01
Listen first.
Talk to people. Watch what actually happens. Find the workaround with three spreadsheets and a handwritten note. It usually knows more about the problem than the requirements document.
DISCOVERY / INTERVIEWS / CONTEXTTHE THINKING BEHIND THE WORK · 01/03
Human-centred.
Considered.
By design.
The best interface in the world is no use if it solves the wrong problem. I combine user research, product thinking and practical design to work out what people need before anyone starts polishing buttons.
EXPLORE THE APPROACH ↗01 / UNDERSTAND PEOPLE
Research before
the pixels.
User-centred design isn’t a label you stick on a slide. It’s the work of understanding people when they’re busy, distracted, confused or just trying to get on with their Tuesday.
02
Connect the dots.
Turn scattered observations into journey maps, workshop themes, user flows and a shared understanding of where things go wrong. Preferably before everyone falls in love with a solution.
FRAMING / JOURNEYS / STRATEGY03
Shape and refine.
Make it tangible. Put a prototype in somebody’s hands. Watch them do something unexpected, fix it, and repeat. That’s not a setback; it’s the useful bit.
PROTOTYPES / ACCESSIBILITY / CRAFTHOW I DESIGN · FROM QUESTION TO EVIDENCE
Show the thinking.
Not just the pixels.
Good design isn’t a dramatic unveiling of finished screens. It’s a trail of useful questions, sketches, workshops, decisions and things we were quite confidently wrong about last Tuesday.
Explore each stage of the process, from discovering the problem to testing a possible answer. MatchPoint shows how those methods can work together.
SEE THE PROCESS IN MATCHPOINTPHASE 01 / DISCOVER
Understand the reality.
Understand the people closest to the problem. Ask what they’re trying to do, what gets in the way and how they cope today. A workaround is often a very politely disguised complaint.
THE WORK
Map stakeholders and current journeys. Use interviews, observation and workshops to surface assumptions and agree what still needs checking.
MATCHPOINT EXAMPLE
A MatchPoint research prompt: how does a player know their court, start time and score when information lives in several places?
OUTPUTOpportunity map & research questions
02 / DESIGN FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
間 MA
Even the pause
has a purpose.
In Japanese aesthetics, ma can describe a meaningful interval in space or time. It reminds me that good design needs rhythm, not a relentless stream of information.
That influences the space I leave around important decisions, the pace of an animation and knowing when a pop-up ought to mind its own business.
Read about ma and yohaku at Japan House London ↗03 / CULTURE MEETS CRAFT
Ideas that influence
how I design and live.
These are ideas I keep returning to, drawn from Japanese aesthetics and everyday life. I’m borrowing lessons, not claiming that a whole culture can be reduced to three useful words.
余白
よはく · YOH AKU
Space is part of the composition.
In painting, yohaku is unpainted space with compositional significance. In interfaces, I take it as permission to remove noise and give the important things room to breathe.
間
ま · MA
A meaningful pause.
Not every interaction needs a flourish. I want motion and timing to help people understand what just happened, without competing for attention.
一期一会
いちごいちえ · ICHIGO ICHIE
Give the present moment attention.
Drawn from Japanese tea culture, this expression encourages care for each unique encounter. It resonates with my approach to research conversations and time spent outdoors.
READ MORE / THE BOOK
Ideas worth
returning to.
My book UX Is Dead, Long Live UX argues that screens and tools may change, but people remain gloriously, stubbornly human. That’s where good design starts.
Discover the UX book ↗CRAIG WESTON / READING NOTES
UX≠UI.
PEOPLE, PURPOSE & PRINCIPLES
Editorial artwork, not a quote from the book