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Paul Smith

@paulmsmith.bsky.social
497 followers 273 following 264 posts

Lead Interaction Designer at NHS England. Generally designing, prototyping, coding & problem solving. Often drinking a disproportionate amount of tea in rainy Manchester.

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Reposted by Paul Smith
Terence Eden @edent.tel · 28/08/2026
New blog post: "iT woRKs BeTter in THe aPp!!" shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/it-works-b… The monkey-punchers at Google never quite seem to finish any of their apps. There's always some useful bit of work left undone, or showstopping bug which remains unfixed, a thousand jagged …
shkspr.mobi
"iT woRKs BeTter in THe aPp!!"
The monkey-punchers at Google never quite seem to finish any of their apps. There's always some useful bit of work left undone, or showstopping bug which remains unfixed, a thousand jagged edges as yet unsolved by the greatest minds of their generation. I wanted to subscribe to an events calendar. I had a URl. I had my Google™ Pixel® phone running the latest Android© 17 with an updated calendar a…
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Hey @craigabbott.co.uk - The link on your site to your LinkedIn page is going to different person. Your ears were possibly burning today, I was talking about people to follow re accessibility.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Seems obvious but people often misunderstand what constitutes change/transformation.
Nothing changes if nothing changes
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Today's PSD inspired PostIt/Sticky note sketch.
Sketch of a man walking beyound a no entry sign
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Dear fruit fly (and friends) please do fruit fly things outside and not in my house. You annoying little #!@!!!!!s
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Is uBlockDNS Trust worthy? (or other dns based Adblockers) - I spotted that uBlockDNS is not officially affiliated with uBlock.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Slack picnic
A picknick setting with a blanket and three hampers set out on the floor. The colour of the blank resembles the colours used by Slack chat/meeting software.
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Reposted by Paul Smith
Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Nothing says 'man of the people' quite like a politician calling a by-election at public expense on the issue of whether or not he should have the right to secretly take donations from Thai-based crypto billionaires and a convicted fraudster
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
🎉 - Off you f*ck. ... Wait what?
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
I'm still holding out hope for a resignation.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
At the “a day off is more stress and worry than its worth” stage of not managing my life very well.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
I've just realised who the current Alexa voice I have enabled reminds me of! 🫢 Kemi Badenoch.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
This slide didn't make the cut but it was fun to make. Working in the NHS you get to suggest that the problem you and your teams are working on, is indeed, one of the hardest. :)
Wicked problem final boss. Image of the final boss from Streets of Rage holding a gun.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
40 something very experienced user centred interaction designer. Thinking about changing country. New Zealand, Australia or Canada all seem appealing without much real insight. Sounds difficult. Is it?
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Reposted by Paul Smith
Craig Abbott @craigabbott.co.uk · 01/05/2026
Some of you might remember, a while back I wrote a blog post pulling apart a job advert for a UX Accessibility Specialist at JD Sports. It turns out I wasn't shouting into a void. They reached out! We worked together on it, and we got to a good outcome! www.craigabbott.co.uk/blog/2025/mi...
craigabbott.co.uk
Mission impossible – a follow up!
A follow-up on my JD Sports accessibility job role post, and what happened next.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
If AI image generation lent it self to anything, surely it is "Selleck, Waterfall , Sandwich"?
A tribute image of Tom Selleck, next to a waterfall with a Sandwich
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Train friend 🐶 ❤️
Dog on the train seat beside me. A black coloured Dachshund called Dexter
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
I bought this book the week I started at the NHS. Only just getting to reading it. A Paul Downey recommendation.
How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert on the tablet next to my cup of cappuccino
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
So it was his fault the ships weren’t getting through but just incase there was any doubt….. He probably wants to claim it’s part of the plan now.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
I don’t know as much as I’d like but every snippet I’ve seen shows me this is a real leader. How they think, they talk/communicate and behave.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Just me with a constant feeling of being overwhelmed? I want to eliminate any unnecessary ‘noise’. Might crowd source a list. 1. Any ‘news’ said at me by a person in a suit on TV/YouTube/Etc.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Really enjoying the OHNO guide to Type Design.
Photo of the OHNO BOOK serious guide to irreverent type design.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Stop scrolling & post two characters who bring you happiness.
Wyle E Coyote and Road Runner
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Interested to see whats happening over at data.gov.uk 👀
data.gov.uk
data.gov.uk - The home of UK public data
The home of UK public data to inform decisions and build services
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Back week-noting: paulsmith.site/weeknotes/20...
paulsmith.site
The treadmill got faster
