UX Researcher
The work stuff
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Experience
Correct as of May 2025
Overall design experience / 10 Years
UX/UI / 8 Years
User Research / 6 Years 8 Months
UX Research / 4 Years 6 months
Prototyping / 8 years
UX Research Operations (Ops) / 2 Years 4 months
Global Organisation and International Experience / 3 Years 10 Months
Product Strategy / 2 Years 7 months
Team Lead / 2 Years 4 months
Mentoring / 4 Years 2 months
UX Research Lead (UX Research Specialist) / Sep 2022 - Present
Vitality - 2 Years 9 months
UX Research Lead
Vitality
Mar 2025 - Present
UX Research Lead for the Strategic Support Office. Business areas include Vitality Global Enterprise and Vitality USA.
Managing the Research Ops practice for the Global Product Delivery Stream, Vitality North America and Japan Product Delivery Stream, and Vitality USA. Managing and mentoring Product Designers to conduct UX Research studies. Working with the Product teams to enable value with UX Research (e.g. opportunity identification for roadmaps).
Conducting UX Research for the business areas. Crafting research plans and conducting quantitative and qualitative research using mixed research methodologies. Conducting inductive and deductive data analysis (UT metrics, affinity mapping, and thematic analysis) to provide actionable insights presented as a research report and appropriate artefacts (personas/journey maps/workshops).
Research Methodologies: Usability testing, Variation testing, Resonance/Concept testing, Usability testing metrics, Qualitative Interviews, Semi-Structured/Structured interviewing, Participant recruiting, Qualitative Surveys, Quantitative Surveys, Cultural research, Best practice research, Literature reviews, UX Audits, Heuristic Evaluations, Competitor Analysis, Benchmarking, Information Architecture, and Card Sorting.
UX Research Lead
Vitality Group
& Vitality Global
Sep 2022 - Mar 2025
UX Research Lead for the Global Product Design Team. Business areas include Vitality Global, Vitality North America, and Vitality Group (USA).
Managing and mentoring the UX Research team. Collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams to advise on UX. Advancing UX maturity through planning research frameworks and strategy. Advocating for best practice with stakeholders and the greater business. Established the Research Ops practice and a functional research repository from scratch.
See UX Research responsibilities above.
Senior UX/UI Designer / Jul 2021 - Aug 2022
Upper Intermediate UX/UI Designer / Dec 2020 - Jun 2021
Intermediate UX/UI Designer / Sep 2018 - Nov 2020
DVT - 4 years
Mentor
DVT
Mar 2022 - Aug 2022
Responsible for technical well-being of 6 designers. Providing guidance, motivation, emotional support, and role modelling that leads to development, growth and retention.
Candidate Interviewer
DVT
Nov 2021 - Aug 2022
Assisting Head of Design conducting recruitment interviews. Posing questions, listening and recording answers. Upselling and explaining the company details, culture and benefits. Scoring candidates.
UX Researcher
Vitality Group
Jul 2021 - Aug 2022
Heading up UX Research for the Product Design team in Vitality Group (International). Consulting through DVT.
Usability Analyst
Discovery
Nov 2020 - June 2021
Usability Analyst for Vitality Strategic Programmes. Consulting through DVT.
Helped define business strategies from a design perspective and conceptualised ideas. Designed and prototyped new strategic products. Drove best practice and research findings in designs. Collaborated with external teams on concepts with workshops/design sprints. Conducted usability testing. Synthesized findings in presentations to exco and stakeholders. Facilitated workshops. Mentoring and upskilling employees from different departments in UX.
Product Designer
Nedbank
Sept 2018 - Nov 2020
Product Designer for Self Service Banking: ATM, SSK, VTM & Tablet. Consulting through DVT.
Redesigned the ATM frontend as the sole product designer. Scope includes visual alignment to design system and usability enhancements. Conducted UX Research. Crafted site map, user flow diagrams, user personas, customer journeys and task flows. Defined business requirements and test cases. Developed wireframes and prototypes. Developed ATM-specific UI Kit. Rolled-out visual design for MVP, Release 2 & Touchscreen features.
Product designer on the Self Service Kiosk squad. Scope includes adapting existing software for the kiosk with usability enhancements, and introducing new kiosk-specific features. Crafted site map and user flow diagrams. Conducted an IA audit of the Kiosk and created and drove a design backlog of enhancements. Developed wireframes and prototypes. Participated with user testing. Developed kiosk-specific UI Kit. Reviewed team UI work. Rolled-out visual design for Release 2-4 features.
Created the UI for a Virtual Teller Machine. Created the UX/UI for the in-branch staff tablet to assist clients.
Senior Associate UI Designer / Jan 2018 - Aug 2018
Associate UI Designer / May 2017 - Dec 2017
IQ Business - 1 Year 3 Months
Design Lead
Investec
Jul - Aug 2018
Design lead at Investec ICIB for the online private banking portal. Consulting through IQ Business.
Reviewed work and assisted team. Designed UI. Crafted UI Kit and established design guidelines. Established documentation and hand-over process to development team.
