UX Evolved - Strategically fusing UX+AI

About UX Evolved - Strategically fusing UX+AI

UX is evolving, not dying. Host Eric Ellis brings two decades of design leadership to conversations with UX veterans who've navigated everything from Web 2.0 to mobile to AI. These aren't tool tutorials or hot takes—they're strategic discussions about professional resilience and the irreplaceable human elements of design. New episodes monthly. Because the future of UX isn't about choosing between human and machine—it's about designing the fusion.

Publisher

Eric Ellis - User Experience and Design Strategy | AI and UX Leader

Category

technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

31 Jul 2025

Latest episode

5 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

13 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Oct 2026

   Ep 202: When the PM Shows Up With a Prototype | Whitney Tolley Returns

   Whitney's back. Third time on the couch, which officially makes her the Andy Richter to my Conan. I went into this one wanting to talk about knowledge hoarding. You know the instinct: if I'm the only one who knows how to do this, they can't get rid of me. Take my Tinker Toys and go home. Whitney flipped that on me pretty quickly. On her team, nobody's hiding anything on purpose. They're moving so fast they're building the conveyor belt while standing on it, and they're drowning in documentation. The people who can cut through that noise and get everyone on the same page are the ones she needs most right now. We got into why her team is documenting more than ever, and why designers have had to accept they aren't the only ones responsible for design quality anymore. We talked about what happens when a PM drops a screen they built in Claude on your desk and logs off for the day, what engineers are teaching designers about constraints that don't exist anymore, and why a rebrand you can ship with the flip of a switch still might not be ready to ship. (I'm still recovering from a single hex value change to a calendar color. Long story.) Whitney also shared how she trains her team on AI like she's handing down a family recipe, and why "I don't know" is one of the bravest things a leader can say, once you've earned the trust to say it. Stick around for the end. A road trip conversation with ChatGPT changed how she thinks about what AI can and can't do, and it's the reason she'd protect one design ritual above all others. 0:00 Whitney returns for episode three 0:36 How people respond when AI changes the job 2:03 How AI know-how travels on Whitney's team 4:15 Afraid of AI, or afraid of a colleague using AI? 6:17 Are design teams documenting more or less? 8:41 Design craft moves into systems and AI training 9:28 Hoarding or just moving too fast? 11:32 Vibe coding and the signals that count 13:12 When a PM hands you a screen built in Claude 15:50 What engineers teach designers about old constraints 19:14 A rebrand on the heels of a redesign 21:24 Does shared understanding survive a world of agents? 23:39 The family recipe approach to AI training 25:50 Saying "I don't know" in front of your team 28:29 The one ritual worth saving 29:36 Why AI can't design for delight 32:12 Wrap-up

2. 

   30 Aug 2026

   Ep 201: When Trust Becomes the Interface | Heidi Chow

   Every AI feature makes a promise it can't fully keep: trust me, even when I'm wrong. Users rarely see a confidence score. They never see a training set. All they get is the interface in front of them. In this episode of UX Evolved, host Eric Ellis sits down with Heidi Chow — a product manager by way of UX design — to unpack what trust in AI actually looks like at the interface level. Heidi has spent her career designing for the moments users have to decide whether to believe what a system is telling them: from an AI-powered feature that scanned users' teeth to confirm treatment fit, to her current work building AI tools that ground answers in real source material instead of asking users to take them on faith. Eric and Heidi get tactical about the patterns that build (or break) user confidence in AI-driven products: the copy choices that signal certainty versus possibility, when and how to bring a human into the loop, what to show a user versus what to keep behind the scenes, and why designing trust in after the fact rarely works as well as designing it in from day one. Chapters: 00:00 – Intro: AI trust from an experience angle, not just a tech angle 01:08 – Welcome & background: from recruiter to anthropology to UX bootcamp 04:10 – Heuristics that still hold up in the AI era: why feedback and transparency matter 08:00 – Case study: the Byte AI aligner fit scan 09:20 – The "may" vs. "can" distinction — subtle copy, real trust implications 16:08 – Human-in-the-loop: opt-in checks, user agency, and avoiding "AI slop" 18:01 – Confidence scores: what clinicians saw vs. what users saw 21:17 – Legal, regulatory, and copy decisions in a health context 23:12 – Testing AI-driven copy: evaluative research and A/B reactions 24:53 – Building Prequel: surfacing compliance requirements with AI agents 26:58 – Founder life: judging AI output quality without an expert safety net 29:10 – Can trust be retrofitted into an "AI-first" product? 29:46 – The "layer cake" model of trust: UI, data, and system-prompt layers 32:18 – Where UX designers still add value as UI work gets commoditized 33:22 – Vibe-coding in Claude Design: a product-detail-page example 34:19 – Closing thought: AI gets you 80% there — humanity closes the gap 35:47 – Final question: what would you redesign in the universe? UX Evolved is a show about how AI is reshaping the practice of user experience — hosted by Eric Ellis. Guests are practitioners who've lived the trade-offs firsthand — designers, PMs, and founders building real AI-powered products.

