UX Designer

      The intersection of people and technology has always interested me - that's why I started with a Cognitive Science Degree. From there I was a developer for a few years trying to break into the User Experience (UX) field (although the term wasn't coined back then). Finally I found a usability/UI designer role that allowed me to progress my career through all areas of UX.
      When I’ve recruited, I’ve struggled to understand how most people tackle design problems based on their CV, so this site shows examples of how I approach and solve problems, rather than just eye-catching designs. If you're interested in who and what I've done in more detail, head over to the Experience section.

      User Experience (UX) Skills

      UX skills as venn diagram

      I tend to explain UX to people by using a Venn diagram. I believe UX is roughly an amalgamation of 3 broad skill areas: User Research; Interaction Design; and Visual Design.
      For the diagram:Bigger/bolder = I'm more experiencedSmaller/lighter = I have less experience

      Other hats

      I have also developed other “soft skills” that compliment the technical/hard skills. Many are related to UX, but some key skills include:

        Empathy
        leadership-cheer-flag-winner-leader
        Leadership
        71
        Public Speaking
        Facilitation

      Design Approach Example


      Project: 

      Thread

      Company: 

      Cogent

      Client:

      Melbourne Business School

      Role:

      UX Designer

      Problem: How do you rapidly think through a problem under time constraints?

      Unsurprisingly the answer is to iterate.
      Generate lots of ideas at a very basic level, that address both the user and business needs. Choose a few of the best ideas that solve the problem and iterate, progressively adding more detail with each iteration.
      Repeat this a few times until you have a reasonably detailed solution or two, that address the goals and considers constraints.
      If you’re in a group, then I recommend the Design Studio Methodology - which I just happen to have given a presentation on at UX Australia. What a coincidence!
      The below examples are for an article page in a learning management tool. I was exploring how to present the article but also allow for other criteria such as encouraging discussions and following related material.
      I find sketching the fastest method, by far, to explore early ideas. Only once a solution looks promising do I use electronic tools to explore the fine detail.

      Sketch showing broad, fast, low detail, initial ideation

      Broad, fast, low detail, initial ideation

      Sketch that starts to explore the better options in more detail

      Start to explore the better options in more detail

      The best few ideas get more detailed sketches

      The best few ideas get more detailed sketches

      Research Example


      Project:

      Persona creation

      Company:

      Heath Wallace

      Client:

      ANZ

      Role:

      UX Designer / Researcher

      Problem: How do you find patterns in 30+ contextual interviews in order to create personas?

      Find common themes (of behaviours, beliefs, goals or desires) in the interview data and create spectra for each theme. Plot each interviewee on each spectrum. Look for interviewees that frequently appear near each other on most of the spectra and group the interviewees. Use the commonalities of these grouped interviewees to create a persona.
      The images below were taken from a project for ANZ to better understand their personal and small business users. We travelled around Melbourne and conducted phone interviews for regional areas. We conducted over 30 interviews and generated hundreds, if not over a thousand data points. From the interview notes we extracted roughly 20 differentiators that we could use as spectra, e.g. technology use, financial discipline, personal involvement in finances, etc.
      We then plotted each interview on the spectra. This allowed an easy visual for finding interviewees that matched on several spectra. We then grouped these interviewees and reviewed their interview notes to find more commonalities. Using these common data points, we constructed 5 personas.
      Rather than just handing the personas over to ANZ as is usually done in agency land, we had an interactive session where ANZ staff really got to know the personas. We had several tasks that required the ANZ staff to actively participate, thus cementing their knowledge of the personas. For example we used a few spectra from our research and asked staff to mark where each persona would be on that scale, based purely on the information in the persona. This was wildly successful and feedback was overwhelmingly positive. I endeavour to deliver all personas this way now.

      1 of 3 spectrum pages used to plot interviewees

      1 of 3 spectra pages used to plot interviewees

      The 1st (of 4) pages of a perona

      The 1st (of 4) pages of a persona

      UI Design Example


      Project:

      Real time "On Time Performance" information

      Company:

      4impact

      Client:

      Virgin Australia

      Role:

      UX/UI Designer

      Problem: How do you design web application UIs across multiple devices?

      With responsive design techniques like grids of course. While grids do make it much easier to adapt designs to various screen sizes, they are only one piece of the puzzle. Thought must also be given to the context of use of the device, feature sets, content, touch vs mouse interaction, just to name a few. But grids are a good start.
      The below designs are from a project with Virgin Australia to show the on time performance of their fleet, broken down by different attributes (airport, aircraft type, etc.). These numbers are vital to management as fines apply if aircraft are late taking off or landing. This data allows them to see such things as fog causing groundings in the morning (major knock on effects) or an aircraft breakdown.
      Prior to our involvement, this information ran on a developers local computer and could only be accessed via IE6 on a desktop. More than once a cleaner had unplugged the computer and blinded the company the next morning (true story!).
      I designed the system to be modular and on a grid so that management could check it first thing on their mobile phones but also on their laptops during the day. Some components could even be used on TV screens in their operations room.
      Virgin Australia's digital visual style guide was not designed for web applications at the time so I needed to modify their system and creatively apply it so that the information was displayed clearly and on brand.

      Desktop version of the OTP interface

      Desktop version of the OTP interface

      Mobile version of the OTP interface

      Mobile version of the OTP interface

      Mobile version of the OTP interface

      Grids at different breakpoints

      Want to get in touch?

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