. M., Hirsch, L., Slezas, A., Hachmann, H., Cunneen, M., Brandt, S. S., Sams, M., & Welsch, R. (2025). It’s Always Better When We’re Together: Physiological Synchrony and Shared Experiences in Social VR. (Preprint).
   Link: https://sciety-labs.elifesciences.org/articles/by?article_doi=10.21203%2Frs.3.rs-7134151%2Fv1 (Sciety)

3. Foldable smartphones UX framework — journal article
   Liu, Y., Dong, L., & Rau, P.-L. P. (2025). Unfolding the User Experience: A Comprehensive UX Framework for Foldable Smartphones. International Journal of Industrial Engineering, 32(5), 1396–1412.
   Abstract page: https://journals.sfu.ca/ijietap/index.php/ijie/article/view/10935
   Direct PDF: https://journals.sfu.ca/ijietap/index.php/ijie/article/download/10935/1871/65113 (Public Knowledge Project)

4. Post-Crash UX (multi-modal guidance) — conference paper
   Cho, Y., Kim, H., Ku, M., Yu, S., & Lee, J. (2025). Post-Crash UX: An Empirical Study on Multi-modal Interfaces for Immediate Driver Response. In AutomotiveUI Adjunct ’25 (ACM).
   Link: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3744335.3758486 (ACM Digital Library)

5. Provocation: Relation Artefact Design — journal article
   Clemmensen, T. (2025). Stop Doing User Experience Design, Start Doing Relation Artefact Design. Interacting with Computers (Oxford University Press).
   Link: https://academic.oup.com/iwc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/iwc/iwaf044/8283768 (OUP Academic)

If this episode sparked ideas for your project, class, or lab, please follow/subscribe on your favourite podcast app and share with a colleague. The next great design conversation might start here.

Do you have questions for the show, or want to suggest a paper? Email Dr Chris Parker at c.parker@lboro.ac.uk.

Dr Chris Parker returns for Season Four of the UX Usability Podcast. We kick off in conversation with Sarah Doody about her trailblazing work shaping UX designers' career strategies, portfolios, and ways of working.

Discover Sarah's Career Strategy Lab at: https://www.uxportfolioformula.com/

Subscribe to hear Season 4 of the UX Usability Podcast as soon as it launches.

Cees de Bont (Dean of the School of Design and Creative Arts at Loughborough University) discusses his career inventing the Senseo coffee machine at Philips, managing design at Delft, and leading Design at Hong Kong University. We explore why emotion and dedication are essential skills in success and touching to hearts of others.

Dr Keneilwe Munyai describes her journey through fashion, design, and sustainability. We discover what a small Italian leather tanner has to offer African sustainability and the power of resilience.

Connect with Dr Parker

• LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drchrisparker/
• TWITTER: https://twitter.com/ChrisUXD
• EMAIL: c.parker@lboro.ac.uk

Discover Enterprise Design Thinking: https://www.ibm.com/design/

Dr Parker sits down with the incredible Karel Vredenburg (IBM) to discuss design education, enterprise design thinking, and the role designers have in a more responsible future.

Connect with Dr Parker

• TWITTER: https://twitter.com/ChrisUXD
• EMAIL: c.parker@lboro.ac.uk

Dr Parker and Eugene Murphy discuss how Indeemo is revolutionising ethnography and diary studies for Design Research, why emotions are critical, and the future of technology.

Check out Indeemo: https://indeemo.com/

Follow Dr Parker via

• Twitter: @ChrisUXD
• Clubhouse: @ChrisUX

Dr Parker talks with Abhijeet Shukla, UX Designer at Tata Design Consultancy Services (Mumbai), about his work beyond design thinking, working effectively in business, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in design.

Read more about PSAV design method:

• Application of PSAV method in interaction steps optimization for user experience design
  International Journal of Advanced Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology
  ISSN: 2454-132X, Vol.4, Issue 5, page no.841-843

Connect with Abhijeet on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhijeetme1/

Dr Parker sits down with Mariam Braimah, product designer at Netflix and founder of the Kimoyo Fellowship to talk about creativity, inspiration, and Nigeria's stunning creative culture.

Visit The Kimoyo Fellowship  https://www.kimoyofellowship.org/

Kimoyo Fellowship's Twitter: https://twitter.com/kimoyofellows

Mariam's Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbraimah_