Visio and Omnigraffle for the UX documents, pen and paper for the first phase. Lots and lots of photoshop for the visualisation of the screens and then a delicately crafted xhtml, css and javascript+jQuery prototype.
This project was undertaken in partnership with the awesomely talented folks at CloserTag. Together with Mr Giorgio Venturi we penned the layout and the personas & scenarios on paper. He quickly produced the user journey document with nicely annotated wireframes which I then used as the basis for visualising the application in Photoshop. Then it was over to Aptana where I created a sexy iPhone template (ok, so I nicked it from my previous iPhone project) with xhtml, css and javascript. The stellar jQuery framework turned a weeks work into 2 days.
The prospective client loved the results although the biggest win for our prototype was that we were invited to pitch for two unrelated clients who just loved what we had done. We now have several iPhone and Android projects in the diary this spring 2009!
Several months paper planning, Photoshop for wireframes and visuals, plenty of xhtml, css and javascript and a fine Publish/Subscribe OOPs approach to the behaviour plane utilising jQuery. The backend is managed by Django and Python.
Reyooz was one of my many ideas that went all the way to launch. Aside from months of planning and design work the PR campaign is a lengthy slog that slowly but surely yields results. I worked tirelessly with Mark Meyer and Pete McRobert to make Reyooz happen in just 2 months. I took on the role of experience architect, interaction designer, graphic designer and shared the front end coding with Mr Meyer.
The Reyooz PR engine is in full effect and we're getting lots of love from our Twitter and Facebook campaigns. Partnerships with other web2.0 startups are being nurtured and we've got items listed in London, Amsterdam, Cape Town, New York, San Francisco and Delhi! It's growing fast and going it's own way.
The usual suspects: paper, Omnigraffle, Powerpoint & Photoshop formed the basis of the exploration and UX stage. Then prototypes emerged (lot's of them) supported by xhtml, css, jQuery and plenty of AJAX to a stubbed php backend.
I was the lead on the product design for all of the application software developed to administer and manage the massive undertaking that is the new top level domain, .tel. Working with the Strategy Director we explored and ignored many iterations to come up with the ultimate software products that would satisfy both the novice and power user.
Once we were happy with the design and direction of the user experience it was my turn to doff one hat and don another as I worked with the engineering firm Knipp in Germany who had built the highly sophisticated systems to intereact with the DNS and manage what could be the largest contacts directory in history. With Knipp, I designed the AJAX API's that would support the user experience we had settled upon and defined the methods and functions that are now a part of the open source international Telnic project.
Let's hope it goes mega. Telnic have launched the domain to the usual mixture of hot and cold reactions but the concept is too good not to succeed. It just requires ou to think that little further ahead and put aside your pre-conceptions of what a domain really is.
Paper and pens, Photoshop and a combination of css and jQuery for the behaviour and presentation layers.
I was contacted by Kube Partners to step in and help them out with the user experience and aesthetic design for a couple of their highly successful software applications for several well known Insurance brokers.
This time, my involvement introduced a number of issues within the Ruby on Rails implementation of the software that meant we could not achieve a cohesive user experience with the software as it stood. This lead Kube to decide that they needed to take a step back and re-consider the backned architecture before moving any further forward with the front end. Good results often come n various guises.
RI3K required every skill I had to offer. UX processes to conceptualise and design new interfaces to old products, prototypes for entirely new products to compliment the existing range and plenty of xml, xsl, xhtml, css and javascript to facilitate the designs and concepts.
RI3K are the biggest player in the web based collaborative software for the re-insurance industry. This is an industry steeped in tradition and a long way behind most other industries technically. RI3K has a suite of products that enable re-insurance consultants to draft, share, move and digitally sign legally documents and insurance schedules.
I personally worked with the team to enhance existing products and processes by introducing AJAX and inline transformations to make things more snappy. I also worked in partnership with Mark Meyer to prototype some cutting edge Ruby on Rails applications that won new investment and new clients by demonstrating where the products were going.
The iterative process improved user journeys and ease of use considerably while the prototypes achieved their objective of gaining new investment and new clients.
Photoshop and InDesign for the documentation, xhtml, css and javascript for the protoytpe.
I was engaged by TwentySix London as an Information Architect and Interaction Designer to work in partnership with the Creative Director to enhance the home page of one of the UK's largest airlines. I designed the interactive wireframes for a new inline, DOM manipulated tab navigation system along with single step check-in and account sign-in modules to which the creative director then applied the visual theme.
