Axel Johnston

Designer in Bordeaux, France

Member since October 19, 2020

Axel is a sought-after design expert with 11 years of experience in UX design, service design, and DesignOps, and seven years as a design leader. He has designed the user experience of an eCommerce website with 190 million users and $5 billion in revenue; huge B2C, B2B, and B2E platforms; video games, military cockpits, space and satellites, and music festivals. Axel has managed creative teams of up to 30 designers for a large organization, a design agency, and a fast-growing startup.

User Experience (UX)UX Design Wireframing Prototyping UX Strategy User Flows Sitemaps Ideation Workshops MVP Design SaaS UX Flows UX Prototyping Experience Maps Personas eCommerce Show more

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Portfolio

Digital Design

Designing an Innovative Experience for a Fast-growing Startup
- Design Systems
- Social Networks
- Wireframing
- User Flows
- Sitemaps
- Personas
- Mobile Apps
- Ideation Workshops
- Design Leadership
- Early-stage Startups
- User Interface (UI)
- User Needs
- User Experience (UX)
- Apple Watch
- MVP Design
- Gamification
Designing a SAAS and Mobile App for Political Parties
- Early-stage Startups
- UX Design
- UX Strategy
- SaaS
- B2B
- Politics
- Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)
- Dashboards
- Wireframing
- MVP Design
- Mobile Apps
- DataViz
- Design Workshops
Redesigning an eCommerce Website with 190 Million Users and $5 Billion in Revenue
- eCommerce
- Website Redesign
- Wearables
- Google Glass
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Mobile
- Digital Kiosks
- Apple Watch
- Android Wearables
- Funnel Optimization
- Checkout
- UX Flows
- UX Prototyping
- Axure RP Pro
- Entertainment & Leisure
- Travel
Designing Wearables, AR/VR, and Cockpits
- Robotics
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Virtual Reality (VR)
- Wearables
- Cockpit Design
- Aviation
- Military
- Immersive Experiences
Transforming the Design Practice of an Airline with 100 Million Travelers
- eCommerce
- Aircraft & Airlines
- Entertainment & Leisure
- Design Leadership
- DesignOps
- Organizational Design
- Design Systems
- Rebranding
- Personas
- Hiring
- Budget Management
- Mentorship & Coaching
- Mobile Apps
- Digital Kiosks
- Conversational Design
- Chatbots
- Robotics
- Design Principles
Transforming a Music Festival to a Life Experience in Five Months
- Festivals
- Experience Maps
- Personas
- Service Design
- Ideation Workshops
- Surveys
- Spatial Design
- Entertainment & Leisure
- Holistic UX Design
- Immersive Experiences
Creation of a Third-place Experience
- Service Design
- Spatial Design
- Focus Groups
- Politics
- User Flows
- Personas
- Experience Maps
- Benchmarking

Employment

Vice President, Brand, Design, and Experience
2019 - PRESENT
Gloo
- Created the entire user experience, from scratch, to create a smooth and innovative experience in a new kind of social network.
- Led the brand, design, and experience activities for B2C and B2E products.
- Created the design system to support the practice and workflows for the mobile B2C components.
Technologies: InVision, Sketch
UX and Design Lecturer
2014 - PRESENT
Universities and Design Schools (Self-employed)
- Lectured in several design schools on digital project management, ethnographic research, user experience, design thinking, co-design, prototyping tools, design tools, cognitive psychology, human factors, ergonomics, service design, and more.
- Created a 1,000-hour training program to train non-designers to be UX designers. Topics ranged from psychology to prototyping.
- Delivered over 1,500 hours of training to more than 500 students and professionals on the UX design and other topics listed above.
Technologies: Mentorship & Coaching, UX Mentoring, Training & Training Content Development, Training
Head of Design and Global Head of DesignOps
2018 - 2019
Air France
- Led a team of 15 designers focused on service design, UX design, and UI design.
- Spearheaded a design team during the rebranding and redesign of a major eCommerce website with $5 billion in revenue.
- Created a DesignOps department to support 70+ designers by providing tools, workflows, career paths, skills, and more.
Technologies: Zeplin, InVision, Sketch
VP Design, Co-founder
2013 - 2019
Akiani
- Co-founded a design agency ranked in the top-10 UX agencies in France. Focused on hiring, sales, methodology, and design leadership.
- Managed and hired a team of 16 talented designers, a PhD in cognitive science, and user researchers.
- Designed extraordinary digital experiences and services for military, avionics, eCommerce, B2B, B2C, B2E, and innovative early-stage startups.
Technologies: Flinto, Principle, InVision, Sketch
Principal User Experience Designer
2014 - 2016
Oui.sncf
- Designed the experience of an eCommerce website with 190 million users, covering every international market.
- Designed the experience of a mobile app with 13 million users, ranked as the top eCommerce app in France.
- Designed an innovative experience for Google Glasses and Android wearables.
Technologies: Augmented Reality (AR), Android Wearables, Axure RP Pro
Human Factors and Cockpit Designer
2011 - 2014
Thales and CNRS
- Co-animated research for simulator and real flight observations.
- Designed the wireframes and first UI concept for the military and civilian cockpit interface.
- Led a European project work package through 22 European partners.
Technologies: Avionics
User Experience Designer
2010 - 2011
Air France
- Designed the new yield management tool for one of the biggest airlines in the world.
- Created complex dashboards to monitor the demand for 500+ planes.
- Created the design system for a complex B2E application.
Technologies: Dashboards, DataViz, User Testing, Wireframing
UX Designer
2009 - 2010
Axance
- Designed digital user experiences for a chain of retail shops.
- Designed digital user experiences for one of the five biggest pharmaceutical groups in the world.
- Wrote design specifications and guidelines for developer handovers.
Technologies: Wireframing, Retail & Wholesale, Pharmaceuticals, UX Specifications
User Experience Researcher
2009 - 2009
F4 Group
- Directed the user research facilities for a massively multiplayer online game (MMO), overseeing lab user testing and online feedback from players in Europe and China.
- Led enterprise customer success service in China for an MMO game.
- Executed QA and user testing on the MMO game to validate acceptance from an ergonomics perspective.
Technologies: Customer Success, QA Testing, User Testing, User Research, Online Games, Video Games
Augmented Reality Designer
2008 - 2008
French Army
- Designed augmented reality interfaces for army vehicles.
- Wrote UX specifications of augmented reality interfaces in army vehicles.
- Prototyped augmented reality interfaces for army vehicles.
Technologies: Military, Augmented Reality (AR)

Education

Master's Degree in Cognitive Engineering
2006 - 2009
École Nationale Supérieure de Cognitique (ENSC) - Bordeaux, France

Experience

Prototyping11 years
Workshop Facilitation11 years
User Experience (UX)11 years
Service Design7 years
Design Leadership7 years
eCommerce6 years
Design Systems4 years
Wearables4 years

Location

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Designer in Bordeaux, France

Portfolio

Employment

Vice President, Brand, Design, and Experience

UX and Design Lecturer

Head of Design and Global Head of DesignOps

VP Design, Co-founder

Principal User Experience Designer

Human Factors and Cockpit Designer

User Experience Designer

UX Designer

User Experience Researcher

Augmented Reality Designer

Education

Experience

Location