Judge: Stephen Hardingham
Role: Head of Design at All 4

1. Do you have a favourite app & website in terms of the design and user experience?
   Monument Valley is a tour de force from ustwo. It’s conceptually simple and visually stunning. It’s Immersive to play (and replay) and it reveals a delightful narrative which gently leads the player through its levels. It’s timeless and shouts of a clear vision and commitment to quality.

2. Which industries, in your opinion, tend to deliver the worst user experiences, and why?
   The travel industry – especially flight booking sites. It’s always stressful to book a flight online and invariably something goes wrong during the process and you have to start again.
3. What has been the greatest game changer in the UX and usability sectors over the past 10 years?
   We can now tap into a much greater volume of data and empirical evidence gathered from actual users than at any time before. This reveals how our products or services are performing and, along with a lean approach to product development, helps us continually and quickly refine experiences for our users.
4. What do you think are the biggest challenges companies face utilising UX?
   Everyone thinks they are a UX expert these days – it reminds me of the desk-top publishing revolution back in the 90s when suddenly everyone thought they were a designer. UX design is a specialised discipline. Digital products need a clear, coherent and informed design vision to work well.
5. Do you have any UX pet peeves?
   Lack of white space.
6. If you could have any super power what would it be and why?
   I have several super powers already; I think we all do. One that’s missing from my current deck is tele-transportation so I wouldn’t have to waste any more time on terrible flight booking websites.