BHendyUX
More options, more problems - Scott Belsky
As an entrepreneur, renewable energy advocate and user experience designer I take deep pride in the varied experience I have gained over the last 10 years. During this time I have developed a highly adaptable skill set which is built on the following strengths. Iterative and flexible problem-solving methodologies which the user-centred design process requires. Resilience and perseverance needed to establish start-ups. The hands-on practical aptitude that’s needed to work in the renewable energy sector.
To accompany this professional background I have been fortunate enough to travel widely and experience many different cultures. The experience of these peoples and cultures has shaped whom I have become and given me first-hand experience of the many hardships people across the world face.
How I find solutions
Requirements gathering and Analysis
Every project should start with a detailed analysis of what content exists, what the user expects and any technical constraints that need to be accounted for when design starts.
Over my years of experience I have successfully achieved this in a variety of sectors including banking, energy, ecommerce & telecoms.
User flows & system logic
Once there is a decent understanding of what's required this information can be used to inform the creation of information architectures, system logic and user flows. These methods are key to finding the most important journeys and making sure they present their behaviour in a user-centred way.
Early design & iteration
Now the UI can begin to come to life and dependant on time scales and toolings I like to make quick sketches of the pages and journeys. Feedback can be quickly gathered from the team and wider stakeholders to make user the best actions and behaviours are being used.
Wireframes and primary journeys
With the key user journeys identified and sketched out, I would then start formalising sketches into wireframes so the journey can be made interactive ahead of the coming rounds of stakeholder feedback and user testing.
Typical tools used:
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Sketch
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Adobe XD
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Axure
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Figma
Prototypes
There's nothing like being able to click through a UI when it comes to making sure all the requirements are met and there are no glaring issues that will trip up people in user testing.
My experience in making prototypes spans from really quick ones where only the wireframe has been made clickable to higher fidelity ones where the screens produced by the visual designer have been made interactive.
User testing
With the above steps completed it is time to get the users input on the design and be ready for lots of feedback.
I am versed in the different approaches to user testing and have used everything from guerilla testing on a street with a mobile device to in depth lab testing.
Some of my past clients
Kingfisher Digital
Kingfisher's goal is to become #1 in the home DIY market across Europe and the UK. While working with them to achieve this goal I worked as part of an Agile team on web & mobile based Kitchen and bathroom remodelling tools, Help agent experience and wiki style DIY guides.
Solar Share
Solar Share is a concept I was working on in my spare time. Its goal is to reduce the need for people living in small, remote communities to rely on fossil fuels for their every day energy needs.
Mirum agency
Provided IA support to help develop a pitch for a energy client. This work was focused onproducing a new IA which combined the compelling content from a range of previous sites andbring them into a single IA that enables visitors to intuitively find the information they need.
Sky
My time working for sky was spent working across the web and mobile touch points that were being created to support the launch of Sky Q.
Paypal
Agile ideation & creation of new experiences for PayPal. This role has required expert reviews,heuristic evaluation, sketching, low to high fidelity Axure prototypes, stakeholder presentation & iteration based on user feedback.
Frequently used tools
Sketch
During my time at kingfisher, Sketch was the primary tool being used across the design team as it streamlined the workflow between UX designers and their UI partners.
Figma
Figma has become one of the go-to tools for UX designers. It's versatile, collaborative and intuitive to use.
Adobe XD
I've been using XD for a number of side projects and have found it to be a very versatile tool. It's integration with sketch is simple and as it's a tool aimed at UX design its workflow is well suited to moving from lo-fi wires to a clickable prototype in a few simple steps.
Axure
As a longtime user of Axure I feel that it's got some of the most effective tools for creating flow diagrams and hi-fidelity prototypes. With that said it does blur the line between time spent making a prototype that could be spent making real code.
Proto.io
Proto.io is one of the best web-based solutions for assembling and testing user experiences. It's compatibility with Sketch and Zeplin are particularly useful