Hello, I am
a designer
a researcher
an anthropologist
disabled

I am a designer and anthropologist passionate about making services work for people and organisations. My creative practice is driven by openness, curiosity, and collaboration. I use approaches and methods from service design, co-design, ethnography, and social research.

This allows me to unravel and re-imagine experiences and services, and to lead and engage others in this process. I care deeply about inclusive design and the impact my work has. I thrive where research, design and strategy meet.

Work

Making Child Benefit Digital

Service Design | Design Leadership | Government

Carers Census

Health & Care | Service Design

Digital Prescribing

Health & Care | Service Design

Service Patterns in Health

Health & Care | Service Design | Strategy

The NHS: A taxonomy

Health & Care | Service Design | Strategy

Universal Barriers to Access

Health & Care | Service Design | User Research

Endocrinology Pathways

Health & Care | Service Design | User Research

Experience Map

Health & Care | Service Design

Scottish Access Collaborative

Health & Care | Service Design

Future of Care at Home

Health & Care | Speculative Design

Salty Lives

Health & Care | Design

Evaluating Experience Labs

Health & Care | Strategy

Collaborative Futures

Speculative Design | Prototyping

Island Life

Ethnography | Community Engagement

Citizenship

Health & Care | Strategy | Evaluation

The Future of Food

Speculative Design | Research

BPay at the Gym

Strategy | User Experience

Making a Difference

Ethnography | Anthropology | Research

Ritual and Change

Ethnography | Anthropology | Research

Droplet

Service Design | Business Model

skills

Leadership & Strategy

Reflective design practitioner committed to continuous learning. Experienced in scoping and leading design work, in involving others in conversation and collaboration around design, and in assuring work meets high standards. Confident managing relationships, and communicating the value of design to stakeholders and team members at all levels.

Coaching & Capacity Building

Experienced in working alongside non-design teams, in training and coaching to increase capacity and understanding, and in embedding user-centred approaches. Confident in mentoring others, highlighting the benefits of design-led approaches, contributing to strategic conversations, and championing inclusive design.

Inclusion & Equalities

Value-driven. Experienced facilitator of in-person and remote co-design workshops and participatory design for Scottish Care, Digital Health and Care Institute, NHS Scotland, Scottish Government, Royal Bank of Scotland, NHS Digital Service, The Alliance, and Crisis. Confident in developing and implementing strategies and methods towards a more inclusive design practice.

Research & Analysis

Skilled in designing, planning and conducting ethical user research using qualitative methods such as interviews, ethnography, workshops, engagement tools, and user testing methodologies. Experienced in analysing research data, using insights to produce actionable design directions for delivery teams, and visualising research insights through user journeys, service blueprints, personas, and other design tools.

Design & Synthesis

Confident at developing, selecting, adapting, and applying appropriate design tools and methods. Excel at translating needs of users, staff, and organisations into service concepts and at engaging others in this process. Experienced in using design to ideate, prototype, validate, and iterate proposed digital or service solutions, and to communicate how design decisions were reached. Competent creating prototypes, exhibitions, visual maps, user journeys, personas, digital interfaces, and service blueprints to communicate and test design proposals.

Collaboration & Engagement

Experienced and confident in working alongside a wide range of colleagues, stakeholders, and co-designers. Thrive in multi-disciplinary teams of domain experts, policy professionals, software engineers, product and programme managers, user researchers, and user interface designers. Good public speaking skills, including talks on service design at Collaborate Bristol 2022, Digital Scotland 2020, Digital Health and Care Network, The Alliance self-management week, NHS Design Community of Practice, and Scottish Care annual conference.

Work Experience

Since Jul 2023

Service Design Practice Lead

At Opencast Software

Aug 2022 - Jun 2023

Senior Service Designer

At Opencast Software

I worked with a cross-functional team at HMRC to deliver a digital service for claiming child benefit. Leading a group of less experienced designers, I promoted good practice in a rapid and complex project. I enabled collaboration across the programme, and supported my team to develop and iterate internal processes collaboratively. This included documenting and evidencing design decisions, working in the open, and seeking feedback. Within my team, I acted as a strong design voice, promoting the understanding and importance of design roles. And I supported others to confidently influence and advocate for user-centred design.

Feb 2021 - Aug 2022

Senior Service Designer

At NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland

I championed inclusive design, and provided design expertise at all levels. This included influencing senior stakeholders in NHS and government. And helping to organise Scotland’s emerging design community of practice in health and care. I also led service design across multiple long-term strategic programmes. My role was to coach clinical teams on applying design tools and methods. And to support them to create and implement system change.

