Jennifer Weston-Charles
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Toptal member since July 13, 2022
Jennifer is an award-winning digital designer with over fifteen years of experience in public and private sectors for brands, including Santander Bank, BlackBerry, the NHS, and Volkswagen. She is currently based in Newcastle, UK, and advocates user-centered design. She works closely with stakeholders to ensure that the design solutions meet the business needs and technical requirements. Work is always delivered on time while also maintaining high quality.
Portfolio
UI Design for The NHS System Redesign
Work Experience
Head of UI/UX Design
Capita
- Led a team of talented UI/UX designers distributed across multiple workstreams, including the MOD, Gas Safe Register, and Teachers' Pensions. I was also a hands-on designer actively participating in creating UI/UX design work.
- Performed multiple tasks, including stakeholder management, scoping and planning work and UI/UX design, facilitating workshops, wireframes, high-fi prototypes, user testing, presentations, mock-ups, and creating promotional materials.
- Created an atomic design system for Police Scotland, using Axsure, Sketch, and InVision. I worked closely with the web development team to build the modular components using StoryBook.
- Redesigned a website in line with a new brand, being fully responsive, in line with GDS and modern accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1) for Teachers' Pensions, one of my main clients over the past few years.
Lead UI/UX Designer
DECIDE.2022
- Created user journeys, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototypes for brands like P&G, Gillette, and Chicago Town Pizza. I also supported and mentored more junior members of the team.
- Built a website for Chicago Town Pizza, translating the brand guidelines into a fun, dynamic online website that would engage our target market and show off new products and campaigns.
- Constructed an eCommerce website for Oral-B where users could claim a kid's toothbrush at a reduced price. I created wireframes, the checkout process, and all visual designs. The campaign was a huge success with high data capture.
- Redesigned an online community for bakers, We Bake. It featured challenges such as weekly bakes and competitions. I also designed a special campaign page for the Great British Bake Off.
Lead UI/UX Designer | Contract
Happypixel
- Worked as a UI/UX designer on a contract basis in-house or from my home studio. I worked for many household brands, including Nando's, BlackBerry, Disney, O2, and Barclaycard.
- Managed multiple tasks, including responsive website design, app design, branding, animation, social media ads, and print design.
- Created an online advent calendar for BlackBerry, where users could visit every day for a chance to win great prizes. I made the sitemap, wireframes, and all high-fidelity designs. The campaign was a great success.
Lead Digital Designer
Publicis Sapient
- Performed as a lead designer working on a large scale redesign project for the NHS.
- Worked on many main tasks, including creating wireframes, high-fidelity designs, and making a style guide and asset library.
- Created a modular design that would work across many complex pages, which the web development team developed into a design system.
- Worked closely with the UX designer on the project to conduct user interviews, perform shadowing sessions, and develop wireframes based on user needs.
Lead Digital Designer
ENGINE
- Based in the Portland St. London office I worked on a range of exciting digital projects for some of the UK's most loved brands.
- Acted as lead designer and brand guardian for Santander Bank, producing high-quality creative across web, TV and print.
- Produced award-winning work for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) for an online campaign to increase recruitment for the Royal Navy. The award was the BIMA and Campaign Media Award.
Senior Digital Designer | Contract
TH_NK
- Performed as a digital designer creating high-fidelity designs like websites, apps, branding, and social media ads for a range of clients, including Sony, Nando's, and BlackBerry.
- Produced wireframes and high-fidelity designs for a mobile app for Sony to launch their new handheld device, the PS Vita.
- Created a print booklet for Nando's that contained bespoke infographics, following Nando's brand guidelines, personality, and tone of voice.
Digital Designer | Contract
Nixon McInnes
- Created concepts, wireframes, and high-fidelity designs for a range of clients while working as a freelance digital designer in-house.
- Built wireframes and high-fidelity designs for C4, The Promise. I created bespoke infographics to display the results of various social media trends, such as tweets about the TV show as it aired in real-time.