3. 

   1 Jun 2026

   When Sports Media Wrote the UX Playbook | Dr. Travis Bell

   What if the clearest view of where UX is headed isn't inside our industry — but outside of it? Dr. Travis Bell spent 12 years in broadcast journalism before stepping back to study what happens when technology reshapes a profession from the inside out. As an Associate Professor of Digital and Sports Media at the University of South Florida and a researcher focused on media framing, he's watched sports journalism get automated, consolidated, and fragmented — and he's drawn some uncomfortable conclusions about what gets lost when we let algorithms do the storytelling. Sound familiar? This conversation goes places most UX podcasts never do. We use sports media as a mirror to examine what's actually happening in design and product — the automation of craft, the return of the one-person band, the fragmentation of trusted sources, and the deep risk of AI trained on historically biased data presenting its output as objective truth. Dr. Bell closes out Season 1 of UX Evolved. It's a fitting end to a season built on the premise that UX is evolving — not disappearing — and that the practitioners who will thrive are the ones willing to look beyond the tools and interrogate the craft itself. Guest: Dr. Travis Bell, Associate Professor of Digital & Sports Media, Director of Graduate Programs & Research, Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications, University of South Florida Host: Eric Ellis, UX Evolved 📩 Newsletter: https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/ 💼 Connect with Eric: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericellisdesign #UXDesign #AIAndDesign #UXEvolved #MediaFraming #ProductDesign

4. 

   1 Apr 2026

   When You Stop Optimizing the Wrong Process | Whitney Tolley Returns | UX Evolved

   Whitney Tolley was our first-ever returning guest on UX Evolved — and for good reason. When she joined us last time, she left us with a line that stuck: if designers keep seeing themselves as UI generators, they'll be replaced. A lot has happened since then. Figma MCP is real. Agentic workflows are real. And Whitney — Design Director at Cloudbeds — has been living inside all of it. In this conversation, we go beyond the hype to talk about what's actually changing on design teams right now: how power dynamics between designers and engineers are shifting, why synthetic user research is a legitimate pre-screening layer (not a replacement for real humans), and what the role of design looks like when the cost of building collapses. Her closing answer alone is worth the listen: she wasn't using AI wrong — she was using it to speed up a broken process instead of questioning whether that process needed to exist at all. In this episode: 00:00 — Introduction 01:22 — Has the definition of what designers own changed? 02:57 — Figma MCP and escaping "polish and fix" mode 04:38 — How AI is shifting power dynamics between design and engineering 06:11 — A real example: AI agents closing backlog bugs in 15 minutes 07:20 — What a designer's week actually looks like now 08:20 — Designers as trust builders in an AI-slop world 09:26 — AI collapses the build cycle — does prioritization change? 10:00 — Designing with context, not just coverage 12:09 — Is human judgment in research changing? 12:33 — How Whitney uses synthetic AI users in lean research 14:55 — AI-assisted heuristic evaluation: speed without replacing instinct 17:23 — The growing overlap between UX and product management 18:31 — Where does UX fit in agentic enterprise SaaS? 19:11 — The UX maturity model as a survival framework 20:52 — Does Figma have a future? 25:06 — Are your products agent-friendly? The question every team should be asking 26:10 — Who are we hiring in 2027? (Spoiler: unicorns) 29:18 — Specialization isn't dead — it's a quality gate 30:08 — "Fail fast" vs. "fail forward" 31:34 — Closing question: what do you wish you'd known when we first recorded? 32:16 — The biggest unlock: stop optimizing broken processes, rebuild them Connect with Whitney Tolley:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitneydoyle/Claire Vo's podcast (referenced in episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5X4_mYoiM8Connect with UX Evolved:Substack: https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uxevolvedUX Evolved is a podcast for UX professionals navigating the AI transformation of design. New episodes drop monthly.

