Bio
I'm a life-long learner, an observer and creator. Thereby I pay close attention, soak in the details and try to playback what I learnt in a way that I creatively understand. Breaking it down slightly further, my ability to keenly observe lends to my user experience side (UX), while my creator side helps make me a confident user interface designer (UI).
Digital systems such as websites and web applications are becoming progressively more sophisticated as technologies advance, and we need to be in-tune with how these advancements are altering user behaviours and patterns.
As a UX/UI designer, I need to adapt to these advancements, while ensuring that my skills and knowledge are on point. I study and evaluate how users interact and perceive a system, focusing specifically on ease of use and efficiency. When delivering a successful project, both the UX and the UI need to be considered. While information gathering and analysis is an essential component, having the ability to create a usable UI maximises the outcome. Throughout my process, I take full advantage of both UX and UI principals, allowing me to identify and solve complex problems.
Experience
Co-Founder
Milktoast
Jun 2013 – Present
It started as a designer playground and has now evolved into a lifestyle brand playing in the NFT space.
Co-Founder
Side Hustle Podcast
Sep 2019 – Present
Taking the plunge and tearing down comfort zones to explore a new skill set and passion.
Product Designer
Canva
August 2021 – Present
Taking a step back from design leadership to immerse myself into the tools, I have my head to the ground to sharpen my sword.
Product Design Lead
99designs
Jul 2019 – 2020
Continuing to grow while solving user-based problems with a multi-disciplinary team.
Design Director
Whispir
Oct 2018 – Jul 2019
An opportunity to lead a creative team to collaborate, strategise, ideate and develop a scalable brand.
UX/UI Designer
Envato
Nov 2015 – Oct 2018
Transitioning design skills to a product frame of mind, focusing on UX/UI, collaboration, branding and delivery.
UX/UI Designer
Klyp
Jul 2014 – Nov 2015
Understanding how to solve client problems, end to end, within a full-service agile team.
UX/UI Designer
Lava Digital
Jul 2011 – Jul 2014
My digital introduction, designing in the real world within the digital space for clients.
My approach
Gather
This step is an essential part of creating a solid foundation for a project. Here I collaborate closely to gather all of the knowns and unknowns. Together we develop a view of the project, which includes as much detail as possible; I then get to work in deciphering the chaos and creating harmony. When done well, the gather phase lays down all of the groundwork, allowing us to move forward into a meaningful ideation phase.
Ideate
Within the ideation phase, we'll collaborate on ideas. Together we'll extract our thoughts and form them into words and sketches and eventually develop visual concepts. When we ideate, we should be ready to move swiftly, think wide and then refine. Here we focus on lo-fidelity (lo-fi) sketching, user flows and prototypes, get ready for some fun with comic sans!
Refine
Once we have a direction formed in the ideate phase, we can then move forward into the visualisation of the layout and styling, polishing those details into a unique solution. It is essential to follow a multi-disciplinary approach, allowing a variety of perspectives to pull and poke holes in our designs. There will be a lot of critique and collaboration here as we transition to hi-fidelity design (hi-fi) to ensure all parties are aligned and confident with the solutions.
Delivery
At the end of the project, the final files are layered and grouped, with components organised into a visual library. In this step, the final polish takes place; I go through the designs with a critical designer eye to ensure all spacing, typography, interactions and patterns are consistent.
Iteration
Ideally, post the delivery phase we continue to collaborate on the project as we iterate on the development, here rare but significant edge cases are solved, and UI interactions are reviewed and finalised. We also have the opportunity to assess user behaviour and conduct thorough quality assurance (QA) before the project is released.