Hey folks, I’m a designer and product manager. Previously I've worked with the BBC, Skype and Sony. I also teach typography at General Assembly.
I spend my time learning design, business and code.
Ocassionally I write about culture and tech. Enter your email and below I'll send you my next article!
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FightMe launched on desktop in 2012 and released an app a year later. However, cohesion between the two platforms brokedown and after joining the team in Sept '14 we solely focused on mobile and started a redesign.
Understanding the traits of challenges and the motivations of the users that participate in them was central to the redesign.
Using behavioural modelling and a 'jobs to be done' framework I grouped similar challenges by BJ Foggs definition of 'simple'.
Jerry Springer, Riki Lake, Montel. The end of the 90’s ushered in the peak of trash TV.
Before the internet recorded every aspect of human nature it was the ‘talk show’ that offered glimspes into the (arguably) real lives of (arguably) real Americans.
Sex, scandals, brawls, bad language - sounds like the perfect formula for a video game.
The 90’s talk show is renowned for sugary hits of high tempo entertainment but translating that into a gaming format, was a challenge.
The pitch to Sony sounded a lot like this 'Imagine ‘WrestleMania VII’ on ‘The Maury Popovich Show’ with the dialogue written by Charlie Brooker.’
Code Name: ‘Rough Diamond’ was born!
One of the inspirations behind Rough Diamond is Capcoms 'Saturday Night Slam Masters', a game I spent many a evening blistering my thumbs to in the early 90's. The over the stop styling and simple but satisfying control scheme mapped perfectly to our game show analogy.
In 2013 I was offered the chance to work with Barclays and design a first of a kind, consumer facing product.
Unfortunately I'm NDA up the eyeballs so while I can't talk about the project I can speak of the experience.
Working in a team consisting of a front-end web developer and a UX designer (Shouts out to Johnathan Brincat and Ian Hamilton)
The project allowed us to utilize Barclays’ vast data analyisis tools (Did you know in 2013 more than one person signed up for a Barclays customer account using a Sony Playstation? Lets have a moment to applaud those folks!).
Coupled with a backbone of existing data, we extensively tested our design and UX assumptions to shape the product and lower the biggest risk factors.
These tests included Qualitative – Word Association to understand what users expected from the brand, qualitative A/B testing to compare verbal and physical response to the different prototypes, and persona interviews to better understand our customer base.
Once we had gathered enough infomation product 'principles' were outlined and communicated to stakeholders.
Key elements from the successful prototype were worked into a modular CSS UI stylesheet while simultaneously ironing out the requirements of the legal team and 'backend' systems.
This approach allowed us to test HTML prototypes on the fly as further requirements developed, thus increasing the speed of project delivery.
In 2014 I hacked together a one page MVP asking people to sign up for am online will making product aimed at a new social age.
24hrs and a few hundred sign ups later there was enough momentum to justify investing more time in the idea.
