I am a User Experience Consultant from Brighton.
How do you like them apples?
What I do
I want to make businesses better by understanding and evolving their online services. Regardless of what the primary focus of the site is, it can always be improved and over time it will need to change to suit the needs of the people it is designed for. That is after all what user experience design is.
Having a website is not about pretty pictures and over sized buy now buttons. It's about people and it's about customer service.
User Experience studies help to engage with website users, create websites and services that are tailored to your audience and give you a higher return on investment.
Working with me is not the same as going to your local digital agency. I wont give you fancy looking page designs, I wont tell you to use CMS A over CMS B because it has better funk and wagnalls. I also wont ask you what your budget is then give you a lesser service because your purse doesn't fit my pocket. There are no hard deadlines, no dreary documents and I wont be building the site for you. What you will get is my expertise; 10 years in web design and development, and a partner for life.
The web, your customers and your needs change. Sometimes daily. By working together, we can create tools and techniques that will allow you to facilitate those changes on your own without the need for continually putting out to tender web projects that always seem half finished. Give a man a fish, he can eat for a day. Give a man a fishing rod and he can make a really cool website that people enjoy and buy a speed boat.
What kind of stuff will we do?
We'll work together. That's the most important part of it all. You know your business and your customers better than I do (unless they're Converge fans or lovers of 80s children's television, then we may have to agree to disagree) so you need to be in the driving seat.
I'll show you how to conduct research, what to do with what you learn, how to communicate it and how to design solutions that respond to your findings.
Gee that sounds Swell
If you'd like to talk to me about something you're working on, need a hand with a difficult project or can't remember all the words to the theme tune for Henry's Cat, tweet me, or give me call.
Anything else you can tell me?
Of course! I have been working in web design since 2002. I started out running support and designing interfaces for a CRM package for Solicitors in the UK called CaseKeeper. Later, I helped redevelop and release an accounts package and the second version of the CRM which became iLaw.
After several years at Anya; part of the Legal Software Suppliers Association (LSSA), I joined a network solutions company based out of Shoreham Airport in West Sussex.
I developed systems for Frost Cars Ltd; the South East's largest car dealership, Swain and Jones, Classic Collection Holidays, SKi Plan, Genesis Logistics and Pyroban. I also developed a research tool funded by News International for finding degrees of separation between celebrities and members of the public.
PureResponse
In 2008 I joined the team at Pure360. By my departure in 2011 I had run projects to introduce the service into Europe, formed an email marketing design agency in-house; managing campaigns for Innocent Drinks, Rightmove, Seatwave, Mode Pelle & Tag Heuer and became the Senior Front End Developer for the platform. Working in the dev team I introduced user centred design thinking, defining the user experience through pre-sales, customer service, application use and support. My final project was a rebuild of the entire interface for PureResponse from the ground up in a backbreaking but very rewarding six months.
Entering the agency world
Towards the end of 2011 I joined the Strategy Team at Lightmaker, an international digital agency. I led several projects for Eurotunnel Le Shuttle, Fulham FC, LexisNexis, Office Chairs UK and The Department For Welfare and Pensions.
Living in the now
In 2012 I became a full time Freelance User Experience Consultant. I have worked on projects for Fairtrade, Channel4, The Guardian, 23red, Purina One and Headmasters.
My Passions
Music is the biggest passion in my life and has been since my early teens. I have quite a broad and varied taste from Pig Destroyer to Bach. Until recently I was a guitarist in Here There Be Monsters, I love the metal genre, it's emotional, often tribal scenes and energy are inspiring. Occasionally I write and take photos for music blogs. I've worked with some great people and great names, publications and artists. You can see some of my old Photography work on Flickr, and my old site avangelistphotography.com. At either location you'll find images, tearsheets and links to the people I've worked with such as Thrash Hits, where I am also the website manager, Drownedinsound, The Source, Pitchforkmedia, Virtual Festivals and Sonisphere to name a few. My previous blog, is now archived at blog.avangelistdesign.com
I also ride a motorbike; a rather snazzy fully faired Suzuki SV650s in Canary yellow, think that there is a good chance Cal Cruthlow will finish in the top 5 of the MotoGP this year (I know I'm crazy right?), and am an avid gamer. You can join me on Xbox as AvangelistXMB, and PSN as The_Avangelist.
I've started a new blog (all hail Tumblr), blog.byandyparker.com.