We started Design Critique in 2005 to “encourage usable design for a better customer experience” using our working lives as UX professionals and our personal lives as customers. So many reviews around the Web and in podcasts seemed suspiciously positive and we didn’t trust them. We still don’t.

We critique products and services, discuss user experience methods and practices, and interview authors or anyone else whose work we find interesting. The values of the show are:

• People are more important than things. This show is not about the latest cool toys and technology for technology’s sake. Products should exist to serve people,  not the other way around. We consider whether our lives are (or are not) made better by what we allow into them.
• No advertising on the show. Most of our episodes are conversations about design, both as designers and as customers, and commercials would ruin the flow. Design Critique is funded out of our own pockets so that we owe nothing to anyone and are free to say what we really think.
• Buy the products/services we critique with our own money. This goes hand in hand with no advertising. We want to feel the pain of spending our own money on stuff so that our critiques have genuine ownership behind them.
• Admit our biases. Many reviewers do not inform the audience about their personal history, positive or negative, with a product category or the company involved. We give you context to our critiques so you know where we’re coming from.
• Critique all phases of customer experience, not just a couple days’ use. Besides the longitudinal use of at least one month, our critiques include  Encounter, Decision, Purchase, Out of the Box, and Initial Use experiences, where applicable.