Hello, I'm Aishley.
I design people-friendly
apps for startups.
Testimonials
Recent Work
my principles
3-step
Design Process
I take a 3-step design approach when I am working with startups. Especially, early stage ones. The approach is a union between big picture strategy, insight-driven solutions and great UI/UX design. Far too often, we see designers getting completely off track and designing something that is pretty but doesn't help the startup progress toward their long term goals.
1. Big Picture: What are the key problems or opportunities at play right now?
2. Insights: What are some key insights we can trust or pull from in relation to the problem?
3. UI/UX: Given the problem and the insights what is the simplest design solution?
Bottoms-up
A web3 approach
Web3 takes a bottoms-up approach where users are empowered to manage and own their assets. These assets can be used across many apps, products, and protocols. The composable quality of web3 allows for extended user journeys that flow into one another. The key objective here is to empower users to achieve their goals easily rather than restricting them to a particular platform or a product. This can make the customer journeys in web3 complicated and lengthy, and the designer needs to deeply understand the user and their journey to create successful web3 products.
80/20 rule
The Pareto Principle
The idea behind this rule is that 80% of the value is created by 20% of the effort. To illustrate this in a startup context, it's like saying that 80% of users value 20% of your features. This rule helps me stay lean and avoids feature bloating at the early stages of the build. A great mindset when working with early-stage startups without much experience in this industry. It helps them focus on their true value proposition.
Aesthetics
Usability Effect
UI/UX designers are often so focused on providing an exceptional experience that aesthetics are not prioritised. A study shows that users are more likely to ignore user experience flaws on a website pleasing to the eye. This is a valuable insight for early-stage startups since they don't usually have expendable resources that they can spend on user testing and perfecting the user experience.
User First
Human Centered Design
Whether you are designing for web 1, 2, or 3 - ignoring the user is a mistake. Like any other UI/UX designer, the first step of the process is always to build empathy toward the user.
tools
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Figma & Figjam
Figma is the most versatile and flexible design tool and is the piece of software that I am most comfortable using. I am well versed in creating prototypes, design systems and managing design sprints on Figma.
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Webflow
Webflow is a no-code website builder that offers flexibility like never before. This enables me to whip up landing pages and run experiments before sending designs to the dev team.
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Notion
Where do we even start with Notion? I have slowly found myself using Notion for all sorts of things, from product management and roadmaps to handover and feedback journeys.
Other tools
I have used many different tools in the product design space, from the Adobe Suite to Hotjar. I consider myself to be pretty flexible and quick at picking up new software.
biography
About
I am passionate about creating a better world through my work. I am a firm believer in creating positive externalities through one's actions, and I like to bring the same attitude to my work. I am inspired by founders and startups to support a vision that is greater than the people involved.
Design by iteration
To me, most things seem to be a design problem. I am a self-taught designer. When I was 18, I designed my first ever app for a problem I was facing at the time. The app allowed neighbours to hire students to work on one-off tasks. I designed this in Photoshop, completely ignorant of UI/UX design at the time. But, I enjoyed the process of building and iterating upon something. Little did I know that learning to iterate is probably one of my most valuable skills as a product designer.
Creator before designer
I would probably say I am a creative before a founder or a designer. I am a conceptual thinker who likes finding innovative solutions to common problems. I believe that norms are meant to be challenged and that we are all creators of tools that shape us, so it's our responsibility to think outside the box - beyond what already exists.
