Stephen Kelly : Design / CV

Summary

As a professional designer, I seek to:

  • Work within a collaborative, tightly knit, and dedicated design team.
  • Create useful, usable, and desirable designs that satisfy the goals of the people who interact with them as well as those of the organisation that produces them.
  • Contribute to the development of products and services that aim to make things easier for people, even if only in small, subtle, or indirect ways.

I am a tireless advocate for the user, have a fearless attitude to technology and take great pride in doing my work well.

Tools and Techniques

Experience

The Automobile Association

Design Technical Lead (1996 - Present)
  • Responsible for user experience design, client-side development, accessibility, technical standards and guidelines of the theAA.com (including the Route Planner, Breakdown Assistance, Insurance, Loans, Travel and Motoring Advice) since it's launch in 1997.
  • Accessibility champion for theAA.com. It is my responsibility to champion accessibility on behalf of our users to the business and to those people who build the web site.
  • SEO champion for the design, development and editorial teams.
  • Administration of our Google Mini search (plus customisation of it's XSL results).
  • Wrote XHTML and CSS standards-based CMS templates.
  • Responsible for rebuilding theAA.com using Interwoven Teamsite.
  • Authored the Automobile Association's web accessibility guidelines document 2001. The guidelines are used by other sites owned (at the time) by Centrica including www.centrica.co.uk, www.house.co.uk and www.goldfish.com.
  • Responsible for training and development of the design and development teams.
  • Collaborate closely with developers, content (site text) writers, business change managers, analysts and third party suppliers.
  • Designed and developed a digital TV site for the NTL/Telewest platform.
  • Designed and programmed multimedia CD-ROMs.

Round One Media Ltd

Design Team Lead (1994 - 1996)
  • Lead designer for Penguin Books "The Magic World of Beatrix Potter" and other multimedia CD-ROMs.
  • Responsible for interactive design, graphic design, storyboarding, usability testing and specification.
  • Authored "The Magic World" using mTropolis object oriented software, it was amongst a handful of titles developed using it at the time.
  • Designed and developed web sites.
  • Implemented hardware/software that made us North Devon's first Internet service provider in 1995!
  • Collaborated closely with developers, content (site text) writers, researchers, composers and third party suppliers.
  • Designed and programmed prototype multimedia CD-i discs.

Bradbury Design Associates

Designer (1993 - 1994)
  • Design of own brand consumer products and packaging for the retailers Dixons and Currys.
  • Responsible for rendering visuals both traditionally using markers and on the Macintosh.
  • Produced product and packaging models for the concept stage.
  • Collaborated closely with a team of two other designers.

Education

Brunel University, Surrey

1990 - 1994
  • Industrial Design BSc (Hons)

University of Warwick, Warwickshire

1989 - 1990
  • Engineering FdA

North Devon College, Devon

1987 - 1989
  • 'A' Level Pure & Applied Maths
  • 'A' Level Physics
  • 'A' Level Electronics
  • 'AO' Level Pure & Applied Maths
  • 'AO' Level Electronics

Pilton School, Devon

1981 - 1987
  • Eight 'O' Levels

Contact Me

I'm not presently looking for work, however I'm always interested in a good idea. If you think I'd be interested in your idea and could help you, contact me and lets talk.