UX project experience

After undertaking discovery and insight activities I lead the design aspects for the redesign of all 4 online legal research platforms (in the fields of arbitration, IP law, competition law & international tax law) into modern, brand compliant responsive solutions. I provided oversight of the production phase including the creation of functional specifications, prioritisation, and driving development, as well as ongoing customer feedback and refinement.

During the early stages of the above mentioned project I prepared and delivered an onsite training which I titled 'Capturing & leveraging user insight for the creation of market leading products'. This was a one day training program delivered twice to a wide ranging audience in terms of seniority and business function.

Following this and after conducting deep user research I lead the conceptualisation and design of a new product in the international tax space that offers a unique approach to research by way of an eco-system of easy to find, review and compare insights along with onward journeys into deeper content as required.

Next (after leading market research including on-site workshops with legal practitioners), I lead design activities in taking the leading product to the next level through the creation of a new suite of practical tools focused on combining quick insights with deeper analysis and so providing an end to end research solution.

Finally I partnered with an external consultancy and business/content stakeholders to re-imagine Kluwer’s online journal, manuals and encyclopaedias platform including the design of a new e-commerce function.

Across the entire period I was also involved in investigating and supporting on collaborative initiatives with 3rd party firms in the IP, arbitration and competition law space.

Apart from ad hoc trips to the London office and the head office in the Netherlands, and also customer interviews/workshops, the majority of this work was conducted remotely from home.

Sample

Arbitration law research platform (please note that I designed the logged in experience and not the landing page you will arrive on but hopefully this gives you an idea of the kind of product it is).

Sole UX designer for a responsive website design project for a newly formed organisation set to play a leading role in US health care space. Key areas of responsibility/focus:

1. Creation of responsive wireframes for core aspects of the new website (home/hub/landing pages etc)
2. UX design of responsive navigation
3. Ensure user/usability focused considerations were factored in alongside new branding principles

Sample

View the new site which has now gone live.

Senior UX designer on a responsive website re-design project in the personal finance space. Project included regular client review meetings. Key areas of responsibility/focus:

1. Preserve and enhance core user journeys
2. Regular collaboration with visual design, tech and content team colleagues
3. Production of responsive designs with an emphasis on providing engagement and conversion via a conversational design approach
4. Production of both sketched and digital wireframes and eventually detailed design specifications to facilitate CMS build by remote tech team

Deliverables: workshop preparation was in the form of sketched interfaces representing 2 product selection journey options. Post-workshop design documentation was produced as digital wireframes.

Sample

View the re-designed site which has now gone live

Preparation for and participation in a workshop with a client in the F1 motor racing sector followed by the production of a UX guidelines document containing wireframes for responsive desktop and mobile pages including:

1. Browse & select within product catalogue
2. Product detail
3. Product comparison

Deliverables: workshop preparation was in the form of sketched interfaces representing 2 product selection journey options. Post-workshop design documentation was produced as digital wireframes.

Sample

View the re-designed site which has now gone live

Responsive UX design work on 3 projects for a well known car manufacturer for their Asian and European markets. The work involved user journey analysis and optimisation as well as the resulting wireframes for the following:

1. Re-design of core form based user journeys (e.g. book a test drive)
2. Re-design of a 'How to' help section providing access to videos and documents
3. Pitch work on a 'Find your ideal car' configurator concept.

Lead onsite client workshop and UX design activities (sitemaps, collaborative sketching, wireframes, user testing) for the redesign and amalgamation of the 2 core RAF recruitment websites (Regulars & Reserves) into one streamlined responsive entity.

Samples

View the re-designed site which has now gone live

Site maps and wireframes (responsive design) for the redesign of 2 websites for the Government of Gibraltar.

Samples

Responsive wireframes (mobile, tablet, desktop) (PDF: 259 KB).
View the re-designed site which has now gone live

Wide ranging UX design activities for multiple clients, projects and devices including:

Energy sector

• Multi-device type designs for an online Smart Meter installation booking tool for B2C customers.
• Design updates (responsive) to the B2C section of main website to incorporate new consumer focused information display regulations.  
• Review and recommendations for improvement of the information architecture of the client?s UK website.
• Recommendations for re-work of 6 core B2C user journeys for the main UK website (including onsite client presentation).
• Design of a responsive design solution for a new product type (including responsive tables).
• Brain storming and initial concepts for a redesign of the main B2C online account management home page.

Pharmaceutical sector

• Production of wireframes (responsive design) for a new section of an existing website to provide nurses with key information relating to a new drug.
• UX design input into the creation of (responsive) product focused info-graphics.
• UX benchmarking project to measure & compare 14 distinct online offerings to help the client understand their current competitive position plus areas of opportunity in their sector. 
• UX audit of a clients? catalogue of 20 websites to give them improvement requirements insight.

Car rentals sector

UX design input by way of collaborative sketching with visual design team members of new (responsive) car hire booking interfaces.

