Nirmal Dhiman

Senior Designer available for permanent/contract design roles, within agencies and in-house. Over the past two decades, I have led award-winning design projects with over 200 brands, across many strands of design and touchpoints, while at design agencies, in-house, at technology consultancies (perm/contract) User experience User interface Wireframes, and prototyping UX writing, content work User research and testing Service design, mapping and journey diagrams Retail and ecommerce Product design and development B2B/B2C websites and account areas Responsive website coding Native apps (iOS and Android) SAAS cloud and desktop software Backend systems to power customer, employee and management experiences Brand work Graphic design Visual work Typeface design Art direction Creative execution Concepts and image retouching Marketing, social Email/SMS marketing/transactional comms CRM and segmentation Digital advertising campaigns Animation Video, motion graphics, audio, and streaming media Illustration Print, advertising, OOH and packaging Physical products and electronics Wayfinding, environment, and in situ Vehicle livery -- AVAILABILITY I am eager to get back to work. As a proactive design lead, with 2 decades of experience, my skill set and job duties have been varied, and often more than what the official job title indicates. - Open to contract, permanent, temporary, part-time and even international positions - Please reach out for any suitable positions - I am available for an immediate start WHAT WOULD I LIKE TO WORK ON? With extensive agency and in-house design experience, I am quite open-minded about what I work on next.

CONSULTANCY As part of globally dispersed consultancy teams, I worked on large-scale B2B / B2C digital transformation projects, bids, and presentations, for multinationals. Within the consultancy teams, I represented the design function, contributing to strategic planning and estimates, with respect to scope documents, quotations, RFI responses, and shared presentations. I worked as a Researcher, UX / UI Lead, and client-facing Designer, producing concepts and clickable prototypes. Production of visual assets, service mapping, artefacts, and annotations as required for the bid documents, and live presentations.

TELECOMS Embedded with O2 Telefónica Germany, I was the UX Design Lead for Enabler Squad, a globally dispersed client and multi-agency team. We worked with various stakeholders on UX/UI for an extensive digital transformation program for multiple brands (O2, WhatsApp Sim, NettoKOM, Blau, Ay Yildiz, Ortel, etc). Looking at web, app, in-store, and agent channels, we took a cohesive design approach to replace the various aged, fragmented, legacy digital offerings. This resulted in the comprehensive “ONE” 'white label' design system, where each brand could select the components they needed, and adapt to their brand/content. Partnered with client PO, I organised the team sessions, project briefings, stakeholders workshops, internal/external show-and-tells, Dev Team handovers, and 1:1 mentoring. We worked on large-scale product delivery of cross-tribe epic items used throughout websites and apps. I was part of an advocate team to define and promote mobile-first design, for periodic alignment sessions within the Tribes. -- DESIGN OPS I designed the overall project delivery workflow (and downstream touch points) to be used across the different teams. The workflow iterated upon how Enabler/Tribes requests are processed, prioritised, accommodated, and handed over (with Agile processes and the 2-week Sprints). To improve project-wide visibility and delivery, I looked at the incumbent Jira boards and ticket formats across departments and devised Jira compatibility improvements, with alignment from PMs and BAs. This led to creating connected dashboard views to view progress/burndown/blockers. As the project was multi-national, we made sure to promote the workflows to the wider teams and senior operations teams. -- DELIVERY As part of the department's Senior Leadership team, we prioritised work streams/deliverables to achieve business objectives, to fit with larger PI and overall go-live strategy, as mapped out in company-wide updates and planning sessions.

