Ways Into Practice is a podcast by Bielke&Yang that gives students and young designers real insight into the design industry. It is created and produced by students, for students — a space where the next generation asks the questions that matter most to them.
In each episode, a student host talks with an established designer from a different field. Through honest, personal conversations, our guests share their own journeys, and offer advice on what to expect — and what to demand — from a career in design.
Should the Interface Adapt, or the User? (Hazel Zhu, madAbility Lab)
Should the Interface Adapt, or the User? What ADHD Research Says About Customising Interfaces.
In the second episode, Emily and Ida talk to Hazel Zhu. Hazel is a third-year PhD student at the madAbility Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she researches assistive technologies for neurodiverse users across HCI, accessibility and AI.
She built FocusView, a tool that lets viewers with ADHD reshape a video's layout, background, captions and audio to cut distraction. Then she found the tool had become a distraction of its own. Some participants ended up focused on editing the video rather than watching it.
Hazel talks about what her participants asked for instead, why two people can need opposite things from the same interface, and what that means for anyone who has ever shipped a settings panel.
Initiative by Bielke&Yang
Supported by DOGA
3 Sept 2026
What ADHD Teaches Us About Design (Kristin Leer, MD, Psychiatrist & Author)
In the first episode of (WIP) Podcast Season 4, Emily and Ida speak to Kristin Leer (@kristinleeradhd), an MD and specialist in psychiatry. She is also the author of ADHD: 7 veier til ny forståelse. Kristin brings a clinical perspective to questions designers rarely get to ask a doctor: how does ADHD actually present, and why are so many more people being diagnosed now?
Adults treated for ADHD in Norway have grown by 148% between 2015 and 2024 (PwC/Helsedirektoratet, 2025). Kristin explains that this isn't a sudden rise in ADHD itself — Norway only started diagnosing adults around 15 years ago, so children, parents, and grandparents are now often being diagnosed at the same time. That means more people than ever are being recognised as having minds that perceive the world little differently from what most systems expect.
Kristin also makes the case for why understanding ADHD is not just a medical concern — it's a design concern. If we want to build digital services that truly work for everyone, we need to embrace this group and start by understanding how their minds work, which will lead to better experiences for everyone.
📖 Kristin's book: https://www.ark.no/produkt/boker/hobbyboker-og-fritid/adhd-9788202740306
An initiative by Bielke&Yang
In collaboration with Design and Architecture Norway (DOGA)
7 Aug 2026
Design for the Edges (TRAILER)
S 04 (TRAILER): Design for the Edges
How do we design for cognitive load through the lens of ADHD, and improve digital experiences for everyone?
This season of Ways Into Practice is about cognitive load: the mental effort it takes to use an app or a website. (WIP) Institute interns and researchers Emily Tvervåg and Ida Holmen Skjervold look at how small design choices add up, and how they can quietly wear people down.
Their starting point is their own research into how people with ADHD experience the web. Minds that are easily overwhelmed feel a bad design choice first, and feel it hardest. That makes them a powerful test: if a service works well for them, it tends to work better for everyone.
This matters more each year. In Norway, the share of adults treated for ADHD in the public health system more than doubled in ten years, rising 148% between 2015 and 2024. More people are being recognised as neurodivergent, and the way we live now asks more of everyone’s attention and focus. Design that respects how minds work is no longer a nice extra. It is becoming a basic part of building fair, usable digital services.
Across the season, Emily and Ida talk to guests from medicine, research, and tech. Together they ask a simple question with big consequences: how do we build digital services and products that don’t exhaust the people using them?
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
12 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 14 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
28
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
0
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