+61 425 719 404 smallstudio.com.au [email protected]twitter: @heypaulkotz Paul Kotz’s CV and UX Folio I am a UX Manager, Researcher, Designer and Prototypist with 12 years of production experience and 11 years as a manager and leader. I am a relentless experimenter, always looking for opportunities to learn and test hypotheses. As our industry matures and becomes more specialised, I continue to adapt and relate my skills to better serve the needs of users. I’m just as happy fielding questions and requests in a workshop as I am nutting out the most efficient way to build a prototype.
Paul Kotz’sCV and UX FolioI am a UX Manager, Researcher, Designer and Prototypist with 12 years of production experience and 11 years as a manager and leader.
I am a relentless experimenter, always looking for opportunities to learn and test hypotheses. As our industry matures and becomes more specialised, I continue to adapt and relate my skills to better serve the needs of users.
I’m just as happy fielding questions and requests in a workshop as I am nutting out the most efficient way to build a prototype.
My Work HistoryI started 23 years ago as a Web Designer in an emerging industry, in a time of 256 colour palettes and 30kb page limits.
In 2019, effectively working in the web requires being proficient in a number of mature disciplines and the ability to smoothly switch between them.
My experience working in (and leading) large and small teams on a huge variety of projects has allowed me to develop my skills in those disciplines, honing my craft as I transitioned from pure production to discovery and leadership.
SymbioteUser Experience Lead As Symbiote’s User Experience Lead I’ve had the pleasure to establish the business’ User Experience capacity, win new business and work on some great projects. Beyond that I also had the privilege of bringing my 20 years’ expertise to instigate a number of business improvements as a member of Symbiote’s Operations Group.
DEFINED SYMBIOTE’S UX CAPABILITYDefined User Experience techniques and translated them into saleable offerings (as both part of larger projects and self-contained UX work). Developed internal and external documentation. Management of UX Researcher and UX Developer.
» Usability Testing » Heuristic Evaluation » Listening Sessions » Workshop facilitation » Design Research data analysis and reporting » Ideation » UI Design » Clickable Prototyping » Interactive Prototyping
SET FRONT-END DEVELOPMENT STANDARDSLed the development of Symbiote’s front end development standards in collaboration with the team. This included naming conventions, the usage of components and customising BEM (Block Element Modifier) to Symbiote’s workflow and team preferences. These standards were then presented to the team where discussion and voting ensured buy-in from all staff.
Instigated and worked as Product Owner for Symbiote’s ‘Silverstripe Components’ module which allowed for React-style ‘componentising’ of Silverstripe templates. This work also involved designing and developing a pattern library of commonly-used reusable components, leading to greatly improved Silverstripe build times.
Built Symbiote’s front-end testing station (contributing a number of devices from my old business Small Studio). Set up workflows for testing using Ghostlab (for Mac devs) and Ngrok (for non Macs).
Wrote Front End Developer position descriptions and job ads, vetted and interviewed candidates.
STAFF MANAGEMENTInstigated 1:1 meetings between staff and their managers (after completing Marcus Blankenship’s Software Leaders Seminar course), defined the 1:1 meeting structure, wrote internal documentation and ran meetings with my direct report.
Developed a 12 month Professional Development Plan for the UX Team and sourced learning materials (conferences, courses and reading). This learning plan serves as a template for other disciplines within the business.
SALESCreated an opportunity scorecard process and spreadsheet to improve Symbiote’s sales qualification process.
Reviewed recent sales documentation and implemented a new structure and language style guide to make sales communications clearer and more compelling.
Reviewed the proposal writing and pitching process, then designed a new process with more clarity around responsibilities, deliverables and due dates.