Retail banking sector

Responsive redesign of the corporate website for a major high street bank including focused efforts on mobile navigation design to support a deep (legacy) information hierarchy.

View the re-designed corporate site (retail banking sector) which has now gone live.

Blackberry Facebook campaign (desktop & mobile) Deliverables: user journeys & wireframes.

Responsible for the selection, design and implemention of a responsive CMS based website (Wordpress) to ensure that the club management can manage the content themselves and that the website reflects the brand and presents favourably on desktop, tablet and mobile devices.

UX design leadership (research/design/production) as well as Product Owner responsibilities for a start-up in the sustainability sector (waste & recycling commodities)

1. Design of mobile trading and chat app
2. Inclusion of 3rd party ID verification
3. Remote usability testing
4. Design of web based subscription flow and online marketplace with app integration
5. Refinement and extension of app design
6. Creation of specifications for development plus sprint management
7. Design of initial marketing website

Design samples

View examples on my portfolio

Collaboration with the founder on the design of a mobile app (web, Android & iOS versions) to allow a private transport provider to provide the ticketing function to travelling customers via their mobile phones.

Samples

Initial designs for the iOS version on Invision
iOS app version (PDF: 317 KB).
Android app version (PDF: 424 KB).

UX design of several key aspects of a sports related native Android app being produced for the global audience of a key client including:

1. On-boarding tutorial
2. Prizes/rewards section
3. Home screen dashboard

Deliverables: combination of sketched and digital wireframes following collaborative white board sessions with Creative and Tech leads.

Engaged to lead the UX design aspects for the creation of a ground breaking new omni-channel mobile phone app (offering online and in-store experiences) for a major phone retailer created to enhance customer engagement / loyalty during the duration their phone contracts.

My focus was on selection (following collaboration with internal stakeholders) of a comprehensive feature set that would provide high levels of utility and engagement, design the app stucture (IA) as well as the mobile interfaces (created as wireframes using Axure).

Online consultation via Skype to discuss ways to help make an already successful mobile/tablet app (www.quizup.com) even more effective from a UX perspective.

Working with the founder on conceptualising and designing a tablet and mobile phone based ecommerce apps to facilitate superior levels of customer experience for global fashion retail customers.

Samples

Mobile and tablet designs (PDF: 726 KB).

UX design leadership (research/design/production) as well as Product Owner responsibilities for a start-up in the sustainability sector (waste & recycling commodities)

1. Design of mobile trading and chat app
2. Inclusion of 3rd party ID verification
3. Remote usability testing
4. Design of web based subscription flow and online marketplace with app integration
5. Refinement and extension of app design
6. Creation of specifications for development plus sprint management
7. Design of initial marketing website

Design samples

View examples on my portfolio

Online consultations via Skype and the production of site map and wireframes for a new peer to peer lending comparison website (www.4thway.co.uk)

Online consultation via Skype to discuss ways to help make an already successful mobile/tablet app (www.quizup.com) even more effective from a UX perspective.

Working with the founder on conceptualising and designing a tablet and mobile phone based ecommerce apps to facilitate superior levels of customer experience for global fashion retail customers.

Samples

Mobile and tablet designs (PDF: 726 KB).

Production of 7 personas, user journeys and a sitemap for a forthcoming global commemorative campaign website. Also directed supporting research resource to ensure persona authenticity.

Dr Foster intelligence (DFI) is the UK?s leading provider of online informatics to the NHS (and other health based organisations). They are more famously known for their annual hospital guide which shines a light on the clinical performance of the nation?s NHS hospital trusts.

My role involved leading on all design related aspects for the following B2B focused projects:

1. Redesign of the company?s flagship ?quality of care? informatics tool - full UCD project life cycle starting with detailed discovery phase including user needs analysis (based on face to face customer meetings), online survey, quantitative & competitor analysis. Regular (bi-weekly) deliverables included UX specification documentation comprised of sitemap, core user journey flows, and annotated visual designs for all aspects of the new tool. Conducted 2 rounds of usability testing/customer feedback with accompanying summary report including future design roadmap recommendations.
2. Design (UX & visual) of a clinical performance dashboard enabling hospitals to get an at a glance view of their clinical performance in terms of quality of care, efficiency and market Share:. This dashboard is now used by many NHS hospital trusts.
3. Internally focused discovery phase for the re-imagining of DFI?s clinical efficiency informatics tool. Senior stakeholder interviews as well as analysis of current tool usage culminated in the delivery of a summary report.
4. Customer insight phase to help determine the best approach for an online informatics tool aimed at the new clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). Involved customer interviews, recommendations and first draft dashboard design.

Summary

Lead design resource on a project to move a CRM onto a new technical platform whilst enhancing the usability and general user experience. The project involved an initial research phase (quantitative and qualitative) followed by a cautious, tactical approach to ensure that there was zero training requirement for a sizable global user base who needed to be able to instantly adapt to the new application without any negative impact in terms of their ability to quickly achieve system based tasks.

