Design Downtime

Get ready to be swept away into a sprawling space opera, when Erika Flowers joins us to talk about her passion for writing fiction novels. She approaches writing fiction as entertainment rather than high literature, comparing her creative goals to producing Marvel-style blockbuster experiences. Erika traces her journey from discovering fantasy worlds through the Dragonlance series in middle school to spending 16 years learning the craft before finally writing her first complete manuscript. She describes her meticulous, architect-style approach to writing, treating the actual process like an athlete training for an ultra marathon. Erika talks about her strengths writing character dynamics, relationships, and exploring themes through interpersonal drama rather than external action sequences, and gives us a sneak peek into her upcoming projects.

Guest Bio
Erika Flowers (she/her) is a technologist and designer who brings a love of storytelling into everything she does. By day, she helps organizations shape strategy and design for the future, and by night, she writes sprawling novels and explores the craft of story as a lifelong passion. Erika has worked at tech companies such as Intuit and Mural, as well as serving a term at NASA as a civil servant as a part of their digital transformation initiative. She currently works in medical technology, innovating in the field of diabetes and insulin management.

Links
Erika’s website: https://www.erikaflowerswrites.com
Erika on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helloeflowers

Credits
Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.

It’s time to be one with nature, as Priyanca D'Souza talks to us about her passion for outdoor swimming. She shares how immersing in cold water offers a transcendent experience that pulls her into the present moment, from still lakes where she floats under the sky to challenging rivers that demand complete mental focus. Priyanca explains how outdoor swimming differs fundamentally from pool swimming, and emphasizes the minimalist nature of the activity. She also discusses how she actively seeks swimming spots when traveling, praising cities like Copenhagen for integrating swimming into urban life, and notes the mental health benefits of outdoor swimming, that allow her to completely disconnect from technology.

Guest Bio
Priyanca D’Souza (she/her) is a Senior User Researcher in the public sector, specialising in Accessibility and Inclusion. She has recently worked on complex projects for GDS, Cabinet Office, Defra and Companies House. She aims to use her lived experience of access needs to embed inclusive practices within teams to drive forward ethical and inclusive design which better meets people's needs. Enabling people to empathise with the barriers our users can face and finding opportunities to alleviate and change things to make experiences better. She is fascinated by the impacts different barriers and conditions can have on cognition, behaviour, people’s interactions and experiences of the world. She has a background in Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, which she combines with lived and varied practical experience.

Links
Priyanca on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/priyanca.bsky.social
Priyanca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyanca-ux

Credits
Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.

Tune your banjo and join Sidra Mahmood, as they tell us about their unexpected passion for bluegrass music. Despite a musical journey through heavy metal, punk rock, and electronic music, they found a strong connection to bluegrass with its themes of labor solidarity, poverty, and anti-capitalism, being played with incredible speed and precision through improvisation. Sidra notes the genre's diversity problem, as 95% of bluegrass concert audiences are white and significantly older, despite contemporary bluegrass artists becoming more diverse, and recommends modern acts that blend punk and rock elements into the traditional sound.

Guest Bio
Sidra Mahmood (they/them) is a government product and service designer who currently builds data products at the federal government of Canada. Sidra knows we're not supposed to talk about work on this podcast but they can very happily talk about it all day. With a deep deep love of government transparency and civic tech, Sidra's been designing things people can use to make government suck less for over a decade. In their spare time, they can be found DJing, hanging out with their two senior retired greyhounds, and being mean to billionaires on the internet. After living in four continents, they call Toronto home.

Links
Sidra’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidramatik/
Sidra’s bluegrass playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7fY1eYqnDart624M6rLu4w

Credits
Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.

You don’t need a Cajun accent to enjoy this episode, when Jeremy Miller tells us all about his hometown of New Orleans. He explains what makes New Orleans unique, including its complex history as a city shaped by French, Spanish, Caribbean, and African influences, its world-renowned music genres, and the rich culinary tradition that distinguishes between urban Creole and rural Cajun cuisines. Jeremy emphasizes the strong sense of community fostered by the city's architecture with front porches that encouraged neighborhood connections, the friendly culture where strangers greet each other on the street, and the racial diversity he took for granted until moving to the Midwest. He shares what he misses most about New Orleans, and recommends hidden gems for visitors.

Guest Bio
Jeremy Miller (he/him) is a UX designer, strategist, and author of Beyond UX Design: Master Your Craft Beyond Pixels & Prototypes. Through his book and the Beyond UX Design podcast, he helps designers and teams turn complex ideas into meaningful products. His work focuses on mastering the parts of the craft that live beyond the screen, like curiosity, influence, and the human connections that make great software possible.

Links
Jeremy’s website: https://www.beyonduxdesign.com/

Credits
Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.

Get stoked to shred some pow, when Jess Paris joins us to talk about her passion for snowboarding. She describes how getting kicked out of ski school at age 12 led her to discover snowboarding, shaping major life decisions and eventually settling in Denver near the mountains. Jess reflects on how the once-rebellious snowboarder culture has evolved from being banned to becoming more integrated with skiers, and advises newcomers to embrace falling as part of learning, and not feel pressured to advance quickly or avoid beginner slopes. She explains that despite the inherent dangers of the sport, including breaking her jaw and suffering concussions at age 15, snowboarding serves as her primary mental escape and stress relief, where she enters a true flow state.

Guest Bio
Jess Paris (she/her) is the Director of Design Systems, Visual Design, and DesignOps at ServiceTitan, where she’s passionate about turning design systems into more than guardrails—they’re her favorite playground for clarity, creativity, and helping teams build things that actually help users. Based in Denver, Jess loves Colorado life: snowboarding in the winter, paddleboarding in the summer, and hitting the trails all year long. She’s not great at sitting still—whether she’s tinkering in her garden, taking on new home projects, or trying out punch needling just to see where it goes. Jess is always chasing the next idea or hobby to explore. And of course, every adventure is made better with her border collie mix, Ollie by her side.

Links
Jess’ website: https://jessparis.co
Jess on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessparis/
Jess’ Shred playlist (NSFW): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/26aK9101vKZNzgvNgqch7d?si=RO3GkUKSS8al0Ipq73kUSg
Jess’ Chill Shred playlist (NSFW): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5hIy9qppgRrhlB0iCanKQa?si=nrBVnGPcRFyV7lgPhR9n8g

Credits
Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.