Symbiote ProjectsPublic Transport Victoria Disruptions UX Research
» Planned and ran listening sessions in the PTV Hub at Southern Cross Train Station » Conducted usability testing sessions
of the PTV website » Combed through previously commissioned
customer research, creating new insights » Defined new customer personas » Defined user journeys for each persona » Ran ideation workshop with project
stakeholders and contributors from other PTV departments. Ideas were discussed and prioritised as a group
NSW Government Administrative Requirements Portal website rebuild
» Ran a workshop with NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet and State Archives staff to understand the possible ways public servants become aware of and comply with Administrative Requirements » The workshop also involved an ideation session
where new features were suggested and planned features prioritised for initial development
Sydney Metro Northwest Digital Customer Experience (App, kiosks & website - mid 2019)
» Planned and ran listening sessions near train stations in Sydney and Melbourne » Analysed listening session transcriptions data
to find patterns of user motivations, frustrations and needs » Used ‘Outcome-driven Innovation’ methods to
find the users’ main ‘Jobs to be done’ » Using JBTD methods, created a survey to
determine which jobs were least well-served and most important to users » Ran an ideation workshop with project
stakeholders, using Indi Young’s mental model diagram to group jobs into columns, with space for proposed features that could serve those job groupings. The features were then sorted by risk, cost and feasibility with mandated features flagged as ‘must-have’ » Designed clickable wireframes using Sketch » User tested wireframes » Styled designs to Transport NSW / Sydney
Metro’s style requirements » Developed a number of React front-end
components
Ian Potter Foundation website UX audit and recommendations report
» Led a workshop with Ian Potter Foundation staff to understand the steps involved from initial contact from Grant Seekers through to receiving applications and eventual acceptance or rejection » Led listening sessions with Trust and Fund
Managers from a variety of not-for-profits to understand their processes from deciding to apply for funding to receiving either funding or rejection » Produced the final recommendations report
with a focus on the main jobs IPF staff and funding seekers need to complete, asking ‘how might we serve them in doing these jobs?’
Veterans Employment Portal Website Redesign
» Information Architecture » Clickable Prototype » Usability Testing sessions with veterans » Front-end Development » Silverstripe Development
My HCD ProcessCreating a user experience takes a multi-disciplined team, with different leaders at different stages.
Over my 23 years of working in the web I’ve played many roles, and my experience in each informs all of the others.
My principles are:
» Stay in the problem space first - understand the users before attempting to devise solutions. » Make quickly and test often » Keep the users at the centre of
Research Planning1. PUBLIC TRANSPORT VICTORIA Example research goals:
“What do users do when having to organise alternative routes and methods?”
“How quickly do users identify relevant information from a list of disruptions?”
2. NSW VETERAN’S EMPLOYMENT PORTAL Example research goals:
“How well do users understand how Public Service rankings match to Defence rankings?”
“How well do users understand Capability Matching?”
3. ST. VINCENT’S SYDNEY ICU Example interview guideline:
“Visitors waiting in the ICU waiting room are going to be distressed, and most likely frustrated. If the waiting areas are split into pods, a group of friends and family may see outsiders as an intrusion.”
Stakeholder Workshops1. NSW ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS PORTAL I led a workshop with members of the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet and State Records Office to get an understanding of the tasks involved in producing and complying with Administrative Requirements.
We collaborated to define a number of user journeys, opportunities for improvements and overarching themes for the project: Trust, Active, Confidence, Credible and Supported.
2. IAN POTTER FOUNDATION Five staff members participated in a half day workshop at the Ian Potter Foundation head office where they discussed their interactions with grant seekers and how they fit in the broader scheme of granting funding to worthwhile projects.
I co-led the workshop, supporting Symbiote’s UX Researcher as they facilitated their first workshop with project stakeholders.
Listening Sessions1. METRO TRAINS SYDNEY Example ‘Job to be Done’ and OTD survey question:
Confirm when to disembark Maximise the accuracy of knowing when to disembark at the appropriate time while on the train
When riding the train, how important is it to you that you know when to get off?
When using existing apps and signage, how satisfied are you with your ability to know when to get off?
