I’m Graham MacDougall, UXMC.
I have 25+ years experience working in Product Leadership, Digital Strategy, User Experience and Service Design.
I create measurable, positive impact for my clients by using Service Design and User Experience (UX) methodologies.
I’m a Digital Product Senior Consultant at Barrington Consulting.
Tools & Resources
I’m creating lists of resources that I find useful for my work, by topic (and in some cases, by type). I hope they help you!
About me
I’ve had a very rewarding and rich career in digital media, spanning more than 25 years. How can I help you?
Services
As a Senior Consultant, I provide a variety of services in digital product development and Service Design.
Latest updates
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AI is maturing. It’s more than just a “useful intern” in late 2024
When I first used AI/GPT, my first reactions were, “Wow, this is what a search engine should have always been like” and “It’s like a competent, useful intern.” Only two or so years since it launched to mass audiences, AI is maturing. The robot that is becoming more “human” I’ve noticed how much AI has…
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Book: Digital Icons That Work: A Comprehensive Guide to Enhancing User Experience with Effective Iconography
Icons are essential to my work as a Service and UX Designer (and the work of others around me), but they also misused, misunderstood and controversial. One person’s decisions usually dictate how icons are chosen, and used, in many projects. A subjective (and potentially inaccurate) approach can make interfaces cluttered and harder to use —…
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The Usability of Touchscreens in Modern Vehicles: A Growing Concern
Car safety experts and drivers have long been concerned about the usability of touchscreens in vehicles. Many people prefer the simplicity of traditional buttons. Over the past 30-plus years, digital displays have replaced tactile knobs and buttons, leading to concerns about increased distracted driving and lower usability levels. However, there are signs that tactile controls…
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BASIC Co-Inventor passes away
Thomas Kurtz, who co-invented BASIC, has passed away. I had no idea who he was, but when I read his obituary, a flood of memories rushed back about my time using BASIC and how it changed my life. In 1982 (or was it 1983?) my family bought its first computer, a TRS-80 Color Computer 2.…
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Working In The Open
How sharing work, ideas, and processes can build better products and stronger organizations “Working in the open” is a collaborative and transparent way of working where people share their work, ideas, and processes publicly or within a broader community. This can include sharing progress updates, challenges, decision-making processes, and final outcomes. The goal is to…
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Service design playbook – Government of Ontario
This playbook is a crash course on service design. It works alongside the 13 points set out in the Digital Service Standard to provide the basics needed to get started on a digital service. It doesn’t appear to provide Lean Service Design/UX practice info. Topics include: Read the Service design playbook | ontario.ca
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10 years of Google Material Design
Google Material, also known as Material Design, is a design system developed by Google in 2014. It was Google’s comprehensive design system/framework to create good UX and UI designs. It aims to create a unified, consistent user experience across various devices, platforms, and screen sizes. It’s 10 years old and has evolved a lot in…
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Unlocking Innovation: The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process
Design thinking is a powerful, human-centered approach to innovation that focuses on understanding user needs and developing creative solutions to meet those needs. Whether you’re designing a new product, service, or process, the design thinking framework can help you tackle complex problems and uncover groundbreaking ideas. Here is an overview of the the 5 stages…
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Web forms placeholder text – Don’t use it!
I found a great resource that explains with excellent examples why we shouldn’t use web forms placeholder text as field labels. “Placeholders are popular because they save space and have a minimalist aesthetic. But using placeholder text for labels or even just hint text is problematic.” I often explain to people that what is most…
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Designing for neurodivergence: Software accessibility and ADHD
Digital accessibility is important for many reasons and its importance is only growing. Yet defining what accessibility means, or what the application of universal accessibility principles look like when designing for neurodivergence, is really challenging. I believe that many people use WCAG compliance checkers to test their work for technical compliance. That’s a good start,…