Company: Dentsu Creative / GM Europe / Cadillac
Project: Cadillac - Ecommerce website for Europe
Role: Design Director
Responsibilities: User research, user experience design & strategy, UX/UI, prototyping, creative direction, team and client management.
———————————————————————————
At the end of 2023, GM (General Motors) launched its all-electric, direct-to-consumer Cadillac business in Europe.
I joined Dentsu Creative as design director to lead the design across projects to support the launch of Cadillac in Switzerland and France.
Working closely with the GM Europe experience team, we designed an augmented reality app to enhance the retail experience, enabling people to explore the LYRIQ’s feature in an immersive and innovative way. We also supported the design and launch of the website and the content screen/signage for the retail stores.
———————————————————————————
Team: Managing partner (x1), Project Director (x1), Design Director (x1), Experience Director (x1), Senior User experience Designer (x1), Senior UI Designer, Senior 3D Artist (x1), Engineers/developers (x2)
Company: Arrival
Project: Connected Vehicle Platform (Saas)
Role: Head of design
Responsibilities: User research, user experience strategy, UX/UI, design team management, design direction and product management.
———————————————————————————
Context:
Arrival had been revolutionising the design and production of electric vehicles to promote end-to-end sustainability using a radical new method for large-scale electrification.
The Connected Vehicle Platform was a Saas platform designed for engineers to provide a scalable and modular suite of digital products that enabled engineers to develop vehicle softwares - from configuration, to testing, diagnose issu, carry out remote test as well as tracking and video streaming.
After 2 years in the making with a technology development and new feature approach, Arrival decided to redesign it with a design thinking approach to improve the overall user experience, look & feel and integration with other arrival digital products.
Redesign:
I lead the end-to-end redesign from concept to production of this platform, acting as a lead and managing 2 product designers.
Collaborating with multiple internal teams and external customers to deliver an intuitive, functional and beautifully crafted user experience in line with Arrival’s brand.
This responsive SaaS app use IoT technology to enable real-time remote vehicle performance assessment and diagnostics. Some of the main features include vehicle configuration, systems and performance testing, location and health tracking, live and archived CCTV streaming, diagnose fault diagnostic, remote repair, parts ordering, service booking, and maintenance scheduling.
We redesigned the platform in collaboration with the e-com and HMI teams to deliver an integrated and functional user experience in line with Arrival's core design principles.
Outcomes:
- User experience product strategy
- Customer journey maps & product roadmap
- User experience design, design direction, prototyping,
- Platform development
———————————————————————————
Team: Head of design (x1), Product designers (x2), User researcher (x1), Product owner (x1), Engineers/developers (x20)
Credits: 3D renders and visualisations created by the Arrival industrial design team.
Date: 2024
Company: Dentsu Creative / GM Europe / Cadillac
Project: Cadillac - Augmented reality retail experience (Europe)
Role: Design Director
Responsibilities: User experience design & strategy, UX/UI, creative direction, team and client management, 3D design and prototyping.
———————————————————————————
At the end of 2023, GM (General Motors) launched its all-electric, direct-to-consumer Cadillac business in Europe.
I joined Dentsu Creative as design director to lead the design across projects to support the launch of Cadillac in Switzerland and France.
Working closely with the GM Europe experience team, we designed an augmented reality app to enhance the retail experience, enabling people to explore the LYRIQ’s feature in an immersive and innovative way. We also supported the design and launch of the website and the content screen/signage for the retail stores.
———————————————————————————
Team: Managing partner (x1), Project Director (x1), Design Director (x1), Experience Director (x2), Senior User experience Designer (x1), Senior UI Designer (x2), Senior 3D Artist (x1), Engineers/developers (x2)
Company: Arrival
Project: App Store & Developer platform (Saas)
Role: Head of design
Responsibilities: User research, user experience strategy, UX/UI, design team management, design direction and product management.
———————————————————————————
Context:
Once on the road, Arrival's vehicles can connect to a range of applications, from delivery operation managers seeking to optimise their fleet's profitability to drivers looking to interact with their vans. All these digital services will be available through one marketplace Connect Store be accessible via applications, some built in-house and some by third-party developers, similar to the Apple Store.
To enable third-party developers to develop their application for Arrival vehicles, we developed an integration platform to enable them to do so with api documentations and simulation tools.
New online App Store & Integration platform
We organised a series of product strategy workshops with senior stakeholders, product and engineering leads to review the Connect Store's business strategy, value proposition, audience, key features, and create high-level customer journey maps of the platform to be divided into two areas:
Connect Store: a digital marketplace where fleet managers, drivers or service engineers can browse mobility apps, subscribe, and access them via MyArrival personalised space.
Integration App: an application where commercial partners and developers can learn how to develop, test and publish softwares for Arrival’s vehicle on Arrival Connect Store.
