Russ Hepton
🤩

Russ Hepton

Senior Product Designer in United Kingdom, He/Him/His

I've just designed, coded and uploaded my band new portfolio website. Check it out! forhumans.design

A year ago

About

I turn problems into products for humans by understanding user and business needs while leveraging a user-centred, service and systems design approach. Simultaneously, I mentor, lead, and tutor the next generation of creative thought leaders.

I get a kick out of inspiring creative teams to design their vision by pushing UX boundaries while forging strong, transformational, long-term relationships with my clients.

Contact

GitHub

Work Experience

2013 — Now
Bournemouth

Mentoring and tutoring the next generation of creative thought leaders on the BA (Hons) Visual Communication course.

2023 — 2023
Remote

I led a research-focused project and another transformational project for their core sustainability assessment solution. This included planning and conducting stakeholder/customer interviews, synthesising research findings, pioneering a service and systems design approach, preparing prototypes, as well as planning and conducting usability studies.

2021 — 2022
Remote

I led and mentored the off-shore design team to build capability and transform their core mortgage origination service. I worked closely with their Business Analyst and Product Owner to quickly add key features while preparing multi-channel user flows, design systems, page templates, and prototypes for user testing.

2020 — 2021
Remote

Leading the research, UX/UI design, prototyping and user testing on Marlowe, a powerful smart contract web application and cloud-based IDE.

2019 — 2020
London

I led the complete overhaul of the ITF's website, pioneering a mobile-first design system and component library to fully transform their online presence.

2019 — 2019
London

Contracted to rethink the Vichy Mag blog to boost sales and traffic through their e-commerce platform.

2016 — 2018
Malmesbury

Contracted as the lead UX/UI designer for a complete transformation and overhaul of The James Dyson Foundation website.

I then built, mentored and led a team of designers to rapidly roll out their newly-released UK e-commerce website to the Canadian market.

2014 — 2016
London

Pioneering UX/UI design for Squared Online, their award-winning flagship e-learning product created in partnership with Google.

2013 — 2013
London

Contracted to join their marketing team to produce various email campaigns.

2012 — 2013
London

Contracted to create assets as well as write HTML and CSS for their BAU e-commerce solution.

2012 — 2012
Cologne

Web design, marketing and branding for Munich Airport.

2012 — 2012
London

Web design and branding for clients such as Eon, De Beers, and Cancer Research UK.

2012 — 2012
London

Introduction to web design and branding for clients such as Hewlett Packard, Swisscom and more.

2012 — 2012
London

Introduction to service and systems design for clients such as Lloyds Bank, Barclays and more.

Projects

2021

A white-label mortgage origination service which enables brokers to input customer data quickly and obtain instant lending decisions. The whole process is made faster with Open Banking, as well as the powerful Decision Engine and OCR software under the hood.

As the Senior Product Designer, I jumped on to Mortgage Hub when it was well on its way to the first release to help nurture and grow the design team, as well as refine the design system, key templates and user journey.

I had to rapidly understand user needs and business requirements through stakeholder interviews while rigorously critiquing the current designs through regular design team reviews, audits and usability studies.

2020

Marlowe is a suite of products which enables developers and pioneers to build, discover, and run financial smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain.

As the only Product Designer, I started the product development lifecycle from the beginning. I had to quickly understand the pain points and user needs for the Playground, as well as understand what Cardano pioneers need from a consumer app (Marlowe Run) in order to choose, set up, and run financial smart contracts.

In turn, this enabled me to define and design an entire suite of products which would close the loop from smart contract creation by developers, to execution by the consumer.

2016

I joined Dyson as a freelance UX/UI Designer initially to reimagine the James Dyson Foundation website. I was then asked to build and lead a design team to roll out and launch their e-commerce site in Canada as part of Dyson's biggest digital transformation in over a decade.

2014
Google Squared Online at Avado

I was hired as a freelance UX/UI designer to create the virtual learning campus as well as other websites and marketing collateral. This 6-month contract turned into 2 years and this project stood out for me as the one which kickstarted my career as a product designer.

Side Projects

Ongoing

I love journalling on my long-distance walks, but all other waterproof notebooks tear or fall to bits. So, in 2020 I began designing and developing my own and decided to call it Thrunotes.

Awards

2021
Highly Commended from MFG Awards

Mortgage Hub achieved the accolade from the MFG Awards in 2021.

2014
Best Online Distance Learning Programme from E-Learning Awards

Google Squared Online bagged Best Online Distance Learning Programme at the E-Learning Awards in 2014.

2012
New Blood Nominee from D&AD

Nominee for the Digital Design category for our response to the Microsoft Windows Phone brief at D&AD in 2012.

Volunteering

2022 — Now
Safety Council Member at Trevor Laher Foundation

In 2020, while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, a fellow hiker I met sadly had a fatal fall. Since then, Trevor Laher's family appointed me as their Safety Council member for the foundation which involves quarterly meetings consulting on safety in wilderness areas and on long-distance walks.