Summary

UX design of an online directory of credit card merchants to provide those merchants with a place to promote their product, services, and offers, to a receptive audience of card holders who would in turn have access to a wide range of offers and discounts combined with other financial incentives.

Methodology

Following a number of meetings and workshops with the credit card company's 3rd party technical development partner, I created clickable wireframes (using Axure) to support the 2 core user journeys as well as 2 key merchant registration journeys.

Following input from the preferred 3rd party user testing company I produced the clickable wireframes in such a way that they were ready for user testing. Considerable time and effort was taken to ensure that all likely user flows were accomodated.

Collaborated with 2 other agencies who were responsible for the visual design and database design aspects of the project.

Highlights

Used advanced Axure functionality to build in working AJAX style functionality into the prototype allowing a richer experience to be designed and tested during the user testing phase.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including user journeys and corresponding clickable wireframes (prototype).

Samples

For reasons of confidentiality no samples of this work can be made available.

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Dare Digital Ltd, 13-14 Margaret Street London, W1W 8RN.

Recommendation/endorsement for this project:

"Anthony has a wealth of knowledge that allows him to have a true undertstanding of what it means to create a successful online experience. He can be trusted with confidence to take ownership of a projects large and small and deliver them to an incredibly high standard."

Mark Bell, Head of IA, Dare Digital Ltd

Live site URL

Site accessible to registered customers only.

Summary

The UX design of a promotional landing page for a newly released business phone - the HTC Touch Pro 2. The page was designed to provide an engaging interactive experience to encourage a high level of uptake by consumers.

The page also needed to factor in strategic input from a 3rd party SEO company.

Highlights

Designed an engaging interactive demo with an emphasis on usability to help to ensure that consumers would quickly become familiar with the phone's most enticing features.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document comprised of page level and demo focused wireframes.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 120 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Dare Digital Ltd, 13-14 Margaret Street London, W1W 8RN.

Recommendation/endorsement for this project:

"Anthony has a wealth of knowledge that allows him to have a true undertstanding of what it means to create a successful online experience. He can be trusted with confidence to take ownership of a projects large and small and deliver them to an incredibly high standard."

Mark Bell, Head of IA, Dare Digital Ltd

Live site URL

Site still in design & development stage at the time of writing.

Summary

This ground breaking site will sit within the framework of Sonyericsson.com. As a sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Sony Ericsson are keen to provide world cup fans from around the world with a single source of World Cup related information, games, competitions, videos, applications etc (effectively bringing the World Cup to fans and allowing them to show support for their team no matter where they are in the world).

The site will continually evolve from initial launch in the summer of 2009 where it will focus on pre-qualification related content, moving on to content relating to qualification and then the draw, and culminating with features, functionality and other content to run in conjunction with the live tournament in the summer of 2010.

Highlights

Produced a range of international personas to help define the most relevant features and functionality for the core user types. Then produced documented user journeys for several personas to demonstrate the UX design thinking to the client.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including personas, user journies, wireframes.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 320 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Dare Digital Ltd, 13-14 Margaret Street London, W1W 8RN.

Recommendation/endorsement for this project:

"Anthony has a wealth of knowledge that allows him to have a true undertstanding of what it means to create a successful online experience. He can be trusted with confidence to take ownership of a projects large and small and deliver them to an incredibly high standard."

Mark Bell, Head of IA, Dare Digital Ltd

Live site URL

Site still in design & development stage at the time of writing.

Summary

Responsible for a key element of the re-design of Sonyericsson.com - the local country home page. This page template serves as the entry point to Sonyericsson.com's regional/country sites and therefore needed to be flexible enough to accommodate the varying volumes and types of content that each local market would require.

It was important that the new local home page design presented Sony Ericsson's core product and services offering in an engaging and easy to interpret manner at the same time as reflecting the innovative and fun loving themes within the Sony Ericsson brand.

Also produced bespoke user insight documentation which was based on detailed 3rd party consumer analysis and profiling, this culminated in the production of detailed user journeys to help inform the UX design thinking, particularly in relation to the location, selection, and purchase of phones, accessories and applications.

A final aspect of this work was to input into the proposed new site map and produce the relevant site map related documentation.

Highlights

Quickly achieved a suitable UX design for this page that addresed all key business and user requirements. This work was signed off by Sony Ericsson with limited IA related amendments required.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including personas, user journies, site maps, wireframes.

Samples

For reasons of confidentiality a sample of this work will only be available once the re-designed site has gone live.

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Dare Digital Ltd, 13-14 Margaret Street London, W1W 8RN.

Recommendation/endorsement for this project:

"Anthony has a wealth of knowledge that allows him to have a true undertstanding of what it means to create a successful online experience. He can be trusted with confidence to take ownership of a projects large and small and deliver them to an incredibly high standard."

