pTools CMS

pTools System6 is an enterprise-level content management system (CMS) trusted by thousands of Government and private sector employees in Ireland and abroad. The primary objective leading into this project was to improve the user experience while aiming to expand the customer base.

It was apparent from the beginning that the interface had become a victim of feature bloat over its ten year life. The initial step was to consider the information architecture. I began by asking some important questions.

• Does the system work in a logical manner?


• Is it easy for a new user to become familiar with the software?


• How could it be better?

Following multiple rounds of prototyping, I was able to reach a viable solution. As development progressed, it was decided that the redesign would spearhead a larger, company-wide re-brand. The CMS was to be known as pTools System6.

pTools Brand

As the development of pTools System6 progressed, the need for an entire rebrand became a high priority. Much like the content management software, the pTools website and communication material had become stuck in a by-gone era; many of the decisions made in 1999 were no longer appropriate to the target market over a decade later.

I discussed objectives with the marketing division of the company to create a brand experience that was consistent across all points of contact. Regularly communicating details about the redesign (dimensions, colors, fonts) to engineers was important throughout.

The culture of a company or office plays an important role in the success of its product. In an effort to improve social interaction between employees we designed new floor plans and seating arrangements.

Blaast

Blaast's vision was to launch "the world's first cloud-based mobile platform" in Jakarta, Indonesia in cooperation with the mobile operator XL. I was hired to help guide the design of this vision.

My work focused on two areas: User Interface and User Experience. I regularly participated in high-level strategic planning with the rest of the product, engineering, marketing and executive teams. Due to the relatively small product team at Blaast –which comprised of ten people– I was placed in a position of responsibility at an early stage. As my knowledge of Blaast's product and market position developed, I increasingly played a leading role in decision making relating to Interaction Design.

Blaast provided me with an opportunity to represent the company at product events in Indonesia. These events played a crucial role in our understanding of user expectations and frustrations; which helped sharpen the experience we were trying to create. Finland's Foreign Trade Minister, Alexander Stubb, visited Jakarta to attend the launch event. Thirty days after launching, Blaast had acquired 100K users.

HelloSign

HelloFax is building the paperless office. They also let everyone send and receive faxes from anywhere without a fax machine.

Part of the solution was to develop an iPhone app, HelloSign. HelloSign is eliminating the need for printers, scanners, fax machines, PDF editors and complicated electronic signature technology. The app allows users to photograph, sign and send documents all from the palm of their hand.

Discover Dublin

It is estimated that 80% of those living and working within Dublin city center use walking as their primary mode of transport; in addition, Dublin caters to an average of four million overseas visitors per year.

I believe that knowing where you are is an important prerequisite for knowing where you want to be. It is the aim of Discover Dublin to provide the inhabitants and visitors of Dublin City with a clear and useful tool to navigate the city. A tool to understand where they are, so that they can better decide where they want to be. In preparation for this project I completed a thesis paper on the potential problems, design and experience of large scale information systems.

The Irish Times

The Irish Times is widely considered the daily newspaper of record in Ireland. A respected publication, it offers a text-heavy analysis on current national and international events. However, over the years the reading experience had deteriorated.

This project aimed to refresh the content, through a comprehensive redesign of the reading experience. Using rich infographics, strong vertical rhythm and legible typography, the reader now feels a greater sense of informative story-telling, which had become jaded over the years.

A natural progression of this project would be to further explore digital media such as desktop, mobile and tablet experiences.


Before (Left) After (Right)


The smaller, 'Berliner' format provides a more managable reading experience.

Macro

Friendships can easily become diluted over digital frontiers. By their nature, social networks create an illusion of intimacy, yet when observed further it's usually quite the opposite.

This frustrated me, so I created Macro. Macro has no other motive other than to accommodate Friendship, as it is. This project is still in development, however I'd be more than happy to demo what has been built so far.

Implement This

I created 'Yo Zuck! Implement this' as a sort of online notebook of ideas. It was my way of expressing ideas that I felt could improve Facebook's user experience. Many of the ideas grew from frustration and curiosity.

My ideas resonated with users and Facebook employees alike, even Mark Zuckerberg took notice, apparently saying it was 'cool'. After a few days, I was interviewed by many technology news outlets.

Want Facebook To Be Better? So Did 'YoZuck!' Creator Youssef Sarhan — TechCrunch
10 Smart Features This Kid Thought Of (And Got Facebook's Attention) — Business Insider
“Yo Zuck” Tumblr Gets Facebook’s Attention — BetaBeat
New blog cooks up dream Facebook features — CNET

Since last may, 7 of the suggestions I posted have been implemented. While I don't claim total ownership over the ideas I think it's telling of my ability to understand user experience. In addition, I had numerous Facebook employees reaching out to me to agree with my ideas and acknowledged my aptitude for comprehensively understanding their product, especially as an outsider.

Among many other experiments, I conducted regular tests based on the relevancy of News Feed content to garner a better understanding of the problems users face.



After years of using Twitter, I felt I could created a similar blog full of suggestions. Many of suggestions have been met with agreement and I believe further illustrate my ability to understand user needs.

An open letter to Skype

Skype is great, but it lacks something. The experience feels fragile. Parts of the interface move around, disappear, collapse and hide. There are so many configurations of the one interface that the user experience becomes incredibly inconsistent.

I spent a few hours tackling just some of the issues I feel cause friction in the user experience. Skype got in touch to say they appreciated the suggestions and that their product team would be taking a look at the ideas. Job done!

Link: http://labs.sefsar.com/skype

Motion Reel 2012

My motion reel features a range of work combining client and personal projects. Client List: Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records (Eminem, P. Diddy, Black Eyed Peas), National Association of Federal Credit Unions, Savant Wear, URBN Travel, amongst others.

In my spare time, I like to keep my animation skills in check. A huge part of a successful animation is clear storytelling, and I feel in many ways this is true with all forms of design.

Turn the sound up and go fullscreen.