Is your website not converting as well as you'd like?
Do you have a small team and not enough time to work on UX?
Do you lack the resources to hire a full-time UX designer?
Have you found designers who can make things look beautiful but struggle to help you understand your users and their behaviour?
I bring deep ecommerce UX design knowledge, startup experience, and pragmatism to improve your website. And I work in an evidence-based way. Read on to find out more.
I carry out a custom project for your website. I’ll give you powerful insights about what your users are doing and I’ll design solutions based on this evidence that you’ll be able to quickly implement or feed into a bigger redesign process.
Before anything we'll have a consultation call where we can discuss your project and your needs. This is at no charge and no obligation. Only once I understand what you require and we’re sure that I’m right for your company will I put together a proposal for the work.
I start by understanding ‘what’ is happening on your site currently. This is done by digging into your website analytics, as well as heatmaps and visitor recordings, to see what your users are doing and where they are having problems. I share my findings with you as I go—clients often find these early insights powerful for shaping their thinking.
Once we have a clear idea of the issues that need solving I will organise, run, and analyse user tests to find out ‘why’ your users are getting stuck. You'll get my analysis backed up with video clips of what people are doing and thinking when they move around your website. I have lots of experience in many forms of effective user testing, and favour remote methods that allow us to reach users quickly wherever they may be.
Many ecommerce businesses want to know what their competitors are doing right but don’t have the time to properly study them (and as a result often end up looking at the same one or two brands). Informed by what we've seen in the previous phases I use competitor analysis to gather ideas for solutions, based on what works in the real world for similar businesses. I use my experience of ecommerce UX design to study your choice of competitor websites, helping you find suitable ideas for ‘how’ to improve, which clients often find is a great source of inspiration.
Rather than just having recommendations gathering dust, the aim of this stage is to provide you with wireframes that you can take away and give to UI designers to finesse or developers to apply style guides. My designs will incorporate the key insights we've learned about the website and your users. I typically deliver them in the form of clickable (or tappable) prototypes for desktop and mobile, which helps show the full user journeys. You'll get a chance to provide feedback and shape the designs—and we can put them in front of users too.
I am a UX consultant who helps ecommerce sites improve their design via evidence (not assumptions). Unlike other consultants I specialise in working with growing startups. I have over 10 years experience as a UX designer, including at the BBC, onefinestay, and have since consulted with a range of growing businesses. I’ve taught UX design workshops for over five years and I wrote the Amazon-bestselling book Designing Ecommerce Websites.
I enjoy working with startups and I understand the realities of working with small teams who need flexibility and collaboration. I'm experienced in a range of ecommerce businesses including marketplaces (from selling holidays to renting taxis). Some of the great growing companies I've been privileged to work with include:
Brightech /
Cornwalls Cottages /
Diligent /
Drover /
Elvie /
Heist Studios /
Hire Space /
incrediblue /
JustPark /
KnownHost /
Lexoo /
Monica Vinader /
Moteefe /
Nested /
Red Paddle Co. /
RoutePerfect /
ShopStreet /
student.com /
The Moving Home Warehouse /
ThinkSprint /
Zego
I've also consulted for some big names such as Samsung and Jimmy Choo.
I'm based near Bristol in the UK, but have worked remotely with all of my clients for over four years now, so it doesn't matter where you are. I’ve worked with companies across the UK, Europe, and in the US and I don't overburden clients with bit reports or unnecessary deliverables. I’ve written here about how I work openly with my clients whilst located apart from them.
“The suggestions proposed by Matt were based on user research, best practices and expertise. It was free of our preconceptions so it included several good ideas we did not think of on our own.
Working with Matt was very professional and pleasant. We would definitely recommend him and use his services again if the chance arises.”
Boaz Lantsman, Routeperfect
“I would absolutely recommend Matt—it was a really positive working experience. He is clear, knowledgeable and really took into account our business and positioning.”
Hannah Russell, Elvie
"The designs Matt supplied provided a simple yet strong structure for the website, and we particularly found his help on researching and understanding the user journey very useful. We were very impressed with the work."
Daniel Verblis, The Moving Home Warehouse
“We were recommended Matt to improve the conversion rate on our website and through his work he was able to give us very valuable insights into customer behaviour. He also supplied well thought out changes to our site design and recommendations for future development.
I would absolutely recommend Matt to other businesses.”
Richard Beaman, Cornwalls Cottages
“He gave us recommendations based on user research, which gave examples of why things weren’t working currently and made it easier to get changes approved. The software he used to showcase his wireframes was easy to use and a great visualisation of the changes recommended—it also allowed for multiple users to comment in one place.
Matt explained the process and changes thoroughly and simply. He was easy to work with and very efficient. We’re already seeing the positive effects of the improvements!”
Luke Green, Red Paddle Co.
“We saw an immediate improvement to the quality of our UX from the first project he worked on. He worked well with the team to get to the bottom of what we were trying to achieve and was able to simplify things to do that.
I would highly recommend Matt – he did a great job for us and we are definitely planning on working with him again.”
Matt Robinson, Nested
I don't specialise in visual design. I aim to deliver clean and simple designs to a medium fidelity, but if you want pixels finessing, banners/ads illustrating or styleguides pored over, you're better off with someone who specialises in that space. Look for a designer who has a beautiful-looking portfolio on a site like Dribbble.