UI Designer
Liberty
May 2017 - Jun 2018
UI Designer at Liberty dHub. Consulting through IQ Business.
Redesigned the UI for Stash by Liberty iOS & Android apps (tax-free savings investment account). Designed the UI for Liberty web-app tools to assist financial advisors (retirement calculator, e-Signing, digital forms, and an educational platform). Crafted UI Kit and established design guidelines. Designed interfaces and interactions. Crafted prototypes. Assisted with usability testing.
Junior Graphic Designer / Dec 2015 - May 2017
Graphic Design Intern / May 2015 - Dec 2015
Mortimer Harvey - 2 Years
Crafted concepts and designed print and digital advertising campaigns. Mentored by a Creative Director. Designed websites, emailers, social media posts, digital banners, digital ads, and presentations. Designed print marketing collateral: packaging, billboards, banners, posters, leaflets, direct marketing packs. Laid out editorials. Created logos and branding. Illustrated artwork and infographics.
Education
Bachelor of Arts - BA Graphic Design / Class of 2015
Greenside Design Center College of Design
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NQF level 7. Skills learnt: principles and theory of design, design thinking, human-centred design, typography, editorial and layout, packaging, corporate identity, infographics, illustration, and software proficiency.
Recognitions
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Awarded 2nd Place in the OKI Recycling Program Project 2015.
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Awarded 1st Place in the 10 Percent Project 2014
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10 Percent branding was used for the 2014 Cumulus Conference and is currently being used for GDC’s 10 Percent Community Engagement Initiative.
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Awarded GDC’s Top Graphic Design Student 2014.
Certifications
UX Research / July 2024
Uxcel / XHIQZO53JX56
UX Research assessment score: 91% - Expert / Feb 2024
Qualitative research assessment score: 98% - Expert / Jul 2024
Usability Testing assessment score: 98% - Expert / May 2025
UX Research Professional Certification / July 2024 - 2025
Uxcel / NUZOO80P5VPA
UX Management: Strategy and Tactics / July 2022
Interaction Design Foundation / 88666-2021-627756
Distinction: Top 10% in class
UX Research - Methods and Best Practices / July 2021
Interaction Design Foundation / 88666-2021-542948
Accessibility: How to Design for All / Feb 2021
Interaction Design Foundation / 88666-2021-482950
Distinction: Top 10% in class
Service Design: How to Design Integrated Service Experiences / Feb 2021
Interaction Design Foundation / 88666-2021-470191
Distinction: Top 10% in class - Score: 99%
Agile Bootcamp / Dec 2017
IQ Business South Africa / AGI__Dec_2017_3128
Courses
Leadership: How to Influence, Inspire and Impact as a Leader / Mar 2024
Udemy / UC-f2b7b960-8c73-4cd6-9728-26d7f0e1409f
Performance Management For Managers / Mar 2024
Udemy / UC-f611cbf8-5f3c-4af6-997a-9e1f964bba23
Management Masterclass: Tactical Skills for New Managers / Feb 2024
Udemy / UC-c69b9428-073a-4e84-9710-fdf728b58bc1
Cognitive Psychology / Jan 2024
Udemy / UC-b9ea9c4e-e95b-4d90-b0f8-c70b5796690e
How to Write a Successful Research Paper / Jan 2024
Udemy / UC-2bec918e-bd27-431b-aa3d-8ff654af3b47
UserZoom Essentials Certificate / Oct 2023
UserZoom
Research Methodology: Complete Research Project Blueprint / Jul 2023
Udemy / UC-77a5693d-ced1-4481-b4d0-56f74bff782b
User Experience (UX): The Ultimate Guide to Usability and UX / Sept 2020
Udemy / UC-b5dd2d60-2998-460b-82c5-c789b46de7ba
Information Architecture (IA) Fundamentals / May 2020
Udemy / UC-4d2bf5f6-9fbd-4380-99eb-3f048dfa2e2e
Innovation Bootcamp – Jobs-to-be-done, Ideation & Design Thinking Short Course / 2018
IQ Business South Africa
Mobile UX and UI Design / 2017
StackSkills
Entrepreneurship Accelerator Workshop using Design Thinking / 2015
SuperUltra
Speaking
Interaction Design Industry Speaker / 2017 & 2018
Inscape's Industry Speaker Day
Why you should care about colour blindness / 2017 & 2018
Think Design Meetup Cape Town, Liberty dHub Showcase, and IQ Business Learning & Development Showcase
Other skills
Correct as of May 2025
User Experience Design / 7 years 2 months
Information Architecture / 6 years 6 months
Wireframing / 4 years
User Interface Design (Mobile, Web, Web App, ATM, Kiosk) / 4 years 2 months
Responsive Design / 4 years 2 months
Establishing Design Systems / 3 years 6 months
Visual Design / 6 years 2 months
Toolkit
Airtable / Asana / Figma / MindMeister / MS Loop / MS Word / MS PowerPoint / Mural / Notion / UserTesting / UserZoom