UX IRL Ep. 32: Thanksgiving

Hello! Here are our show notes for episode 32 of UX IRL: Thanksgiving! We hit the highlights in this article, but get the full context by listening to the episode:

We can’t believe Thanksgiving is almost here! In this episode, we discuss our plans, what we’re thankful for, Thanksgiving food, our take on pumpkin spice, and organizations for Giving Tuesday. Talk to us on the zeroheight Slack community! (bit.ly/zheroes-signup), comment below or reply on Twitter @uxinreallife or Instagram @ux.inreallife.

Thanksgiving for us

Michelle and her partner decided to stay on the West Coast for Thanksgiving. They’ve gotten used to the pandemic altering their holiday plans. Instead, they will watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (the full director’s cut versions). While they watch, they’ll make food that hobbits, elves, and dwarves eat.

Mary Fran and her partner were still figuring out plans with their families. They might celebrate Thanksgiving at a regular dinner time rather than their traditional early afternoon start and graze throughout the evening. (Michelle’s family also prefers the graze-all-day method!)

UX IRL Takeaway: Thanksgiving is what you make of it!

What we’re thankful for

(Note: Mary Fran’s dog Fawkes makes a guest appearance with a squeaky toy)

This year has been an enormous year of growth for Michelle. She’s been thankful for the opportunities at zeroheight, speaking at conferences, meeting many great people, and having conversations about inclusion, design systems, and design ops.

Mary Fran is thankful for her supportive colleagues at Insight, especially during challenging times. Her manager and team lead have been great at listening, supporting, and helping her navigate her workload. Michelle’s met both of them and can vouch for how genuine they are.

We’re also thankful for all of our listeners! We’ve enjoyed meeting people in person, chatting with people online, and just the generally positive feedback we’ve gotten. We initially set out to do this to share knowledge with people, and we weren’t sure who would listen. At the very least, we knew it would be a lot of fun for us to geek out about UX. But it’s lovely to know people listen, and we’re so thankful you keep coming back!

UX IRL Takeaway: It’s essential to have a psychologically safe environment to express your concerns. It can be hard to share and be honest if you don’t feel like you have that. We are champions of finding places that provide good psychological safety, so if you don’t have it where you currently are, consider looking for a new role that does provide you with that environment.

Thanksgiving food

We love food, especially Thanksgiving dishes and desserts! Michelle’s most looking forward to stuffing and loves making it from scratch. She plans on making this recipe this year. For her Lord of the Rings meals, she’s been making a sweeter version of lembas bread. But for this year, she might try to make a savory version.

Mary Fran always looks forward to her mom’s oyster casserole, which includes oysters, oyster water, whole milk, and saltines. While she’s not a huge oyster fan, she gets excited about the oyster casserole. She plans on making mac n cheese — she has fond memories of her grandmother’s and cousin’s mac n cheese outside of Thanksgiving. She also plans on roasting some Brussels sprouts with bacon and making pimento cheese.

UX IRL Takeaway: While we love traditional Thanksgiving food, we love incorporating atypical foods from family traditions. What food traditions do you have?

Pumpkin spice?

We realize that not everyone loves pumpkin spice, but we certainly do! Mary Fran loves pumpkin spice in everything from beer to scones to goldfish (graham) crackers. The timing of pumpkin beer doesn’t always line up with the season — when it first comes out (late August / early September-ish), you need to jump on it because it won’t be around for long.

We’re iffy on pumpkin spice in savory food, but maybe it would work in a soup? Mary Fran had a stew at Pumking Fest, an annual festival from Southern Tier, which was really good. There was also a gravy made of “Pumking,” which is their pumpkin beer (and also happens to be our favorite!)

Early in September, Michelle went to Target and was overwhelmed by all the pumpkin spiced everything available. While she wanted to try them all, there was no way she could, so she didn’t pick up anything. She does enjoy a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks and will have one at least once a year. This year, she had one in the UK (It tasted the same as any US version if you were curious.). She’ll include pumpkin spice in her breakfasts — oatmeal, pancakes, etc.

Michelle recommends making your own pumpkin spice because it’s easy and cheaper. Here’s her recipe:

• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• Instructions: In a small bowl, mix and store in an air-tight container!

The one thing she doesn’t think should come in a pumpkin spice flavor is yogurt. Years ago, she found pumpkin spice yogurt and was excited to try it. While it started with a good taste, the sourness of the yogurt made it seem like something had gone bad. While it was perfectly fine, the yogurt’s inherently sourness spoiled it.

UX IRL Takeaway: Pumpkin spice doesn’t go well with everything, and we hope that as people try to make pumpkin spice versions, they’re doing some flavor testing with users before committing. :D

Recommended orgs for Giving Tuesday

If you’re looking for places to donate, we’d like to recommend a few places.

Mary Fran recommends Extra Life, which helps the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. It’s a charity fundraiser that she’s participated in over the past few years. For the fundraiser, she’ll play video games for 24 hours, and it’s been a fun way for her to get in some quality gaming time for a great cause.

She also recommends looking at organizations that support women’s reproductive rights.

Michelle recommends BRIDGEGOOD, a local non-profit that helps high school, college-age, and transitioning employees from marginalized communities find careers in design and UX. It’s nice to see that there’s a UX-focused org out there in a sea of coding-based orgs. The founder is committed to making a difference in the community. She’s volunteered there a few times, and the program participants are amazing!

If you want to contribute more locally, she recommends giving to your local animal shelter.

UX IRL Takeaway: Choosing where to donate your money can be challenging. If your company has a program to match donations, consider donating through them to stretch your donation amount. Suppose you’re more passionate about a specific cause. In that case, organizations often have the option for you to contribute to a particular campaign, so you can ensure your money goes toward something meaningful to you. Some tools can help you vet organizations to ensure you’re donating to legitimate non-profits.

We’d love to hear from you!

What are you eating for the holidays? Are you a fan of pumpkin spice? What are other places people should donate to for Giving Tuesday? Let us know below or on social media.