PRODUCT LEAD Design lead, responsible for all visual design, UX, and UI within the R&D team. The MD tasked me with securing the company’s future by creating a new product vision: - Company website, digital footprint, and materials - I assessed and transformed existing software and supporting apps - I researched and originated four all-new SAAS systems, CMSs, native apps, and consumer platforms - I worked across multiple departments/locations to learn all aspects of the business - I improved customer experience by bringing Marketing and external communications in-house, - Internal CX improvements included new CRM screens, verbatim, onboarding form and workflows The result was a connected suite of cloud and Windows software, API portal, shop, and web + apps - Used by businesses and their clients. -- IMPROVING EXISTING SOFTWARE FOR BUSINESS I ran a user-centred audit to assess and transform an established EPOS till software, as used by 2,500 businesses over numerous sites. I looked at current and possible service design improvements. Compiled findings into an impact/effort matrix for the Board to see options. Led the R&D team in improving problem areas, and user flows while introducing new built-in features such as shop, help, and account areas. I redesigned the entire software to make it more user-friendly and app-like and work on hardware with multiple screens/touch screens. -- CREATING NEW SOFTWARE FOR BUSINESS To improve in-store team management, we created iOS / Android employee apps that synchronised with the Windows till / cloud software. After compiling product stories and ideation, I designed an all-new, cloud web ERP SAAS platform – From first MVP to product maturity. This is a scalable solution used by single and large business chains, head offices, and call centres. Modules include: client CRM and history, complex appointment management, SMS / Email marketing, employee management, stock, pricing, reporting, and analytics dashboards.

MARKETING During my time there, I worked with five Marketing Managers. This includes covering duties between managers as well as hand-overs from leaving managers and getting the new starters up to speed. In this capacity, I also worked with and managed external marketing agencies and third-party development teams. I took over the outsourced graphic design work by bringing it in-house. This entailed design for: - Company rebrands, stationary, building signage, and exhibition stands - Product identities, iconography, and assets - All company materials for digital/print - Explainers for social content, webinars, company videos, video idents - Compositing promotional imagery, and retouching - Marketing email communications

NATIVE APPS FOR CONSUMERS For the customer’s clients, I designed a set of white-label client websites/embeddable widgets that had integrated accounts, booking, and GPS location functionality. Businesses could configure features for all (or each location) and apply branding via a bespoke CMS. A potential customer with 100 sites agreed to trial the system with an A/B test of only 6 sites using our booking system for a month. Within 3 days it was clearly beating the incumbent system’s booking rate, so the customer asked to install the system across all sites. -- NATIVE APP DESIGN AND PRODUCTION With these insights, I worked with our R&D team and an off-shore App development partner to design a smartphone booking app. I liaised with the customers to account manage, obtain the assets, and design the visual appearance of their white-label booking app. Once the separate codebases were suitably mature, I took over hands-on work with Xcode and Android Studio, to design, and produce new white-label iOS / Android apps. I worked with the off-shore team via GIT, to design and manage additional app features, fixes, and required codebase updates. This could either be individual updates to a single app, or batch updates for all existing published apps. As the first point of contact for Apps, I troubleshooted for initial fixes. For new apps, I created graphics, and brand schema, and tested the apps locally/on devices, before prepping them to be submitted to the App Store / Play Store. I also created their Store page listings. Overall, we designed, published, and maintained native apps for 137 businesses within UK, Netherlands, USA, and the Middle East. -- PERSONAL LEARNING / HACKATHONS As a regular attendee of design talks held in London and Brighton, I often ran internal sessions with the R&D team to relay useful learnings to my team. I attended Alexa conversation design classes at Amazon offices and won a company hackathon with a voice bookings prototype.

Integrity Software had several software divisions based in the UK. With an established client base these operated in different verticals since the 1990s. Hired as the first designer, my purpose was to transition the company from being just a Windows software business to one that also offers web products too. I introduced in-house visual design capabilities, and user-centred design approaches to gain better insights. -- I was tasked with improving existing products. This allowed me to apply user research and best practice approaches to transform older software applications, some of which used older codebases. And creating new greenfield products, allowed the company to start offering mobile-friendly products - Which immediately helped the company's offerings become more competitive again. -- UX/UI AND DEVELOPMENT I was asked to help cover the loss of Developers, by working as a front-end designer for applications made in C# using Visual Studio. I worked alongside Devs to create mobile-first web systems and Facebook Apps that could be customised for businesses to use. — User research and observation — Software feature set audit — Competitive research and analysis — Strategic planning — Software UI design — Proof of concept and rapid prototyping — Front-end design and IDE-based .NET development — In-browser and staging-server testing — Facebook App design and development — Icon design and production — Online/retail/social media research — Analytics analysis — Copywriting for new customer-facing collateral — Design, and production of collateral — Internal technical documentation -- LOCATIONS The company was based on three sites around the UK. I proactively worked across the physical distance divide, across different departments in-person and remotely. I remotely upskilled staff to help with design tasks and asset production. -- MARKETING I also worked with Marketing on materials and webinar productions, so brought the design in-house