The designs were implemented by the technical team at BMI, however, although the look of the homepage was inline with the visuals, the fundamental properties of the interaction that actually imporved the customer experience were ommitted. An unfortunate decision by the client meant the benefits of the new design were not wholly realised.
Contextual inquiry, usability group sessions, MS Word, Photoshop, xhtml, css, javascript, Prototype and jstl.
I was engaged by the Legal Services Commission to take responsibility for the front end of their new web based Means Assessment Tool. This application assessed a persons eligibilty for Legal Aid in real time. The existing process could take months requiring many government departments to research the applicants status based on income, benefits, residency etc. A lengthy and arduous task that often resulted in incorrect decisions and some applicants arriving in court without a decision having been made.
The MAAT web application enabled an official to assess a person by entering the required information which the software then used to communicate with the DHSS and other departments via AJAX techniques in real time. A decision could be achieved in minutes rather than months.
For my part, I interviewed users and consulted business analysts to ascertain the human requirements of the system. I then consulted with Java and Oracle engineers to ensure the system provided the interface with the data it required. This then led to my designing the user interface and leading the implementation of the front end.
The MAAT application was the only software project that the government launched that year on time and on budget. Our involvement resulted in over £30 million being saved every year, and that's tax payers money!
Photoshop, xhtml, css and OO javascript the old fashioned way.
I was engaged as part of a small, crack team, tasked with designing and developing a white label advertising system to be rolled out globally. This system enabled anyone with a website to create an advert of their choice using the simple Opodo dashboard console. Adverts could be assembled based on targetted content and images chosen by the website owner, for example, an F1 site could create an ad that presented an F1 style design and offered holidays based on specific F1 destinations.
Partnering with a graphic designer and a Broadvision developer, I designed a range of flexible xhtml and css widgets that could be injected into any website using a single javascript include. I also designed and built the admin interface that provided a simple 4 step process to create or edit your adverts.
Tens of thousands of adverts were served to thousands of websites all driving targetted traffic to the Opodo booking system.
Photoshop, a wall and lots of paper, Flash & a splash of actionscript.
One of the many projects undertaken while acting as a freelance interaction designer and IA with CCHM:Ping, bdo required a sexy interface for their business presentation collateral. Working with Errol Sidelsky and Paulo Marques we conceived a rather original navigation system combining vertical and horizontal axes that maintained consistent screen positioning while lending a very sophisticated experience.
Photoshop, lots of paper prototyping and IA documents, a large section of office wall, lots of css, xhtml and javascript and a healthy dose of ajax communication with the asp.net backend.
I was engaged by AARF as the interaction designer and ajax specialist taking responsibility for their NSPCC clients latest Be the Full Stop campaign. Much of the visual design was already in place as Photoshop templates. My involvement as the interaction designer meant turning round trip page by page journeys into sophisticated inline manipulation using the dom and ajax so achieve seamless journeys through the site. Working with the gifted graphic designer Ali Cobb at Avenue A Razorfish and the dedicated coding skills of Justin Ng keeping tabs on the asp.NET backend. Big up to Karl Hendricks being a safe pair of css hands.
The website achieved around 5000 new supporters signing up and was a successful compliment to the advertising campaign executed by Saatchi & Saatchi.
xhtml, css, oo javascript and a lot of communication with proprietory Marks & Spencer content management systems.
I was engaged by Wheel: to work with one other senior developer and interface designer to create and execute the first M & S e-commerce shopping site. I was also responsible for generating countless wireframes with department heads and programme managers while we took part in brainstorming and design sessions in house.
The M&S ecommerce site is now a staple destination for many UK shoppers and has undergone a lot of redesigns since I was involved, however, the site with which I was involved took tens of thousands of pounds per day.
Paper prototyping, photoshop, omnigraffle.
A prospective web2.0 startup required me to design the user experience and visuals for a new concept in web based recruitment and hr management. I conceived and designed new ideas that improved the communication of requirements between the originator and the candidate, removing the miscommunication with agencies that so often results in the wrong candidate with the wrong client.
We designed pattern matching, cross referencing of skills, candidate ratings, related skill suggestions and SVD techniques that then compared the job spec to the candidate database to present the most highly recommeded cadidates for the specific role. All in real time.
The idea was brilliant and the user experience something to be proud of, however, the costs involved in building and launching the startup proved too much for the funding available and the project was abandoned.