A little about me, my design approach and ways I can work with you.

How I approach design

My design process follows the Design Thinking framework. This framework consistent of 5 key phases including; Empathy, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

Each stage in the Design Thinking framework includes a range of activities that will help develop new understandings, stretch potential ideas and challenge existing assumptions in any project.

Overall, I've found that following the Design Thinking framework helps approach your particular problem with an empathic mindset and streamlines how we can work together to get the best outcome/s possible.

My core design values

Start with who, followed by why

The core starting principle of Design Thinking is to empathise with who you are designing for. What their day to day life looks like, what processes they go through and what pain points may exist.

Developing an understanding for who we are designing for and what day to day life looks like, we can start to understand and discover what problem(s) we are trying to resolve. We can start to question any existing solutions that may exist and how we can improve upon them.

The great thing with empathising with the end user is that, you try to see things from their perspective and 'walk' in their shoes. This helps to hopefully remove any bias you may bring to a project and shift the focus on solving your user's problem(s).

Work with real data

Data can be classified as the content on your page, photos, illustrations, icons or complex data pulled from a range of sources that creates a table. When we get to ideation and diving deep into visual designs, I prefer to work using real data to ensure that we have the most realistic prototype and vision of the project. This ensures we can test, review, question and challenge any assumptions we may come up with during visual design.

Prototype early and often

This can be either as simple as paper sketches, lo-fi wireframes and user flows to pixel-perfect, high-fidelity mockups. The whole idea of prototyping is to test ideas early and often.

When we get to ideation and diving deep into visual design, I prefer to work quickly initially with paper sketches to get ideas and userflows out quickly. Once a basic userflow and concept has been tested by a few different people, I prefer to move into high-fidelity designs using real content, to ensure that we have the most realistic prototype and vision of the potential solution to move into user-testing, either in person or remotely.

Every time I've run user testing sessions, the feedback and insights gathered is always invaluable to improve the initial designed solution.

Designs should be inclusive

Where possible, I will always aim that all visual designs and UX patterns meet WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility standards.

Depending on your brand guidelines, achieving high enough contrast ratios to achieve WCAG 2.0 AA standards can be difficult. To resolve this, I recommend we create a digital optimised colour palette to suit the project. These extended, digital specific colour palettes can can typically be integrated into existing branding guidelines.

Design a modular and scalable system

I'm a firm believer in creating modular and scalable Design Systems either big or small for any project I work on.

To guide my approach to Design Systems, I follow the Atomic Design Methodology. This ensures that each component within a design system has been explored and assessed to create a engaging, consistent and scalable user experience.

As part of my services, I provide a Figma optimised Design System that ensures you can add, modify and grow your own Design System following the latest best practices.

Services I can help you with

Overall, I tailor what services you need based on your project scope, timings and budget to start adding value, fast.