About

Updated 29 September 2024.

My name is Benjy Stanton. I’m a contract interaction designer. I’m interested in user-centred design in the public sector, inclusive design and accessibility.

White man with a beard, wearing a baseball cap and smiling

Summary

I’m an hands-on interaction designer, product designer and user experience (UX) designer. I have experience in the public and private sector. I love working with agile, multidisciplinary teams that care about user-centred design.

I work with teams to:

I’ve worked with teams of different sizes and setups, including in-house, hybrid and remote. I’ve led design teams, headed-up communities, and hired and mentored designers.

I’m an advocate for accessibility and inclusive design. I help teams to do user research with people with access needs, and do accessibility audits. I’m passionate about making products and services that work for everyone.

I've worked with

Experience

Senior interaction designer at Home Office (contract)

Started April 2023

At the Home Office, I worked as part of a multidisciplinary agile team. We designed a digital service used by internal staff.

As the team's interaction designer my role included: creating journey maps and screen flows, designing prototypes in code, ensuring the components and patterns met accessibility standards, observing and analysing user research, working with software developers and quality assurance testers, continuous improvement and attending an internal service assessment.

Lead designer at Made Tech

July 2022 to April 2023

At Made Tech, my role was lead designer, specialising in interaction design. I worked at the Met Office on their native iOS and Android apps. I also worked closely with the web team to help improve consistency between the different platforms. Whilst there, I helped to improve the accessibility practices of the team, launch a new map service, and improve information around beach safety forecasts.

Head of Inclusive Design NHS Test and Trace at UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)

July 2021 to June 2022

At UKHSA I lead a team of user-centred designers and product people. We worked to improve the inclusivity and accessibility of NHS Test and Trace services. Our team worked across different services, user journeys and organisations. We helped teams to do user research with diverse participants and embed inclusive design best practice.

My team helped to improve the self-testing experience of blind and partially sighted people.

Interaction Designer at Swirrl

April 2019 to June 2021

At Swirrl, my main focus was helping teams at the Environment Agency (EA) to publish data on Defra’s Data Services Platform (DSP). I helped the service owners at EA to learn more about the users of their data, and I assisted them in publishing the data in a way that was usable and accessible. I conducted multiple accessibility audits and worked with EA, and their suppliers, to fix issues, create accessibility statements and produce prioritised roadmaps.

Lead Interaction Designer at Office for National Statistics (ONS)

October 2016 to April 2019

I headed up a team of interaction and graphic designers. I was responsible for designing products used by the UK public, and internal teams, to collect and publish data. I created user journeys maps, storyboards, prototypes and ran user research and A/B tests. I played a key part in making ONS’s services more accessible across web, social media and printed channels.

Senior User Experience (UX) Designer at Leadin

May 2015 to October 2016

Whilst working for Leadin (a Finnish service design agency) I spent my time at Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). I worked on the “Tell DVLA about a medical condition or disability” service as a Senior UX Designer. I spent time understanding how conditions like epilepsy, Parkinson’s and low vision can affect people’s ability to drive and access digital services. I built prototypes and iterated them based on user research findings, and created reusable design patterns and style guides. This helped the service to pass its government assessments.

Freelance designer

February 2014 to March 2016

Designer at James Good

March 2011 to February 2014

Freelance designer

May 2008 to May 2011

Designer at Web Media Works

June 2004 to April 2008

Education

University of West London

Bachelor’s Degree, Digital Arts 2001 to 2004