Although I kicked off my career in print, I’ve spent the last eight getting stuck in to the world of digital. Working closely with developers, copywriters, clients, and stakeholders, in an agile environment. I thoroughly enjoy getting involved in every aspect of the design and development process, from hashing out user journey and wireframes right through to build.
Over the years I’ve had the chance to work with a large variety of clients; some small, some big, some absolutely huge. Along the way, I’ve created a wide range of work including mobile, Facebook and tablet apps. I’ve also played my part in delivering award-winning websites and been involved in video production, photo shoots and creative campaign concepting.
My process usually involves initial wireframes, plotting user journeys, mac'd up prototype, user testing, designs, then repeat. I think intuitive online experiences should be at the centre of great design.
Outside of work I love to swim, travel and eat. Therefore my travel destinations are mostly determined by these three factors. Quality of swimming or skiing (it is frozen water after all), and great local food make a happy Sophie.
Designing prototypes, wireframes and interaction designs for iview, TV online, and enterprise products. Working closely with product teams and developers to roll out accessible solutions onto web, IOS, Android, gaming consoles and connected TVs.
I have recently worked with a UX Lead on iview research project. We held stakeholder engagement sessions, and synthesised research done to date to develop hypotheses and assumptions about TV and VOD viewing habits. We then conducted user interviews and testing to validate our hypotheses, test assumptions and explore concept prototypes. The findings led us to reshape the iview roadmap to better serve our audience.
Paired with teacher, Lawrence So, we worked together to formulate a 12-week syllabus taking students through the foundations of UX design, to present a final project showcasing their process and solutions. My role involved teaching, facilitating in class discussions, sharing tools and references, and giving project feedback.
At CBA I worked in the rapidly growing UXD team alongside UX Leads to redesign NetBank statements, & transfers pages and Travel Money Card website. This was a great experience in a fast paced, agile environment. I particularly loved joining the research team for user testing my designs
At Thirtythree I was given the opportunity to work with much bigger brands and budgets than before. Working with account managers, developers and a small design team I created career focussed digital projects for names like BP, PwC, Heinz and Selfridges. The range of work was predominantly responsive websites, and mobile, Facebook and tablet apps. Each project was wireframed and prototyped before the design began, and most also required photography briefs and video storyboards.
Throughout my time at Thirtythree, I became interested in user experience and user testing. I attended user testing workshops and applied my knowledge to do testing internally. And also started my accessibility education, helping teach our designers and developers to make our products as compliant as possible.
After two years I was promoted to Design Manager. This put me in charge of five designers. Day to day, I would schedule resource, oversee jobs, deal with design queries, conduct appraisals and plan employee training, all while continuing to design.
My first London freelance role was a great introduction to working with some big names. For two months I joined the content team to populate some big websites, including those of Infiniti Europe, Pfeizer, Flora and Persil.
Hands-on and fast-paced, my time at The Web Showroom was a great learning experience. And because it was a small business, I had every opportunity to grow my skills in a whole range of areas. Multi-tasking was a must as I liaised directly with clients in an account management role whilst producing prototypes and designs and working with internal developers for the build. Even better, the fact that some of our clients were start-ups meant creating logos and branding as well as designing and delivering websites.
I joined as a mid-weight but was soon promoted to senior designer, where I took on our biggest clients and helped train new starters. All in all, I gained some great experience – learning a lot from both my fellow designers and our account management team. So as well as growing creatively, I developed solid organisational and planning skills which have come in handy all the way through my career.
Fresh into my first job, my role at Aqua Agency was to design magazines, brochures and newsletters. However, I also got to turn my hand to some corporate branding. Later I took on my own clients, including Heart wise Journal and Leichhardt Council. As it was a very small business, I was involved a lot with production, liaising with printers and proofing as well as taking part in initial meetings and briefings.
Over my time there I started to show an interest in web work, and as more started to come through I took on some websites for our clients.
It was a great starting point for me to get used to the design business in a supportive environment.
