Michael D. Dutton
Welcome to my public portfolio. I’ve been lucky enough to work for many clients over my last twelve years in the user experience field, including the high tech industry, higher education, and the health sector.

I believe that the best user experiences are based on validated user needs and goals that are mapped to business strategy and are enabled by modern technology solutions. I’ve highlighted a few examples that demonstrate my approach below.  I can’t share all of my work here, but I would be happy to tell you more about what I do if you contact me..

Research

Early in my career I was exposed to the value of having a strong user research discipline.  One of my first clients had discovered a market need, but overlooked context of use, resulting in poor sales and numerous complaints.  

Since then, I have embraced upfront and ongoing research as part of the user-centered design process.  Below are some of the research techniques I use.  

Health 

In this project, I helped my client improve the overall clinician-patient relationship as well as patients' awareness of procedures. Using contextual enquiry, my team observed the interactions between providers and patients, learning that patients' understanding and ability to explain what was happening to them started to degrade as soon as they walked out of their treatment centre. This affected not only the patients', but their families as well as it made it difficult for them to understand the procedures. 

We designed updated, clinician-patient interaction models. The new interactions enabled patients to be more engaged, retain knowledge longer, and be more comfortable with upcoming procedures.

Technology 

In this project, my client thought that they knew their business process well, but they had no idea how their customers were experiencing their processes and why there were so many complaints. Because this was new service and there weren't many customers yet (and the ones that exist are spread throughout the country), I used a remote diary analysis tool to gain insights. My client used these insights to improve their processes and develop new customer apps, which have greatly reduced complaints and improved the overall customer experience.

Insurance 

The purpose of this project was to improve health and safety and increase government cost savings at the same time. My client wanted to create an initiative to increase motorcycle rider safety through the adoption of ABS technology. To find the best way to encourage this behaviour, I researched purchasing habits, measured the importance of features, and even put myself in the shoes of a rider by learning to ride a motorcycle. I gained tremendous insight into the resistance, challenges, and mentality towards safety, insurance, and ABS. My client used these insights to focus their messaging and incentives on more effective strategies to improve rider safety. As a result, they were able to save millions of tax payer dollars.

Web Redesign

My client wanted a modern look for their new highways and projects site. By analysing how individuals obtain and assess information about traffic, we identified the need for a map-based, interactive experience. In this approach, users have the ability to drill down into a roadway or project. You can view the implemented site here.

Digital Systems

This government entity needed to modernise their court proceedings and case management. Moving to a digital system proved complicated due to legislative requirements, complex domain policies, and the demographics of their customer population. Our research identified the most frequently-accessed and high-priority fields for users. The resulting UI minimises overwhelming legislative options for basic users and leverages progressive disclosure to support more complex interactions as needed.

Interactive Website

This prototype is one of my victory projects that I've worked on in recent years. The concept of self-service and its benefits was new for this client, and our research and demonstrative prototype helped lead to the justification of and organisation-wide transformation project. In the future, all of this organisation's interactive systems will be based on delivering excellent user experiences.

High-Fidelity Prototyping

This client wanted a new website to showcase the efficacy of their funding investments and evangelise their work in the community. My team and I prototyped six unique designs for them, but the normal low-fidelity approach did not work for them. We added imagery and design elements to communicate the potential look and feel of the site, while maintaining an agile development approach. In the end, they were able to deliver a visually-engaging but user-focussed experience with their website.

High-Fidelity Prototyping

Half way into my research on process improvement for this client, I discovered a latent requirement for customers to more have control over their experience. My research revealed the need for customers to better understand the overall process, the types of service they could receive, and to have some control over when they would interact with the service provider. In less than two weeks, I built, tested, revised, and validated a prototype mobile application that demonstrated the value and feasibility of giving customers the control they sought.

Interaction Design

From crowd sourcing to co-design, or just using professional experience and training, interaction design requires proper use of Gestalt principles and leveraging cognitive psychology to make designs easy to use.  Staying abreast of the latest affordances across desktop, mobile, and technology allows me to create designs that push the user experience within the confines of a client's comfort.  

Techniques and tools used for Interaction Design:

Testing & Validation

I have significant experience and training in usability testing protocols. I trained under Joe Dumas, who was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award by UXPA and was a nominated evaluator in the CUE-4 study by Rolf Molich.

In addition to formal education, I've created frameworks for competitive user experience testing, including the Mobile Banking UX Awards and Air New Zealand. I find that user experience testing is an excellent way to discover and create novel solutions to experience issues.

Techniques and tools used for testing:

Strategy

I also apply the user-centred approach to business strategy engagements. In the past two years, I have been a part of three strategic business transformations as these organisations move from traditional product delivery to user-centred business models. Using customer, market, and UX research; data analytics; and competitive assessments, I have helped these organisations align their user experience strategies with business goals.

More information about these transformations is available upon request.