User Centric. Development Conscious.
I'm David Oliver, an experienced, agile, and technically rounded Ominchannel UX/UI Designer with solid frontend development skills and a high profile work history consisting of HUGO BOSS, JD Sports, Nike, Superdry, Quiz Clothing, and more.
Based in Manchester I provide a range of design media, including branding, marketing material, web and app design, as well as frontend development work. The combination of both design and development expertise allows me to inject new approaches into design process using forward thinking frontend development knowledge and basic backed systems.
Creative Through and Through
Art, design, and general creativity have always been my strongest passions and I try to nurture these talents in my spare time. Since 2004 I have been working in the digital and online sector primarily as a self taught designer, gradually picking up development skills along the way.
My career journey began in the photography industry, learning the basics of photography and photo editing for model, wedding, and newborn shoots. Gradually I began to become interested in User Interface design and development, teaching myself HTML/CSS, and using these skills to further dive into CMS development for Wordpress, Joomla, and Magento.
With these basic skills in hand I reverted back to design, realising that this was what I really loved. A few years into my current career step it became apparent that there was a gap in the industry for a designer with development skills. I began to adopt this shared approach into my processes and this is where I am at today, designing user interfaces via development.
Developmentally Considered Design
Design, especially design for web and systems is much more than trying to make information user friendly and giving the brand a nice frame. There is more than just the way the interface looks at consideration here.
First to consider is data. What data do we have access to? A complete picture of data either from databases or APIs is neccesary to present the correct information at the precise point it is needed in the user journey. If the interface design is not presenting all this data correctly and clearly, then it is failing at its core function.
The second consideration is how can we use this data in the front end. Most interface designers will cater to a "here is a complete set of data" scenario, not taking into account the "if's ors', and else's" of the data provided. Reversing engineering the "if's, or's, and else's" into initial design makes it possible to create a more flexible interface that caters to all given user scenerios.
Lastly, how is the project being developed and for what devices? Whilst the particular language itself is less important, be it PHP, React, Angular, or Swift, the device and its environment are essential. Latest browser CSS support and its features both contribute and detract from the user experience. A complete picture of the possible devices the interface is used on will help to support a design that has considered all aspects of the frontend structure and how this might respond across those devices. Understanding this structure and how it responds before development begins alleviates stress between teams and reduces development issues and timescales.
If you would like to see more about my work history and skillsets please download the full PDF below.