- Produced wireframes and high-fidelity designs for a website for the RSPCA, ensuring I followed the brand guidelines.
Digital Designer | Contract
Jollywise
- Worked across digital campaigns for mostly film and entertainment brands, creating websites and Flash banner animations.
- Worked on animated Flash banner ads, page takeovers, and primarily other digital assets for films, including Gnomeo and Juliet, Mars Needs Moms, and Tangled.
- Produced a set of animated Flash banners for the upcoming Winnie the Pooh film, featuring Piglet and Pooh Bear getting up to mischief.
Junior to Midweight Digital Designer
Designate
- Managed a range of tasks, including coming up with ideas for online banner animations and building them using Flash. I also created email and web designs. After graduating with my MA in Creative Digital Media, this was my first design job.
- Created wireframes, microsites, flash banners, and emails for various travel and tourism clients, including P&O Ferries, Neilson Active Holidays, and Virgin Holidays.
- Performed a set of rich media banner animations using Flash for P&O Ferries that was received very well and got very high click-through rates for their campaign offer.
Education
Master's Degree in Creative Digital Media
Teesside University - Middlesbrough, United Kingdom
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Multimedia Design
Northumbria University - Newcastle, United Kingdom
Certifications
Level 5 Leadership and Management | Chartered Manager (CMgr)
Aptem, Corndell, and CMI
Registered Product Owner
Agile Education by Scrum Inc
Scrum Team Member
Agile Education by Scrum Inc
Introduction to Human Centred Design
Acumen Academy
Interaction Design | Interface
LinkedIn Learning
Level 2 Certificate in Creative Craft
Newcastle College
Skills
Tools
Sketch, InVision, Photoshop CC, Miro, Adobe CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Adobe Illustrator, Slack, Adobe, Adobe Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Flash, Craft Manager, Adobe Fireworks
Platforms
Figma, Axure, Microsoft, Mobile, Android
Industry Expertise
Food & Beverage
Other
UX Design, Creative Design, Websites, Web Design, Human Interface Design, Style Guides, Responsive Layout, UI Design, User Interface (UI), Product Design, Mobile App Design, User Experience (UX), Responsive Web Design (RWD), Mobile App UI, Teams, UX Wireframes, Mobile UI, Leadership, Teamwork, Agile, Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Scrum, Interaction Design (IxD), Personas, Accessible Design, Apps, Web App UI, Motion Graphics, Print, Audio, Branding, 3D Animation, Information Architecture (IA), Adobe Acrobat Pro, Social Media Apps, System Design, User Interviews, Digital Design, Animation, Concepting, Art Direction, Management, Coaching, Agile Sprints, Design Sprints, Agile UX, Illustration, Tattoo Design, Hand Drawing, App UI, App UX, Ideation Workshops, eCommerce UX, Microsites, Ad Campaigns, Responsive UI, Multimedia, B2B, State Government, Healthcare Management Systems, App Design, Mobile UX, iPhone, Electric Cars, Electric Vehicles, eCommerce, eCommerce UI, Mobile eCommerce, eCommerce Web Design, Healthcare Services, Advertising Design, Web UX, Sitemaps, Responsive, Responsive UX Design, Business to Business (B2B), B2B Sales Pipeline, B2B Lead Generation, Web UI Design, Modular Design, System UI, System Usability, Healthcare IT, Public Health, Email, Brainstorming, Web Illustration, Telephony, UI Style Guides, Banner Ads, Ad Banners, Online Banking, Digital Banking, Consumer Banking, Product Owner, Financial UX, Local & Municipal Government, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT)
Experience
- Creative Design - 20 years
- Websites - 20 years
- UX Design - 15 years
- UX Wireframes - 15 years
- Teams - 3 years
- Sketch - 3 years
- Miro - 2 years
Tools
- Sketch
- Miro
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