Mark Bell, Head of IA, Dare Digital Ltd

Live site URL

Site still in design & development stage at the time of writing.

Summary

The creation of a community based website (Sony Ericsson 'Playground') to bring independent mobile phone application developers and consumers together. The site facilitates interaction between the 2 groups by encouraging users to propose ideas and requirements that developers can then translate into mobile apps. Ideas and apps can be commented on and rated by the online community, and successful apps will be made available for sale on the site.

Highlights

Following an analysis of successful sites of a similar nature the creative concepts were very quickly converted into wireframed user journeys which provided a solid base for discussion and futher UX design work.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including personas, user journies, wireframes.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 160 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Dare Digital Ltd, 13-14 Margaret Street London, W1W 8RN.

Recommendation/endorsement for this project:

"Anthony has a wealth of knowledge that allows him to have a true undertstanding of what it means to create a successful online experience. He can be trusted with confidence to take ownership of a projects large and small and deliver them to an incredibly high standard."

Mark Bell, Head of IA, Dare Digital Ltd

Live site URL

Site still in design & development stage at the time of writing.

Summary

The creation of a new section within the main UK website to allow the bank to promote a range of "recession friendly" products and services to a highly wary consumer market place.

The proposed solution included both industry expert and consumer testimonial videos and was designed in such way as to conform to the bank's new page template layout.

Highlights

This new site section was backed up by a national TV and print advertising campaign.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including user journies, site map, wireframes.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 120 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Dare Digital Ltd, 13-14 Margaret Street London, W1W 8RN.

Recommendation/endorsement for this project:

"Anthony has a wealth of knowledge that allows him to have a true undertstanding of what it means to create a successful online experience. He can be trusted with confidence to take ownership of a projects large and small and deliver them to an incredibly high standard."

Mark Bell, Head of IA, Dare Digital Ltd

Live site URL

This section of the website has since been updated and so does not fully reflect the original design work.

Summary

This complex, challenging project involved the design and build of a health portal that enables users to complete a number of health related tasks online:

Project objectives:

• Allow customers to find out about and the conduct an online health assessment
• Find out about full physical health assessments
• Find out about a new state of the art Wellness centre
• Book and pay online for full health assessments at the new Wellness centre
• Manage certain aspects of their health online
• Find out about and purchase relevant 3rd party health programs
• Provide the option to complete a detailed pre-assessment questionaire online

The methodology for this project was to base the solution on documentation produced by a Business Analyst, and then ensure that both business and user needs were met whilst proposing a feasible solution taking into account the in-house and 3rd party technical platforms.

The project required much time liaising with relevant members of the project team to ensure that it was be successfully developed in time for a forthcoming advertising campaign.

Highlights

This site was backed up by a national TV and print advertising campaign.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including personas, user journies, site maps, wireframes.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 335 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Think ltd, 85 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 4TQ

Recommendation/endorsement for this project:

"Anthony provided us an excellent service in delivering two high profile Web projects for BUPA as a key part of the TH_NK design team. His engagement and facilitation skills on top of his innovative, dedicated and professional approach to his work and profession ensured we delivered great value to the client. I would recommend Anthony to anyone who is looking for leadership in the field of Information Architecture and Experience Design."

Rob Hudson, Director of Operations, Think Ltd

Live site URL

www.bupa.co.uk/wellnessprogramme

Summary

This project involved the re-design of Bupa's .com and .co.uk websites, as well as initial design planning for several overseas sites.

Project objectives:

• Redesign Bupa.com including it's country selector tool
• Redesign the majority of Bupa.co.uk including the sections owned by it's core business units
• Redesign of Bupa's Health Information Portal which is the home of Bupa's health fact sheets
• Design the solution so that the majority of sections can be built into new CMS templates

The methodology for the redesign of Bupa.co.uk (the largest element of the project) was to conduct 3 sets of 2 workshops covering Bupas' UK Health Insurance, Care Services, and Health Information business divisions. The workshops focused on identifying and exploring business goals and objectives as well as the collaborative creation of personas and key user journeys to inform the user centred design process.

Because of the depth and complexity of Bupa's UK website, I defined a range of project 'page types' as a first step towards CMS template definition, and produced detailed section site maps proposing a specific 'page type' for every page which fell within the project's scope.

Highlights

Following workshops and detailed discussions with Bupa UK's B2B team, I proposed a fundamental shift in the structure of Bupa's UK website to seperate the B2B business unit's content from the B2C content so that the 2 business units can more easily present their web propositions in a more impactful, engaging, and user centric manner. This approach was accepted as major improvement by all Bupa stakeholders.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including personas, user journies, detailed section site maps, CMS based 'page types', wireframes.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 225 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Think ltd, 85 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 4TQ

Recommendation/endorsement for this project:

"Anthony provided us an excellent service in delivering two high profile Web projects for BUPA as a key part of the TH_NK design team. His engagement and facilitation skills on top of his innovative, dedicated and professional approach to his work and profession ensured we delivered great value to the client. I would recommend Anthony to anyone who is looking for leadership in the field of Information Architecture and Experience Design."

