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A new start…

For the past three years, I’ve been the Head of UX & Design at Oxford Computer Consultants, a 100-person software company in Oxford, where I built, led and managed the UX Design Studio of eight people (UX designers, User researchers and front-end developers).

It was an incredible experience to start and embed design in the 25-year tech company and I’m proud of what we’ve built together. It’s an incredibly challenging thing to do too.

I’ve put design principles and processes in place, raised the bar of quality of UX and design, created business and sales strategy for design as a new revenue stream for the company, recruited a team of eight talented and passionate individuals (see photo below) and managed the UX Design Studio (resourcing, financial forecasting, line-management).

I’ve now decided to take a step into the unknown and take on a new challenge of starting my own consultancy. I’m excited by the sea of possibilities. Watch out for this space. 🙂

I’ll miss this friendly and creative bunch. You can see the lovely card they put together for me on Github. I wish them the best of luck!

Invitation for a UX chat in June

During June, every Thursday, I’ll be working from a café (central Oxford) and I’ll be available to give free 1-hour UX sessions:

  • User Experience Design consultation for startups.
    • For example:
      • You might have an app or a website and would like a UX expert to give a friendly advice.
      • You might have an idea of an app or website and don’t know where to start.
      • You don’t know how to plan usability and design improvements on your product.
    • Not a start up? I’m also happy to meet up with local digital agencies and corporates.
  • UX mentorship session for people starting out (or interested in starting) in their UX careers.
    • For example:
      • You might want to know how to start a UX career
      • You might want to know about best courses or training of UX and design
      • You might have specific UX questions about a project you’re working on

When:
Thursdays: 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th.

Where:
At a café in central Oxford. Drop me a line and I’ll let you know what café I’m working from on that day.
Only available remotely? That’s fine, just let me know and we could have a phone call.

Why am I doing this?
I love working with start ups and help people coming into UX progress in their careers. So I’m keen to meet startups in Oxford and understand the local market needs for UX. These sessions will be beneficial to you and to me.

Read about me and my experience

Get in contact with me

The most comfortable person in the room

We all, from time to time, experience situations when we feel uncomfortable in a group setting, that being in work meetings, networking events or in informal conversations. Being an introvert and shy myself, I used to be, more often than not, on the uncomfortable part of the room. After I started organising a monthly event, doing public speaking, facilitating workshops, and regularly meeting new people, I now find myself comfortable in most group interactions. And I now realise how much I can help others around me to feel comfortable in the environment and engaged in the conversation. It’s like being the host…

If you’re the most comfortable person in a group, you’re the host. Look around you, check the group dynamic and facilitate the interactions between people. Break the ice, introduce yourself, be the mad one who takes the first step. Make introductions. Bring beverages. Ask questions, listen, set the tone of the conversation. Smile. Tell a story that will make people laugh. Gently bring quiet people into the conversation (but be careful to not put them on the spot). Be the one who says what no one else feels comfortable to say. Until everyone else is comfortable, the group dynamic is working well and your role of being the host is redundant.

Unaware

My favourite word currently is “unaware”. 

I recently started thinking of people being unaware when they do something that I could easily think of as unreasonable, rude, idiotic. I like the momentary sound of the word unaware. People unaware of something in a specific moment.

Someone on the bus speaking loudly on the phone: They are unaware of the social environment around them. A cyclist who crosses the red light: They were unaware of the danger they are putting themselves and others in. Someone says something rude: they are unaware that what they said hurts me.

What I like about giving a momentary state to the situation, instead of labeling people, is that it helps me create empathy with them and believe in the change of behaviour. All of us from time to time for a number of reasons can be unware of the circumstances around us. By giving a momentary state to the person, I know I’m further away from creating preconceptions about them and instead I’m keeping my mind open to the possibilities of the good things they can do.

Attributes of successful designers

“I see different qualities in different people, but there are three attributes that all successful designers seem to have. The first is tenacity; this is the ability to keep working at a task until it is right rather than settling for the first idea that appears. The second is boldness, or a willingness to risk failure. And finally, cussedness. This sounds paradoxical because most design tasks require empathy and objectivity, but no great design comes without a dollop of selfishness and bloody-mindedness”

Adrian Shaughnessy in an interview for the FuelRCA

UX is team work

My talk at the Bulgaria Web Summit 2015:

UX is team work!
To get the whole project team involved in the UX process is essential to achieve a great quality product. No matter if it’s an Agile or a Waterfall process, UX and development must be working collaboratively: developers meeting users and attending usability testing, designers and developers sketching together, clients actively participating in the design process. This talk provides practical UX tools and techniques to integrate UX and development and get the whole team involved: users, developers, managers and clients.

My slides from my talk at BrightonSEO

How good UX can improve SEO
This talk is about how usability, hierarchy of information and good page design can improve SEO. By improving how users find the content and navigate on your website, you’re improving their overall user experience as well as improving SEO. But what makes a good web page design? From a UX designer’s perspective, you’ll learn practical techniques to help improve the UX of your websites to engage your target users.
BrightonSEO 2015