About me

Hi, I’m Alex

I’m a Senior UX/UI Designer specialising in interaction design, creative problem solving and prototyping.

I work for the Royal Society of Chemistry and previously was at Oxford University Press in their English language teaching division.

When I’m not at my desk, I can be found gaming, cooking, or seeing new places with my family.

Skills

  • UX design

  • UI design

  • Product Design

  • Research

  • Web design

  • App design

  • Design Thinking

  • Information architecture

  • Accessibility champion

  • Prototyping low to high fidelity

  • Usability testing

  • Interviewing

  • Problem solving

Tools

  • Adobe XD

  • Figma

  • Sketch

  • Axure

  • Adobe Creative Cloud (CC)

  • HTML5

  • CSS

  • JavaScript (JS)

  • Optimal Workshop

  • Jira

Experience

Previous to working for the Royal Society of Chemistry I worked on a multitude of digital projects in differing roles within Oxford University Press over the last 10 years. See my full work history on LinkedIn.

Process

Typically, I adopt the double diamond method and underpin my projects with deliberate systematic user research to maintain a human-centred design approach.

I prefer the double diamond method as it is not linear or static. I like to be open to continuous discovery and pivoting as I learn more about the problems I am trying to solve.

However, I’m highly adaptable to different working methods and bring my own approach while being respectful of other teams’ individual contexts and challenges.

Double diamond model (adapted from the UK Design Council)
 

Design Thinking methods also play an important role in my process, starting with user data to address real user problems and involving those same users throughout product development.

I’ve used these techniques to help elevate and leverage a team’s collective expertise, so that we can have a shared understanding of what problems we are trying to solve.

It enables focused business innovation through undertaking observational research, visualising the problem and journeys, with iterative design and testing leading to meaningful implementations.

 

Education highlights

  • UX certified NN/g

    Interaction Design specialism

    Nielsen Norman Group

    2019

  • Digital Publishing PGDip

    Digital specialism

    Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies

    Oxford Brookes University

    2011

  • 1st Class BA Hons English Literature and Film Studies

    Oxford Brookes University

    2009

Nice things people say about me

 

“He's superb at managing stakeholder expectations, for instance, by conducting workshops for alignment and directing to business needs.

He also has excellent experience to exploring generative research or testing ideas for the usability of a solution.

Besides user research skills, he also has a good front-end development background and knowledge of implementing mobile apps.”

Eduardo Valério (Lead UX Strategist at Endava)

“Alex is a skilled UX designer with experience in handling all UX deliverables, from research and UI design through to developer specifications.

As well as being highly competent in all areas, he also has what I consider the most important skill, the ability to empathise, not only with end users but also with the people he works with and for. This makes him one of the best communicators I have ever worked with – knowing that to listen is as important as to speak.

I have worked closely with Alex for many years and do not hesitate to recommend him for UX work.”

Tessa Pellow (Head of UIUX Oxford University Press)