Connected tea kettles that advertise themselves to thieves. Fitness trackers that tell your enemies where to find you. Go beyond the dystopian headlines into pragmatic advice on how UX design can promote security, privacy, and transparency, with a leadership role for interaction design, brand strategy, and copywriting in making products people trust.
People
Ame Elliott
Methods
Interaction DesignDesigning how people act with a product over time: controls, states, feedback, flows and micro-interactions. Turns goals and constraints into concrete behaviours that feel clear and forgiving, informed by perception, cognition and the physical or digital context of use.
User InterviewsUser interviews explore people’s circumstances, experiences and needs through a guided conversation. Use them when you need to understand a problem in depth or learn how a service fits into someone’s life. Recruit current or likely users, prepare open questions and possible follow-ups, and ask for concrete examples rather than idealised accounts. Start with consent, listen carefully, and allow useful unexpected topics to emerge. A discussion guide keeps the research focused without turning it into a rigid questionnaire. Interviews can accompany usability tests when you also need to observe people using a service.
UX WritingCrafting interface copy, microcopy, and error messages