Richard Emberton UX Design

User Experience and Product Designer

Aligning technology to what users want and need

My name is Richard Emberton and I'm a user experience designer.

With 12+ years of experience, I've worked for big software companies and tiny start-ups, from full UX design to specific UI and visual design. How I work

Consulting for TechSmart Kids

Designing an image-shopper app for any device

Organizing UX guidelines for Vertafore

Re-designing an enterprise security tool for Microsoft

Designing a competitive feature for Zillow

How I Work

A well designed product or experience should make the user's life easier, more efficient, and more fun. It can be something they enjoy, or appreciate, or it runs so smoothly they don't even notice.

Design finds solution for what might be a failure in the user experience, or just an awkwardness that prevents users from realizing the potential in the technology.

I follow the popular UX Design Sprint process, but allow for flexibility if necessary. First ask for full UX design, but scale if that's the only way. For example, how much research? Just enough to allow us to make a decision and move forward.

Smaller projects might be focused on UI or visual design, or even just recommendations or advisement based on best practices. If that's the right fit, make it clear in all initial agreements. The goal is a win-win for the users and the client's business.

Some things I've added (or invented):

A UX project proposal with a schedule, and a UX goals statement.
If "research" sounds too expensive, try "investigation."
A UX design plan, with scope (what's in and out) and max iteration loops before a new plan is required.
Propose rather than ask, and always offer a rationale.
Hold decision sessions with sign-off processes.
Observational sketches can sometimes capture more than a camera can.

And of course regular status updates, and stay ready for surprises.

About

Richard Emberton has over 12 years of experience as a UX Designer, working for big corporate software companies and tiny start ups, within teams and as a contractor or freelance consultant; from Silicon Valley to Seattle.

Experience has included UX design and specific UI and visual design, from designing a new app or feature, to updating or improving existing products.

Roles have included being the designer supporting one or more products, pairing and collaborating with a User Researcher, and sometimes serving as a one-person design team; working on large, long-term projects, small projects and occasional UX "rescue" work.

Education: Learned UX Design on-the-job, growing as the industry grew, from icons and visual design through UI to UX. Received an MFA in Illustration in 2015 from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. And more recently completed UX Design certificate classes with The Design Lab at UC San Diego.

Contact

Richard@RichardEmberton.com

425 998-6397

Linkedin → RichardEmberton-ux
Twitter → RickEmberton

To first project →