The product team designed both simultaneously in collaboration with the e-com, HMI and fleet app teams to deliver an intuitive, functional and beautifully crafted user experience in line with Arrival’s core design principles.
———————————————————————————
Team: Head of design (x1), Product designers (x2), User researcher (x1), Product owner (x2), Engineers/developers (x9)
Credits: 3D renders and visualisations created by the Arrival industrial design team.
Company: Arrival
Project: Fleet management app
Role: Design Lead
Responsibilities: user research, UX/UI, prototyping, design direction, design team management.
Team: Design Lead (x1), Product designers (x2), User researcher (x1), Product owner (1), Engineers/developers (x6)
Agency: Seven Publishing
Client: Linda Farrow
Project: design and develop an app for Linda Farrow - a luxury eyewear brand - enabling customers to access fashion news, social media posts and online store with augmented reality enabling customer to try on glasses and share with friends.
Role: Lead designer
Responsibilities: user experience, UI, team management and design direction.
Team: Lead designer (x1), Product designer (x1), Product owner (x1), Developers (x3)
Company: Arrival
Project: interior and exterior bus screen design
Role: Lead designer
Responsibilities: User experience, visual and motion design
Team: Lead designer (x1), Product designers (x1), Product owner (x2)
Challenge
Every city is different, so the Arrival bus can be tailored to local needs. Arrival’s modular bus design enables configuration of length, range and capacity with a human-centred design made for passengers, drivers, fleet operators, cleaning staff, pedestrians, cyclists and urban residents.
This new generation of buses feature state-of-the-art wrap-around LED screens for displaying direction, passenger information, and advertising, all managed through a digital application.
Our challenge was to design a seamless and elegant user experience concept for interior and exterior screens that aligns with Arrival's design principles (minimal, mindful, and magical) and our user experience design framework ARC (Astonishingly crafted user experience, permanent, and 100% functional).
Solution
We began by researching signage design used in public/office space to create an inspiration mood board in line with our design principle and brand vision.
We then developed bus journey maps with information that should be displayed at different stages of the journey, and visual maps of interior and exterior bus screen locations, including technical information such as screen resolution and refresh rate.
Based on these, we explored visual and motion design in Figma and After Effects that we reviewed and improved through continuous testing using a 3D bus simulator/VR environment, and iterations with the bus program, product and engineering leads.
The screen designs were tested on real screens before being used for the First Bus trial in Leeds in September 2022.
Personal project: Interior design to showcase Sony’s Ult Wear Headphones - scene modelling, art direction, texturing, lighting & rendering.
Software used: Cinema4D & Redshift
Personal project: Home speaker concept for Bang & Olusfen - product design modelling, texturing, lighting & rendering.
Software used: Cinema4D & Redshift
Personal project: Minimal fabric - 3D visualisation (simulation, lighting, texturing & rendering)
Software used: Cinema4D, Redshift & Photoshop
Company: Arrival
Project: Elements - brand identity concept for an Arrival sub-brand to commercialise its electric vehicles parts and technology.
Role: Head of design
Responsibilities: brand strategy, design team management, design direction, product management and 3D visualisations.
Credits: some 3D renders and visualisations created by the Arrival industrial design team.
Challenge:
Until now, Elements had been a division within Arrival responsible for the supply chain and production of in-house designed components.
The visual identity for Elements needed to fit within Arrival’s brand visual language, with a focus on the modular, scalable, and technological design of its products and services for the automotive industry.
Solution:
We carried out an in-depth research into the automotive part suppliers and electric mobility markets to assess trends, identify opportunities, and potential for differentiation.
Outcomes:
The brand identity reflects the modular, scalable, and technological character of the products and technology developed and produced by Elements.
The neon orange which is also used on products as an accent colour brings energy and positivity linked to electric mobility and the good it can bring to communities and society.
The graphic shapes that communicate modularity and movement are combined with a modern adaptive sans-serif font - making the overall visual language modern, dynamic yet simple and accessible for the brand’s complex and technical products and services.
3D product design: Shaun Wellens
Personal project: Rethinking Uber Eats - A Neumorphic UI Concept
Software used: Figma, Photoshop & After Effects
Company: Arrival
Project: design a new version of a diagnostic test device that allows automotive engineers to connect their laptop to vehicles to check its performance and potential issues.
Role: Head of design
Responsibilities: design direction, 3D visualisation and product management.
Team: Head of design (x1), Industrial designer (x1), Product owner (x1)
Challenge
The Diagnostic Tool Lite (DTL) is a portable diagnostic test device that offers direct interfaces for 2 CAN channels and 1 LIN Channel. It allows the user to connect the device to their laptop and use smart applications for diagnostics, testing, plotting, and simulation.
