Ampersand

Ampersand is a design studio that partners with businesses to create experiences that work. 

Specialising in Design, Research and Strategy, we rethink what it means to design for users.  

Here's how:

We identify and balance risk. We design for the whole system rather than individual screens. We design for behaviour and context. But most importantly, we consider how products and services make people feel. Why? Because that's how to create experiences that people believe in.

Whether you're starting from 0, looking for strategic direction, or need extra pair of hands, we'd love to talk you!

Please DM, or email: hello@ampersandco.studio

(website launching soon)

Founder

birdie

Birdie is a B2B SaaS shaking up the Social Care space. Birdie's mission is to reinvent care through technology and enable older adults to age in their homes.

My role is responsible for the care management domain which spans from Care Managers assessing care needs, to Carers delivering care. 

The care ecosystem is complex:
→ Different care types, i.e hourly care vs Live in care vs complex care
→ Market segments, i.e VSB and SMBS vs Enterprise
→ Multiple persona types, i.e Care Manager vs Carer vs Regulatory bodies 

Above all else, the most important part of my job is thinking critically. Always. 

Why? Because medication schedules cannot be misinterpreted, or mistakes made.
It needs to be easy to use, but enough friction to reduce mistakes. It needs to be understood by people whose first language might not be English, and people that are time poor during a care visit.


Other key responsibilities:
- Lead full the end-to-end process , from discovery to design in my squad
- Work with the PM to shape the strategic vision for my squad, and wider product
- Conduct in-person field research with multiple user types to understand their needs
- Analyse insights from inbound and outbound data to identify both tactical and strategic opportunities across the ecosystem

Senior Product Designer

rehab_agency

rehab_agency is an innovation agency working with clients including: Google, Nike, Spotify, Disney and Meta across projects specialising in web3, AI, voice and AR.

Key highlight:
Leading a strategic discovery project for Google focussed on Generative AI.

Worked alongside creative strategists and technologists to understand how we could utilise emerging technology with Google's platform and technology

Blue Ocean strategy project. Undertook thorough desk research, qualitative research and facilitated workshops to uncover greenfield opportunity areas.

Senior UX Designer

SPARCK

SPARCK is a design services consultancy. 

Proudest projects:
- NHS Covid-19 Clinical tool that won a gold standard award 
- Led designer for a 4 month strategic vision project for a Tier 1 Bank


Wider responsibilities:
- Stepped into multiple roles as client's needs evolved, i.e Service Design, Research, PM.

- Facilitated workshops to uncover opportunities that aligned to tactical and strategic goals
- Mentored junior product designers, and helped to train 5 junior designers in the Sparck academy. 

- Defined and led culture initiatives that shaped the Product Design Practice and wider SPARCK.

Product Designer

Flutter Entertainment Plc

It's no secret that there's an ethical debate when talking about gambling. However, it was my role, and the other designer's around me to represent the user and understand the line between what's engaging and what's addictive. Honestly, this role emphasised the importance of design to advocate for users within a business. How are user's feeling? How can we provide trust and safety to them?

Key responsibilities:
- Challenge briefs and uncover the problem areas. Articulate findings through journey maps, wireframes and advanced prototypes that highlight user-needs.
- Understand behavioural design and cognitive biases, in addition to conducting research to uncover user behaviours and motivations.
- Collaborate with UI Designers, Product Managers and Developers to ensure solutions are technically feasible, creative, and answer user and business problems.
- Work closely with content design to ensure "betslips" were understood. Create visuals to breakdown complex terms and conditions
- Lead workshops with key stakeholders across the business to understand, define and ideate on the business and user problem areas.

Key achievements:
- Altered the trajectory of a project to focus on user needs by finding areas of opportunity through analysing and presenting research to directors.

User Experience Architect 

Numberfit

Key responsibilities:
1. Analyse existing websites by conducting UX audits, and deliver suggested designs based on UX best practices.
2. Advise on current design mockups, content hierarchy and understanding

UX Designer - Volunteer

DePuy Synthes Companies

Depuy Synthes, a company of J&J,  specialises in orthopaedics for joint replacement and surgical tools. I put people at the heart of engineering to design ergonomic tools and understand surgical needs and workflows.