A return to weeknotes prompted by the rapid mainstream adoption of AI, using writing as a way to process its impact on work and practice
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
I always forget about Sunday trading laws and end up stood outside a shop in the cold.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Vibe coding is: being three hours into debugging something that took twenty minutes to build.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Can anybody recommend a place to buy good wholebean coffee? Ideally next day delivery. Medium-Dark and Dark roasted are my faves.
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Reposted by Paul Smith
zeldman @zeldman.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
In Walmart test, traditional online shopping beat agentic commerce bigtime.
searchengineland.com
Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website
After testing 200,000 items in ChatGPT, Walmart found sharply lower conversions and will use its own integrated shopping experience.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Basecamp do have some incredibly good interaction designers. www.fizzy.do is really jolly nice and well thought out. Remember Trello? That but better and modern. No AI (phew!). Free and self hosting is possible too.
fizzy.do
Kanban as it should be. Not as it has been.
A refreshing take on cards, columns, and kanban.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Monzo’s loan/credit repayment design patterns are so sneakily evil and deceptive. I’m almost impressed. I get they’re seeking profit, I don’t begrudge them that, they’ve made a nice service/product but the very carefully crafted friction to a user reducing the interest payable is quite something.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Rate your 2025 out of 10 (1 being a festering pile of bullhonky, 10 being happy-happy-joy-joy)
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
The email I've been waiting over 20 years for. Openreach have rolled out their 'full fibre' to where I live. It's too little, too late. Profiteering sods have held me and this country back for decades. Addicted to metered copper lines they've had their knee on the throat of a vital service.
Full Fibre is here. Image of a happy man sat in front of a computer.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
NX, pnpm, React, Webpack, Typescript, NPM, Node, Styled components, Storybooks, Jest, Git Hooks........ Off to the sea-bed you go.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
"Developer convenience" often equates to "Doesn't care about the user".
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Returning to User flow diagram you created a few months ago is a good test of how good a job you did. Give myself a solid 8/10 but always room for improvement.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
💯
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
How to melt my brain quick time. Put me in a room with a bunch of smart software devs/engineers talking about APIs, security and infrastructure and then have their work be dependant on me. 😂
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
On my way to London for an NHS Hackday event with colleagues from across digital, clinical and telephony. Looking forward to learning more about natural language processing, data transfer and how UCD can play a role.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
A slide-deck with lazily generated AI imagery is already akin to using WordArt.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Wish I had time and motivation to write week-notes or read other people’s regularly. Between work, life laundry, looking after the kids, trying to be healthy, to be active and all the other demands. It struggles to make it onto the day’s to-do list.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
ChatGPT has changed the game when writing code. Asking it to write nunjucks filters with a basic prompt, converting chunks of html into consumable objects/dictionaries. Off-loading these tasks lets me get to the thing I'm trying to do much faster.
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Reposted by Paul Smith
Simon Willison @simonwillison.net · 28/04/2025
If you want to create completely free software for other people to use, the absolute best delivery mechanism right now is static HTML and JavaScript served from a free web host with an established reputation. Here's why think that in more detail: simonwillison.net/2025/Apr/28/...
simonwillison.net
Note on 28th April 2025
If you want to create completely <strong>free software</strong> for other people to use, the absolute best delivery mechanism right now is static HTML and JavaScript served from a free web …
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
I will go to extraordinary lengths to hide wires.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
As somebody who had to fight hard for an EHCP for my step-daughter, this sort of bull is infuriating.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
Used ChatGPT earlier to do the work of a 9 year old feature request to an open source templating language. Tests and all. Now thats useful and worked well with a handful of tweaks.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
Absolutely. 💯- Nearly always means it’s hiding inequity somewhere.
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Interesting post from CBP (@britishprogress.bsky.social): "Recruiting and retaining Civil Service Technologist" has some good observations and recommendations. Thoughts? cc: @tomski.com @andrewgreenway.bsky.social britishprogress.org/uk-day-one/r...
britishprogress.org
Recruiting and Retaining Civil Service Technologists
Technical talent in the civil service is crucial for public sector delivery, while reducing the state's dependence on costly consultants. To do this, government must be able to attract high quality ta...
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Gromit goes for a snack
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Paul Smith @paulmsmith.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
I miss Trello. JIRA Raaaage!
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