The product is mobile and can be held in the hand or placed on an uneven surface like a dashboard. The user may have greasy hands or might be wearing gloves, so grip features and large rubber over-mouldings for grip and protection are typical of similar products.
To align with other Arrival-designed products, the design needs to adhere to the company’s design principles of minimal, mindful, and magical.
Solution
We defined 3 key considerations that need to be made for this product: grip, durability, and legibility.
- Tennis ball: a lozenge-shaped design that reduces visible splits and feels comfortable in the hand. This simple and scalable form can be applied to future similar Arrival products.
- Rubber case: the existing design would be slightly adapted to be placed in a rubber case providing grip and protection.
Outcomes
We selected the Tennis Ball design to be 3D printed and tested with Arrival and UPS engineers. After some refinements mainly around the lights and inscriptions on the device, the new version of the DTL will be released in mid-2023.
Industrial designer: Kimahni Emsley
Personal project: Polestar 3 - CGI renders
Software used: Cinema4D, Redshift & Photoshop
Agency: WongDoody (ex-Brilliant Basics)
Role: Lead designer
Responsibilities: user experience strategy, UI, team management and design direction.
Team: Creative Director (x1), Lead UX designer (x1), Lead UI designer (x1), UI designers (x5), UX designers (x5), Product owner (x3), Engineers/developers (x20+)
BP partnered with Infosys and WongDoody to implement a full digital transformation of its fleet management and fuel card business with 2 main goals: deliver an optimum technology integration as well as a first in class user experience.
BP FleetExpert is a state of the art fleet management software designed to optimise fuel spending and simplify complex tasks to save valuable time. It gives super-fast insight into fuel consumption & spending, CO2 emissions as well as live transaction data through one dashboard.
As a design lead on this EMEA program, I have been managing the team of designers working hand in hand with the product owners, BA/UX/dev team to design the new fleet management application platform. Working in an Agile way, we designed the new user journeys starting from initial client conversion during workshops to wireframing, design through to prototyping and delivery to the development team. We carried out testing every 3 sprints and implemented changes following user feedback.
We created a design system for the project using Abstract to streamline and standardise the design production, insuring UI and digital brand consistency across the new platform.
Personal project: Samsung Galaxy watch visualisation - lighting, texturing & rendering.
Software used: Cinema4D, Redshift & Photoshop
Personal project: Vision pro concept for the Polestar 4
Software used: Figma & Photoshop
Credit: Interior design CGI by Ahmed Sharara
Recent design & visual explorations (2024)
Date: 2013-2016
Company: Barclays
Project: Cadillac - Ecommerce website for Europe
Role: Lead Designer
Responsibilities: User research, UX/UI, prototyping, creative direction
During my 3 years working at Barclays within the in-house design department, I have worked on a range of digital projects across the bank - for the investment bank, personal & corporate banking and group functions such as the IT & Technology department (Barclays Now - global intranet) and global human resource department. Here are some of the main projects i worked on:
- Barclays Mobile Banking app: Eco-system
This project was a major initiative dedicated to harmonise the bank’s digital offering to personal and corporate customers into a single user experience across digital channels which weren’t aligned. We partnered with UsTwo for the initial concept phase aiming at integrating 3 new sections (Products/Packs, Moments, Rewards) into the app which was then further developed by an in-house team.
I joined the team as a visual design lead to design the user interface and interactive prototype for the "revamped" Barclays App, working closely with the product lead, business analysts, UX designers as well as the brand and the design language team.
I designed the prototype using Sketch and Proto.io on which user testings were carried out at our dedicated testing labs through out the design process, before being presented to senior management for approval before release.
See "Barclays app" to view a video of the prototype as well as visuals.
- Barclays.co.uk: Digital feature store (DFS)
I joined the DFS team as a design lead for the re-design of the online banking experience on desktop to be align to the mobile app as part of the "Eco-system” program (desktop only as the online banking service is not responsive)
- Barclays Now (global intranet): chat app prototype
Most messaging applications being blocked due to Barclays's IT infrastructure security, employees had no simple way of communicating quickly and efficiently through out their day-to-day work.
Working closely with the UX lead, I design the UI and created the prototype of this chat app concept, which was going be integrated within the Barclays Now intranet platform, allowing users to communicate via the secure company intranet on their mobile, tablet and desktop. (visuals only shows mobile for illustration purposes)
- Investment Bank: Equity & Funds Structured markets website
Part of the Investment bank, the EFS division had a restricted access web portal to promote their products to clients which needed a full re-design.
Working closely with the UX lead and the product lead, I designed the new website for desktop which delivered an improved user experience thanks to the new site architecture and with an intuitive user interface in line with the latest design language (desktop only due to the confidential nature and complexity of the content).
