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Jake Burdess
Verified Expert in Design
UX/UI Designer
Auckland, New Zealand
Toptal member since January 27, 2016
Bio
Over two decades of experience, spanning three countries, London-born Jake is a seasoned digital design practitioner and consultant. He’s been involved in large chunks of design strategy and digital branding for a long list of high-profile clients, in both the Asia Pacific and Europe. After five years as the digital director of his own agency in Spain, Jake emigrated to New Zealand in 2012. Jake also has extensive experience in CX and UX design.
Experience
- UI Design - 20 years
- SaaS Design - 15 years
- User Experience (UX) - 15 years
- Product Design - 12 years
- Branding - 12 years
- Prototyping - 10 years
- Design Systems - 10 years
- UX Research - 8 years
Portfolio
Work Experience
Independent Consultant in NZ
2012 - PRESENT
Various Clients
- Created the UX strategy, research and UI design for a business technology help desk rollout for Auckland Airport (Datacom and Activate).
- Developed UX strategies and consulted for various NZ companies, including PGG Wrightson's, Loyalty NZ, and Allflex Australasia.
Technologies: Adobe CC, ScreenFlow, OmniGraffle, Balsamiq, Axure, InVision, Sketch
Senior UX Specialist
2016 - 2020
ASB
- Conducted UX research and created designs for websites and mobile applications (iOS and Android) and authenticated customer experiences.
- Developed the UX strategy and consulted for employee-facing interfaces for an FCC-related internal program of work.
- Created the CX strategy and consulted on branch self-service ID kiosks and integration with digital customer profiling.
Technologies: Balsamiq, InVision, Axure, Sketch
User Experience Consultant
2019 - 2019
KiwiRail
- Handled the digital brand strategy, definition, and framework implementation, including the complete user interface component library.
- Created the UX strategy, including the definition of user personas and user journeys, wireframing, prototyping, usability interviews, and more.
- Managed corporate identity guidelines, marketing materials and user guides for company software products.
Technologies: OmniGraffle, Balsamiq, Axure, InVision, Sketch
Head of UX/UI
2018 - 2019
AirShare
- Conducted UX research and created designs for websites and mobile applications (iOS and Android) and authenticated customer experiences.
- Developed the digital brand strategy and framework implementation, including design of complete user interface component library.
- Built the UX strategy, including definition of user personas and user journeys, wireframing, prototyping, usability interviews, and more.
Technologies: Axure, Adobe CC, InVision, Sketch
Digital Director
2014 - 2015
Voice Brand Agency
- Led the design, development, and maintenance of the New Zealand website for the largest manufacturer of glass containers in the world.
- Designed a web app for business leaders to guide them through the process of achievement thinking, now used by many of the largest organizations in Asia Pacific.
- Implanted an agile website design and development practice in line with the methodologies of some of the leading companies in the region.
- Built a team of designers and developers capable of working alongside the existing brand team, and integrated fully into the company offering.
- Created a stable and consistent monthly revenue stream for the business through digital services and retainers, set to grow exponentially.
Technologies: GitHub, Coda, WordPress, OmniGraffle, InVision, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite
Head of Design
2013 - 2014
Unified Inbox
- Rebranded completely the company and its main products, redefining visual identity and hierarchy, colorways and typographic styling.
- Created a completely new marketing website for the company, designed and built for scalability on the WordPress platform.
- Led the UX and UI design of the company products, both in terms of mentoring junior designers and in a hands-on designer capacity.
- Defined the interaction design for the company products, in collaboration and communication with developers in Europe and Asia.
- Designed version 2 of the Unified Inbox iPhone app, available in the App Store and downloaded by thousands of users.
Technologies: InVision, OmniGraffle, Axure RP Pro, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite
Senior Digital Designer
2012 - 2014
Datacom Systems
- Championed HTML rapid prototyping methodologies and online style guides within the organisation, in collaboration with front-end developers.
- Led a team of designers, developers and business analysts in the complete website redesign of New Zealand's largest agri-nutrients manufacturer.
- Mentored junior designers in best practice digital design, including running seminars and courses for graduate designers fresh to the company.
- Designed the EDRMS for New Zealand's financial markets regulator, through a rigorous UX process in collaboration with business stakeholders.
- Led the design of a company intranet for an emerging electricity, gas, phone and internet provider with the aim of increasing employee engagement.
Technologies: CSS3, HTML5, Balsamiq, Axure RP Pro, OmniGraffle, Adobe Creative Suite
UX & Brand Manager
2011 - 2012
Imarda
- Rebranded the company's principal product offering, i360, and applied the rebrand across all collateral, both printed and digital.
- Integrated the company website, emails and helpdesk with Salesforce to allow for lead tracking and reporting for the sales and marketing team.
- Collaborated with the development team to fully upgrade the front-end technology stack—resulting in an increase in load times of 225% globally.
- Hand-crafted over 2,000 bespoke icons, in line with the business brand, for use across the company software, website and printed collateral.
- Created a series of templates and manuals for the company print collateral, intended both for internal and external comms as well as for user guidance.
Technologies: WordPress, MODx, CSS3, HTML5, Adobe Creative Suite
Education
1996 - 1998
BTEC Diploma in Music Industry Studies
Square Centre - Nottingham, UK
1993 - 1996
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Contemporary Arts
Nottingham Trent University - Nottingham, UK
Skills
Tools
OmniGraffle, Sketch, InVision, Axure RP Pro, Adobe CC, Balsamiq Mockups, Marvel, UXPin, Adobe Creative Suite, GitHub, Balsamiq, ScreenFlow
Languages
HTML5, CSS3
Platforms
MacOS, Axure, MODx, WordPress, Figma
Other
iOS UI Design, User-centered Design (UCD), Web Design, App UX, SaaS Design, UI Design, Design Systems, Web UX Design, Web UI Design, Product Design, Prototyping, User Experience (UX), B2B, User Stories, Branding, UX Research, Brand Guidelines, Audio Editing, Service Design, Coda, Business Intelligence (BI), Persona Design, Video Editing
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