Meet the team: Nicola

We caught up with Nicola, the first employee to join ClarityDX after our founder Alex and who has been with us ever since!

1. What is your role at ClarityDX?

I’m the Digital Art Director at ClarityDX.

2. What does an average day for you look like?

An average day starts with checking Emails, Slack, and Harvest/Forecast (our time tracking and scheduling tools) to plan what needs doing – as well as an actual real life conversation with the rest of the team in our daily standup so we all know how each project is progressing.

Following that my time will be split between my own planning and design work, and then overseeing all the design output of the agency across other projects we are working on. When I’m not designing I’m probably attending meetings with clients and worrying about whether we have enough milk left to make tea.

3. What’s the most challenging part of your job?

Trying to balance business requirements, user needs, content organisation, UX, UI, and development to create a solution that fulfils our client’s vision and pushes them to the next level. There’s a lot to think about!

4. Any advice for those who want to do what you do?

Make sure you’re familiar with all aspects of the production process, not just user experience and user interface design but everything that comes before and after it. Also work on how you can communicate with your clients to explain your decisions and convince them of the choices you’ve made.

5. What future design and/or technology developments in the industry are you excited about?

In the immediate future of web design I’m excited to see the development in how illustration, animation and typography are being employed in a more thoughtful and integrated way.

Technology wise it’s going to be interesting to see how the web becomes both more invisibly present in assisting with everyday tasks and simultaneously able to create completely immersive experiences with VR. Who knows? One of things I enjoy most about this industry is all the new avenues that are constantly opening.

On a more basic note, if somebody could make a full colour E Ink reading device I’ll be really happy.

6. What does a perfect weekend include for you?

An ideal weekend would include brunch with friends, an exhibition or talk where I could learn something new, a bit of meditation, maybe some yoga or a swim, and an evening in the pub. Whether or not my weekends are actually spent like that is a different issue.

7. What would you like to learn to do in the future?

In the future I’m interested in developing my storytelling and illustration skills and learning more about how the web can be utilised for education.

8. If you could meet one person (dead or alive) who would it be and what would you ask them?

It’s impossible to choose. Don’t I even get a dinner party and other guests to help me decide?