A student in J.R. Tremblay, PhD design research class put it plainly: "AI is going to take our jobs before we even enter the job market." It's a real concern. And rather than dismiss it, Jessika leaned into it. In her latest article, she explores how the LEGO Smart City at Humber Polytechnic became an unexpected teaching tool for preparing design students to work in an AI-shaped world. Not by teaching them to prompt better, but by asking them to understand how people will experience AI as part of infrastructure, transit, governance, and community. It's a creative response to a question many of us are contemplating: how do UXers adapt when AI reshapes how people move, decide, trust, and experience their environment? Give it a read and let us know what you think: https://lnkd.in/eBbENYqi
About us
Akendi is the premier UX agency specializing in Experience Thinking and innovating staffing solutions. We design holistic, end-to-end experiences that enhance your products, services and delight users. With our experts in UX design, service design, usability testing, product strategy, and user research, Akendi is your trusted partner for pragmatic support for your UX projects, staffing your teams with the right people and in training for effective product design delivery. We also offer industry-leading UX courses and certification programs, including UX Design, Usability Testing, Journey Mapping, Customer and User Research. With a global presence in Toronto, Ottawa, Canada, New York, USA, Cambridge, & London, UK, we are dedicated to deliver to your user experience goals.
- Website
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https://www.akendi.com
External link for Akendi
- Industry
- Design Services
- Company size
- 11-50 employees
- Headquarters
- Toronto, Ontario
- Type
- Privately Held
- Founded
- 2007
- Specialties
- user experience design, usability testing, ux training, user research, ux design, customer experience, ux certification, innovation strategy, ux strategy, customer research, service design, cx strategy, experience thinking, Journey Mapping, UX Coaching, information architecture, visual design, product definition, product strategy, staff augmentation, agile UX, and customer research
Locations
Employees at Akendi
Updates
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This summer is looking to be a busy one as we welcome our second intern, Grace McDougald! Grace joins us from Humber College, where she is completing her User Experience Design certificate. Her path to UX is one we're familiar with time and again, recognizing something was missing and having the curiosity and determination to find it. Coming from the business and finance space, that search led her to the world of UX Design, and we're glad it did. It takes courage to make a bold career pivot, and much like our first intern Malú, we admire those who trust that instinct and follow through. We're excited to see what Grace brings to the team this summer. Welcome, Grace! #LifeAtAkendi #AkendiCulture #WelcomeToTheTeam #Internship #UXDesign #DesignCommunity #TeamAkendi
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Daniel Iaboni's key takeaway from the Cooperathon workshop is one every innovator should hear. Prototype to test your biggest assumption, and make sure it tells a compelling story! #Cooperathon #Prototyping #Innovation #Design #Entrepreneurship #Akendi
A huge thank you to all the participants and organizers of the Cooperathon for having me lead a prototyping workshop last Thursday! The curiosity and creativity were inspiring. By now, I hope everyone has completed and submitted their prototypes for evaluation. Fingers crossed! But I wanted to leave a couple of key things I wanted to leave with everyone for future endeavours: - Your prototype exists to test your biggest assumption. Whether it's about your business model, design, technology, viability, or desirability — get clear on what you're trying to validate, and let that drive the type of prototype you build. - Your prototype needs to tell a story. A list of features and functionalities doesn't communicate the why, the what, or the how. Start with a deep understanding of the problem, then build a narrative that shows how your solution actually addresses it. Best of luck to all the participants! Need help prototyping to test your biggest assumptions or telling the story for your venture? Reach out to us at Akendi. We'd love to help you turn great ideas into meaningful experiences. #Cooperathon #Prototyping #Innovation #Design #Entrepreneurship #Akendi
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Last week, some of our team headed back to Saskatoon for a Creative Workshop with our client in the financial services space. It was a productive and collaborative day that left us feeling accomplished. The weather was beautiful this time around, no snow in sight! The spring greenery was in full bloom, making the landscape feel completely different from our first visit. Instead of spotting bison in the fields, we caught sight of a bunch of adorable baby geese. See how many you can spot in the photo! We wrapped up the day at Hearth, where the food and drinks were amazing. It was the perfect way to end the day with full bellies for the plane ride home. Grateful for the work we did and finally getting to experience this spot. #LifeAtAkendi #AkendiCulture #UXResearch #DesignWorkshop #CreativeCollaboration #TeamAkendi #WorkCulture
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The biggest risk in product development isn't the technology. It's the misunderstanding of your users. This is a great reminder from Daniel Iaboni's conversation with Ashu Syal! #Prototyping #UXDesign #ProductDesign #UserResearch #Innovation
A huge thank you to Ashu Syal for joining our conversation yesterday and sharing his insights on prototyping. Drawing on his experience founding EyeCheck (https://www.eyecheck.co/), as well as his work at Diamond.io (https://diamond.io/) and Pinch (https://lnkd.in/eMGeS_4k), Ashu shared a wealth of practical stories and lessons learned from building and testing ideas in the real world. One of the biggest takeaways for me was the importance of asking the right question with your prototype. The biggest risk to success isn’t always the technology — it’s understanding user behaviour, validating assumptions, or uncovering the real barrier standing in the way. Another key theme was the value of iteration: running lots of small, quick experiments instead of committing too deeply to one direction too early. Prototyping is as much about learning quickly as it is about building. Thank you as well to all the participants who joined the session and contributed to such a great discussion, and, of course, to Cooperathon for organizing the event. And a reminder that I'll be leading tomorrow's workshop on prototyping your ideas. Looking forward to continuing the conversation!