Not long after The Unit was started, I was asked to join as the first employee. I was integral to establishing it as a leading digital and user-centered design studio. I enjoyed helping to run the studio, assessing what team resources were needed, building the team over time, working with our clients, and account management for the various projects. We had a mix of direct and indirect clients. We worked with larger, incumbent agencies who needed digital expertise. Clients became long-term partners, some of whom were on retainer. This let me work on an enviable list of international clients, corporations, and well-known artists and entertainers. Clients ranged from financial services, insurance, travel, accommodation, property, music, entertainment, the arts, charities - some of which became retained clients. The studio now has locations in London and Brighton. Team: — Team, project management — CV and portfolio reviews — Intern/work experience staff Client management: — Project spec writing and research — Job quotation and breakdowns — New business and pitch work Visual Design: — Brand development and identity — Visual design, image retouching — Digital and free-hand illustration — Icon and typeface production — Print design and art-working Websites: — User experience and service design — HTML, CSS front-end UI design, and development — Website design, build, and production — Design for desktop and mobile — Browser testing and optimisation — Bespoke CMS systems — Web server FTP and administration — Social media content and assets Email comms: — Email strategy, flows and landing pages — Email template design, build and test — List set-up, segmentation and campaigns Advertising: — Digital online advertising creative — Flash, gif banner design and production — Video/audio rich media and page overlays — 2D Flash/motion graphics Audio/Video/Streaming: — Media player design and interface — Audio/video editing and encoding — Green screen and compositing

Blaze Design was a successful design and print studio. I was hired to bring digital creativity to the new digital design department. Blaze worked closely with SMP marketing agency, a multi-award winning sales and direct marketing agency based in Tunbridge Wells and then London. Blaze eventually became the integrated studio for SMP. I became the Senior Web Designer in this position and was responsible for all the digital work that ran through the studio. I was also responsible for briefing and working with a network of freelance designers, 3D, programmers, printers, and a fulfillment house. Overall, I worked on UX / UI design and web site production for a range of projects including: — Consumer-facing websites — Children's web portals — Online games, offline activities, — eCommerce websites — Multi-tenant international admin systems. — Intranets and extranets Within the design studio I was responsible for: — All digital projects. — Digital department quotes and pitches. — Client-facing account management of digital projects. — Working with, briefing, and managing external designers and developers. Design responsibilities included: — Visual design, concepts, and screen design. — HTML/CSS web design, build, and deployment. — Image creation, photo retouching, artwork illustration. — Flash front-end design, animation, and development. — Online games concepts, design, production, play-testing, and delivery. — Design and authoring of interactive sales tools. — CD-ROM / DVD design and production. — 2D and video-based animation and editing. — Online advertising and rich media. — Pitch work, presentation design, and maquette build. — HTML email design, marketing, set-up, and deployment. Achievements: — Multiple industry awards and recognition won in digital categories. — I increased website traffic usage on long term web projects.

I started as a client-facing designer that went to visit clients to take briefs and give walkthroughs about delivered web sites. I then became studio-based, concentrating on the client liaison, design, and build of websites and digital elements. In time I became the Studio Manager, managing the studio workflow, and overseeing the work of 5 designers. — Client-facing to take briefs and deliver walk-throughs of finished websites. — Domain and web hosting administration — HTML web site front-end design and development. — Creating new websites as well as updating existing ones. — Working with Developers to make dynamic websites with admin areas. — Flash design, animation, and website production. — Email design, marketing, and set-up.

This was my first design role, which initially covered a maternity position. In time I was asked to extend my tenure there. I worked in the design and artwork department, liaising with the in-house printer and screenprint departments. I then branched across and aided in the end-delivery of projects, where I worked hands-on in the design, application, and installation of graphic and signage elements. — Brand, design, and artwork for paper-based print. — Electronic product panel interface design. — Typography, design, and illustration — Vinyl design and cutting, and Edge machine output. — Design and artwork for screen print output. — Design and application of shop fascias, external, and internal signage. — Vehicle specific livery design and application.