Who?

I’m Patrick Robert Doyle, a designer focused at the crossroads between humans and technology.

I’ve worked on products used by millions of people (including the Queen Elizabeth II) with companies such as ThoughtWorks, gowago.ch, Rentalcars.com, ABB, AECOM, Alstom, GE, Metro Group, and plenty more.

Originally from a little island called Britain, I now reside in the photogenic inland island of Switzerland.

Sometimes I take photos, go on adventures, share my thoughts on @TeaPowered.

So what kind of designer are you?

I’m a UX designer who specialised in using product design methods to solve real world problems.

Yeah, but what kind? UX is such a wide umbrella of roles

I live around the creative and strategic neighbourhoods of UX.

Other UX professionals would describe me as a user-centred digital product designer who likes to think about the bigger picture.

You’ll find me gathering user insights, running workshops to define the UX vision or product strategies and how it supports business goals, planning user flows, sketching wireframes, crafting UIs, building prototypes, and testing them.

I work to embed a culture of design thinking with whichever team I work; where all members of the team, from developer to CEO, are thinking from within the shoes of the person they’re creating a product for.

Whilst most of my time is spent in the neighbourhoods of UX, I also also venture into the nearby districts of art direction, branding, motion graphics, product and delivery management, and front-end development (where I lived once-upon-a-time).

What I do and how I do it

Everyone loves a fancy portfolio website blazing with beautifully presented pixel-perfect UI mockups, but solving real problems experienced by real people with UX tools beats any super-slick Dribbble clickbait eye candy.

Ultimately everything begins with a spark. My sparks are user needs: What do people actually want to do?

If the spark doesn’t find me, I find the spark using quantitative user research (data that provides a direction, like a magnetic field is to a compass) and qualitative user research (real people using real words to talk about real experiences).

A user-need is the spark that starts the engine (Unless you’re into electric vehicles, which you can think of as stroking your entry card on the secret spot on your shiny Tesla that only the initiated know about), and the rest becomes a road trip.

We might start off with vague plans of where to drive and what kind of place the users want to go, but with the right input from business, users, and research, the destination becomes more certain and the route becomes clearer. Often the best destination is the nearest that solves the users' problem. Once there, we can assess whether it met our users’ needs, learn what’s great about our current destination and what needs improving. More sparks start firing as we learn about our current destination, and we start planning our next one.

Forgive the metaphors. I’m a designer, metaphors are a staple of my diet.

If you’re someone who’s ever spent more than 10 minutes with an Agile-garnished consultant (spoiler: I was one), clinked drinks with a product manager, or accidentally fallen into an article about the ‘build, measure, learn’ loop, you’re probably thinking: “This sounds a lot like Agile methodology”. And you’d be right – But Agile is a means to an end.

My goal is to help create intuitive products that delight users and tackle real problems in their markets. Agile, Lean, Kanban, SCRUM, etc. are just tools in the box to quickly reduce risk and learn about our destination.

To this designer, there’s nothing better than a joyful user experience and a beautiful UI that people actually want to to use.

Want to get to know me better?

Drop me a message. I'm usually up for a coffee, sharable or virtual.