When Gerred Blyth started making simple video games over 20 years ago, there was something in him that knew creating things that people love would be his career. Having worked both in-house and agency side as user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) designer he is now head of UX and UI at ASOS. We caught up with him to learn more about how he turned his side projects into his career.

The first thing to understand about UX and UI is the difference. UI came first and focusses on the product and moving people from one place to another through the website, more increasingly this is the ‘look’. UX is about how the product or website ‘feels’ to the user, they are creating an experience for the customer based on the product or service on offer from the website.  

From research to wire-framing and customer insights to prototyping, the team at ASOS are always innovating when it comes to the experience that each customer has when they go online to make their next purchase. Gerred’s team of 20 UX and UI designers are responsible for making sure the site is something ASOS customers love using, as well as providing an error free and seamless shopping experience.

In their work they take the problems facing customers and tackle them using cutting edge design and front-end development, their mantra is all about creating a great customer experience that looks and feels beautiful.

Although you might think of UX and UI as very ‘techy’ one of the most important things the team does is to meet with customers, understand their needs and observe them using the platform so that development is linked to what the customers actually want. Gerred’s team also look to the high-street to see what works well there and then try and work out how to recreate that online.

When we asked Gerred for one piece of advice for someone looking to get into the world of user experience and design, his answer was simple; Create a portfolio of your side projects and when you get ‘that’ interview, show your passion using the projects you have worked on, however big or small.