5. 

   2 Mar 2026

   When Product Managers Start Prototyping | Blanca Barragan on the PM/UX Dynamic in AI

   "The biggest thing PMs get wrong about UX? That it's just about the UI. It's actually about psychology." Blanca Barragan — PM at Versapay, Forbes Technology Council member — knows that the best product decisions happen when there's healthy tension between disciplines. In this episode, we get into what actually happens when PMs and UX leads collaborate on AI products. What we cover:→ Why Blanca loves when designers tell her she's completely wrong→ The real PM/UX collaboration cadence (not the org chart version)→ Who owns the decision when AI can't deliver what the design promised→ What's happening when PMs start prototyping themselves→ The traditional UX skills AI teams are undervaluing→ Direct advice for UX leads worried about becoming irrelevant Guest: Blanca Barragan, Product Manager at Versapay & Forbes Technology Council Member Host: Eric Ellis, UX Leader with 20+ years navigating technology disruptions For UX professionals worried about their relevance in an AI-first world: Blanca's betting on the psychology, the human insight, and the creative tension you bring to the table. Not the UI you generate.

6. 

   3 Feb 2026

   When Resilience Becomes Your Superpower | Jen Blatz on UX in 2026

   Jen Blatz drops 26 bold predictions for UX in 2026 - and they're not comfortable ones. As a Principal UX Researcher at BECU and host of BlatzChatz, Jen brings a journalism background and "troublemaker" mindset to dissecting where our profession is really headed.We dig into the hard truths: Why resilience is now the ultimate skill. Whether personal branding is mandatory for survival. Why entry-level UX jobs are vanishing. And what happens when you force users to pronounce pharmaceutical names over the phone (spoiler: it's a disaster).If you're anxious about AI, job security, or whether you need to become a content creator to stay relevant in UX - this conversation is for you.0:00 - Introduction: The Troublemaker Who Questions Everything1:23 - The "Playing Dumb" Research Technique7:00 - The 26 Predictions for 2026: Origin Story12:30 - Prediction #9: Resilience as the Ultimate Skill23:10 - Prediction #14: Personal Branding and Your Résumé31:21 - The Reinvention Mindset: Who Thrives vs Who Gets Left Behind32:50 - Short-Term vs Long-Term: Figma Mastery and the "Doers Not Thinkers" Trend36:30 - The Ultimate Question: Redesigning One ThingRESOURCES📝 Jen's 26 Predictions for UX in 2026: https://blatzchatz.com/blog/f/what%E2%80%99s-next-in-ux-my-top-26-bold-predictions-for-2026🎙️ BlatzChatz Podcast:  @BlatzChatz  (https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCskb_D6d_CDlATMAanIomIw) 💼 Connect with Jen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferblatz/ABOUT JEN BLATZJen Blatz is a Principal UX Researcher at BECU (Boeing Employees' Credit Union), co-founder of the UX Research and Strategy Group (one of the world's largest UX communities), and host of the BlatzChatz podcast and newsletter. With a journalism background and experience spanning VCA Animal Hospitals, Capital One, and Rocket Mortgage, Jen brings "real talk with a side-eye" to the UX profession. She's a self-described "troublemaker who questions things for a living" - and the UX community is better for it.ABOUT UX EVOLVEDUX Evolved explores how our profession adapts and thrives as AI reshapes design. Host Eric Ellis brings 20+ years of UX leadership experience across corporate, consulting, and startup environments. Through conversations with UX veterans who've navigated multiple technology disruptions, we cut through the AI hype to understand what really matters.

7. 

