Dimitris Kontaris

I'm a User Experience Professional with over 15 years of experience in the industry.

My purpose is to build and empower teams to create meaningful interactions and build interfaces that enable the target audience to achieve their goals. 

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My Background

Education

  • Masters (MSc) in Human Computer Interaction with Ergonomics from UCL, which taught me how to apply science and psychology to User Experience and Interaction Design decisions

  • Masters (MSc) in Digital Learning and Technology Enhanced Education, which taught me how to articulate complex concepts to people unfamiliar with them, and how to visualise ideas using ActionScript, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

  • Bachelor's degree (BSc) in Mathematics, which, among others, taught me how to apply structured thinking into creative design and draw parallelisms from mathematics problem solving techniques.

Publications

Creativity

  • Music has an integral part in my life and composing it is one of the ways my creativity is channelled.

  • I love photography. There are many similarities between taking pictures and designing interfaces; directing, composing, using the equipment at hand, and removing the unnecessary elements from the composition that don’t contribute to the storytelling.

As a Leader

I have successfully hired, grew, and led teams of 60+ people (UX designers, UI designers, Researchers, Copyrighters. Senior Managers) across London and Vancouver and provided:

  • Thought leadership

  • Design strategy and direction

  • Mentorship

  • Organisation structure to help Managing Directors, CDOs, and CEOs to set up the design org in startups, scalps, and well established companies

  • DesignOPs

As a Practitioner

I apply reason and justification for every design decision made by mapping them to the users and business’ requirements, and enable my team to do so as well.

Research

I conduct, plan and analyse user research and usability testing. Depending on the desired outcomes of the research, some of techniques I use are:

  • Wizard of Oz

  • Card sorting

  • GOMS

  • Remote Usability Testing

  • Interviews and Questionnaires

  • Task completion with think aloud

  • Guerilla testing

  • Persona Creation

Ideation

I quickly produce ideas with different fidelity levels depending on what I am trying to communicate. The design decisions are made from the business and user requirements, timescales and other constrains specific to the project, client, and partnering vendors .

Some of the tools in my arsenal are:

  • Workshops

  • Flows

  • Wireframing (Figma, Sketch, Keynote, Axure, Pen & Paper)

  • Affinity Mapping

Prototyping

Prototyping is a powerful way to communicate the desired outcome with peers, end users, stakeholders, visual design and development team. Also, when used sensibly, animations can help with discovery and navigation, contributing to a delightful experience.

I communicate the ideas using a tools such as:

  • Click through (Figma, Keynote)

  • Animation (Figma, Keynote)

Visual Design (Some)

Even though I am not a visual designer, I appreciate good design, and enjoy contributing to visual design ideas. I use tools like:

  • Figma

  • Sketch

  • Photoshop

  • Illustrator

When I was working for RedKite Financial Markets, I was also producing visual design assets for the financial platform, due to the lack of a dedicated visual designer. I've also created the visual design language for the "No Excuse" app and made the "Ruby the Robot" character for the iOS sticker project.

Development (Basic)

I was exposed to development during my "Digital Systems and Technology enhanced Education" MSc where I was taught the basics of:

  • JavaScript

  • HTML, CSS

  • Swift

Since then, I use and have expanded my knowledge as needed for User Experience Design and Animations.

INDUSTRY

Companies I worked in

  • Global Relay (UX Director)

  • HSBC (Design Manager, Head of Design)

  • Thomson Reuters (Senior UX Designer)

  • Accenture (Senior UX Designer)

  • Nice Actimize (UX Designer)

  • RedKite Financial Markets (UX Designer)

  • SONY CEE (UX Researcher)

Conference Speaking

Sectors I worked in

  • Banking and Finance

  • Risk and Compliance

  • Health and Fitness

  • Education

  • Gaming

  • Oil

  • Pharmaceutical