About Us
We’re a UX and Service Design Consultancy that enjoys constructing lovely things, working with excellent people and dogs. Lots of dogs.
Although we’re techies at heart, we’re also dedicated evangelists for User Centred Design and apply those methodologies and principles throughout our work. We have been involved with both brown and greenfield projects across a variety of devices and platforms. We always work and communicate exceptionally well in multi-discipline teams and can adapt our workflows to suit both Agile and Waterfall development environments.
We thrive on finding elegant, playful and engaging solutions to design problems and excel at working in fast moving, dynamic and exciting “start-up like” environments. We’ve provided both embedded and remote workers and provide self-motivated contractors who are excellent communicators and reliable members of any team.
DESIGN SERVICES
Design Strategy
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- Blueprints
- Customer Journey Maps
- User Stories
- Personas
- Ecosystem Maps
- Competitive Audits
- Value Propositions
- Stakeholder Interviews
- Key Performance Indicators
Conceptualising
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- Brainstorming
- Moodboards
- Storyboards
- User Flows
- Task Analysis
- Taxonomies
Product Planning
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- Content Audits
- Heuristic Analysis
- Sitemaps
- Feature Roadmaps
- Use Cases and Scenarios
- Metrics Analysis
User Research
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- Focus Groups
- Quantitative Surveys
- Usability Testing
- Card Sorting
- A/B Testing
- Eye-tracking
UI Design
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- Sketches
- Wireframes
- Prototypes
- Pattern Libraries
- Tone and Style Guides
Project Management
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- JIRA
- Trello
- Confluence
- Pivotal Tracker
- MS Project
Technologies
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- HTML
- CSS, SASS, LESS
- jQuery, JavaScript
- WordPress, Magento
- Git
TOOLS
User Research & Testing
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- UserTesting
- UsabilityHub
- Optimal Workshop
- Optimizely
Wireframing & Prototyping
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- Adobe Creative Cloud
- Axure RP
- Balsamiq
- Sketch
- Pixate
- UX Pin
- Moqups
Organising Information
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- Visio
- LucidChart
- OptimalSort
- Mindjet
Analytics & Metrics
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- Google Analytics
- Crazyegg
- Decibel Insight
- Clicktale
- Mouseflow
SHELDON'S EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Head of UX
easyProperty (2013 – 2015)
easyProperty is one of the UK’s largest online estate agencies providing the tools users need to easily let and sell property. I joined the company in the strategic early stages and was involved in all aspects of the product from concept to launch. Working closely with the stakeholders and developers I assembled and led a multidisciplinary team to design, build and test every product decision across multiple platforms. Our rapidly growing Agile team was able to deliver a successful product to market within the targeted 10 month time frame.
Responsibilities
- Hire and manage a UX team
- Advocate for the end-user
- Define and achieve KPI targets
- Continuously enhance and refine the product and services
- Design and implement test strategies
- Evangelise UCD methodologies
- Maintain clear communication between teams
UX Lead
CriteriaMX (2012 – 2013)
CriteriaMX is a software development company creating digital entertainment management and distribution software for connecting record labels directly to retailers. I lead a small design team to re-imagine their flagship product, introduce new features and increase collaboration between design, development and business leadership teams. I implemented formal design reviews, documentation best practices, encouraged rapid prototyping with a focus on usability testing at conceptual stages and insisted on whiteboard usage while talking through problems.
Responsibilities
- Manage a design team
- Design and implement usable prototypes
- Implement design and collaboration best practices
- Create library of consistent design patterns
- Evangelise UCD methodologies
UX Designer
Social Events (2011 – 2012)
Contractor
Social Events is a software development company specialising in socially driven online event management and ticketing software targeting long-tail markets. As the sole user experience designer on the project I was responsible for design strategy, product planning, user research and both digital and print designs.
Projects
Eventboo – Produced high-fidelity prototypes for event management website and smartphone app for door sales and scanning. Created all presentation materials.
Fan Mechanics – Produced high-fidelity prototypes for Facebook based event management and ticketing tool for gamification of fan interactions.
UI/UX Designer
Tixme (2009 – 2011)
Contractor
Tixme was a software development company specialising in B2B online event management and ticketing software. I implemented a user centred approach to inform the structure, flow and design of both back and front end tools. I ran multiple workshops with venue staff and event managers and lab tested ticket discovery and purchase flow wireframes with end users.
Projects
HMV MAMA Group – Responsible for all UI/UX for venue and event management suite, cross platform white label ticket portals and touch-screen ticket sales interface for venue box-offices.
Re-branding – Re-branded the company and the sister services providing brand, tone and style guidelines for print and digital.
Executive Director & CTO
Invate (2004 – 2009)
Invate is an assistive technology company that I co-founded. Invate provides hardware, software and training to higher education students within the UK Government’s Disabled Student Allowance scheme.
Responsibilities
- Manage a team of technical and training staff
- Business development
- Infrastructure design, installation and maintenance
- Branding and design
- Website management
Projects
Learninglabs.co – Project led a team to create and launch an online learning platform that tailors training to the user’s learning style and disability.
Invate.co.uk – Project led an e-commerce website tailored for use of disabled students and DSA assessors.
Network Engineer
Chimera CMT (2000 – 2001)
Chimera is a strictly B2B company supporting medium to large sized enterprises with IT hardware, software and network services. Chimera provides certified training as well as developing bespoke business software.
Responsibilities
- Network installations and maintenance
- Technical support
- IT sales
- Website design and management
Projects
HouseSearch UK – Project led a small team to launch the very first online estate agent in the UK. While the service attracted some initial interest the web was not yet mature enough for the idea to succeed.
Systems Engineer
Keystroke Computing (1998 – 2000)
Keystroke supports small to medium sized enterprises with IT hardware, software and network services with a focus on accountancy solutions.
Responsibilities
- System builds and maintenance
- Network installations and maintenance
- Technical support
- Website design and management
Projects
Company website – Designed and built company website for customer contacts and service overview.
EDUCATION
Newcastle College
(2003 – 2004)
HND Digital Design
Northumbria University
(2001 – 2003)
BSc Computing for Industry
Exeter College
(1996 – 1998)
3 A-Levels in Computing, Mathematics & Creative Design
International Correspondence School
(1996)
7 GCSEs in English, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Accountancy, History & Law