   4 Jan 2026

   3 Predictions for UX in 2026 That Will Change How You Work

   The ground is shifting under our profession faster than ever. In this episode, I'm sharing three data-backed predictions about what's happening to UX in 2026 - not someday, but THIS YEAR. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Introduction02:00 - Prediction 1: Visual Polish is Table Stakes, Business Impact is the Differentiator06:00 - Prediction 2: The Great UX Salary Split10:00 - Prediction 3: The 10x Designer Becomes Real14:00 - So What? The Path Forward 🔗 REFERENCED ARTICLES: From Benchmarking to Orchestration: https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/from-benchmarking-to-orchestration (https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/from-benchmarking-to-orchestration) The Great UX Realignment: https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/the-great-ux-realignment-how-smart (https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/the-great-ux-realignment-how-smart) What AI Can't Research: https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/what-ai-cant-research-a-conversation (https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/what-ai-cant-research-a-conversation) Did You Hallucinate? (UX Research): https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/did-you-hallucinate-what-a-ux-researcher (https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/did-you-hallucinate-what-a-ux-researcher) When the Double Diamond Meets Machine Speed: https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/when-the-double-diamond-meets-machine (https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/when-the-double-diamond-meets-machine) The Junior Designer Advantage: https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/the-junior-designer-advantage-why (https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/the-junior-designer-advantage-why) The Last Time Everything Changed: https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/the-last-time-everything-changed (https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/the-last-time-everything-changed) The Death of "That's Not What We Do": https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/the-death-of-thats-not-what-we-do (https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com/p/the-death-of-thats-not-what-we-do) 📊 SOURCES & CITATIONS: Nielsen Norman Group: "The UX Reckoning: Prepare for 2025 and Beyond" - https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-reset-2025/ (https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-reset-2025/) CareerFoundry: "The 20 Best UX Portfolio Examples" - https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/ux-portfolio-examples-inspiration/ (https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/ux-portfolio-examples-inspiration/) UX Playbook: "How to Write UX Case Studies That Land You Job" - https://uxplaybook.org/articles/ux-case-study-minto-pyramid-structure-guide (https://uxplaybook.org/articles/ux-case-study-minto-pyramid-structure-guide) Glassdoor UX Salary Report Q4 2025 Gartner: AI-Augmented Design Teams Report (Q4 2025) MIT Business Review: AI Implementation Success Rates (2025) 🎙️ PREVIOUS EPISODES REFERENCED: Episode 1: Adam Howell - The Last Time Everything Changed Dan Zola - What AI Can't Research Miwako Zosel - The Junior Researcher Perspective Whitney Tolley - When the Double Diamond Meets Machine Speed Amit Popat - AI/ML in Hospitality Tech About UX Evolved:UX is evolving, not dying. Through conversations with industry veterans who've navigated multiple technology disruptions, we explore how UX professionals adapt and thrive as AI reshapes our profession. Subscribe for monthly episodes that go beyond the hype to understand what really matters. Connect: Newsletter: https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com (https://ericwebdesigner.substack.com) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uxevolved #UXDesign #AIDesign #ProductDesign #UXCareer #DesignStrategy #UXResearch #AITools #DesignLeadership #2026Predictions

8. 

   2 Dec 2025

   Amit Popat: a beautiful AI product that nobody bought

   Amit Popat built a beautiful AI product that nobody bought. Then he sat in a hotel watching managers use whiteboards to make pricing decisions in 2019. That's when everything changed.From Cambridge math to building EasyJet's personalization engine to leading AI/ML at Cloudbeds, Amit has learned the hard way that cool technology doesn't win—solving real problems does. We dive into his own Alexa fail, why 1970s Paris Metro machines beat modern UX, and why tinkering and curiosity aren't optional in an AI-accelerated world.If you're building AI products or wondering how UX translates to this new landscape, this conversation will ground you in what actually matters: proximity to real problems beats assumptions every time. (00:00) Introduction(01:49) Welcome and Amit's Background(02:47) From Pure Math to Product Thinking(03:53) Early iPhone Development and UX Education(04:47) The Paris Metro Lesson: 1970s UX vs Modern Touchscreens(06:22) Removing Friction: Timeless Design Principles(07:00) The Value of Tinkering and Curiosity(08:45) Embedding Yourself in the Problem Space(10:06) The Whiteboard Story: Revenue Management in 2019(13:23) Building AI That Solves Real Problems(18:14) From Engineering to Product Leadership(21:45) The AI Hype vs Reality Gap(26:32) When Technical Excellence Meets User Needs(31:18) Network Intelligence and Pattern Recognition(35:27) Mistakes and Lessons Learned(38:57) The Alexa Catastrophe: Beautiful Product Nobody Bought(41:37) Dampening the Geek: Ego and Humility in Product Design(42:42) Closing Question: Redesigning Apple's iPhone Holder

9. 

