Hiya and cheers for taking the time to look at my site. I'm a web designer (slash) user experience (UX) designer. That basically means I create web sites that better meet user expectations, improving overall look and feel and search engine optimisation (SEO) along the way.
My heart is really stuck in the creative realm but that doesn't just mean pretty pictures to me. Creativity is about problem solving and that's what I do best. Whether it's using the latest greatest technolgy to make a complex idea, simple, or figuring out how best to fit 200 products neatly on one page, I try my best to make sure that my passion for quality comes across in my work.
I also have good leadership qualities and work for a regulated FTSE 100 company. Where I manage to meet the needs of senior stakeholders and the business without having to sell my soul or use naughty or unethical tricks to get people to buy the products we sell.
I've over 7 fun-filled years of experience in digital. Specialising in user centred design, frontend development, usability testing, interviewing, AB/multi-variant testing, creating well thought out information architecture (IA) and interaction design. My experience spans across ecommerce, service and marketing web sites and I've also created the odd online app too.
In short I like to think of myself as a creative, conceptual and strategic person who does very well at balancing technology and design with the needs and goals of a business.
The visual design tools (Adobe Creative Suite, OmniGraffle, Axure, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a pen and a piece of paper) needed to manage the design and development of any web based UX deliverables such as wireframes, sitemaps, prototypes, information architecture and requirement documentation.
Organising, facilitating, and hosting usability testing and qualitative research, expert reviews, focus groups and surveys and reporting back findings to senior stakeholders.
Designing and implementing A/B and Multi-variant tests to improve site conversion or any other measure of success.
Working collaboratively with other design, technology and usability experts as well as business owners to uncover and better understand requirements in the context of the business and what's achievable.
Standards compliant HTML, CSS and JavaScript (and I'm a member of the HTML5 working group).
Using analytics packages such as Webtrends, Site Intelligence and Google Analytics to measure and gain insight into user trends and behaviour.
I currently work on a couple of website with over 3 million registered users and it's exciting working on that kind of scale.
The main roll I play is finding out where users are having problems and fixing them. Now as we all know problems arise in many different guises and they're rarely our fault. Well the same is true for me. Luckily though I don't have to worry too much since I am whizz at coming up with good ideas.
As well as being brilliant on the idea generation front I like to spend time researching. Whether it is through qualitative research like usability studies, or more number crunching based analysis, such as AB test data and good old site analytics. It all helps when it comes to the creation of new designs, content and functionality.
While I take my day job seriously I do also like to ensure I keeping on top of the good stuff and so my creative juices don't dry up I find as many outlets as possible to practice my art. My user experience design blog and general play area is one of them. It's somewhere I can try out new things and I have been known to put a painting or drawing or two there as well. It's nothing fancy but it keeps me occupied.
So you want to say hello? Well don't be shy. Leave me a message.
Want to read my blog? Go to Ctrl Alt and have a look.