Rob Hudson, Director of Operations, Think Ltd

Live site URL

Project still in development stage.

Summary

Design and development of a website to allow staff within retail outlets and call centres to learn about, answer questions on, and in some cases sell, LG's rapidly expanding range of mobile phones. This work included the design of a 3D demo and also an online phone simulator (allowing users to learn how to use complex aspects of the phone).

Highlights

I linked the phone specific FAQs section questions to the "How do I?" phone simulator section where the answers to common questions were provided by way of an interactive simulator application.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including personas, user journies, site map, wireframes.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 105 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Publicis Modem, 82 Baker Street, London W1U 6AE.

Recommendation/endorsement for this project:

"Anthony is a genuinely nice guy who is always happy to help. Abrs have been lucky enough to have had Anthony represented us at 4 different clients over the last couple of years ? The feedback has always been excellent. He is expert in his field and I would have no hesitation is recommending him.?

Jordan Norris, now Head of Digital, Connections Recruitment Ltd

Summary

Design and development of a community based website to allow LG to promote the photo taking and sharing capabilities of their phones. The essence of the site is that users upload media for display/comment/rating by the community of registered users, and each month the owners of the most popular images (the ones that make the community smile the most) are rewarded.

Highlights

2 rounds of focus groups provided useful insight and helped to fuel an increased level of creativity during the initial design phase. I provided a significant amout of the creative planning for this site.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including site map and wireframes.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 115 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Publicis Modem, 82 Baker Street, London W1U 6AE.

Recommendation/endorsement for this project:

"Anthony is a genuinely nice guy who is always happy to help. Abrs have been lucky enough to have had Anthony represented us at 4 different clients over the last couple of years ? The feedback has always been excellent. He is expert in his field and I would have no hesitation is recommending him.?

Jordan Norris, now Head of Digital, Connections Recruitment Ltd

Summary

Re-design of a section of the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) website which details the Early Years Professional Status (EYPS) program. The program focuses on improving the standard of teaching and care given to children under 5 in the UK and the redesign was driven by the need to increase awareness and participation in the program.

Highlights

Implemented an idea (which originated within the creative team) which involved using videos of interviews with recent graduates of the EYPS program to introduce and explain the benefits of participation. Strategically applied the videos so that users of the website could utilise these successful students as 'buddies' in the sense that they could initiate ongoing communication with them to help them during the program discovery stage and encourage them to participate.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including personas, user journies, site map and wireframes.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 85 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Publicis Modem, 82 Baker Street, London W1U 6AE.

Recommendation/endorsement for this project:

"Anthony is a genuinely nice guy who is always happy to help. Abrs have been lucky enough to have had Anthony represented us at 4 different clients over the last couple of years ? The feedback has always been excellent. He is expert in his field and I would have no hesitation is recommending him.?

Jordan Norris, now Head of Digital, Connections Recruitment Ltd

Summary

The purpose of this project was to help Sophos get a good understanding of how a large scale redesign of their partner portal website could best serve their global network of partners as well as Sophos' internal sales and marketing departments.

My role was to set up and conduct a series of face to face and telephone interviews with 18 project contributors from the UK, Spain, Greece, Holland and North America. The findings from these interviews were then coverted into a detailed report including the creation of 6 personas with key user journies.

Highlights

This was the first time that I had worked on a project with such a wide range of international input and I found the discovery of the different levels of web saviness and dependance of each country highly enlightening. The creation of a set of international personas that incorporated these characteristics was a very rewarding excercise bringing my skills and experience of this element of user centred design to the next level.

Deliverables

Requirements analysis report document includng 6 personas with key user journies for each.

Samples

Spanish persona with key user journies (PDF: 60 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Conchango, 36 Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 9EU.

Summary

The purpose of this project was to improve the usability of the credit card country selection process which is a key part of Virgin Atlantic's book and pay process. The objective was to move the standard behaviour away from a single column drop down list which represented poor usability as a result of excessive scrolling required.

I presented 3 alternative design solutions to Virgin, and then agreed to work one option through to completion following some refinement work.

Highlights

Designing a much more usable country selection method and then working with the lead developer to ensure that an accessilble solution is implemented (so that users accessing the site via non-javascript enabled browsers could also experience an improved user experience).

Deliverables

User experience specification with wireframes detailing the 3 suggested design solutions.

Samples

Credit card billing country selection solution sample (PDF: 60 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Conchango, 36 Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 9EU.

Summary

The purpose of this project was to improve the usability of Vigin Atlantic's internal booking management system.

