Discussing Stupid: A byte-sized podcast on stupid UX
Discussing Stupid returns to the airwaves to transform digital facepalms into teachable moments—all in the time it takes to enjoy your coffee break! Sponsored by High Monkey, this podcast dives into ‘stupid’ practices across websites and Microsoft collaboration tools, among other digital realms. Our "byte-sized" bi-weekly episodes are packed with expert insights and a healthy dose of humor. Discussions focus on five key areas: Business Process & Collaboration, UX/IA, Inclusive Design, Content & Search, and Performance & SEO. Join us and let’s start making the digital world a bit less stupid, one episode at a time.
Visit our website at https://www.discussingstupid.com
Discussing Stupid: A byte-sized podcast on stupid UX
Season 2: The Teaser
In this highly anticipated return of the Discussing Stupid podcast, host Virgil Carroll welcomes new co-host Cole Schlotthauer to kick off Season 2. After a five-year hiatus, they're back with a fresh approach, focusing on shorter, more targeted episodes that delve into specific UX and digital practices.
Virgil and Cole discuss the shift from long-form interviews to concise, 10-15 minute episodes designed to provide actionable insights. This season will cover a range of topics, from alt text best practices to the pitfalls of relying too heavily on AI for accessibility. The goal is to offer practical advice that listeners can immediately apply in their own work.
In addition to audio, the podcast will now include video episodes, allowing for more dynamic content and visual examples. For those who prefer audio-only, detailed show notes will ensure no one misses out on the valuable information shared.
Don't miss out on the latest updates and exclusive content—subscribe to Discussing Stupid on their website, and follow them on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Soundcloud. Get ready for a season packed with insightful discussions on UX and digital best practices!
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Well, welcome back to discussing stupid, a podcast that calls out stupid digital practices you do? Well, truthfully, not you. More of a proverbial you. I'm Virgil Carroll. I'm the owner and principal human solutions architect at High Monkey, and with me today is.
>> Cole Schlotthauer:Yeah. Hi, I'm Cole Schlotthauer. I'm a consultant with High Monkey, and I specialize in content strategy in UX, and I'm the newest voice here on the podcast, but I'm excited to be here.
>> Virgil Carroll:Well, I appreciate you joining me, Cole, and helping me out with this. So, anyway, so let's get into it and talk a little bit.
>> Cole Schlotthauer:About what? I think we should probably talk about it.
>> Virgil Carroll:Talk about what?
>> Cole Schlotthauer:Only the elephant in the room.
>> Virgil Carroll:Where's an elephant in the room?
>> Cole Schlotthauer:so the show's been off the air for five years?
>> Virgil Carroll:Oh, yeah. I guess it has been a while. I suppose you want me to say something about that.
>> Cole Schlotthauer:Preferably.
>> Virgil Carroll:Okay, well, if I'm gonna have to say something about it, I'm gonna keep it simple. Life happens, a pandemic happened, and now we're at season two. How about we just move on?
>> Cole Schlotthauer:Let's get on with it. All right, so what's gonna be different this time around?
>> Virgil Carroll:When I did season one, I. I did more of an interview style, kind of longer episodes, 45 minutes to an hour, kind of talking with people, learning a lot of great stuff. but I kind of decided with season two, I wanted to do it a little bit different. I feel like, one, attention spans aren't what they used to be, and two, I feel like we need to get kind of narrower into something. So we're going to be doing shorter episodes, more like ten to 15 minutes episodes, where we talk about a very, very specific thing, like, you know, our first episode, which is going to be about alt text, and some of the good and bad practices around that and different things like that, where we really focus on something. And when people walk away from it, they actually have, some practical applications. They can use this, where they can take it back and use it in their own practices.
>> Cole Schlotthauer:Sweet. Yeah. Let's run a clip from that first episode.
>> Virgil Carroll:Well, that's a great idea, but I think something on top of that, especially in today's world now with AI being everything, people have really started relying on tech to kind of make this happen. And I think that's causing a lot of problems, because, sure, it can. It can read an image and it can kind of interpret it. But does that really help the end user. I mean, this is not a new problem.
>> Cole Schlotthauer:So yeah, we're really digging into these bad practices and no area of the digital world is off limits. We'll be calling out bad practices everywhere from inclusive design to performance in SEO, business process and collaboration.
>> Virgil Carroll:And don't forget content and search.
>> Cole Schlotthauer:I was just saving the best for last. I might be a bit biased because that's why I studied in college, but.
>> Virgil Carroll:Well, it's an important thing.
>> Cole Schlotthauer:Indeed it is. But I think people might be curious here though. Virgil, are we sticking to audio podcasts only or going beyond that this season?
>> Virgil Carroll:Yeah, no, that's a great question. We're actually going to look more at doing video podcasts. We think that's kind of the future and it'll be a great opportunity for us to give more examples and actually show things, bad practices and good practices. And I think that'll really be helpful, for people to be able to see that and kind of understand exactly what we're talking about.
>> Cole Schlotthauer:But for like say, people who are only listening with audio, will that take away from their experience?
>> Virgil Carroll:Well, I hope not. I mean, our plan is we'll have all that information in the show notes. So if we showed some type of demo, you know, screen share or something like that, we'll have a copy of the video in the show notes. If we're showing an image, if we're showing links or whatever it is, we'll show all those in the show notes and people could look at them afterwards. So we're really trying to give them the full experience. And while we're talking, we really want to kind of be very descriptive and not just sit there and say, hey, look at what I'm doing on the screen. Can't you tell this is happening?
>> Cole Schlotthauer:Well, that being said, if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to discussing stupid email updates on our website, www.discussingstupid.com to get the latest info on upcoming episodes, gain access to exclusive content, most importantly, be notified the moment a new episode drops, watch us on YouTube or listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Soundcloud. We are excited to get this thing going. Thanks again for joining us.