A good way to think about this is if you picture building a house.

The builder (aka developer) will build the house and the interior designer (aka UI/graphic designer) will enhance it with the right aesthetics and finishing touches that bring it to life, but it is the architect who first needs to work out the correct structural plan for the people who will live there.

Similarly, my role as a UX designer is to think logically and make sure the appropriate structure is in place for the users of the product based on their real needs.

As with any business project, you are rarely doing the project for the sake of it but rather for the results and outcome it will hopefully bring.

I'm a target-driven, goal oriented person who will help you identify those end results and work out the best solutions to maximise the desired outcomes.

Nothing within a product exists in isolation.

It is therefore important to understand the impact something has on everything else around it, which in turn impacts everything around those things, and so on.

I always keep this in mind when making design decisions to ensure changes are properly thought through.

I am very open and honest about my decision rationales, avoiding jargon, so that a meaningful discussion can be had to make sure we've got them right.

When we work together it is very much a team project. It's important for me that you retain a sense of ownership and control over what we're designing as it is for your business and your users.

We'll do this by:

- catching up regularly to review updated designs so they can be adjusted if needed;

- discussing all the design decisions to ensure you are happy;

- and by asking you to help with the research, especially competitor analysis so that I can understand your style and preferences.

Working iteratively means we try out different ideas and see what actually works, adjusting the designs where needed, to end up with the best solution.

This both removes the stress and pressure of having to get everything right the first time and gives us the freedom to learn and make further discoveries as we go.

After all - these projects are meant to be fun!

User experience design is all about solving problems for the user.

The first step in this is to identify and understand the correct problems as it doesn't matter how good the solution is if you're solving the wrong thing.

I use a combination of research methods to give the most accurate representation of the existing user problems - from individuals (qualitative) to group statistical (quantitative) data, looking at both what the users say (attitudinal) and what they actually do (behavioural).