Key responsibilities:
1. Thoroughly researched knee surgery - including on cadavers to understand surgeon’s workflow - for example, how much space/access they have to knee joints, where extra grip is needed. This greatly informed the physicals designs I created.

2. Produced design visuals, storyboards, graphics and CAD, and physical 3D models to communicate design ideas to the team and answer set briefs. 

Key achievements: 
1. Designed a surgical tool that would help to improve surgeon's workflow and was consequently taken to a usability lab
2. Designed and carried out user testing protocols with “voice of consumers” including specialist surgeons in usability labs to identify pain points.

Industrial Design and Human Factors FTC

At the beginning of the year, I embarked on the adventure of a lifetime and took 5 months to travel Southeast Asia and Australasia.

Travelling - 5 months

Oxford International Education Group

Summer school role.
- Promoted to senior management team following a successful year as an Activity Leader the summer previously
- Managed a team, including a Welfare Assistant to ensure the well-being and involvement of students- Responsible for handling dietary requirements for meal times and liaised with catering staff to ensure these were met

Welfare Manager  at a Summer School

Loughborough University

The Epi-pen redesign (named Totem), reduces both primary and secondary users anxiety before and during an anaphylaxis reaction. I completely redesigned and design engineered the mechanism to have a less aggressive form of actuation, a discrete form (especially to allow men to carry it in their pockets) Additionally the device incorporated electronics to aid with administering the injection as well as temperature tracking and reaction tracking.

**Key responsibilities: **

Concept generation and brief creation.
In depth research including interviewing users, reading journals and medical data to identify pain points and ultimately define the user needs.
Extensive sketching, iterative prototypes (digital and physical), journey maps, users flows, moodboards, user testing, mechanical analysis, and documentation. 
Key achievements:

Successfully created a fully functioning physical prototype that can administer a dose of epinephrine, an aesthetic prototype, in addition to designing a clickable app prototype.

Epi-pen. Patent Pending 

Hey, hello, hi!
I'm Emily, and I put people back into the heart of designing experiences.

Somewhere along the way we got swept up in only designing MVPs, only considering ideal users, and leaving people feeling like edge-cases. I'm here to change that.

I design experiences by thinking of the overall system, and considering people's behaviours, emotions and context. Most importantly, I help you think about risk; aka thinking about what can go wrong, so we can design against it.

Here's how I can help you:
- Design solutions with impact
- Identify tactical vs strategic bets 
- Uncover areas of opportunity and growth
- Design for context, behaviour and emotions
- Connect design outcomes <> business outcomes
- Uncover risks in your service and process
- Consider the overall system experience - not just the screens

Design isn't just about how it works, or how it looks. It's about how it makes people feel.

I'd love to hear about how I can help you. Drop me a message on LinkedIn, or send an email to: hello@ampersandco.studio

And if you don't have a project, I'm always down for a coffee chat!

Growing a business and a tiny human 👣

I’ve been pretty quiet on here the last few months. I’d love to say it was an intentional break, but in reality I’ve been in the first trimester hole of sickness and fatigue (which is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced 😅)

That’s meant that all my other tiny ounces of energy have been for my clients, and LinkedIn has taken a back seat. BUT I'm finally seeing a glimpse of that second trimester energy everyone promises

One thing I’ve been beyond grateful for, is working from home. I honestly don’t know how I would’ve gone into an office, even 1-2 days a week. And that’s not just true for pregnancy - the weight of the “trying to conceive" journey is something that’s not talked about enough either. For example, I know some women try to avoid the office when their period is due because the emotional weight of what it means, and putting on a front around others is just too much

If I’m lucky enough to grow my own team over the next few years, this whole journey has definitely given me a new level of appreciation for flexible, remote working

I’m so excited for this new chapter, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t apprehensive too… what if I never want to work again after baby arrives? The tech landscape is constantly changing… what if I’m left behind?! What if I can’t get work again?

Either way, we’ll figure it out! But for now, I’m jumping on all the new energy to keep evolving my business, and get through as many of my ideas as I can before baby arrives in 6ish months

I’m keen to hear any advice on balancing a business and a growing family. It’s a super unfamiliar space to me, but one I’m grateful to start muddling my way through

Emily Anderson

Designer | Reducing risks to users and businesses | Founder, Ampersand | Speaker

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