Paul Wallas

Paul Wallas

Product Designer in Nottingham

I’m a passionate designer who's worked for startups and scale-up companies on both B2B and B2C products. Working within agile methodologies, I've led design from ideation to live production, and I'm experienced in creating design systems, component and style libraries, and defining design strategies to support the design process.

During my career, I've managed design teams and mentored junior designers to help them achieve their career goals. I enjoy collaborating with multidisciplinary designers and engineers, and I’m experienced in working closely with senior stakeholders and external clients.

My goal as a designer is to understand user and business requirements and solve them via clean and elegant design solutions that deliver a delightful customer experience.

2022
Component Library at Magnetic Rock

The component library sits at the heart of two products and adopts the Atomic design process to create a consistent user experience for both assessment candidates and academy administrators.

2021
Customer Onboarding Case Study at RightIndem

I turned a complex model of a multiple customer and multiple role based system into a simple, intuitive product that would enable RightIndem admin users to easily setup and create new insurer customers.

2020
Digital Claims App: Case Study at RightIndem

I led the product from ideation to live production and also created a design system consisting of a component library, conversation guidelines and customer branding and tone of voice guidelines.

2017
Building a design team for a fast-moving startup at RightIndem
2016

I was the sole designer and led the product design from ideation to delivery into multiple NHS organisations throughout the UK.

Work Experience

2022 — Now
Remote

I was responsible for leading the design of the Potential product from ideation to delivery into a live customer environment. My responsibilities also included:

  • The creation of a product design strategy, goals and values
  • Defined ways of working practises between design and engineering
  • Discovered user requirements and business goals through customer sessions and interviews
  • Created a design system consisting of a component library, style guide and visualisation library
  • Created Jira ticket templates to include User Need Statements within all development tasks
  • Ensured all design work met level II of the WCAG
  • Worked alongside the illustration designer to create a series of product icons and spot illustrations
  • Worked alongside the chief creative officer to create the Potential landing page
  • Presented biweekly ‘show and tell’ and ‘lunch and learn’ sessions
2016 — 2022
Nottingham & Remote

As Head of UX and UI Design at RightIndem, an ambitious and fast-moving startup, my role was to oversee design strategy, scalability, and deployment. My responsibilities also included:

  • Defined design principles and design values for the team and business
  • Identified and created user personas
  • Working alongside the CTO, I identified the technology stack that would empower the adoption of our conversational UI design
  • Managed and led a team of four designers, which included setting design direction, providing feedback, and providing design mentoring
  • Introduced Lean UX as a design strategy
  • Worked directly with client’s to understand their needs and goals
  • Worked with customer brand guidelines to ensure all aspects of the client's brand and TOV were upheld correctly
  • Ensured all product designs met level II of the WCAG

A key achievement at RightIndem was our product winning the Insurance Times ‘Best Use of Technology for Customer Experience’ award in 2017 & 2018.

2015 — 2016
Nottingham

As Lead UI/UX Designer, I was responsible for the UX and UI design of the company’s flagship product, Care Partner - a responsive web-based application providing patient care tracking and coordination of essential health data. I ensured all design work was accessible to Level II of the WCAG which focused specifically on the use of JAWS technologies.

2009 — 2015
Nottingham

I was responsible for the user interface design of the company’s flagship product, a patient data analytical tool, which included learning and implementing dashboard designs to present patient data in a highly visual way. I was also responsible for the design of the company’s responsive website, including the front-end build using HTML and SASS and occasional print design work such as course training materials.

2006 — 2009
Web Designer at Soula Design
Nottingham

As Web Designer at Soula, my main responsibilities included the design and front-end build for all affiliate products for, at the time, the leading affiliate network in the US, Europe and England.

Side Projects

2020
LifePockets

An iOS app that I designed and developed during the UK lockdown to help the world improve their health, mindset, and energy via simple, easy-to-perform exercises. I called these exercises 'pockets'.

2019

Creation of a brand logo for a Nottingham based dev meet-up

2019

Creation of the logo for a Nottingham Dev meet-up group

2015
Bug Hunt Illustrations

Illustrations for an iOS game.

Writing

2024

Pave the way for innovation that is truly inclusive and impactful in today’s digital landscape.

2024

This article explores the importance of understanding user psychology in UI design, emphasising its impact on usability, user satisfaction, and engagement.

2023

The benefits of wireframing, knowing when to wireframe and the differences between low-fidelity and high-fidelity wireframes.

2020

Empathy is one of the most important skill for UX professionals as it enables our imagination to consider the world from our users’ perspective.

2020

Our screen is an information channel and it dictates the volume of information we can send to the user

2020

How a chapter from ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ changed my approach to all design problem solving

2020

How Medium successfully uses alignment to create structure and deliver a better reading experience

2020

How I organise a high number of client design files which all share one central UI Library

2020

How a simple work conversation made me nervous for the future

2020

How walking stimulates different areas of your brain allowing you to combat the creative block

2019

Learn how to onboard co-workers and senior stakeholders with Lean UX

2019

Simple ideas that I wish I knew when I first started out as a UI Designer

2019

How two simple composition theories allow you to control your user’s experience

2019

Startup life requires speed, agility and flexibility

2019

Key components that allow designers of all experience to create successful brand guidelines.

Volunteering

2006 — 2006
Volunteer at Azure
Newcastle

Fresh out of university, I offered to work for free at a local design agency to gain skills and insight into the world of web design.

Contact

Medium
Dribbble
LinkedIn