   4 Nov 2025

   The Research Skills That Still Require Humans | Dan Zola (Google xWF)

   Dan Zola (1,000+ user interviews, Google) on what changes with AI research tools—and what doesn't. Body language, organizational trust, and knowing which follow-up question matters most. The skills worth investing in now.

10. 

    1 Oct 2025

    “Did You Hallucinate?” - What a UX Researcher Taught Me About AI

    AI can analyze thousands of user interviews in seconds. So what's left for human UX researchers? Miwako Zosel explains why she's learning SQL and Python, where AI actually helps research (and where it dangerously fails), and why "research is glue"—the most human skill in UX. For researchers wondering if their career has a future: this is your episode. Guest: Miwako Zosel, UX Researcher at SmartBear

11. 

    2 Sept 2025

    When the Double Diamond Meets Machine Speed

    Two years before ChatGPT became a household name, Whitney Tolley (https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitneydoyle/) was already seeing the cracks in how UX teams approached design thinking. Writing for the Cloudbeds Technology Blog in early 2023 (https://technology.cloudbeds.com/from-rough-to-radiant-how-to-incorporate-the-double-diamond-into-agile-438042e2e684), she challenged the conventional wisdom around the Double Diamond—that beloved framework UX practitioners have relied on for nearly two decades. In this conversation, Whitney reveals how AI has transformed her team's approach to design thinking. When a strategic workshop agenda became obsolete mid-session, AI helped them redesign day two in 30 minutes. When customer insights live in thousands of recorded conversations, AI helps surface the human stories that shape what they build. Essential listening for UX professionals navigating AI disruption without losing what makes them valuable. Additional advice on how to manage your UX career (https://womeninproduct.medium.com/ask-wip-how-do-i-plan-my-product-management-career-eaa1443b69d4) from Whitney.

12. 

    4 Aug 2025

    UX Designer Who Built Through Web 2.0, Mobile & AI Explains What's Actually Different This Time

    Adam Howell launched Accomplice in 2021—one of the first generative AI design tools, before Midjourney or DALL-E 2. Now as Principal PM for AI at Versapay, he's seen both sides: building AI tools AND integrating them into real UX workflows. In this episode of UX Evolved, Adam breaks down what's actually different about the AI disruption versus the Web 2.0 and mobile shifts he lived through at JotSpot, Google, and InVision. Key Insights: Why UX barely existed as we know it in 2005 (and what that means for AI anxiety) The real difference between past tech disruptions and today's AI moment Which UX skills have stayed valuable across 20 years of change Why junior UXers might be in a better spot than junior developers right now What AI-first UX actually looks like in practice Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction03:15 - What UX meant in 2005 (spoiler: almost nothing like today)12:30 - Building through the Google/AJAX revolution22:45 - Creating Mocksup and the prototyping tool wars31:20 - Launching one of the first AI design tools43:10 - Why this disruption feels different52:40 - Skills that survive every tech shift58:30 - What UX looks like in 5 years About Adam Howell:Principal Product Manager for AI at Versapay | Former Google UX Designer (Gmail, Google Sites) | Co-founder of Mocksup (acquired by InVision) | Founder of Accomplice (early AI design tool) About UX Evolved:Long-form conversations with UX veterans navigating AI transformation. New episodes monthly exploring how our profession adapts and thrives.

13. 

    31 Jul 2025

    UX Evolved Intro

    Every UX professional is asking the same question right now: Is AI going to evolve our craft, or replace it entirely? I'm Eric Ellis, and I've spent twenty years designing through every major technology shift—from static wireframes to AI-powered experiences. Here's what I know: UX was never just about the tools. It's about understanding human needs and translating them into experiences that actually work. UX Evolved brings you in-depth conversations with the veterans who've navigated disruption before. We're cutting through the AI hype to explore what really matters—how our profession adapts, what skills endure, and why human insight remains irreplaceable. This isn't about learning the latest AI tool. It's about understanding how to thrive as technology reshapes everything we thought we knew about design. UX is evolving, not dying. Let's figure out how together.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Contact UX Evolved - Strategically fusing UX+AI

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.