Three questions to Molly

Molly, before we dive in, tell us a little bit about yourself

Kia Ora! Originally from New Zealand, I lived in Sydney for 6 years and I'm now based in London. I am a product design manager at Accenture Song (previously Fjord) and I love being based in London, where I can attend an event every night (if I wanted to), or travel with Europe on my doorstep. I enjoy listening to people, socialising, cooking, running and exploring new places. I love working in design as it allows me to be curious every single day and think outside of the box.

What’s something you’ve changed your mind about recently?

I've recently shifted my view on wearable tech, from thinking it was a little unnecessary to now thinking that we might not be ready for it yet. We've tried to make everything purely digital, and force everything into a small screen in our hands, but does this work? And should it be the way forward? Humans naturally respond to physical cues and affordances, as we love objects and learn by interacting with the real world. Our brain can handle a lot at once, like driving, which involves constant real-time feedback. However, it struggles when that feedback is overly condensed or divorced from the physical world. Maybe it is time we move out of the small screen and start to think of a 'phygital world'. Devices like the Vision Pro, Rabbit AI, and the Humane Pin might be overhyped but they are not inherently bad products. Maybe we need to take more cues from the physical world around us and look at how we might integrate digital experiences beyond our mobile phone? The path forward may be designing digital systems that honour physicality, rather than escape it.  

Who is someone you admire, and why?

I admire my dad so much because he is so persistent, dedicated and strives for high quality. My dad has an interesting career as a grass specialist and groundsman, which doesn’t seem related to design at all but after a lot of thought, I have drawn a lot of connections to both of our careers. I have learnt how important attention to detail is and his pursuit for high quality craft. I admire his ability to juggle multiple projects at once and hit deadlines. Most importantly, he has taught me that we can only worry about what we can control. It has taken me many years to realise this but there is truly no point wasting a lot of time trying to predict what might happen, and to only focus on the variables you can control in your project or day-to-day. 

If you had to give a TED talk tomorrow, what topic would you choose and why?

I am particularly interested in how dark patterns in UX and digital design and how these interactions are carefully crafted to mislead users into behaviours that are detrimental to their experience. There are many ways for user experiences to cross an ethical line, or at least wade into a moral grey area. Designers are on the front lines of these concerns. The goal of designers should be to champion the needs of their users, including their users’ ethical expectations. In my Ted Talk I would share previous dark patterns in digital design, how they lead to unethical results and share predictions of dark patterns in AI in the future. I am passionate about human behaviour, ethics and solving complex problem spaces for businesses, therefore I think it would be an important topic to highlight future issues with technology and how we all need to be mindful of who we are designing for and think carefully about the features we are shipping.

 Follow Molly on Linkedin and visit her notion site where she collects inspiration and writes some thoughts.