The work began by absorbing the requirements specification that had been prepared by a Virgin Atlantic Business Analyst. This document detailed the system interactions that needed to be improved. The project team then met on the client site to discuss the project requirements in detail. Following this I prepared a User Experience specification document which set out a design solution. This document was then presented to the project team and the solution was agreed pending some final refinements.

Highlights

During the project several key elements of the BA's recommendations stood out to me as needing reconsideration. Following discussions with the project team my recommended approach was accepted by all parties and the solution moved forward on that basis.

Deliverables

User experience specification with wireframes detailing the design solution.

Samples

Booking management system enhancements samples (PDF: 60 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Conchango, 36 Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 9EU.

Summary

The purpose of this project was to redesign the credit card company's comsumer facing online account management website to provide a richer more engaging user experience.

Business Analysts fed into the initial design thinking with key business requirements. It was then up to us (a team of 3 UX Architects) to work on designing the structure and interfaces that formed the basis of the solution. Efforts were made to design in some cutting edge features to help move the site forward conceptually. During this process it was important to ensure that the proposed site maintained a high level of usability.

Highlights

Good solid introduction to the Agile (Scrum) project methodology. We were also lucky enough to work with a talented visual designer who (like me) is able to blend knowledge of both the UX and Visual design. This synergy had a very positive impact on the overall quality of the resulting web pages.

Deliverables

Wireframes for designated sections of the site.

Samples

Credit card company online account management sample (PDF: 95 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Conchango, 36 Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 9EU.

Summary

Focused on the mapping out some of the key design solutions for inclusion in a large tender response for the redesign of the NHS Choices website.

One important aspect of this work was to analyse a range of personas and associated user journies, and use this analysis to produce a 2 page site map that would serve as a platform for the overall design.

Highlights

Great experience of blue sky, collaborative design thinking on a multi-million pound tender response.

Deliverables

Wireframes and site map.

Samples

NHS Choices tender response site map sample (PDF: 50 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with The Team, 11 Southwark Street, London SE1 1RQ, United Kingdom.

Summary

Design of a website to enable the British Army to provide online teaching resources to schools and colleges. The site provides password protected access to school curriculum based learning resources for teachers.

The site will include a searchable database providing access to interactive content as well as content that can be downloaded and utilised offline if required.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including site map and wireframes.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 90 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Publicis Dialog, 82 Baker Street, London W1U 6AE.

Summary

Design of an intranet to help Army Career Advisors in their day to day activities. Developed using Microsoft Office Share:point Server 2007 (MOSS), the site provides access to a range of resources via a searchable repository split into 4 file categories (images, presentations, documents, movies). The files will mainly be used during the production of presentations and other marketing collateral.

The intranet also provides community aspects such as forums and message boards to encourage the exchange of information between career advisors.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including user requirements, site map and wireframes.

Samples

Sample page from the UX specification document (PDF: 50 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Publicis Dialog, 82 Baker Street, London W1U 6AE.

Creation of a ground breaking community based website to be supported by BBC TV programming. This project is unique in that is the website that is supported by a TV show rather than the other way around.

The site is brought to life by user generated content, mainly in the form of pre-recorded video, images, blogs, and comments. The focal point of the competition is the site's home page which accommodates live video streaming, voting and rating.

Supported the project from initial concept through to launch including a period working closely with client side developers to help implement a customised version of the 3rd party web 2.0 platform. I was also involved (along with the rest of the design team) in an intensive pre-launch testing phase.

Highlights

A key challenge for this project was to optimise the overall user experience of the site so that a sufficiently large community of members could be attracted and registered in order to sustain the show (i.e. voting/rating/user generating content etc) which had a lifespan of only 8 weeks. This was achieved with over 10,000 members registered during this short time period from a standing start.

Single handedly set up, moderated, managed and filmed on-site usability testing including the design and production of a clickable proto-type, creation of user tasks and moderators guide, and implementation of resulting design updates.

Wireframing included many complex features and functionality such as a range of video players, a voting module, a rating module, a profile page, and an account management section. The variety of interface and interaction design work required served as a platform from which to extend my UX design skills within these areas.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including personas, site maps, and wireframes.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 50 KB).

Project production company

For this project I was freelancing with Endemol UK, Shepherds Studios ? Central, Charecroft Way, Shepherds Bush London, W14 0EE

Summary

Part of a team of 5 who travelled to Stan James' head office in Gibraltar to conduct a 2 day scoping exercise with the aim of exploring site re-design strategies.

The workshops involved group exercises which aimed to identify the core user types and explore new features and functionality that would have the biggest impact. The workshops included:

• critical analysis of current site
• competitor analysis
• identification and prioritisation of major opportunities
• exploration and definition of core user types
• analysis of user journey life cycles

Highlights

With Stan James' detailed input during the workshops I was able to produce 5 robust personas that can be used with confidence as the basis for future design planning.

Deliverables

Following the workshops I produced a report detailing suggested high level site redesign recommendations based on core user needs and other workshop inputs.

Samples

The project report is confidential (as it contains information that is yet to be implemented).

