UX Murder Mystery
Episodes
Pre-Existing Negligence
18 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
On October 1, 2013, the federal government launched Healthcare.gov — the digital front door to the Affordable Care Act, and the most ambitious e-go...
When the Music Died: How Sonos Killed Its Own App and Lost Everything
10 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Sonos shipped an unfinished app that broke thousands of speakers, wiped $500M in value, and took down the CEO. Brian Crowley and Eve Eden investigate...
Who Killed Meetup? Three Owners, Zero UX
25 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A platform born from 9/11 grief to fight American loneliness — sold to WeWork, fire-sold during COVID, and now strip-mined by Bending Spoons. Meetup...
The Case of the Vanishing Humans: Dead Internet Theory
18 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Case of the Vanishing Humans The internet isn't dead. It's undead—still moving, still generating content, but its soul is gone. In this episode,...
The Loyalty Trap: How Surveillance Pricing Turns Your Rewards App Into a Weapon with Stephanie Nguyen
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
THE CASE: Surveillance Pricing -- Who's Setting the Price, Who's Being Watched, and Who's Really Paying You scan your loyalty card. You earn your po...
How iRobot Lost $3.5 BILLION: The Roomba Bankruptcy Explained
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How did iRobot go from a $3.5 billion robot vacuum empire to bankruptcy in just 4 years? We investigate the product failures, broken UX, and regulator...
$14 Billion to Bankruptcy: The Wish.com Disaster
21 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
$14 Billion to Bankruptcy: The Wish.com Disaster In 2013, Wish.com promised to democratize shopping: designer looks for dirt-cheap prices, delivered s...
$3 Billion to Zero: Who Killed Skylanders?
14 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 2011, Activision cracked the code that would print money for years: convince kids they needed to buy physical toys to unlock digital characters. Sk...
When Design Challenges Became Exploitation with Christina Hamlin
07 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The crime scene: A take-home design challenge. The victim: Fair hiring practices. The suspects: Well-meaning companies asking for "just a few hours" o...
He Thought He Owed $730K. Robinhood Had No One to Call.
31 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
CONTENT WARNING: This episode discusses suicide. We cover the death of Alex Kearns in the final segment (starting at 31:33). Crisis resources are list...
Movie Theaters: What We Love & Why They're Struggling
24 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After some heavy episodes, Eve and Brian lighten things up with a fun conversation about their love of movies and movie theaters—and why the indust...
From Layoffs to Launching a Podcast: Our Origin Story
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ten episodes in, it's time we properly introduce ourselves. In this milestone episode, Eve and Brian step away from investigating product murders to s...
LinkedIn Job Search Failure: Why AI Screening Blocks Qualified Candidates
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
LinkedIn's AI screening tools are blocking qualified candidates from jobs they're perfect for. We investigate how automated recruiting broke the job m...
UX Job Market Crisis: Layoffs, AWS Failures, and Why Tech Workers Need Unions
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The UX job market isn't just "tough"—it's forcing designers to leave the country, abandon expensive cities, and consider completely different career...
UX Murder Mystery Episode 7: Clippy and other unhelpful assistants
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Clippy never died. It just evolved into the intrusive AI assistants plaguing us today. In this episode, Brian and Eve investigate why tech companies k...
UX Murder Mystery Episode 6: The State of UX Leadership
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode: Eve and Brian as the questions: Should UX practitioners need licenses? Is UX Leadership failing designers, writers and researchers...
UX Murder Mystery Episode 5: Wearables
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Eve and Brian talk about the biggest UX scam in tech right now, wearable 'innovation' that no one asked for. From Apple Vision Pro's $3,500...
UX Murder Mystery Episode 4: Dating Apps Gone Wild 🌶️
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week Eve and Brian talk about some 🌶️🌶️🌶️. What happens when dating apps evolve backwards how did covid change the game? In this e...
UX Murder Mystery Episode 3: Roblox
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when a game made for kids becomes a playground for predators? Eve and Brian break down Roblox's biggest UX crime — failed moderation —...
UX Murder Mystery Episode 2: LinkedIn
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brian and Eve talk about how LinkedIn was once a useful product and now it's lost it way gaining all the worst noise and anxiety of social media with...
UX Murder Mystery Episode 1: State of the Industry
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brian and Eve talk about the state of the UX industry as they begin their podcasting adventure! UX MURDER MYSTERY HOSTED BY Brian J. Crowley Eve Eden ...