Workerbird is a diagnostic service in which users can take a work “health-check” to learn more about their own behaviours at work and the impact it was having on their wellbeing. A social venture on the side of the workers, the aim was to empower workers to make positive change whether that meant looking for a new job or pursuing better conditions.

As Creative Director I led the design of the service including customer research and testing phases.

At the kickoff workshop we decided to initially test a text service that allowed users to track their time (commuting, working, and taking breaks) and then reflect on their data at the end of a week. This low cost first-version would act as a springboard for us to learn and build a useful digital product.

From these trials we identified problem areas and isolated the most valuable things we were doing. This analysis led to the development of a native mobile app using React Native.

The app evolved its functions and developed a distinctive aesthetic over time. This was based on a combination of user feedback and the team’s understanding of the values the company was to embody. The attitudes and stances we were taking towards the subject of work had to be represented in the brand and the product: down to the gestures and animation.

I spent 3 years working for a development agency with a remote-first culture.

As the soul designer on most of this agency’s projects I would often split my time between product design and project management (across concurrent projects). A distributed, agile team meant that good communication was paramount and so the tools and process for design was just as important as the results I could bring about.

I worked with a range of clients including, Action for Children, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and City University. I learned a lot in this environment of constant and rapid change. That environment, coupled with the need to demonstrate the value of design to rooms of non-designers, gave me a very clear sense of when I was using my time most profitably and not.

Below are a couple of my favourite products and services I designed with DWYL.

Studying web development in a peer-led classroom teaches you a lot about teamwork. Studying for free also makes you quite grateful for the opportunity.

In the Autumn of 2014 we began crowding funding for our new school: a vision of free education on a subject that was growing in value. We knew then that the skills we had learned were attainable by anyone and were powerful enough to transform a life.

In 2018 I taught for a month at our international classroom in Nazareth.

In 2020 Founders and Coders will be welcoming its 19th cohort of diverse engineers. I expect I will return again to teach some parts of the “Design Thinking Week” I introduced (because the best developers can appreciate the big picture).