2. IAN POTTER FOUNDATION Example participant quote:
“It’s like dials - how much do you need to dial up evaluation and metrics?”
3. QUAL SPOTTER Example insight:
“When working at DHS, QUAL-PS-03 currently works with video files and text files, where ‘interesting things’ are noted against the time of the video. When working at DTO she uses OneNote, Noteability or Evernote.”
Traffic Analysis1. STORY BOX LIBRARY Example insight:
“When we added the large ‘browse by’ buttons to the story listing page we collapsed the list filtering box to ensure users weren’t having to scroll too far to get to the list items. This seems to have impacted the amount of filtering users are doing on this page, with a substantial drop from 2015 to 2016.
When filtering is used, the trends are unchanged from last year Age group is still the most popular choice, with Theme a distant second.
What’s interesting is now that there are the separate browse by author and storyteller buttons, people are actually seeing stories by author or storyteller a lot more than last year, with authors/illustrators being much more interesting to website visitors. Not only were people visiting the author listing more, but they were more likely to click through to an author/ illustrator detail page from the listing page.”
Journey Mapping1. IAN POTTER FOUNDATION This journey follows a Grant Seeker as they submit an Expression of Interest to the Ian Potter Foundation. Successful Grant Seekers can then submit a full application for funding of their project.
2. METRO TRAINS SYDNEY The user’s journey from planning to travel all the way to arriving at their destination. These journey maps showed variations depending on whether the user was a local or tourist, and if they were commuting or traveling for a special event.
3. PUBLIC TRANSPORT VICTORIA
The order of events in the disrupted traveller’s journey varies depending on which type of traveller they are, and the choices they make. The journeys produced for PTV were modular, composed of timeline moments and grouped tasks that could be mixed and matched to more accurately describe what the user is actually going through.
PersonasWhen I was running Small Studio, personas were used at the very early stages of a project to help clients get into a user-centered mindset. As real user data was gathered in interviews, surveys or usability testing, the clients were more receptive to our user-first suggestions.
1. THE ALFRED FOUNDATION “In the email signature there is a link to The Alfred Foundation. He has often thought of donating, but not when there has been a computer present. He takes this opportunity to click on the link to the Alfred Foundation website.”
2. PUBLIC TRANSPORT VICTORIA “Ready for News trusts PTV and transport operators to publish accurate disruption information in a timely way.
They know which apps, websites and social media platforms will push information to them and have everything set up on their devices.”
Ideation Workshops1. METRO TRAINS SYDNEY I combined techniques from Indi Young’s ‘Practical Empathy’ book and Strategyn’s ‘Outcome-Driven Innovation’ methodology to set up a framework for project stakeholders to come together and devise ways to serve users.
Over a three hour workshop we reviewed each category of user tasks, brainstormed new ideas and assigned places for functionality that had been mandated by Transport NSW and Metro Trains Sydney.
The ideas were then arranged depending on expected feasibility, cost and risk, and critical functionality was flagged. We all then voted on our preferred items, and the result was added to the product backlog to be estimated for work at a later date.
Information Architecture1. ST VINCENT’S SYDNEY ICU After a day of observing and interviewing nurses, intensivists and administrative staff in the intensive care unit I led a workshop to define the content structure of the unit’s website and intranet.
Busy staff came in and out of the workshop room, making their contributions and moving back to their work saving lives. At the end all agreed that we had reached consensus.
