May 9Design is a promiseWhen I talk to other designers to ask what draws them to design, it’s usually a deeply held set of beliefs — “I want to make society and the world a better place”, or “I want to make things that are useful and beautiful, that people will get value from”…Design7 min read
Mar 30HM Land Registry UCD Away DayTheme: Collaboration Written in collaboration with Zaffreen Akhtar At HM Land Registry, we have two practices fully focussed on user centered design, those are the Design practice, and User Research practice. Despite working closely together on various projects, we realised that designers and researchers weren’t getting many opportunities to work…UX6 min read
Nov 10, 2021Introducing a design maturity approach for governmentDocumenting our approach to measuring how mature user centered design is in an organisation. Co-written with Isabella Burt-Morris from TPXImpact (Formerly FutureGov) Last August, we began an ongoing partnership with FutureGov, to support and develop our user-centred design and research capability. …Design5 min read
Apr 7, 2021Unstoppable leadershipAdopting the philosophy of the Water Way At the end of last year I took on the role of Head of Design at HM Land Registry, and now I’m about 3 months in I wanted to take some time to reflect on that time. I’d started remotely, during a global…Leadership10 min read
Dec 30, 2020Ends and BeginningsTime to sunset 2020 and look towards 2021 — The strange tale of 2020 This year has really done me in. Done us all in. At the start of the year I listed out everthing that I was planning to do, and it was a long and fairly epic list. Work in Paris, giving talks and workshops in Japan, Denmark, Berlin and Scotland, and…New Year9 min read
Oct 3, 2020Medieval yarn dyeingA crafty day out at Cranborne Ancient Technology Centre I thought it might be interesting to write about something other than UX, service design and research for once, so here’s a short segway into some of the crafty activities I got up to one sunny weekend near Cranborne, Dorset. If you’ve met me you’ll know I have a love…Yarn6 min read
Apr 25, 2020The Empowering Experience of MinecraftHow a low-fi experience can still be immersive, educational, memorable and inclusive Like many parents around the world who have been thrust into close quarters with their family 24 hours a day due to the pandemic, I too have been desperately trying to adapt to homeschooling, juggling both mine and…User Experience10 min read
Jan 23, 2020A mega-list of advice to my past self as a Junior UX Designer…A collection of wisdom collected up over the years from others and my own experiences. Once in a while we have a moment of complete clarity, and it was in a rare moment of peace and quiet this week that a number of thoughts about what I would say to…User Experience8 min read
Jan 16, 2020The undercover design leaderUsing the term “design leader” has got out of control. Can we all please, just calm down. Disclaimer: I am not claiming to be a design leader, either overt or undercover — i’m far from it. These are some observations of the community I find myself orbiting. …Design Leadership4 min read
Jun 15, 2019A wee trip to UX ScotlandI’d always heard good things about the conference the good folks at UX Scotland put on each year, and boy were they right! …UX8 min read