Project production company

For this project I was freelancing with Endemol UK, Shepherds Studios ? Central, Charecroft Way, Shepherds Bush London, W14 0EE

Summary

Redesign of online mortgage, budget and loan calculator tools for a consumer facing FSA website.

The main driver for the project was to re-design these tools so that they could be syndicated to other websites and so I redesigned them to render at a fixed dimension, separate from the design structure of their host site. Usability/interaction enhancements were made to the tools where possible.

Deliverables

A wireframe for each of the 3 calculator tools.

Samples

Sample wireframe (PDF: 125 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Publicis Dialog, 82 Baker Street, London W1U 6AE.

Summary

This project involved the design of an extranet for the British Army. The application is built using a customised implementation of Microsoft Office Share:point Server (MOSS) 2007 to allow the Army and some of it's marketing service providers to Share: files and participate in an online document workflow during the production of campaign materials.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including site map and wireframes.

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Publicis Dialog, 82 Baker Street, London W1U 6AE.

Summary

Design of the Autumn 07 campaign website for New Look. This was a Flash based site that included a complex clothes selection 'look book' application that would allow the user to combine New Look clothes to create the ideal outfit online and then enter it into a competition.

Highlights

Creation of a usable interface for the 'look book' by splitting the page into 3 independently functioning slices.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including site maps and wireframes.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 50 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Publicis Dialog, 82 Baker Street, London W1U 6AE.

Summary

This project involved the redesign of a community based website for Ford Motor Company Ltd.

The site includes UGC content particularly in the form of online discussions hosted by well known football personalities, as well as videos, surveys, and competitions etc.

Deliverables

Delivered a user experience specification document which includes site map, wireframes, accessibility guidelines, supported browsers, required browser plugins, preferred screen resolutions, and maximum page weight.

Samples

Sample pages from the UX specification document (PDF: 50 KB).

Live site URL

www.feelfootball.com

Summary

Redesign of a European B2B website for Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. The site is one of the main tools used to promote Samsung's range of business products to it's 4 key European markets.

The focus of the redesign was to enhanced site's usability overall including it's navigation structure.

Deliverables

User Experience specification document including site map, wireframes, accessibility guidelines, supported browsers, required browser plugins, preferred screen resolutions, and maximum page weight.

Samples

Sample page from the UX specification document (PDF: 35 KB).

Digital design agency

For this project I was freelancing with Wunderman, Greater London House, Hampstead Road, London, NW1 7QP

Live site URL

www.samsung-europe.com

Summary

This project, which ran in tandem with the redesign of the 'Research funds and Share:s' section of Fidelity's UK website, was centred around redesigning the companies' fund search and selection tool - Fund Finder. This application is used by clients to choose investment funds from a range of over 1000 available through Fidelity's fund supermarket.

The objective was to make this critical tool more usable to Fidelity's online client base. To achieve the desired user experience for novice, average and advanced users, major steps forward in the tool's usability, visual design, search filters, results page layout, and technical functionality were implemented.

Responsibilities and tasks

• Meet with business stakeholders to ensure that their objectives and requirements were considered at the project planning stage
• Work with one key business representative to ensure that her vision was implemented in a way that would work online from a usability perspective
• Create wireframes, site map, and a content matrix
• Propose a robust information architecture that supports user information finding needs
• Identify site usability problems and propose and implement solutions to address them
• Produce visual designs for consideration to help solve usability issues identified
• Work to ensure that a new 'user profiles' concept is added to the application in a user centric manner
• Provide input regarding the labelling of key navigation and search controls
• Request special search features be added to the solution to cater for senior management's requirement for a 'best seller' ranking option
• Write copy where required
• Liase with 3rd party supplier to ensure that more complex pages were designed with an acceptable level of usability
• Ensure that 3rd party AJAX solutions were developed in an accessible manner
• Ensure all relevent search filters were in place and functioning in the correct manner
• Ensure that the new application fitted seamlessly into the information architecture of the newly designed 'Research funds and Share:s' section of Fidelity's UK website
• Liase with the 3rd party provider of the fund factsheets to ensure that their web pages fitted in with the new Fund Finder tool from a design and technological point of view
• Work with the technical team to ensure that the new tool worked with Fidelity's existing shopping basket functionality
• Ensure that all user journies were concluded in the most effective manner
• Be part of a team conducting 2 rounds of user testing of the proposed solution in 3rd party usability labs.
• Analyse the results from user testing and make adjustmentments to the solution where required

Project result

The resulting fund search and selection tool has made it much easier for both experienced and inexperienced investors to research and select funds for investment.

The inclusion of investor profiles is thought to be a first in the investment world, and the AJAX powered functionality has been a major benefit for the more advanced user.

Digital design agency

For this project I was contracted to Fidelity directly via a recruitment agency

Live site URL

redesigned Fund Finder tool can be viewed at Fidelity International's UK website.

