Products That Perform. Workflows That Deliver.

Working with product teams and organisations, I bring research, evaluation and interaction design to shape more effective digital products and team workflows.

UX is still about users, tasks and context. AI changes how work is shaped but the principles of usable and productive interaction still apply.

Good UX has never only been about screens. It is about how users understand, decide and respond when interacting with technology.

Those principles apply to every interaction with technology. They apply to customers using digital products and now to teams using AI as part of their work. In both cases, the experience needs to be researched and designed around real users to achieve real goals.

Established HCI methods, including research, task analysis and interaction design remain the foundation. AI can accelerate parts of the UX process but must be directed by expertise and experience.

I examine the work itself: what users or teams are trying to achieve, what the system asks of them, where effort is being lost and what would create a clearer path. That might lead to a redesigned journey, an improved interface or a more productive AI workflow.

Services

I work in two related areas: improving digital products for users and helping teams use AI more effectively.

Product UX

For product owners, founders and digital teams

I use UX and HCI methods to examine what users are trying to achieve, where the current experience makes that harder and what needs to change.

AI can accelerate parts of the research and design process when it is directed by an experienced UX practitioner. Simply asking AI to create a product or page usually produces generic, poorly evidenced results. The value lies in framing the right research questions, defining the user and task context, testing the design against established principles and challenging the output.

Includes

UX research and usability evaluation
Task analysis and user journey review
Information architecture and interaction design
AI supported research and design

AI Workflows

For business owners, product owners, managers and teams

The LLM prompt box is effectively an unoptimised command line interface and the team is the struggling user. It may be powerful but it is not a sufficient interface for productive work.

I apply HCI methods to examine what teams are trying to achieve, how they structure requests, how they assess responses, where work is repeated and where quality becomes inconsistent.

The outcome is practical: clearer tasks that lead to better prompts, more effective use of libraries, markdown files, projects and skills, useful review steps and workflows that support consistent results.

Includes

AI workflow review
Task analysis
Prompt structures and reusable context
Libraries, markdown files, projects and skills
Output review and quality controls

Events

Talk

Transforming UX for AI in Practice

AI adoption and effectiveness is inconsistent across organisations. UX must reconnect with its HCI roots to transform how we work with AI.

More information

Bio

I am a UX and HCI consultant whose career began in programming and product development including engineering and HCI management roles at banks and multinationals. I moved into specialist consulting before founding Interaction Design Studio in 2008. I hold a business degree and an MSc in Human-Computer Interaction with Ergonomics from UCL in addition to industry and professional qualifications and memberships. I have worked across complex product and organisational environments combining research, interaction design and delivery.

For more than two years at Three, I created design solutions informed by research and quantitative analysis to improve registration and conversion rates across App, Web and Home Broadband services.

Working with a software development partner, I contributed UX and HCI expertise to Sky’s transition to IPTV and the creation of the British Gas Hive thermostat platform, working within Agile delivery environments and through substantial organisational change.

For British Gas, I led end-to-end work from primary research and prototype design through to delivery across physical hardware, website and app experiences for Hive and the wider Connected Home platform.

I also created the complete syllabus, courseware and examination for the BCS Product Management course for IT professionals across the UK.

View my LinkedIn profile

Posts

Endorsements

“Derm (Diarmad) came through highly recommended and didn’t disappoint. He ran a series of workshops with the team taking us through proven theories around UI and helping make it applicable to the very live on stage product development process at Edgefolio. Looking forward to watching his efforts here bear fruit.”

Rowen Pillay Co-Founder & CEO, Edgefolio

“If you need help figuring out how to design or optimise your existing digital user experience be it web, tablet or mobile, Diarmad is your man. Diarmad is exceptionally thorough and uses a hands-on systematic iterative research and learning approach relying on his vast domain expertise. On top of that he is personable and direct or diplomatic at the right times.”

Ferrie van Echtelt, PhD Impact Entrepreneur and Venture Development Partner

Contact

Based in London. Available on site and remotely for consultancy, workshops and project work.

AI (at) ixdstudio (dot) com

linkedin.com/in/ixdstudio