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Daniel Iaboni makes an honest observation: Small UX improvements in fintech aren't nice-to-haves. They're the difference between a product that works for people and one that just looks like it does. #UXDesign #Fintech #HumanCentredDesign #CustomerExperience #ProductDesign
Much of what I do with my fintech clients revolves around transforming systems that are a bit outdated. When looking at the systems, you expect a poor user experience. However, on the retail side, there is a disconnect: we see sleek, modern UIs, but some usage still feels outdated. Take paying a bill, for instance. Every time I make a payment or e-transfer, I register it. Over time, I've amassed a list of hundreds of people I've paid. But that list is organized chronologically, not by the most recent, the most frequently paid, or even alphabetically. So, finding that bill to pay is clunky and cumbersome. And it doesn't take major innovation to fix, just basic capabilities like: • Sorting based on frequency or recent use • Better naming conventions and auto-labelling • Contextual identifiers for duplicate vendors Small improvements matter. They reduce errors, effort and frustration. I'd love to hear about your experiences: Have you faced similar frustrations with your banking apps or fintech products? What's one small UX improvement your bank could implement immediately that would significantly impact your experience? #Fintech #UXDesign #Banking #ProductDesign #CustomerExperience
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Last week, we had the pleasure of hosting TorCHI.org and Sam Ladner, PhD, for an evening exploring how UX practitioners can step into more strategic leadership roles within their organizations. In her talk, Practical Foresight: How to Make Impact in Today’s Corporation, Sam shared perspectives from her upcoming book and challenged us to think differently about how teams prepare for change. One idea that stood out was that strategic foresight is not about predicting the future. It’s about scanning for change across social, technological, economic, environmental, and political domains, imagining multiple possible futures, and helping organizations become more prepared for both opportunity and uncertainty. This resonated with us and served as an important reminder that researchers and UX practitioners can play a critical role in helping organizations recognize emerging challenges earlier and respond more intentionally to change. The evening sparked thoughtful conversations around foresight, decision-making, and the evolving role of UX in shaping strategy. Thank you to everyone who joined us and contributed to such engaging discussions throughout the night. (And thank you to Maria Lucia Benavides for making this video!)
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We partnered with Ather to build a brand that reflects what they actually deliver: modern, IT-driven audio networking that makes the complex feel manageable. Their technology was already ahead of the curve. The brand just needed to catch up. Our work focused on translating technical strength into a visual and verbal identity that communicates trust, clarity, and confidence. Because in live production, emergency operations, or defence, there's no time for ambiguity. The result is a brand that stands apart in a category long defined by legacy thinking. Take a look at the full case study. Link in comments.
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Honest observation from Daniel Iaboni: The people hardest to reach through bad design are often the ones most important to count. This is why human-centred design in public services isn't optional. #HumanCentredDesign #InclusiveDesign #ServiceDesign #Accessibility #GovernmentServices
Today, May 12th, is the deadline for Canadians to complete their census. While I'm no longer living in Canada, I've had a few conversations with family members who recently completed theirs, and it got me thinking about how much design impacts the quality of the data we collect. In just a handful of conversations, multiple people ran into usability challenges significant enough that they either almost didn't complete the census or worried they may have submitted inaccurate information. One example involved my in-laws, whose first language isn't English. They initially mistook the census letter for junk mail and nearly threw it out. Then, because they primarily use their phones rather than a laptop, entering the long 16-digit code added frustration. It made me wonder whether something as simple as a unique, individualized QR code could streamline that process. Another family member struggled with residency questions around university-aged kids moving between school and home. After realizing they may have answered incorrectly, there didn't appear to be an easy way to go back and revise their response. These may sound like small issues, but when systems like the census are used to shape funding, infrastructure, healthcare, and community programs, even minor friction points can affect participation, accessibility, and ultimately confidence in the data itself. Good UX isn't just about convenience. In systems like this, it directly impacts participation and data quality. Have you completed your census yet? Did you run into any challenges along the way? And if your organization is working through complex research questions where data accuracy and accessibility matter, the team at Akendi would love to chat. #UXDesign #UserExperience #Accessibility #InclusiveDesign #ServiceDesign #DigitalTransformation #UXResearch #SurveyDesign #GovernmentServices #MobileUX #HumanCenteredDesign #Census Image from: https://lnkd.in/eMPip-ca
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Our Akendi Tastes: Salads and Smoothies series has come to an end, and our final stop was Brasa Peruvian Kitchen (Official). This last visit reinforced something we noticed throughout the series: the details matter. When you're picking up a large order, dishes can start to look similar. Something as simple as labelling on lids makes it easy to know whose is whose. It's a small service touch worth considering. When it comes to taste, both the salad and the smoothie had to be equally good. Impact Kitchen, our first stop, set that bar high right from the start. They remained our standout favourite. Fresh ingredients, minimal filler, and a loyalty program that adds value. All in all, each spot brought something different to the table. MANDY'S offered high-quality options, perfect for when you want to treat yourself, though smoothie availability was hit or miss. Salus Fresh Foods kept things fun with snazzy smoothie names and colourful blends, making the experience feel playful. Rounding out with Brasa, they gave us a chance to explore something new and different. The real takeaway: salads, bowls, and smoothies seem simple on paper. The ingredients are often things you'd grab at any grocery store. We quickly learned that it's not just about the ingredients themselves, it's how they're used together. We ate fairly similar ingredients across all these spots, but they didn't all taste the same. Some places relied heavily on protein powder in their smoothies, while others let the natural flavours shine through. The combinations matter. The balance in toppings matters. Knowing what works well together (and what doesn't) is what separates a good meal from a great one. It's a reminder that simplicity in design doesn't mean less thought. It's about being deliberate with what you include. Until the next Akendi Tastes series! #LifeAtAkendi #AkendiCulture #AkendiTastes #HealthyEating #ExperienceDesign #ServiceDesign #TeamLunch #WorkCulture #GoodFoodGoodCompany
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