In this minisode, Lucy Collins chats with Nikki Anderson about the opportunities AI presents for UX researchers, from speeding up time consuming tasks to improving research planning and challenging assumptions. They explore how AI can help researchers work more efficiently, freeing up valuable time to focus on strategic thinking, while maintaining the human connection that makes user research so powerful.

• AI is becoming embedded in the research process. Researchers are experimenting with AI across a wide range of tasks to understand where it adds value and where it falls short.
• Desk research is a big opportunity. AI can make secondary research quicker and more accessible, helping researchers explore existing evidence and inform their studies.
• AI can take on time-consuming tasks. From drafting research plans to developing participant screeners, AI can speed up preparation when given the right context.
• It's a useful critical thinking partner. AI can help identify missing perspectives, challenge assumptions and refine how research findings are communicated to different stakeholders.
• Human insight remains essential. The opportunity is to use AI to free up researchers' time for more strategic work, while preserving the value of research with real people.

"It's embedded itself into the entire research process."

"What a beautiful thing to be able to pull citations, to be able to pull searches from different areas on our particular topic."

"Where is that delivering value? Where is that being overhyped?"

"Did you miss this perspective?"

"Allowing us to be more strategic advisors."

Summary

Dr. Tanvir Bush joins the Web Usability Podcast to explore what genuine inclusion looks like beyond compliance and checkbox exercises. Drawing on her experience as a writer, disabled activist, and researcher, Tanvir shares why inclusion starts with understanding what makes people feel safe, welcome, and able to belong. The conversation covers meaningful co-creation, access intimacy, Crip Time, creative approaches to participation, and the importance of involving disabled people from the very beginning. Tanvir and host Lucy Collins also reflect on how rushing research and design especially in the age of AI can leave out the human insight needed to make better products and services.

Takeaways

• Inclusion is a continuing practice, not a course or checklist to complete.
• Start with self-reflection: consider where you feel safe and welcomed, and what creates that feeling.
• Move from “What can we do for you?” to “What can we do for each other?”
• Genuine co-creation means involving people early, giving them influence, allowing enough time, and paying them for their contributions.
• Creative methods can help people share experiences when conventional interviews or surveys are not a good fit.
• Making time for human participation can strengthen research and design; speed alone is not a substitute for understanding people.

Sound bites

• “What can we do for each other?”
• “Every single human life has immense value and brings something.”
• “You cannot live in emergency.”
• “People need time to be included and they need time to process.”
• “You still need to sit down with a person and speak to them.”
• “What makes me feel safe? What makes me feel welcomed?”

Find out more about Dr. Tanvir Bush here.

Summary

Lucy Collins and Ken Groom explore what allyship means in digital accessibility, especially for people without lived experience of disability. She explains why she feels cautious about using the label “ally” and why it matters to make space for disabled voices. The episode focuses on amplifying lived experience rather than speaking over the people directly affected. Lucy argues that accessibility advocacy should be a shared responsibility. She describes how inclusive user testing can help teams understand barriers through real experiences. She encourages allies to speak up when products, suppliers, or decisions are inaccessible.

Takeaways

Make room for disabled people to share their own experience's

Use your platform to amplify those voices, not replace them.

Treat accessibility as a shared responsibility.

Include people with a range of access needs in user testing.

Help decision-makers understand barriers through direct user experiences.

Challenge inaccessible tools and processes when you encounter them.

Sound bites

“Good allyship means lifting up disabled voices rather than taking space from them”

“Allyship is not passive support, but active advocacy”

“Disability inclusion becomes a shared responsibility”

“Inclusive user testing lets people experience accessibility barriers directly”

“Allyship means both amplifying others and challenging exclusion”

“Speak up when products or services leave people out”