UX designer, user researcher, visual designer

About me

It’s not making people want things, it’s making things people want.

I have worked in user-centred design for 25 years, creating engaging and immersive products for clients while delivering value for the business and customer. I have a strong set of strategic skills which enable me to find the rationale behind projects for my clients; direct the design process; develop capabilities and team culture; build out tools, processes and methodologies; while supporting the growth of the company.

  • Strong management experience of teams as well as working at director level 

  • Highly experienced at presenting to stakeholders at all levels

  • Willingness to take responsibility for projects and ensure deadlines 

  • Experience in delivering ethnographic research and facilitating research sessions and usability testing 

  • Background in creating user flows, IA, UI design and brand creation

  • Highly skilled in software such as Figma, Sketch, Axure, InVision, Photoshop, Illustrator 

  • Spent the last 12 years working in Agile systems with product and engineering teams

 

Work Experience

Department for Education User Researcher and UX Designer

January 2019 - present

Leading the research and interaction design on DfE’s Schools Financial Benchmarking.

  • Ran 200+ interviews and focus groups with users, including for accessibility, and extensive quantitative research

  • Developed new evidence-led user journeys and built them into Axure prototypes for development

  • Took the site through GDS’ Live Assessment

  • Worked closely in an Agile team alongside the service’s developers

  • Currently in BAU and 50% of my time

NYU Abu Dhabi Visual Designer

April 2023 - June 2023

Creation of visual design for the NYUAD Public Programs website and the Art Gallery, Arts Center and Institute subsites.

  • Created distinct visual styles for the four websites to give them each their own feel

  • Worked with multiple stakeholder groups to help them feed into the final designs

  • Designed in Figma alongside the development team

Giacom UX & Visual Designer

October 2022 - March 2023

Created the new customer website for Giacom.

  • Ran quantitative and qualitative research sessions with stakeholders and customers to help understand how users interact with the current site and where improvements could be made

  • Created new IA, site map and user flows for the site and tested them through research sessions

  • Created responsive prototypes and turned them into final visual design in Figma for delivery to the development team

NHS England User Researcher

April 2022 - June 2022

Ran a Discovery to help prioritise digital delivery objectives for the NHS England Maternity and Young Children team.

  • Used a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, including interviews and focus groups, to better understand the issues facing pregnant people and families with young children

  • Created a matrix to help understand the priorities of the NHS England team

  • Delivered a final report with a prioritised list of deliverables for the team over the next three years

Department of Health & Social Care User Researcher

February 2022 - April 2022

Ran a Discovery project to understand the impact of a skills passport on the social care sector.

  • Led multiple interviews across the care sector as well as extensive desk research

  • Created personas and built user journey maps to understand the issues facing workers in the sector

  • Developed possible solutions for the DHSC team and worked with the UX designer to create prototypes

  • Delivered a discovery report with key recommendations and Alpha proposal

Warwickshire County Council UX & Visual Designer

November 2018 - January 2019

Redesign of the Warwickshire County Council website.

  • Worked with the WCC team to redefine their user flows throughout the site based on quantitative data and research sessions

  • Created a new visual design and subsequent style guide for the site

  • Designed the site’s pages in Sketch and worked with the development team throughout the build

NCSC & GCHQ Visual Designer

July 2018 - October 2018

Redesign of the NCSC and GCHQ websites.

  • Created a new visual style for the two sites that linked them together as sister organisations

  • Designed the site’s pages in a mixture of Axure and Sketch while liasing with the development team

Flagstone Asset Management Visual Designer

March 2018 - July 2018

Visual design of a FinTech’s online portal including their onboarding flows and portfolio pages.

  • Created a new visual brand for the company that could be applied throughout their online presence

  • Through iterative design, created key pages which were tested with users

  • Developed the final style into high-fidelity responsive prototypes

Department for Education UX Designer

March 2017 - March 2018

UX design for Get Information about Schools (GIAS) and DfE Sign-In.

  • Led the interaction design on both DfE services including visual design of assets

  • Took DfE Sign-In through GDS Alpha assessment successfully

BCG Digital Ventures Director of Experience Design

May 2015 - November 2016

Built and ran a multidisciplinary team of 20+ designers across multiple projects. Tasked with creating and actualising the strategic vision of the design team.

  • Led workshops and presentations to clients across the globe

  • Delivered large scale projects for clients such as BNP Paribas, Shell, LEGO, AXA, and Lloyds Bank

  • Built and led a team of 20+ UX, visual, motion and graphic designers

 

Sportlobster Head of UX

February 2015 - April 2015

Advised Sportlobster on their existing application to help them become more user focussed.

  • Put into place user-focussed practices to help Sportlobster get a higher ROI from their advertising spend with higher conversion rates and greater retention of users

  • Led workshops and interviews as well as ethnographic studies and analytic investigation and created personas, experience maps, and revised IA

  • Created a user testing programme to fully explore a new application across iOS, Android, and web

 

Brave Bison Head of UX & Design

May 2012 to February 2015

Ran a design team to support the work of Brave Bison creating online content for influencers as well as developing a VOD and Live streaming video distribution platform.

  • Created bespoke integrated VOD and Live streaming video distribution and deals platform

  • Led workshops, ethnography studies and interviews with clients

  • Led the UX team in creation of IAs and wireframes

  • Led presentations to investors, potential customers and board members

     

A3 Design Head of Design

September 1996 to April 2012

Ran a team of designers producing work across digital, press, marketing, and advertising.

Key achievements

  • Created work for the BBC, NESTA, British Council, Sky, Lavazza, and Disney

  • Designed corporate identities for multiple brands including the identity for the British Paralympic Team

  • Designed several award-nominated educational iOS apps  

 
 

© 2023, Stuart Ogier.