6-minute read

Every creative person experiences mental blocks from time to time.

At tsoHost we regularly sell affordable domains and powerful webhosting to both web designers and developers and we often hear stories of dry idea spells.

One way to turn those mental blocks into building blocks in your next task or project is to take a break and let your thoughts freewheel.

Science shows that when we focus hard on a specific problem, we supress some areas of the brain. When we stop focussing, those brain areas are freed up for action, and it’s in these areas that the problem might then be solved.

It’s why we often come up with ideas or solutions when we’re in the shower.

If you do take a break, going walkabout online can not only help to distract you, but it can help you source inspiration, too.

By walkabout we mean dropping in on the social media feeds and websites of experts in your field. With this in mind, here’s a few UX experts to check in on during your next digital decampment.

Dr David Travis

Dr David Travis’ twitter banner sums up his work pretty well. It’s an image of a man stood on a clifftop in the fog, with beams of light streaming from his eyes that are cutting through the dark. Travis is a user experience consultant who has been studying usability and user experience for more than three decades.

To keep up to date with his insights and research you can follow him on twitter @userfocus, or keep an eye out for his books on Amazon. His latest, Think Like a UX Researcher, was published in January 2019.

Lisa Marie Ortega MSc

Lisa Marie is the founder, research expert and digital psychologist behind UX agency Keep it Usable in Manchester, UK.

You can access Lisa’s insight in a couple of places. Firstly, there’s her company twitter feed, @keepitusable, where she tweets little golden nuggets when it comes to UX, such as links to newly-designed, contemporary, highly usable log-in forms.

Then there’s her LinkedIn profile, where she posts about the micro and macro elements of UX from the evolution of burger menus to accessibility in UX.

John Dodd

The CEO of Bunnyfoot, John Dodd describes himself on his twitter profile as a usability specialist and design psychologist.

With its five research labs and seven eye-trackers, his company has worked with some of the UK’s best-know brands. For example, they’ve worked to improve the search experience and content usability for the British Library and they’ve teamed up with Oxfam to improve the persuasiveness and usability of their MyOxfam app.

You can keep up to date with Dodd’s research and insights on the Bunnyfoot blog where he writes about everything from UX strategy to big and little data for UX.

Ricardo Prada

Professor Ricardo Prada has an eye-widening CV. Currently the Director and Principal Researcher of Google’s AIUX team, he’s been involved in everything from the development of self-driving cars to the creation of contact lens computers in the past.

His self-asserted mission, however, is to ‘make technology more humane’.

You can follow him on twitter @eldrprada, where he tweets about topics as diverse as how bodies can be physically manipulated through design to the way AI can be used in design.

You can also keep up to date on his projects on his official website.

Torrey Podmajersky

Coder, content strategist, product designer and Google employee, Torrey Podmajerskey is especially interested in an area of UX that doesn’t always get too much attention – words.

She’s just written the book Strategic Writing for UX, which features sections on frameworks and patterns for content and permeating UX with a consistent brand experience.

She also has her own website, on which she writes about the projects she’s involved in.

Plus, she can be found tweeting @torreybird, where she posts about everything from design system contributions for UX teams to how just-in-case content is killing user experience.

Professor Karen Cham

A professor at the University of Brighton, Karen Cham is an expert in digital innovation and has worked for companies such as PlayStation, Diesel and Top Shop in the past.

Her specialism lies in leveraging persuasion, emotion and trust in the UX to lead to behaviour change. She’s not on twitter, but she’s active on LinkedIn, where she posts about cutting edge topics from 5G UX design to the concept of return on interaction.

Patrick Fagan

Behavioural scientist Patrick Fagan claims to know how to turn the mind into magic.

In February 2019, he delivered a talk at The UX Conference London on how to target UX to different psychographics. The precis of the talk explained: “Why you should swear in your comms to gin drinkers: measuring and using personality insights in a digital context.”

Fagan hasn’t updated his twitter for a while, but he’s active on LinkedIn, sharing articles he’s written himself as well as articles from other UX experts on topics from neuroscience to the science of memory making.

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