Summary

The purpose of this project, which ran in tandem with the redesign of Fidelity's Fund Finder tool, was to redesign the fund research and selection section of Fidelity's UK website.

The key objective was to merge two existing sections into one, whilst applying newly designed content management system (CMS) page templates.

Also important was to apply a new left hand navigation, greatly reduce page count, implement a more robust information architecture, enhance the usability of the pages and section as a whole, and accommodate the redesigned and extended fund research and selection tool.

Responsibilities and tasks

• Audit and log existing site content
• Meet with business stakeholders to ensure that their objectives and requirements are considered during the project planning stage
• Meet with key business personnel and phone team members to gather information and marketing data about the user base
• Create and utilise user scenarios (personas) based on in-depth research carried out on Fidelity's client base
• Convertion of persona requirements into user tasks, and then on to proposed pages to satisfy user needs
• Propose a robust information architecture, condensing 2 sections into one whilst supporting user information finding needs
• Be part of a team conducting 2 rounds of user testing of the proposed solution in 3rd party usability labs
• Collate feedback from usability testing, make recommendations, update proposed IA accordingly
• Produce visual designs for consideration to help solve usability issues identified
• Produce site map, wireframes, and content matrix
• Choose the most relevant CMS templates and template modules from the options available
• Provide input regarding the labeling of key navigation options
• Ensure that the redesigned Fund Finder application fits seamlessly into the information architecture of the new section
• Request and oversee the development of refinements to template modules
• Ensure that all user journeys are concluded in the most effective manner
• Consolidate page numbers so that they could be brought down to a more manageable level
• Remove duplicated or excessive content so that the new, more user centric navigation, could support the new section
• Test the functionality of the new CMS templates and request improvements/enhancements from technical teams
• Work with the technical team to ensure that problems relating to the use of iframes in the new CMS templates were overcome in the best possible manner
• Apply search engine optimisation best practice to new pages
• Produce an accessibility checklist for this and future projects
• Collaborate with US based colleagues during remote web based project meetings
• Produce a 2nd content matrix showing the relationship between the old and new web pages
• Work out a naming convention for the new pages with the head of the content team

Project result

The new Research funds and Share:s section is far easier to navigate and the usability of the section as a whole has been greatly improved.

The section now comprises of a total of 95 pages as opposed to the 240 pages that made up what was previously 2 sections. The positive impact from a maintenance point of view is substantial.

This section now utilises the new, more user centric CMS page templates (with the exception of the masthead which will be added in at a later stage), which are now CSS driven in terms of layout (as opposed to table based layout). This has had a positive impact page weight and accessibility.

Digital design agency

For this project I was contracted to Fidelity directly via a recruitment agency

Live site URL

The new 'Research funds and Share:s' section can be seen at Fidelity International's UK website

Summary

The purpose of this project was to implement usability and accessibility enhancements to Fidelity International's consumer facing websites based on a detailed report compiled after an in-depth analysis of the existing sites.

My task was to implement recommendations specified in the report that would have the highest impact and that could be applied to 500+ pages within a time frame of 6 months.

Responsibilities and tasks

• Prioritise and implement usability and accessibility recommendations that could have most impact
• Work closely with the content team to ensure that the changes made fitted in with department's long term strategy
• Work with Fidelity International's content management system (CMS) - Teamsite - and ensure that any proposed changes would bring the pages more closely into line with the standard templates
• Add relevant content into search engine related fields (title, keywords, description tags)
• Request that the technical development team make enhancements to the templates to ensure that the search engine fields were made compulsory for content editors
• Request changes to the CMS templates to ensure content editors produced more accessible and usable pages
• Unravel or remove non-standard or badly written code
• Re-write page copy to make it more readable for a web audience
• Redesign section starting pages to enhance usability/clickability
• Rework complex nested tables to improve usability
• Remove or consolidate excessive content
• Ensure alt text equivalent for images was applied correctly
• Apply new CSS styles to enhance the readability of ordered and unordered lists throughout the site
• Ensure navigation and heading labeling was meaningful and applied in a consistent manner
• Redesign key sales focused pages following input from the Director of User Experience
• Replace image based page titles with text where possible
• Improve spacing on the pages to ensure that the design principle of 'proximity' was applied, therefore making the pages easier to interpret
• Request that 3rd party content was updated to fit it with new usability and accessibility standards
• Apply a standard approach for the treatment of PDFs
• Ensure consistent design standards were applied throughout the sites

Project result

This project greatly improved the usability and accessibility aspects of Fidelity's UK web presence. The pages have become far easier to maintain and the volume of copy is more suitable and correctly spaced.

There is good consistency of design and layout throughout the websites which will greatly help users interact with the site as well as making content creation much more straight forward.

Digital design agency

For this project I was contracted to Fidelity directly via a recruitment agency

Live site URL

Fidelity International's web site for the direct investor without a Financial Adviser