I help teams work out what to make, and then I help make it.
Solving complex problems across strategy, systems and delivery.
I work with teams when:
- Product complexity is increasing
- Design decisions are slow or debated
- Design systems need direction
- Teams want shared principles for product decisions
- Teams are adopting new tools without a clear design process
- New product ideas need rapid prototyping
Recognise any of these problems?
Not sure where to start?
Answer a few quick questions about what’s going on, and I’ll point you to the right kind of help.
Product design and UX
A few recent projects, from client case studies to things I've built myself.
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1,660+ principles · millions reachedDesign Principles: a free library used by millions
A library of real-world design principles, a field guide, workshops and writing that has reached millions of designers and product people since 2017.
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NordhealthFrom Concept to Pilot: Designing and piloting a pet health app
Leading strategic UX design and delivery of a consumer app for pet owners, built on the Provet Cloud platform, from concept through to a clinic pilot.
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Smart PensionMaking pensions easier to understand
As UX Lead within Smart Labs — Smart Pension's in-house innovation team — applying behavioural economics and rapid prototyping to make pensions less scary.
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Hult International Business SchoolPrototyping the product
An 8-week content-first website migration for Ashridge Executive Education — information architecture and content strategy, prototyped inside the CMS.
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FarfetchUser research for visual designers
A one-day user research workshop for Farfetch's visual designers, part of a three-day series with Cennydd Bowles as the team became multidisciplinary.
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Athletico MinceDrawing a podcast
Weekly episode-artwork illustration for Bob Mortimer and Andy Dawson's comedy podcast — a monochrome visual language and reusable symbol library.
What people say
Ben undertook a forensic expert review of the website. Within a short time, he had uncovered opportunities for real improvements and, working collaboratively with the client, had created a prioritised action plan. His in-depth thinking, proposed solutions, and how he communicated with the client impressed me.
Worked with Ben on a 9 week project to rapidly go from design through to MVP build of a new digital service. He played a critical strategic and UX design role and was a great asset to the team — very quick to ramp up, adding value from day one with high quality design outputs, able to work well independently with limited guidance.
Working on the Centre of the Cell project with Ben was great. He’s a very talented designer and creative visual thinker — firefighting is a strength.
Ben is great. Hire Ben.
Ben is really good at designing and drawing and understanding how to make quite technical product much more nice. He’s also a lovely chap, and not all ego and skinny jeans like some of these designers can be. You should probably hire him.
A few people I've worked with
I've written a field guide to making better design decisions
Design Principles in Practice is everything I've learned about making principles actually work. Real examples, field notes and worksheets, drawn from projects like the ones above.
Get the field guide →
Workshops
I facilitate workshops that help teams explore ideas, prototype solutions and improve decision-making.
See examples →Recent writing
Notes on design, principles, and the practicalities of the work.
- 25 August 2026
Your design system has principles. But are they actually guiding decisions?
Most design-system principles are too vague to guide anything — on what it takes for one to actually resolve a trade-off, not just sound right.
- 4 May 2026
Person of the Week on Smashing Magazine
A nice surprise — Smashing Magazine picked me as their Person of the Week.
- 25 March 2026
Principles for knowing when to stop designing
On knowing when further iteration serves the designer more than the user — seven signals that a design decision has already been made.
- 11 March 2026
The difference between rules and principles
Rules remove ambiguity. Principles guide judgement. Confusing the two is one of the most common ways design guidance stops working.
- 11 March 2026
How many design principles should a team have?
There's no universal number, but effective sets tend to be short — on why three to five principles beat a long list every time.
- 10 March 2026
The Honesty Paradox
What the Riddle of the Two Guards tells us about an LLM insisting "to be honest..."
Fancy a chat?
If you have a project or idea that you need help with then I'm happy to talk.
Get in touch