1
HOME
FOR VISITORS MEDICAL SERVICES
RAPID RESPONSEWHAT HAPPENS IN THE ICU
IN THE WAITING AREA AND AROUND ST VINCENT’S
COMMUNICATION AND SUPPORT
GETTING TO THE ICU
ORGAN DONATION
REFERRALSPUBLISHED RESEARCH
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES
JOURNAL CLUBSPECIAL INTERESTS
COURSES
TUTORIALSSIMULATION
STUDY TOOLSWHAT WE TEACH AFILLIATIONS
NURSING EDUCATION
ABOUT THE ICU EDUCATION
NEWS UNIT INFORMATION
RESEARCH
STAFF STRUCTURE
CONTACT DETAILS
BEHAVIOUR
YOURSELF
• INTERPRETER
• SOCIAL WORK
• RELIGION
• COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
• FEEDBACK SURVEY
~ CONTACT DETAILS
• WORKBOOKS
~ CONTACT DETAILS
• etc...
~ CONTACT DETAILS
~ CONTACT DETAILS IS ADMITTED
• PROCEDURES
• EQUIPMENT
• TERMS YOU MAY HEAR
~ STAFF STRUCTURE
TRANSPORT
• CAR PARKING
DISCLAIMER / CAVEATS
External Health Professional - Nurse
Student - NurseStudent - Doctor
External Health Professional - Doctor
PatientVisitor
I want to knowthis is the rightplace for me tolearn
right course for mycareer / professionaldevelopment
I want to knowwhat the ICU doesfor the rest ofthe hospital
I want to knowwhat career pathsare at the ICU
I want to knowwhat the ICU cando for my patient/hospital
I want to knowwho to speak toabout my patient
I want to knowwho to speak toabout my patient
I want my patientto have access to thecare they need
I want to knowwhat is going tohappen to me / my loved one
I want to be by myloved one’s sideas quickly as I can
I want to callthe ICU for updateson my loved one
I want to knowwho is looking aftermy loved one
I want to feelempowered,and more in controlin this situation
I want to makemy time heremore comfortable
I want to getsupporting infoto help withmy studies
I want a satisfying,well-paid career
research that’srelevant to my
I want to havemy researchsupported
I want to beinvolved in theresearchcommunity
User Stories
HOME
FOR VISITORS MEDICAL SERVICES
RAPID RESPONSEWHAT HAPPENS IN THE ICU
IN THE WAITING AREA AND AROUND ST VINCENT’S
COMMUNICATION AND SUPPORT
GETTING TO THE ICU
ORGAN DONATION
REFERRALSPUBLISHED RESEARCH
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES
JOURNAL CLUBSPECIAL INTERESTS
COURSES
TUTORIALSSIMULATION
STUDY TOOLSWHAT WE TEACH AFILLIATIONS
NURSING EDUCATION
ABOUT THE ICU EDUCATION
NEWS UNIT INFORMATION
RESEARCH
STAFF STRUCTURE
CONTACT DETAILS
BEHAVIOUR
YOURSELF
• INTERPRETER
• SOCIAL WORK
• RELIGION
• COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
• FEEDBACK SURVEY
~ CONTACT DETAILS
• WORKBOOKS
~ CONTACT DETAILS
• etc...
