I’m an interaction designer and GDS trained design assessor. I have good knowledge of the GOV.UK Design System, Service Manual and Style Guide. SC cleared.

Here’s my story:

When I was 16 years old, I wanted to design logos and websites.

I had an eye for design, but lacked the practical skill to do it. So I ended up going into frontend development which was more technical.

But most of the designers I worked with gave me complicated and inaccessible designs to implement.

Sometimes I’d suggest changes to simplify the design and improve accessibility. But no matter how solid my rationale or how simple my solution, I couldn’t convince the designers to make changes.

I felt frustrated having to go back to my desk to implement designs which were harder to build, inaccessible and slow to load.

As a result, I started to believe that designers only cared about aesthetics.

In 2014, my wife and I had our home renovated just in time for the arrival of our first baby. But three weeks into a new six-month contract, I was let go. I’d never had so much responsibility and so little money.

But I got a new contract as a UX prototyper at Just Eat, the UK’s leading takeaway delivery service.

Prior to this role I wasn’t part of the design process. So by the time designs were given to me to implement, it always felt too late to give feedback and suggest changes.

But at Just Eat I was embedded in the design team where I could influence solutions from the start.

To my surprise, the designers there weren’t just focused on aesthetics; they cared about UX. We did user research, ran A/B tests and tracked performance.

I worked closely with Mark Jenkins, the lead designer. But he wasn’t like the other designers I had worked with before. He listened to what I had to say and valued it. He advocated for doing the most basic thing, doing it quickly and learning. He didn’t fuss over pixels.

Most importantly, he showed me that, not only was it possible to be a designer like this but that it was better to be a designer like this.

For example, we redesigned the checkout journey by using the most basic and accessible solution. The result was an increased conversion of 5% – 37,000 orders a week.

Mark also encouraged me to start a blog. And 2 of my early posts went viral on Hacker News (multiple times over).

I realised I wasn’t alone and that others resonated with my design philosophy.

Now I’m trying to be the designer I wish I got to work with when I was a dev.

You can find links to my newsletter and courses below ↓

Adam Silver

Department for Education

Senior Content Designer

Content Designer

Code Computerlove

• Defined team strategy to add the most value to the business and grow content maturity
• Put processes, tools and ways of working in place to maximise team efficiency and health
• Up-skilled wider team with regular content design drop-ins and discipline Slack channel
• Worked closely with delivery managers to bring content design in earlier for more impact
• Collaborated with product and marketing teams to design user-centred products and services
• Designed and facilitated accessible, inclusive client workshops 
• Mentored other designers to develop content design and strategy skills.

Content Design Lead

Flo Health Inc.

• Led content design and strategy for Flo Health's data-driven chatbot, Health Assistant (HA)
• Launched central HA "home" to enable 250 million global users to access chats at any time
• Designed content and UI experiments to increase conversion and user engagement
• Improved ways of working with medical, legal, localisation and conversation design stakeholders
• Created scalable content frameworks to use across 40+ varied chats
• Designed marketing campaigns to promote HA chats and increase Premium sign-ups
• Wrote centralised documentation and guidance across 20 different content types
• Helped run the accessibility initiative with other Champions.

cinch

• Worked with product and data scientists to redesign the 'Help me choose' tool
• Led the Accessibility Community of Practice with other Champions
• Redesigned a more discoverable, accessible car comparison tool
• Organised and ran accessibility clinics to support and up-skill teams
• Improved the accessibility and usability of the product gallery tool
• Content discovery and strategy for electric and hybrid vehicles
• Improved product page and search content to meet user needs (including refining entry points to part-exchange, improving data spec readability, accessible car listings).

SPARCK

• Advocated for content design services, writing proposals and bids
• Supported the launch of government grant application services for The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
• Designed content management processes, tools and templates to help Highways England with their digital transformation.

Content Design Consultant

• Developed persona and voice content for the BBC’s experimental voice assistant, Beeb (Voice + AI)
• Created Facebook "Corona Bot" to tackle misinformation during the pandemic (Voice + AI, News, NHS)
• Wrote Alexa sign-in prompts voiced by BBC Talent (Voice + AI, Sounds, Accounts)
• Trained BBC producers and journalists in accessible, user-centred content (News, Voice + AI)
• Wrote BBC guidance, style guides and accessibility training (GEL, Academy, Voice + AI)
• Created clear error message frameworks across web, apps and voice (Accounts, Voice + AI, Children’s)
• Created governance for accessible, inclusive content for children's wellbeing app, Own it (Children’s).

• Developed pan-BBC tooling for forms and content upload (Children’s, Account, GEL)
• Re-designed global, accessible form patterns and components (GEL, Account)
• Discovery, ideation and testing of concepts for the future of Live pages (Live, Sport)
• Developed an accessible ‘comments and replies’ feature (Children, Account)
• Improved usability of football results and fixtures table (Sport, Live)
• Redesigned UI and digital content for Sport’s rebrand (Sport)
• Facilitated “1 day sprint” workshops at Universities
• Discovery and strategy around participation for younger audiences (Children’s, Participation).

UX Designer

CTI Digital

I introduced user experience to CTI's digital services, and improved usability across major projects. Clients included British Council, Greater London Authority and Manchester City Council.

90 Degrees

I designed web, brand and marketing solutions for leading clients, mostly in the property development and management space. Some clients included Allied London, CBRE and Zenith.

Web Designer

HAVAS LYNX

In my time at Havas, I developed brand, web and print materials for pharmaceutical, art, hospitality and public sector brands.

Freelance Graphic Designer

I'm a content designer and accessibility specialist, with 10  years experience across public and private sectors. I’ve worked across web, app, voice and AI platforms as both a content and product designer.

My mission is to design content-led products and services that make life easier for wider audiences. This means working with agile teams to take a holistic approach that considers content, product and accessibility needs.

taplio

The Battle

Adam Silver

Amy Leak

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