Axel Johnston, Designer in Bordeaux, France
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Axel Johnston

Verified Expert  in Design

Designer

Location
Bordeaux, France
Toptal 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.

Human FactorsHuman-centered Design (HCD)User Experience (UX)UX DesignWireframingUX StrategyUser FlowsSitemapsIdeation WorkshopsMVP DesignSaaSB2BUX FlowsUX PrototypingExperience MapsImmersive

Portfolio

Work Experience

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 & Training Content Development

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)
2006 - 2009

Master's Degree in Cognitive Engineering

École Nationale Supérieure de Cognitique (ENSC) - Bordeaux, France

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