I'm Alex Lee, a User Experience Designer with a wide range of experience on world famous websites. Initially cutting my teeth in web design, I now define, develop and launch products, lead UX teams and make a cracking cup of tea

Smarkets

www.smarkets.com

Head of Experience, October 2009 - Present

I'm currently employed at social betting start-up, Smarkets.

Kneedl.com

www.kneedl.com

Co-Founder, November 2008 - August 2009

I moved to Miami in 2008 to focus on the definition, design and development of a new real estate site aimed at the Hispanic market moving to South Florida.

The aim was to develop a proof of concept for the investors to attempt a second round of funding. I was responsible for everything on the project from concept, to design to the actual front-end build. I employed contract developers in Miami and India to deal with the heavy-lifting.

This role gave me invaluable experience into working with a very limited budget and on a project where I had almost complete control. The project has received positive press and publicity in the USA and the investors are currently in the process of obtaining further funding.

Gcap Media (now Global)

www.thisisglobal.com

Head of User Experience Design, December 2007 - November 2008

At Gcap I was responsible for setting up a new UED team (and defining their working practices) to manage Gcap's portfolio of national (Xfm, Classic FM, Capital FM, Choice) and 42 local radio station websites. My team defined the target user groups and the approach the websites took to reach those users. We worked at all stages of the process from concept and persona generation through to prototyping, user testing, documentation and UAT.

We built our infrastructure from scratch (in Django), I worked closely with the developers and engineers to ensure that we had an admin model in place that would support these new properties.

This role gave me a new insight into how development and front-end teams should work together within an Agile methodology as well as gaining Scrum Master certification.

Yahoo

uk.yahoo.com

Lead User Experience Designer, December 2006 - November 2007

I was employed at Yahoo! to look after the TV, Movies and Games sites across Europe. Although my official title was Lead UED for Entertainment I worked across most of the products from Search to Sport to Kelkoo. My role was to define the users, define their goals, analyse our product, research competing products, create the concept, wireframe approaches, draw up the IA and flows and finally (if necessary) create the page designs.

Yahoo taught me a great deal about user centered design on a global scale, working with an Agile development process and creating interface pattern libraries.

RealNetworks

uk.real.com

Lead Designer, March 2005 - December 2006

I moved to RealNetworks to manage the design and implementation of a release of their new European content management system and to relaunch their marketing websites.

My responsibility was for the brand, messaging, and design for their print and web properties throughout Europe.

This role enabled me to gain knowledge of working in a worldwide context. Planning and designing websites which will be released in different countries (UK, France, Italy, Spain, South America, Mexico, Japan, China and USA) currencies and languages.

Common Sense Design

www.csensedesign.co.uk

2000 - Present

I set up Common Sense Design in 2000 as my freelance business. I've worked for many companies on very diverse projects anything from brand consulting to web design to print work. Companies include major brands such as the BBC, Disney,Virgin Media, Little Brown Publishers and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group as well as smaller companies such as Smarkets, Tickets365, Football Superstars, Kangaroo Poo Clothing and David Fickling Comics.

ntl: (now Virgin Media)

Head of Design and Development, August 2000 - March 2005

At ntl I was responsible for both a team (14 in total) of online designers and developers who created and maintained the ntl websites (consumer portal and commercial sales) as well as the digital TV platform. The other half of the team were print designers and art workers responsible for the literature, direct mail, advertising, brochures, and install material. I moved up the ranks in this position from Designer to a Head of department.