James was great to work with - he made my life easy during a period of high intensity workload by being very proactive and self sufficient on the whole project. We had a very tight turnaround for the project, and he managed this expertly. James is very flexible to adapt to how a project evolves, and we kept refining the questions within the interviews until we got it perfect.

He was also great when directing the interviews as he always made sure that we were able to jump in and ask further questions if we needed to. Google client

James’s user research (UR) contribution to the Common User Platform (CUP) team has been remarkable. His ability to deeply understand user behavior and translate those insights into actionable recommendations is unparalleled. From the initial research planning stages to final analysis, James demonstrated not only a keen eye for detail but also an empathetic approach that made our users feel heard and valued.

His research findings have consistently helped the CUP team make informed design and product decisions that resonate with the Military target audience. The depth of his user interviews, surveys, and wireframe prototype usability testing provided us with invaluable insights that we would not have uncovered otherwise. James has a unique talent for turning complex UR data and insights into clear, impactful strategies for developing digital solutions.

Areas where James has applied his UR skills within the CUP team include:

- Stakeholder engagement:

When the CUP team required engagement with end users of the MOD’s inventory management tool, James was at hand to help. He confidently presented to stakeholders and military points of contact the benefits of UR and the need to conduct research with end users. His approach led to the successful recruitment of users at pace.

- Ethnographic user research:

To fully understand the problem we were looking to solve, James conducted UR with users in their place of work to understand current "As Is" processes and challenges. Recording his sessions gave team members deep insights into the problems we were solving and what the user needs were.

- Analysis:

While working on the CUP, James successfully analyzed data and information from UR sessions, presenting his findings back to the team. This gave the team a full understanding of areas for digitization and problems that needed to be solved for all users.

- Agile ways of working:

James is a team player who understands his role and how it fits in with other Agile delivery roles within the team. At daily stand-ups, James participated by presenting UR findings, which fed into the project’s backlog.

- User journey mapping:

James demonstrated his skill in visually presenting end-to-end user processes with the user journey map he created for the inventory stock management project. His style of mapping uncovered other areas in the user’s wider journey that could be digitized to design a smoother user experience.

I highly recommend James to any organisation looking to elevate their product through a deep understanding of user needs.

His work has been instrumental in helping us design the user experience for BMfS’s Common User Platform, and we could not be more pleased with the results.

Laré Akinmutande - Lead user researcher

Testimonials

James is a talented, experienced, and insightful user researcher who has worked with me for the last 14 months. His strong knowledge of GDS Service Standards are consistently demonstrated, ensuring that work aligns with best practice.

James's infectious enthusiasm and deep commitment to user-centered design have been invaluable to our team. His passion for ensuring that user needs drive the design of services has consistently helped us to prioritise what truly matters. The evidence that James gathered through his user research was fundamental in supporting product decisions and convincing stakeholders of the need to change our approach.

I will really miss James's positive attitude, insights and strong focus on making sure our designs are genuinely shaped by the people who will use them. I would not hesitate to work with James again on future projects.

Andy Graham - Product Owner in the Business Modernisation for Support Programme Ministry of Defence

Defence commissioned a project to enable Users to access Logistics data on mobile devices. The original hypothesis was that logistics staff lacked visibility of stock data when they were away from fixed terminals. Work-arounds bent logistics business process out of shape which resulted in reduced operational effectiveness (responsiveness and throughput) and reduced efficiency.

James and the team proposed and delivered a research methodology aligned to UCD best practices by carrying out qualitative, quantitative and ethnographic studies. James’ primary research uncovered some surprising conclusions, including critically, that we were seeking to solve a problem that didn’t exist; Log Users had little to no need to have Log data on a handheld device.

The research uncovered a far more critical business problem; Engineers could not see items available for issue, and so were unable to make practical decisions about equipment repairs. Lack of visibility meant Engineers were regularly waiting on spares to be delivered and were unable to efficiently use repair bays and sequence jobs according to spares availability.

The team built a prototype ‘Check Stock Availability’ microservice calling Stock Availability data from Defence’s enterprise line of business applications and surfaced that detail on a lightweight application aligned to the .gov design system. The UX development started out as a paper representation allowing end users to engage and shape how the new service looks and functions before wire frames and more complete iterations were developed. User feedback is incredibly supportive with one user calling it a genuine game-changer.

James was patient, diligent and collaborative with the programme commissioning team, the end users and the technical DevOps teams, acting professional in all his engagements and supporting us as we start to embed User Centred Design principles in how we deliver future enterprise digital services.

Patrick Dee │ BMfS Delivery

I worked closely with James in a User Researcher / Service Designer partnership for a year to deliver Discovery and Alpha phases to the GOV.UK Service Standard. James has a T-Shaped skillset, his deep user research experience is supported by Service Design skills. And his overall knowledge of user-centred design and Government Digital Services allows him to contribute to any team objective.

When we started on the project there was a major obstacle in getting access to users for research and testing. James expertly navigated his way through this and established a strong network of engaged users. This unlocked valuable insights for the team, allowing us to demonstrate the value of user-centred design for our stakeholders.

I would thoroughly recommend working with James and adding his skills and experience to your team. He is an engaged, ‘cameras-on’ individual who adds value to all team activities. His work will help you create impact with your stakeholders and achieve your goals.

Jim Wheatley

Service Designer, Head of Design & Research Accenture UK & Ireland