Hello
I'm Holly! Expert user researcher and user-centred design practitioner. I love teaching, meeting new people and sharing user-centred design knowledge. I'm here to help people feel happy and confident advocating and designing for users.
My Story
​Studying Psychology (BSc) and Social and Cultural Psychology (MSc) gave me a solid grounding in what it means to conduct quality research.
After completing my Masters at the London School of Economics, I earned my ethnography stripes at an ethnographic research agency.
I worked on projects for Google, Lloyds Bank, Arthritis Research UK, UEFA, Mind, HSE (Health and Safety England) and CITB (Construction Industry Training Board). During this time, I realised how much I wanted to take my insights forward into the design and development space.
My first government role was with HMCTS (Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunal Service). Here, I began as a Junior User Researcher, completing a 3-month GDS (Government Digital Services) approved course in user research. This gave me the tools to feel confident and enjoy myself at work. I quickly realised user research was absolutely the job for me!
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Since then, I've worked for the Pensions Dashboard Programme (an arm’s length body to the Department of Work and Pensions), HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs), the Infected Blood Compensation Authority and DEFRA (Department for Food and Rural Affairs).
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While at HMRC I won 'Best Community Meeting Presentation' for my talk on ethnography, and 'Most Innovative Research Method' for an ethnographic user research project for Borders and Trade (I'll reveal more during training!).
Across the project lifecycle, I've delivered on complex Discoveries, innovative Alphas and high-profile Betas (including on a service that's a part of the UK's Critical National Infrastructure).