As part of this series of Q&As we have Jonny Kimber, who joined our TLA team in August last year as our Lead UX/UI Designer. Here he gives an insight into his time at The Lead Agency so far…

What is the main function of the UX & Design department at TLA?

There’s a real mix regarding the projects we get to work on as good UX can be applied to anything! My role is looking at the TLA ecosystem and ensuring our digital touch points are working as hard as possible for our users from landing page campaigns to engaging widgets.

What have been your biggest projects from the first half of 2019?

The biggest project of the first half of 2019 has definitely been the revamp of Ask A Price landing pages. We already had a great user flow, but we challenged the entire team with a bunch more requirements to the existing user flow. The results led to a large uplift in conversion, better standards across the board and a near-perfect coded experience to the original designs. It’s definitely set the bar for how we deliver large-scale briefs. Another really great project to note was our first global campaign overseas for Audi Canada, definitely an incredible achievement for us!

What area of your work are you most passionate about and why?

Throughout my career I’ve been lucky to be trained in all areas of design. I started in the branding industry gaining confidence and enhancing how I delivered creative briefs, then moved towards digital work as a UI designer. I then took the jump to UX design to ensure the digital projects I was delivering had the user at the centre of the process. This has taught me that true innovation comes from three things, desirability, feasibility and viability. As long as the user is at the heart of my decisions, I’m on the right track.

What are your predictions for your profession and/or industry?

UX in general has had a really good reception and has really been recognised as a catalyst for business success. I constantly talk about the ROI of UX design and how it benefits businesses across the board from more engaging products for the user but also less resource burden on development teams amongst a multitude of other things. I think we will see the continuation of this success and an increased split of UX facing roles such as UX writers and UX researchers. These roles are fairly standard within the world of design but not realistically adopted by small/medium-sized businesses.

How will they impact the way we do things at TLA?

A lot more work around the entire journey of a customer, enhanced touch points across the board (digital and non-digital) and a greater emphasis on adding colour and context to the data we ascertain.

Where do you get your inspiration? Are there any books, blogs or websites you would recommend?

I’m a member of the IDF (The Interaction Design Foundation) which is a great place to up-skill UX skills, meet up with the fellow UX community and share my opinions on current projects in the digital industry across the world. It truly is an incredible site that can benefit any designer or company in general. I also read design blogs (Invision Blog, design related content on Medium) and I have a Dribbble profile to showcase some of my more visual work. I also mentor a designer in New York called Dongwei, he’s a really great guy so it’s awesome hearing about the projects he has on and talking UX processes with him.

What do you enjoy most about working at TLA?

The projects for sure – they keep me busy, challenge me and allow me to learn with every single project produced. There’s a huge focus on testing and gaining learnings from those tests so a project is never really complete. Second to this, the team I work with are a pretty inspiring bunch! Whether it’s the marketing department or the development teams, I’m constantly learning new ways to execute projects, deliver better briefs and afterwards share a drink with a good group of people. I can honestly say we all reach the finish line at the same time, it’s one of the best teams I’ve ever worked for.

How would you summarise TLA’s culture in three words?

Fast-paced, Talented, Opportunity.

Finally, what advice would you give to someone just starting out in the UX or design industry?

Never stop learning, always be accountable for a project you’re a part of, always strive for innovation and don’t worry about having different ideas to bring to the table.

If you’ve got a question for the TLA team or want to know more about what makes us tick, why not get in touch?