Miles Playne; an award-winning London-based digital product designer.
Specialising in delivering great customer and employee experiences that build connection and trust with your desired audience - that in turn creates brand loyalty and growth for your business.
Creating the love.
There is always a better way of doing something. I like to take the best that exists and do it better, when it doesn't exist invent it. By research and understanding the end user and seeing things from their perspective and identifying common pain-points, wants and needs, we can add real value. Always testing and validating any assumption and hypothesis along the way, creating the a path of least resistance for your customers.
Fail fast, fail cheap.
I use rapid prototyping tools and an iterative process to discover what to discard and what to keep.
We have amazing tools that allow us to quickly test an idea and make sure it is intuitive before committing to a line of code.
Feels good, feels right.
We know when something feels wrong, we barely notice when something feels right as it is is seamless. I specialise in creating end to end intuitive, highly accessible and cohesive experiences that create the desired connection between your brand and your potential customer, making your brand feel like an extension of themselves (this involves all three disciplines); One way I do this is by making the responsive experience elegantly simple and a total pleasure to use on any device.
“Great design is about creating products that resonate and create real connection with the desired audience, it is important to understand it is not about yours or my personal taste…it is about empathy, creating products that have the end person in mind, they create a warm fuzzy feeling that you are talking to them personally as you understand their wants and needs, intern this create a sense of belonging to your brand, they are left wondering how they lived without your product, get it right and they become your brand evangelists - which is no doubt the best marketing in the world.”
“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.” – Henry Ford
Currently under an NDA.
Working on the UX/UI for incubation projects for News UK. Testing and validating the business case for the new business ideas using Wizard of Oz testing,
Including dealing with senior stakeholders and working with third parties. Creating a new product that has some premium content that sits behind a paywall and other content that is free, gently nudging readers into the paywall funnel. It was important that this felt like a Times product hence look and feel.
Designing the interactive TV guide. This involved building a tablet and mobile prototypes, iterating until internal stakeholders where happy with the end solution - Working closely with build team throughout to make sure everything was possible technically, from beginning to end it was a team effort.
Creating world class digital experiences starts with addressing all those pain-points we all know too well.
Surface information in the logical order that the customer needs it, with key information at the top of the phone allowing for one handed use.
1. Name of Airport
2. Terminal number
3. Location services tell them what time to leave home
4. Times base on different mode of transport with quickest highlighted.
6. Ability to order a Taxi or Uber.
5. Check-in and flight departure time
6. Flight number in case it is needed
7. Step by step directions to take you to check-in desk
More on creating a world class digital customer experience
Working as an associate as part of a team to create all the master screens for a global rollout of m-billing app – so each region around the world would then adapt the screens for its market place. This involved working on the prototype and quality assuring the actual build.
Creating a set of guidelines for a global rollout.
Spent two years working as part of huge team working on a 17.5 million pound project, Heading up the design team for the re-platform of one of Britain's best loved premium food retailers.
See recommendations from WaitroseDesigning a website that encourages Kids and Teens to become actively involved in the future of London. Also designed their intranet. We held workshops with kids and teens to make sure the end product fitted the audience.
Designing Macmillan's main website and a number of microsites aimed at specific target audiences.
A website designed to engage kids at a young age. It was based on the family of Guide Dogs puppy that was taken on by Blue Peter.
Helping Guide Dogs raise their profile as a charity. I designed 3 incarnations of their main website. Winning a number of awards.
This was a site showing how many people it took to nurture one dog to change one life.
Miles Playne and I worked together on one of the UK’s biggest telecom transformation projects ever undertaken to date. He worked really well in a team and showed excellent leadership and organisational skills throughout the project. He also has a keen eye for detail and never stops thinking about the best UX decisions, to problem solve.
He’s a hardworking individual who works exceptionally well under pressure, keeping calm headed and focused, never loosing vision of the end goal.
Miles is a multi talented UX thinker but can turn his hand to anything from design problems. He also demonstrates a very good knowledge of UI and has a clear understanding of how digital can influence a space, as well as how people interact with digital spaces.
Robin Souter - Executive Creative Director The BIO Agency
"Miles was great to work with. He was proactive, understood what he was asked to communicate, worked mainly independently, stayed calm under pressure and asked the right questions. Lovely guy too!"
Jasmine Hays - Design Director at LBi
"Miles was professional with a willing, positive attitude. He produced a high standard of work."
Alex Murray - Digital Director at Lidl UK (formerly Waitrose)
I worked with Miles on a high profile re-platform of a major supermarket transactional website. His proactivity and focus on the full spectrum of design activity from the micro detail to the broader principles and strategy was invaluable. He delivered a very high level of quality despite tight deadlines and managed a very high workload and competing priorities. I consider him to be extremely competent, skilled and a leading edge thinker in the design fraternity.
Nadeem Khalid - Senior Business Analyst at Amaze (formerly Waitrose.com)
Miles came in for a particularly challenging project for The Times. This was tough due to internal politics, customer challenges as well as platform challenges. However, Miles proved to be a talented designer who also displayed great resilience. He has pride for his work, delivers creative solutions and during his time here often worked above and beyond the standard expectations of a contractor. His dedication to finding the right solution really impressed me and his attention to detail was impressive.
Joe Frost - Senior Design Manager Apple (formerly Head of Creative Design & UX at News UK)
We often have to use freelance design resource and can so often be disappointed - as we are not simply looking for a great design eye and attention too detail, but also for someone who is professional, dependable, thorough, knows his stuff and is experienced enough to be able to put in front of clients and work fully self-directed. Thankfully Miles demonstrated all those qualities and it was a pleasure to work with him and hope to again.
Stuart Neale - Creative Director (UX and design) BAE Systems Detica
The BIO Agency, Sapient Razorfish, DigitasLBi and BAE Applied Intelligence on multi-million pound projects
Waitrose, Three, Vodafone Global, The Range, British Telecom, News UK (The Times & The Sun) Lloyds Banking Group
Global Tier 1 Bank to Tier 3 Bank and a large Pension Company (all under NDA)
DFID, DfES, DfEE, DWP, FSA, ODPM, Camden Council, UKTI, Greater London Authority, Electoral Commision and The Royal Society.
Guide Dogs, Cabi and Macmillan Cancer Support and many more.
