Each week Bristol Business News gives a prominent member of the city’s business community the last word on its weekly e-bulletin.
This week Giles Colborne, joint managing director of user experience design agency cxpartners, answers our 10 questions.
What was the LAST: 
Film you watched? Her – The Spike Jonze movie about a man’s relationship with his computerised virtual assistant (Siri but smarter). For anyone working in Natural Language Interfaces this movie has become required viewing, though it has as much to say about human-to-human relationships as our increasingly entangled relationship with technology.
Book you read? The Light of Day by Eric Ambler. I’ve only just discovered him but his spy novels are what John le Carré describes as ‘The source from which we all draw’ – they’re brilliantly written and observed.
Music you bought/downloaded? I’ve signed up to a streaming music service which means I can pretty much listen to what I want, when I want. The last new thing was These Days by Nico. This is what happens when you Shazam the soundtrack to a movie you’re watching.
Concert or play you went to? My wife wrote the libretto for an aria as part of an art project by Music Theatre Wales and I drove out to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff to see it performed. Any kind of live singing always beats recorded music, and the performers sang without amplification which just added to the intensity of the experience.
Sporting event you attended? Crystal Palace 1 – 3 Tottenham Hotspur. I’m a Spurs fan and it’s been a terrific season – this game sums it up. When Spurs were 1-0 down I was in no doubt that the team would come back and win it.
Holiday you went on? I went to Marseilles and made it out to the Château d’If – the French equivalent of Alcatraz and the place where Alexandre Dumas imagined The Count of Monte Cristo was imprisoned.
Restaurant you ate in? I’ve no idea of the name – I’m at a conference Amsterdam as I write this and there seem to be a lot of Argentinian themed steakhouses in the middle of town. It was one of them.
Thing that annoyed you? I’m pretty good at annoying myself. The usual reason is that I’m multi-tasking rather than concentrating on one thing at a time.
Thing that made you laugh out loud? I’ve been watching an online series with Jerry Seinfeld called Comedians In Cars Drinking Coffee. I just watched the one with Amy Schumer which was great.
Piece of good advice you were given? My flight out to Amsterdam was delayed and I was thinking about transferring to another flight. The woman at the BA desk in Heathrow took the extra time to check which planes were actually in flight and recommended I stick with the delayed one. It came in sooner than expected so that turned out to be great advice. But if you want advice I could share, too, it would be from my taxi driver, who I got talking to and who spends his spare time making horror movies with friends, creating special effects and writing his own music. He said ‘make sure you’re always doing something different, new and fun’. He was an inspiring chap.
Giles Colborne is joint managing director of cxpartners, a user experience design agency that puts people first. Giles is focused on the challenges of designing for new technologies and behaviours such as Artificial Intelligence, complex algorithms, gesture and voice control. He is an author and frequent invited keynote speaker on user experience in Europe, Asia and the US. A highly respected practitioner, Giles is ex-president of the UXPA, was a judge at the 2016 UX awards and has co-chaired international conferences such as the 2013, IA summit. He has also been a lead mentor on user-centred design for Seedcamp – where new start-ups gain advice from industry leaders.
