Pocket Universes

Senior Content Designer, Transform

Feb '25 - Jul '25

Working exclusively with the Department for Education on a project designed to make estate management for schools easier.

• collaborating closely with the interaction designer and user researcher to create, test, iterate ideas
• managing communications and relations with stakeholders with vastly different expectations
• using information architecture to make diverse content work together in a cohesive, accessible way

Senior Content Designer, Asda

Nov '20 - Jan '25

Helping Asda navigate Europe's largest digital transformation.

• creating a tone of voice and style guide for George
• managing a small team of content designers
• establishing ways of communicating changes to customers

Content Designer, Leeds Beckett University

Feb ’20 – Nov '20

Leeds Beckett University is relaunching its old, clunky and cumbersome website.

• I created a single-point style guide and tone of voice document for the project
• general stakeholder and creative management and liaison
• creating sitemaps based on user journeys, user stories, and limited user research

Lead Copywriter, Aviva

July ‘18 – Oct ‘19

This was a content design role in all but name. It involved a large digital overhaul of Aviva’s intermediary websites. I led the copy creation and content design for the new digital experience.

• improving user experience through the introduction of UX Copy and Content Design principles
• creating and policing digital tone of voice and style guide documentation for the entire project
• keeping key stakeholders engaged to encourage participation throughout the review process

Lead Copywriter and Content Strategist, Lead Tech

Jan ‘17 – June ‘18

Increasing creative output by radically altering the creative team structure.

• increasing workflow by pulling together creative teams to generate effective content strategies
• improving commercial value of content by encouraging the company to care about UX
• implementing an Agile, mobile first, UX-focussed, iterative culture into the digital team

Senior Copywriter, The Black Hole Agency

May ‘14 – November ‘14

Winning pitches, making films, creating ads and generally shaking up a stale creative department – I brought designers and writers together to really push creative content that was customer driven.

• creating pitch-winning scripts and storyboards for brand films and multimedia campaigns
• refreshing old accounts with UX copy creation for key clients within the financial sector
• forging a small, closely-bonded team of creatives – I gave them the freedom to be great, while encouraging and supporting them closely when it was needed

Other roles

December ‘05 – June ‘13

I’ve been around a bit so, rather than give a blow-by-blow account, here’s a brief summary of my earlier career.

I’ve worked in digital agencies throughout Yorkshire, been client-side at companies like Aviva, ASDA and Morrisons, and was a successful freelancer for years, managing my own clients. During this time, I was creating user experiences long before it was a ‘thing’, writing customer-focused copy, scripts and storyboards, and winning pitches and tenders.

While at Brahm, I managed all content creation and delivery for the government’s Connexions Direct website, which at the time received 10,000 visitors each week. At ASDA, I created catchy names for, and told extraordinary stories about, everyday products. At Propaganda, I helped define the rich, playful tone of voice for iconic make-up brand, Illamasqua, even creating a poem that adorned the brand’s first perfume product.

Throughout this time, I was also working as a professional storyteller (and yes, that is a real job). I worked in schools with pupils through the government’s Art Forms scheme. I also wrote and ran workshops for teachers.

This culminated in a role with the BBC, promoting their RAW (reading and writing) programme through workshops in deprived areas, including Leeds Prison. I was also Artist in Residence at the National Science Learning Centre on a 1-year placement through the Arts Council.

My skills as a storyteller have always provided an excellent complement to my writing.

You can see a post about my talk on storytelling in UX at Northern UX’s here.