About

I believe in three layers to a great user experience:

• the relationship

• the journey

• the interaction

I can help you with the evolution or revolution of any of these layers through:

• growth and optimisation or greenfield innovation

• building human centred culture or discrete user research

• creating a UX strategy or delivering dev ready UI

I’ve researched and designed and delivered for the UK government; I’ve strategised, experimented and optimised loyalty schemes for IKEA; I’ve researched apps for the NHS; I’ve designed journeys for the BBC Licence fee; I’ve designed marketing journeys and customer playbacks for Virgin Media; I’ve created loyalty story propositions for Currys; I’ve optimised and refined design systems and screens for wagamama; I’ve redesigned and replatformed B2B2C employee benefits for Edenred; I’ve redesigned and merged B2B saas for Barbour HSE.

I’ve built and led design practices; I’ve delivered end to end products; I’ve been a cog in a wheel; I’ve been a part of a team; I’ve listened to stakeholders and I’ve charmed stakeholders.

I try to champion the user and leave a whiff of design thinking and a human centred approach everywhere I go.

Drop me a line if there’s something that looks interesting and you want to find out more.

My Experience

Work:

UX Design Principle - AND Digital [Edenred, wagamama, Barbour HSE, Heineken]

Head of UX - RAPP [IKEA, Virgin Media, BBC/TV Licencing, VW Group, Currys]

UX Design Lead/Experience Architect - Proximity London and RAPP [IKEA, BBC/TV Licencing, Virgin Media]

UX Designer - SPARCK [Civil Aviation Authority, NHS, Big Six Energy Company]; FREELANCE: yogaia.com

Digital Consultant - SPARCK [KAR Auctions, HSBC]

UX mentor - at Netminds; at RAPP; across the internet

Advertising Director/Publisher: stuff.tv; WhatHiFi.com; denofgeek.com; The Big Issue; Viz; Bizarre; The Guardian

Learning:

I like to fill my head with new stuff. All the time. Whether it’s Open University short courses or part time at Central St Martins, or reading and doing and reading. Here are some highlights -

Distinction in Interaction Design for Usability at The Interaction Design Foundation

Graduate of UX Design Immersive at General Assembly

BA Hons Politics and Philosophy at Warwick University

My Background

Finding and solving problems, research and analysis, strategy, responding to briefs, stakeholder management and listening. Lots of listening to people. Always make the tea, never be the smartest person in the room, everything can be fixed with a pint and a hug.

As a UX Designer I specialise in solving problems you might not know you had, and showing you how it was done. And, hopefully, making it look simple.

My Process

I believe in human centred design. Donald A. Norman is my guru. See why here.

We start a project by talking to the client, finding out what they makes them tick. We look at the market and understand competitors. We speak to Users, listen to what they need and like. And what they don't. Between me and the client, we make sense of it all, find the root of the problem and where the opportunity is. I play with ideas, sketch a lot, talk a lot, listen a lot. I start out with a moonshot and involve technologists to get back to earth and real world usable products. We create prototypes and listen to Users as they tear them apart. Then iterate. And keep going until we have a thing that works.

This approach seems to work because people seem to like me and what I do. Although that might also be because I bring biscuits.

Major Tom Meets a Cosmonaut

But most of the time I’ve been thinking about Russian pencils:

At the height of the 60s space race, NASA invested millions in solving the problem of writing in zero gravity with a biro. Russian designers took a simpler approach. They used a pencil.* This why I love design - finding real problems and solving them elegantly.

*Not actually true. But it’s on the internet and makes a good story. And you can buy the NASA pen here - www.fisherspacepen.co.uk