Discussing Stupid: A byte-sized podcast on stupid UX

In Episode 6 of Discussing Stupid, host Virgil Carroll and co-host Cole Schlotthauer from High Monkey reflect on the evolution of web design and discuss how websites have grown increasingly complex over the years. This episode delves into the challenges of balancing form and function in web design, examining how trends have influenced modern websites—often at the expense of user experience.
Virgil and Cole explore the history of web design, from the simplicity of early 2000s websites to the rise of stylistic trends like Flash, hero images, and parallax scrolling. They discuss how the pursuit of flashy, modern designs can overshadow usability, creating obstacles for users trying to complete tasks. Drawing on decades of experience, Virgil shares insights into the “form vs. function” debate, emphasizing that good design prioritizes purpose and user needs.
To wrap up, the duo highlights the growing trend toward simplicity in web design and the importance of finding a balance between aesthetics and practicality. Listeners will leave with a deeper understanding of how to create websites that are both visually engaging and user-friendly.
Join us every two weeks for new episodes, and don’t forget to like, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. For more resources and updates, visit www.discussingstupid.com.
(0:00) - Intro
(1:26) - Websites have gotten too complicated
(3:13) - Evolution of web design trends
(4:43) - Form vs Function: An age old battle
(6:59) - When did style over substance get big?
(8:53) - The pressure to keep up with trends
(10:15) - It's about balancing form and function
(13:55) - Outro

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Welcome to the first episode of Discussing Stupid Season 2, where your host Virgil Carroll, along with Chad and Cole from High Monkey, dive into the importance of inclusive design. In this episode, they focus on the often overlooked but crucial aspect of alt text for images.

Virgil, Chad, and Cole discuss the significance of alt text in creating an inclusive digital experience. They emphasize that alt text is not merely about ticking boxes for WCAG or ADA compliance. Instead, it plays a crucial role in enhancing accessibility and inclusivity for individuals who rely on screen readers. The discussion covers the various types of images—decorative, practical, and informative—and offers insights on how to accurately describe them to improve the digital experience for everyone.

The episode also explores the limitations of relying solely on AI to generate alt text, underscoring the importance of human-crafted, meaningful descriptions that can profoundly impact users who depend on assistive technologies. Furthermore, the team shares practical tips on integrating inclusive design practices into your content creation process, ensuring that your digital content is accessible and understandable to all users.

Throughout the episode, you'll gain valuable knowledge on how to implement best practices for alt text and learn why it's essential to consider inclusivity at every stage of your content lifecycle. By the end of the discussion, you'll be equipped with the tools and insights needed to make your digital content more accessible and inclusive.

Join us every two weeks for new episodes, and don’t forget to like, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. For more resources and updates, visit www.discussingstupid.com.

LINKS

Tools mentioned:

Wave: https://wave.webaim.org/

Lighthouse: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/overview/

Alt text examples from the episode: https://www.discussingstupid.com/p/episode-1-alt-text-examples/

Resources from the Web Accessibility Initiative:

Decorative images: https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/decorative/

Informative images: https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/informative/

Tips and Trick

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Discussing Stupid has a new look! This episode marks the beginning of our refreshed brand—featuring a brand new website, sleek color scheme, updated album cover, and a restructured intro sequence. While our look has evolved, our mission remains the same: breaking down the biggest digital mistakes so you don’t have to make them.

In Episode 11, host Virgil Carroll is joined by co-host Cole from High Monkey, along with developer Chad, to tackle a common but frustrating issue—why web designs that look perfect in Figma often fall apart when built for real-world use.

They explore the biggest challenges of translating static designs into fully responsive websites, including:

✅ The problem with designing for just one screen size

✅ Why text, images, and layouts often break in development

✅ What developers wish designers knew about responsive design

✅ Lessons learned from their own website redesign mistakes

Chad shares a developer’s perspective on why rigid, pixel-perfect designs don’t always work and how to approach layouts with flexibility in mind. Through real-world experiences—including High Monkey’s own site rebuild—the team discusses the need for good communication between design and development and how to avoid the most common headaches.

To close things out, they share practical tips on designing for multiple screen sizes, working more effectively with developers, and ensuring that your website doesn’t just look great—it actually functions for all the devices browsing your website.

New intro, new look, new website, same crew ready to help you avoid dumb digital mistakes! Join us every two weeks for fresh episodes, and don’t forget to like, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. For more resources and updates, visit www.discussingstupid.com.

(0:00) - Intro

(2:06) Design is checkers... development is chess

(4:53) Common responsive design fails

(7:18) Unfortunately we are speaking from experience.

(11:09) How many breakpoints do you design for???

(15:40) Designers & developers need to talk

(18:07) - Outro

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In this episode of the Discussing Stupid podcast your host Virgil Carroll has a conversation with Brett Matson, the Managing Director of Funnelback Search Technology, about search, semantic search, knowledge graphs, artificial intelligence in search, and the related leverages and pitfalls.

Brett shares that there are several big things coming in the area of search, after reaching a plateau and stagnation for a few years. Some of these are paradigmatic (understanding the search has multiple purposes, not just page rankings,) and some include changing the approach (i.e. modifying queries,) changing presentation of results (modules,) knowledge graphs, semantic search (detecting the intent of the query,) and many more.

Brett explores how some of these new technologies are intrinsically more attractive to people. For example, knowledge graphs are (or can be) visual and show relations between entities in them. Thus, they are much more intuitive in contrast to being faced with a wall of data to choose from. The point is, of course, making content a lot more intelligent and hence more useful, by treating it as a product and perfecting its delivery.

In Brett’s opinion, during the next decade we will see a real proliferation of smart tools that will help users and companies perform a significantly better search. Virgil and Brett also discuss how it is very important to avoid making too many connections when using a new, powerful technology that can do that. This can bog down the whole organization, its data servers, employees, and finally, users.

Virgil’s conversation with Brett is very rich and diverse, so make sure to listen to the whole episode and pay close attention to what he had to share.

Links:
Episode mentioned:
Future-proofing your experience delivery strategy with Intelligent Content by Kate Skinner.
Siraj Raval's YouTube channel is full of short, fun videos that teach all different aspects of machine learning and AI.
Coursera's Machine Learning course, one of the original online machine learning courses, delivered by leading AI researcher Andrew Ng.
A great article by Sebastien Dery discussing the challenges of knowledge graphs.

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On our very first podcast (episode 1 YEAH!!!), Virgil is joined by Ben Tilley from Funnelback, an Australian-based search company, to break through all the hype around the use of artificial intelligence in search and talk about real world implementations and pitfalls.

Listening to this discussion, you will discover that implementing AI in search is not all that easy (shocker!!) and still requires you to follow good content and search practices. Where AI has many practical applications in search, effort is still needed and fundamentals need to be followed. In the end, AI cannot fix your search if your content still sucks.

There is reason to hope, good AI can be very helpful. According to Ben, "Being able to use some form of natural language processing to extract information out of your written text and turn that back into structure is a great way you can start to improve search."

Throughout this episode, Virgil and Ben will share the challenges you will face while giving you thoughts on how you can get your content and search ready to be able to use AI to its full potential.

Resources discussed:

• https://www.wolframalpha.com/ - one of the first search engines to use AI
• https://www.westpac.com.au/ - example organization using AI in their search

Helpful articles from Funnelback:

• https://www.funnelback.com/blog/artificial-intelligence-why-the-farmer-killed-the-fox
• https://www.funnelback.com/blog/intelligent-question-answering
• https://www.funnelback.com/blog/is-the-future-of-search-proactive