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Role history

I've loved everywhere I've worked — whether agency or in-house cultures.

Co-op

Quite possibly the best team in the North of England! Co-op designers are spread across several business areas. UX/Interaction designers work alongside other digital specialists in teams focusing on funeral care, memberships, design system, etc.

September 2020 - Present

Lead UX Designer

I’m the Coherence team’s Lead Designer, where I: oversee initiatives from discovery to delivery; muck in with UX Research, UX Design and UI design; and mentor other designers.

I help drive coherent and cost-efficient user experiences, across much of the Co-op digital estate. Leveraging the design system, we provide extra layers of best practise, service patterns and reusable journeys.

Responsibilities

Discovery
  • Team roadmapping
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Workshop facilitation
UX Research
  • User research
  • Usability testing
  • Accessibility testing
UX/UI Design
  • Information Architecture
  • Wireframing
  • High-fidelity mock-ups
  • Interactive design protoypes
Community
  • Team engagement exercises
  • Mentoring
  • Design reviews

Reason Digital

The UK’s agency of choice for charity websites, Reason Digital matured into the digital partner for organisations that care, to create digital tools alongside people with lived experience. “Solving problems that actually matter” to create lasting social good.

Joining as a Senior Designer, I went on to head the Design & UX department.

December 2017 - September 2020

Head of Design & UX

I led a team of researchers, designers and artists.

We were purveyors of meaningful, accessible and inclusive digital experiences. With limitless energy, compassion and empathy, we catered for end users in sensitive, challenging situations.

Achievements and initiatives

  • Unification of Strategy and Design teams, into single UX team — including overhaul of delivery process and commercial offer.
  • A user-centric remap of our user stories process — bridging the previous division between PM, UX and QA.

Responsibilities

Team
  • People and capacity management
  • Process and performance management
  • Recruitment
  • DesignOps
Commercial
  • Proposals
  • Pitches
  • Presentations
  • Brand management

August 2016 - December 2017

Senior Designer

As an all-round Digital Designer I was an expert at planning, prototyping, visually crafting and testing.

Working with clients such as BBC Children in Need, University of Manchester and Virgin Care, I regularly interviewed users and stakeholders — conducting workshops and exercises. This approach helped develop exceptional user experiences based on deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, how they think and how they feel.

Achievements and initiatives

  • CMS-controlled, IA planning tool — allowing quick, interactive and ‘no-fidelity’ display of navigation and structure.

Responsibilities

Discovery and UX Research
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Workshop facilitation
  • User research
  • Usability testing
UX/UI Design
  • Information Architecture
  • Wireframing
  • Style tiles / art direction
  • High-fidelity mock-ups
  • Interactive design protoypes

Mashbo

“Build things people use” is the Mashbro mantra. This means everyone in the tightly-knit, small agency helps ensure the right things are built right.

During my tenure, the agency was design-led and focused on websites for wellbeing initiatives, charities, professional services and SMEs.

May 2013 - July 2016

Senior Designer

I ran my own client projects, weaving humble amounts of business development, account management and project management around prominent UX, UI and Front-end Development tasks.

In terms of industry culture, I managed the organisation blog; planning and editing contributions from the team. I also helped plan and market monthly events for creatives and digital specialists.

Outside of this I was part of a team bringing NUX (Northern User Experience) events to Liverpool for the first time.

Responsibilities

Client liaison
  • Project management
  • Stakeholder engagement
UX Design
  • Information Architecture
  • Wireframing
UI Design
  • High-fidelity mock-ups
  • Interactive design protoypes
Front-end Development
  • HTML and CSS (SASS) templates
  • CMS integration