I’m an interaction designer and GDS trained design assessor. I have good knowledge of the GOV.UK Design System, Service Manual and Style Guide. SC cleared.

Here’s my story:

When I was 16 years old, I wanted to design logos and websites.

I had an eye for design, but lacked the practical skill to do it. So I ended up going into frontend development which was more technical.

But most of the designers I worked with gave me complicated and inaccessible designs to implement.

Sometimes I’d suggest changes to simplify the design and improve accessibility. But no matter how solid my rationale or how simple my solution, I couldn’t convince the designers to make changes.

I felt frustrated having to go back to my desk to implement designs which were harder to build, inaccessible and slow to load.

As a result, I started to believe that designers only cared about aesthetics.

In 2014, my wife and I had our home renovated just in time for the arrival of our first baby. But three weeks into a new six-month contract, I was let go. I’d never had so much responsibility and so little money.

But I got a new contract as a UX prototyper at Just Eat, the UK’s leading takeaway delivery service.

Prior to this role I wasn’t part of the design process. So by the time designs were given to me to implement, it always felt too late to give feedback and suggest changes.

But at Just Eat I was embedded in the design team where I could influence solutions from the start.

To my surprise, the designers there weren’t just focused on aesthetics; they cared about UX. We did user research, ran A/B tests and tracked performance.

I worked closely with Mark Jenkins, the lead designer. But he wasn’t like the other designers I had worked with before. He listened to what I had to say and valued it. He advocated for doing the most basic thing, doing it quickly and learning. He didn’t fuss over pixels.

Most importantly, he showed me that, not only was it possible to be a designer like this but that it was better to be a designer like this.

For example, we redesigned the checkout journey by using the most basic and accessible solution. The result was an increased conversion of 5% – 37,000 orders a week.

Mark also encouraged me to start a blog. And 2 of my early posts went viral on Hacker News (multiple times over).

I realised I wasn’t alone and that others resonated with my design philosophy.

Now I’m trying to be the designer I wish I got to work with when I was a dev.

You can find links to my newsletter and courses below ↓

Adam Silver

Kae Anderson, CPACC

Hi, I'm Kae! I've always been curious about people (that's why I have a degree in anthropology!) and I love the internet. I made my first website on Angelfire when I was 14 - it was an *N Sync fan site with a glittery banner and a guestbook. Now I'm using my ability to empathize with people to create positive digital experiences that everyone can use.

A few years ago I was working at a healthcare company, and part of my job was answering calls and emails on a helpdesk. I spent part of each day helping people understand a third-party software system. Training them saved us millions of dollars in potential lost revenue (it was too easy to push the wrong button and send things into the abyss), but it also meant I wasn't doing the rest of my work. 

That experience made me realize I want to create products that people don't have to contact a helpdesk to use, and I decided to learn more about building websites. In 2017 I went to The Iron Yard for front-end development. But it turns out devs don't have to make a site work well, they just have to make it work technically. So in the spring of 2018 I did a UX design program through Springboard. 

After finishing the program I looked for a UX role and ended up finding an accessibility position instead, which turned out to be the perfect fit. Now I get to focus on making digital products that are usable by whoever wants to use them.

I love working on the design side of accessibility. That can be with a creative solo entrepreneur who has their own website, or with a design team at a big company. Most accessibility issues can be fixed in the design, and it's where the ideas and opportunities are. 

I'm looking for a new role, and I'd really like to keep working in this field!

If you're curious about who I am as a person here's some info for you! 
- I love traveling (I've been to 27 countries - the Scottish Highlands, Prague, and Buenos Aires are my favorite places so far)
- I like reading (I own more than 900 books), watching cozy TV shows (I love The Repair Shop and Home Town), and the Oxford comma
- I'm an INFP, Enneagram 4w5, Adobe Thinker, and Sparketype Essentialist - I love learning about an issue, organizing the data, and getting excited about how we can make things better

You can check out my portfolio at kaeanderson.com, and feel free to reach out and say hello!

(The opinions I share on LinkedIn are my own and not affiliated with any company.)

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The Battle

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