Earning a living

I am a freelance consultant and coach, providing design and research services for agencies, in-house teams and one-to-one coaching services. you can find out more about my coaching credentials at theuxcoach.com

I am proud to have been part of Government Digital Service (GDS) where I held the position of Senior User Researcher for 2 years working alongside colleagues as part of The National Team, helping local authorities across the 4 nations to develop better public services. I also lead projects for GOV.UK Notify, the main communications platform for UK public sector services and helped deliver the Emergency Alerts Broadcasting system before finishing my time in the Data Standards Authority, developing policy and products for the standardisation of data services in government.

As an alumni member of Clearleft I had the great joy of leading projects for AgeUK, NBCUniversal, Wellcome Trust, Nordea, and winning a design award for my contributions to the digital transformation of Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Council.

Throughout my career I have designed and delivered meaningful projects for a diverse set of clients in public and private sector such as The British Red Cross, Southampton University and agencies CX Partners, TPXImpact (Future GOV, Manifesto), Create Change and Tilt to name a few.

A qualified teacher and trainer, I have lectured on UX Design and design careers at Universities; writing and teaching the curriculum for UX Design at East Sussex College. Over the years I have presented at conferences and delivered public workshops on UX Design techniques and methods.

I am a true believer that great things happen when you’re away from the keyboard (AFK) and developed my coaching practice to fit into this, using walkshops as a way to untangle complex problems both professionally and personally.

Away from the keyboard

My greatest passion is music, having played in a number of loud and brash bands with varying degrees of success. I ride motorcycles, bicycles, and boards, which is where I often find things come unstuck and I get clear. I’ve been in many bands, notably, Here There Be Monsters, a metalcore outfit from Brighton. We toured Europe, released a few records and slept on too many dank floors and in too many transit vans.

I took up photography in my teens and used it as a way to document the things going on around me. During the Flickr era I became known for my street photography portrait series Trash Flavoured Trash = Trash Flavoured Trash which got covered in national press both print and television. My portraits from The Great Escape Festival won best-of-the-fest during the Brighton Arts Festival, whilst my writing and photos formed part of my journalism freelancing for local national and global press including Source, Drownedinsound, Thrashhits, Rocksound, Kerrang, and Pitchfork.

Being outdoors gives me energy and as much as I love playing video games, I get more excitement from riding bikes with and without engines, snowboarding, surfing and just being out walking.

I was part of the first generation of web and UX people, and now want to focus my time on supporting the next generations make meaningful products and services that make a difference to all of us today, or in the future.