ABout me

I enjoy working as part of a team and feel my positive and likeable personality go a long way in getting the task at hand completed to a high standard. My extensive design education has given me a firm appreciation of pioneers within my field, but has also instilled in me a desire to leave my own mark on the discipline of design. To this effect, I relish the opportunity of a design challenge, calling on my own skill set and the skill sets of my team to provide the most comprehensive and clever solutions possible in any given situation. 

2018 - Present

co-FOunder

Lacuna Digital Consultation

Whilst doing some contract work back in 2018 I needed to formalise my process for billing clients and making tax returns, for this reason I decided the setup my own digital consultation service called Lacuna. I have worked with a number of clients either by visiting their offices or working in-house. These clients have ranged from large multinational corporations to high potential start ups.

Lacuna specialises in putting a formal design and development process in place for businesses that traditionally haven’t had one. This process is built on the principles of transparency for the client as well as speed and continuous integration of digital offerings. We ensure this by getting all team members working to their strengths and towards a common goal.

As founder, I have relished the opportunities I have had to lead teams, validate concepts and products with management, but mostly I’ve prided myself on ensuring that everyone feels a sense of self-satisfaction with their own contribution to the work we do.

2017 - Present

co-FOunder

Codeucate

In early 2017, myself my brother Andy and my dad Frank set up and founded our own company, Codeucate ltd. Codeucate is a browser-based learning environment for teachers that allows them to teach children how to code. In the past year, after receiving approval from the Irish Department of Education, we embarked on a journey to bring IT learning to every Irish classroom and beyond. We delivered a successful online summer course for primary teachers and brought our product to the Web Summit's Alpha programme for some peer advice, VC interest and exploration of potential market opportunities.  We also successfully participated and gained funding from our local County Enterprise Board though the Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur competition.

Codeucates main aim is to build a free method of learning to code for everyone.

2016- 2018

LEAD UI/UX Designer

Dynamic Res

Here I was responsible for new product feature concept and design. This was based on user experience and customer success principles. I very much enjoyed the process of identifying and documenting the requirements of our target market, defining their work flow and then designing features based on 'jobs to be done'. From initial concept sketches right up to high fidelity mock-ups, I relished the opportunity to work alongside and learn from highly accomplished developers and industry experts. 

Further to my responsibilities in designing the product, I very much enjoyed the process of talking to and ensuring the success of our customers. I accomplished this by having focused conversations with our users about their needs and desires for a tailor-made quoting and booking solution. Beyond conducting customer interviews, I was also the lead for setting up and maintaining our customer success engagement strategy through intercom. I wrote and implemented action-based messaging, our knowledge base, as well as trouble shooting and FAQ documents. 

Internally, I was responsible for writing many of Dynamic Res's 'HQ' documents on the platform Nuclino. These internal documents were used to define design and development methodologies as well as being a way of defining our initial hypothesis for new product features. I also documented numerous customer success and engagement strategies as well as documenting brand guidelines.

Other responsibilities that I undertook included a redesign of the company's website, animated and video collateral, printed marketing collateral & social media content.

Want to design like me? Here's where I started : Universal Principles of Design

Want to understand how software development should work? Start here: The Mythical Man Month

2014- 2016

Lead UI/UX Designer

Davra Networks

At Davra Networks I was responsible for leading the design initiative. Davra is quickly becoming the quickest to scale SaaS platform for IoT solutions worldwide. 

As a designer at Davra, I was constantly challenged to provide UI/UX solutions for a multitude of users in every profession. 

Using the platform as a base from which to create, I was successful in designing a number of ground-breaking IoT user solutions in the areas of transport, healthcare, military/police response, worker safety, manufacturing, waste collection, traffic management, usage-based insurance, light rail/rail optimisation, urban area wifi solutions and criminal activity management. 

Voted best overall platform at the IoT Evolution expo 2016, Las Vegas.

2014- 2014

Head Designer

Small Park Social

As part of my work at the start-up Small Park Social, I took the lead on design direction on numerous digital marketing projects. Utilising my skills in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, I designed projects for use in print and on the web.
I was also an integral part of new marketing concept generation, using my skills as a creative thinker to give projects an edge.

2013- 2013

Tutor/ Regional Lead

Digital Skills Academy

Having just completed the Webelevate course with the Digital Skills Academy, I was thrilled to be interviewed for an opportunity to tutor on their Webactivate program. Webactivate is mostly web-development based, but elements of user-centred design, photoshop, illustrator and UI design are core learning objectives. Passing on what knowledge I have gained over my career to people also looking to get into the industry has been very rewarding thus far and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the successes of the people involved.

2011 - 2012

Printer's Assistant

Print Plus

Working at Print Plus started me off at the very bottom of the print industry. From numbering docket books to adding spines to books and leaflets, working in Print Plus gave me a great appreciation of the process involved in the print industry . My favourite part of the internship was vehicle decaling and stitching vinyls.
Overall, working in Print Plus gave me the grass-roots knowledge and appreciation for what goes on behind the scenes when I design something.

2015- 2015

IBAT

Advanced Diploma - Web Design

skills acquired

- .JS
- HTML/ CSS
- GIT
- React.Js

2012 - 2013

Digital Skills Academy

Higher Diploma - Advanced Graphics for the Web

skills acquired

- Adobe Creative Suite
- User-Centred Design
- Web Development
- Design Systems
- Task Analysis
- Storyboarding
- Wireframing
- Mental Modeling
- Project Mangement
- Scope Of Analysis

2007 - 2011

IT Carlow

Ba (Hons) Product Design And Innovation

skills acquired

- Concept Generation
- User-Centred Design
- Applied Human Factors
- Manufacturing Logistics
- Rapid Prototyping
- Visual Communication
- Marketing
- Design History
- Digital Media
- Web Design
- Applied Ergonomics
- User Interface Design
- User Experience Design
- Business Development
- Sustainable Design
- Material Science
- CAD
- CAM