In this episode, we’re joined by Nick Cawthon, a design leader with decades of knowledge in user experience (UX), service design, and the evolving discipline of experience design.

From his childhood discovery of creative flow to shaping the culture of UX in San Francisco, Nick reflects on the pivotal shifts that transformed design from skeuomorphic interfaces to design systems, and now to the rise of AI and agents.

Together, they explore what is left behind in each wave of transformation, why core human skills and principles remain essential, and how curiosity and experimentation will shape the future of design.

0:00 – Childhood Creativity & Early Flow States
6:30 – The Evolution of UX in San Francisco
12:44 – Designing for Humans: Early UX Insights
17:27 – The Impact of AI on UX
23:41 – What Gets Left Behind in Transformation
28:42 – Reinvention & The Ouroboros Mindset
32:01 – The Next Generation of Designers
38:35 – Synthetic Users & Experimentation
45:57 – Optimism for UX and Experience Design
53:19 – Core Principles That Endure

Nick Cawthorn Bio

Nick helps design teams stay ahead of the curve with their AI transformation. He has been curating self-assessments for UX & Design Teams at retrain.gauge.io, helping analyze industry trends and removing barriers to adoption.

Nick founded Gauge in 2001 in the San Francisco Bay Area to help organizations with evidence-based strategy and product decisions. Clients have grown to include Electronic Arts, Genentech, Airbnb, Adobe and many others. Nick is a professor in Data Literacy and Visualisation in the Design Strategy MBA program at his alma mater, California College of the Arts.

Links
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickcawthon-ux-digital-agency-product-design-leadership/

https://gauge.io/