~ CONTACT DETAILS
~ CONTACT DETAILS IS ADMITTED
• PROCEDURES
• EQUIPMENT
• TERMS YOU MAY HEAR
~ STAFF STRUCTURE
TRANSPORT
• CAR PARKING
DISCLAIMER / CAVEATS
External Health Professional - Nurse
Student - NurseStudent - Doctor
External Health Professional - Doctor
PatientVisitor
I want to knowthis is the rightplace for me tolearn
right course for mycareer / professionaldevelopment
I want to knowwhat the ICU doesfor the rest ofthe hospital
I want to knowwhat career pathsare at the ICU
I want to knowwhat the ICU cando for my patient/hospital
I want to knowwho to speak toabout my patient
I want to knowwho to speak toabout my patient
I want my patientto have access to thecare they need
I want to knowwhat is going tohappen to me / my loved one
I want to be by myloved one’s sideas quickly as I can
I want to callthe ICU for updateson my loved one
I want to knowwho is looking aftermy loved one
I want to feelempowered,and more in controlin this situation
I want to makemy time heremore comfortable
I want to getsupporting infoto help withmy studies
I want a satisfying,well-paid career
research that’srelevant to my
I want to havemy researchsupported
I want to beinvolved in theresearchcommunity
User StoriesHOME
FOR VISITORS MEDICAL SERVICES
RAPID RESPONSEWHAT HAPPENS IN THE ICU
IN THE WAITING AREA AND AROUND ST VINCENT’S
COMMUNICATION AND SUPPORT
GETTING TO THE ICU
ORGAN DONATION
REFERRALSPUBLISHED RESEARCH
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES
JOURNAL CLUBSPECIAL INTERESTS
COURSES
TUTORIALSSIMULATION
STUDY TOOLSWHAT WE TEACH AFILLIATIONS
NURSING EDUCATION
ABOUT THE ICU EDUCATION
NEWS UNIT INFORMATION
RESEARCH
STAFF STRUCTURE
CONTACT DETAILS
BEHAVIOUR
YOURSELF
• INTERPRETER
• SOCIAL WORK
• RELIGION
• COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
• FEEDBACK SURVEY
~ CONTACT DETAILS
• WORKBOOKS
~ CONTACT DETAILS
• etc...
~ CONTACT DETAILS
~ CONTACT DETAILS IS ADMITTED
• PROCEDURES
• EQUIPMENT
• TERMS YOU MAY HEAR
~ STAFF STRUCTURE
TRANSPORT
• CAR PARKING
DISCLAIMER / CAVEATS
External Health Professional - Nurse
Student - NurseStudent - Doctor
External Health Professional - Doctor
PatientVisitor
I want to knowthis is the rightplace for me tolearn
right course for mycareer / professionaldevelopment
I want to knowwhat the ICU doesfor the rest ofthe hospital
I want to knowwhat career pathsare at the ICU
I want to knowwhat the ICU cando for my patient/hospital
I want to knowwho to speak toabout my patient
I want to knowwho to speak toabout my patient
I want my patientto have access to thecare they need
I want to knowwhat is going tohappen to me / my loved one
I want to be by myloved one’s sideas quickly as I can
I want to callthe ICU for updateson my loved one
I want to knowwho is looking aftermy loved one
I want to feelempowered,and more in controlin this situation
I want to makemy time heremore comfortable
I want to getsupporting infoto help withmy studies
Adaptive Value ChainsCLIENT: CSIROYEAR: 2015-2017, 2019CSIRO developed the Adaptive Value Chains platform to help food producing and mining corporations self-assess the risk of extreme weather events on their value chains. I worked closely with CSIRO’s researchers and Data61’s data scientists to define, design and build the product, even to the point of joining them to promote the platform at CSIRO events.
In 2019 CSIRO approached me at Symbiote to design and develop a functional prototype for their next version of the platform, dubbed the Value Chains Analytics Platform.
Play MelbourneCLIENT: CLEMENGERYEAR: 2014Advertising giant Clemenger came to me with a fistful of mismatched spreadsheets of data from hundreds of Victorian destinations, some marketing illustrations and a brief to design an innovative and beautiful tourism directory.
My first step was to comb through the supplied spreadsheets to see what data was consistent between them. Knowing what was feasible to query and display allowed me to develop wireframes for a unique interface for users to find, collect and share interesting places to visit in Victoria.
Qual SpotterCLIENT: SMALL STUDIOYEAR: 2017After noticing Small Studio’s hospital clients duplicating user research activities, I decided to create a platform to store and share user data.
Qual Spotter’s first incarnation was a library of different user personas that could be ‘called upon’ for user testing scenarios, but after speaking with members of the federal public service we saw a greater need and pivoted to qualitative data storage.
A few rounds of wireframing, prototyping and testing with researchers culminated in a self-funded Beta launch early 2017.
![[UX Series] 1 - UX Introduction](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/563db7f0550346aa9a8f53b0/ux-series-1-ux-introduction.jpg)