Oct 2019 - Feb 2021

Service Designer

At NHS NES Digital Service

I joined a new team developing digital tools from within the NHS. I established and nurtured equality, diversity, and inclusive design practices. I also led service design for multiple agile delivery teams. This meant developing processes and methods to embed people’s needs at the centre of our products, content, and services. And I defined the direction and strategy for the new National Digital Platform as a tool to enable service transformation across different parts of health and care.

Oct 2018 - Sep 2019

Service Designer

At Cohesion Medical

I worked on products to better record and manage clinical data. I collaborated with engineers and other designers, ensuring all products are person-centred and enable end-to-end journeys. I supported business strategy, and helped to identify and curate compelling examples of our work.

May 2018 - Sep 2019

Research Associate

At The Glasgow School of Art, Digital Health and Care Institute

Working as part of a multidisciplinary design team, I supported multiple projects. I developed new methods for collaborative workshops for Scottish Government. I trained colleagues in a method I developed for mapping complex cross-organisational services. I mentored junior designers. And I taught postgraduate students on design ethnography and innovation for health and care.

Apr 2017 - Apr 2018

Innovation Designer

At The Glasgow School of Art, Institute of Design Innovation

My role was to evaluate the work of GSA's health and care design lab. I designed and conducted interviews and creative workshops, to involve a variety of stakeholders in this process. I also researched and curated innovative processes, approaches, and tools in the field. I developed strategies for embedding these to make the team's co-design work more inclusive, fair, and impactful.

Sep 2016 - Jan 2017

Graduate Designer

At The Glasgow School of Art, Collaborative Futures

I mentored and worked alongside a multidisciplinary student team. We explored the future of banking through in-depth research into emerging behaviours. We prototyped and tested speculative concepts, and produced actionable recommendations. The resulting tools supported the client team to embed user centred design into their practice.

Jun 2014 - Jun 2015

Business Analyst

At Neat Living

I helped clarify the business opportunity for this startup. I tested it against the target market. And I redefined the value proposition and business model with people at its centre. I managed partnerships with West College and Strathclyde University aimed at involving young people in design.

Jan 2015 - Mar 2015

Design Ethnographer

At 360 Studio

Working in a multidisciplinary team of designers and researchers at this innovation studio, I carried out a series of primary research activities, synthesized the results, and used these to support the design of new potential user experiences. Based on insights from user research, my team and I mapped a comprehensive service blueprint and identified future opportunities to pilot this in new markets.

Volunteering

Jun 2017 - Jun 2020

Registry Advisor

Cystic Fibrosis Trust

As someone with both lived experience and design expertise, I advise the UK Cystic Fibrosis Trust in developing a Registry dashboard where people with CF will be able to securely view their health information and enter wellbeing data that can be added to their NHS record.

Sep 2010 - Jun 2011

Residential Carer

Camphill Vallersund Gaard, Norway

I lived and worked in an ecovillage and community of purpose shared by disabled and non-disabled people on a small peninsula close to Trondheim in Norway. I learnt to weave and to knit, to cook, to collaborate, to love snow, and to pass very long winters.

Sep 2008 - Jun 2009

Residential Carer

At CSV London

I provided care and company for someone living with cerebral palsy and epilepsy while sharing their home, countless cups of tea, and after a little encouragement, an active life and love for buzzing London.

Education

Sep 2015 - Sep 2016

MDes | Design Innovation & Citizenship

The Glasgow School of Art | With Distinction

I developed a human-centred design practice with a strong focus on collaboration and translating research insights into inclusive service concepts. I explored how design can be used to understand, critically examine, and re-imagine the cultures, institutions and systems that shape our world, and to articulate preferable futures.

Sep 2011 - Jun 2014

MA | Anthropology & Sociology

The University of Glasgow | First Class

I gained theoretical knowledge and practical experience of designing and conducting ethical research projects using qualitative methods such as ethnography and interviews. Moreover, I developed critical thinking and a sociological imagination of relating individual biographies to culture, contexts, and systems.

Training

Moving Ahead | Jul 2023

Mission Include

Upfront | Jul 2022

Bond 6

University of Glasgow | Microcredential | Jul 2021

Management & Leadership in Health Services

NHS Digital | Feb 2020

Clinical Risk Management Training

ILM Institute of Leadership & Management | Aug 2016

Enterprise & Entrepreneurship Level 3

International School of Storytelling | Mar 2011

Healing Words: Storytelling & Peace Building