CV

I'm an experience designer with over ten years in the industry, known for my thoroughness, care, and humour.

I fight for the users.

With a background in both computing and design, I work closely with product, engineering, business leaders, and other stakeholders to create successful products.

For professional enquiries, you can contact me on LinkedIn and download my abridged CV as a PDF.

Skills

• Product strategy
  Identifying opportunities, aligning with business goals, working in triads with product and engineering
• Research
  Planning, facilitating, and analysing evaluative and generative studies
• Ideation and prototyping
  Workshopping, sketching, Miro, Figma, Axure RP, HTML & CSS
• Experience design
  Information architecture, UX writing, interaction design, and a wee bit of UI design
• Communication and advocation
  Writing, public speaking, facilitating
• Leadership
  Overseeing and supporting other designers, refining team practices

Experience

Associate Principal User Experience Designer: Tools, Rockstar Games

Full time • On-site • February 2024 - Present

Creating and improving software tools used by all game development disciplines in the creation of Rockstar Games projects.

Senior Experience Designer, AnalogFolk

Contract • Remote • November 2023 - December 2024

I was invited back to AF to help Visa improve the navigation of their many B2B websites around the world, helping customers discover products in their huge portfolio.

Senior Experience Designer, People Make

Full time • Hybrid • August 2022 - November 2023

• Embedded in multiple product squads at VEGA, a decentralised trading blockchain, improving experiences from developer documentation to the customer trading console.
• Later switched to start-up mode for People Make’s in-house product, Reno, a bathroom planning app now seeking investment.

Lead Product Designer, TotallyMoney

Full-time • Hybrid • July 2019 - January 2022

• Led design and product thinking across multiple product squads.
• Coached and oversaw the work of other product designers.
• Domain expert for the free credit report.
• Set a vision, titled Atomic Actions, for unifying two longstanding features into one coherent overview of credit issues, focusing on what can be done to improve.
• Led discovery, definition, and design of Credit Assistant, our headline mobile feature.
• Launched our first personalised push notifications.
• Advocated for the creation of a homebrew customer research panel and designed the sign up journey.
• Helped evolve and facilitate team practices like design critiques and research planning, notably establishing weekly customer interviews.
• Documentation champion and nerd, maintaining an industry glossary, design project databases, and templates for team practices.

Senior Experience Designer, AnalogFolk

Full-time • On-site • September 2015 - September 2018

• Worked in close-knit squads with tech, production, data, the clients themselves, and other disciplines.
• Led feature planning, prototyping, and guerrilla testing of Nando’s delivery and collection service, boosting conversions by over 40%.
• Multiple projects for HSBC:
  • Redesigned and oversaw user testing of key journeys in the new customer banking app, from flows to pixel-perfect prototypes.
  • Overhauled the information architecture and data interface of the Global Fund Centre.
  • Researched and wrote mobile interface standards and a design guide for natural language interfaces.
• Led research, user testing with children, and design for Sainsbury’s Story Studio, a stop-motion movie app for iOS and Android used to create tens of thousands of movies on Christmas Day.
• Researched fintech trends to design and build an interactive prototype of future-state mobile banking for Sainsbury’s Bank.
• Worked closely with Dulux to improve key journeys in their custom paint ordering service, Amazing Space Paint, based on detailed analytics and focus group findings.
• Led rapid prototyping training for staff at AXA PPP Healthcare.

Senior User Experience Designer, Cyber-Duck

Full-time • On-site • June 2011 - August 2015

• My first professional design role, where I progressed from Junior to Senior level.
• UX designer and project manager on more than 15 client projects.
• Led the design and usability testing of mydlc, a debt management system, resulting in shorter payment plan setup times, more than double the turnover from the previous solution, and a UX UK award.
• Led the redesign and usability testing of the application process for MYJAR, a short-term loan service, increasing customer satisfaction by 10%.
• Carried out interviews, card sorting sessions, and consulting for Balfour Beatty Construction’s Playbook, a process sharing platform, which was well received by users across the USA.
• Conceived, prototyped, managed, wrote, and edited UX Companion, a user experience glossary app for iOS and Android downloaded more than 50,000 times and chosen as the Best Mobile Campaign at the UK Agency Awards 2015.
• Led a project for Countercept, a managed infosecurity service, where we created a strong new brand, collateral, and an atypical website.

Writing & Speaking

• Dark Times for Dark Patterns: Ethical Alternatives
  A talk at South by South West, March 2016, with Cristina Viganò
• Dark Patterns: A Dangerous Addiction For Brands
  An article for the AnalogFolk blog, March 2016
• Introduction to UX
  A talk at Untangle the Web, October 2014
• Eye Tracking: What it’s for and when to use it
  An article for Usability Geek, August 2014
• 10 guidelines for improving your eye tracking studies
  An article for Usability Geek, August 2013

Awards & Recognition

• Epica Silver Award for Story Studio, 2017
• UK Agency Awards Best Mobile Campaign for UX Companion, 2015
• UX UK Best Transactional Experience Award for mydlc, 2014
• Horizon Interactive Silver Award for the Cyber-Duck responsive website, 2013
• Web Marketing Association Outstanding Website Award for Essex Governor Services, 2012
• Finalist in the Knight-Mozilla News Challenge, 2011
• Best End-to-End Design for Storymaker, Storyteller at the Microsoft Design Expo, 2008

Education

Interactive Media Design BSc (Hons)
(Now known as Digital Interaction Design)
University of Dundee
2006 – 2010