Laura Francis

Current

User Experience and Digital Production Consultant at Pixie Labs Ltd
Founder/Organiser at Bristol SkillSwap

Past

Digital Project Manager at Future Publishing
Head of User Experience at Semantico
Production Consultant at Sift

Marketing Officer at University of the West of England
Business Analyst at ShowBiz Media
Marketing Consultant at Becta (British Education Communications and Technology Agency)
Marketing Manager at Tyrolit
Marketing Manager at Promac Window Machinery Sales

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Education

University of Derby

Recommended

15 people have recommended Laura

Connections

249 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Find me on Twitter

Laura Francis’s Summary

About me:
10 years experience in delivering web projects
Passionate about accessibility, usability and user experience
Proactive, able to take initiative to come up with creative, innovative solutions.
Experience of working within Prince2 environments with agile practices whilst satisfying clients requirements for Prince2 deliverables.
Excellent writing and editing skills with the drive and ambition to deliver
Understanding and empathy with client and user requirements

Laura has over 10 years experience designing and delivering digital projects. Most recently she has focussed on User Centred Design, Information Architecture, Interface Design, Usability and Accessibility on the web. Laura started out in marketing after gaining a degree in Business Studies in 1999, and found that digital channels were playing an increasingly important role in marketing at that time. This led her to focus on designing and delivering digital projects from websites and DVD's to interactive CD-ROM's.

Over the last 10 years Laura has mainly worked as an independent consultant with clients ranging from BECTA (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) to Oxford University Press and from Future Publishing to CABI (a not-for-profit science-based development and information organization), specialising in working with publishers, educational organisations and not-for-profits.

Also experienced in making agile and user-centred methods work in a commerical environment, Laura has worked with clients to help them refine their internal processes, increase profitability and deliver to targets.

Laura Francis’s Specialties:

Usability, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, User Centred Design, persona creation, workshop facilitation, Information Architecture, project management, production management, agile, SCRUM, XP, XHTML, CSS, Accessibility, Web Standards, Marketing strategy and planning, advertising buying, print production.

Laura Francis’s Experience

User Experience and Digital Production Consultant

Pixie Labs Ltd

(Media Production industry)

March 2008 — Present (1 year 5 months)

Primary skills: Web, project management, production, agile, organisation, leadership, communication, digital publishing, scoping projects, information design, on-time delivery

What I'm looking for:
Management and organisation of projects and people
To work in a creative, forward thinking, innovative environment
User-centred, agile production and project management
To deliver market-leading innovative web sites and services
Opportunities for career development

What I can do:
Respond quickly and efficiently to business demands
Deliver successful projects on time and to budget
Facilitate client workshops around user-experience, design, IA and wireframes
Support, encourage and enable team success
Consult, advise and successfully implement new methods and processes
Manage change and the associated risks effectively
Have an inherent understanding of the publishing sector and the demands faced in a rapidly changing environment, particularly around new models for revenue generation today and in the future.

What I've done:
Delivered innovative CMS driven websites, particularly for publishers
Improved productivity and efficiency with defined process
Produced and delivered creative web solutions on a variety of platforms both off-the-shelf and bespoke
Consulted on revenue generation for distributed international markets
Delivered full scope of work documentation using User Centred Design concepts.

What I'm doing now:
Freelance Consulting Work
Writing consultation papers for Future Publishing
Delivering design workshops for Bath University
Founder/Organiser

Bristol SkillSwap

(Non-Profit; Internet industry)

November 2005 — Present (3 years 9 months)

Started Bristol SkillSwap in Bristol based on the model created by Andy Budd. So far its been really successful in providing training opportunities for those in the internet business in the Bristol area.

"For the community, by the community"
Digital Project Manager

Future Publishing

(Internet industry)

March 2008 — December 2008 (10 months)

Brought in to turn around the fortunes of a long running project which was struggling
Delivered site redesign and significant functional improvements
In the 3 months from launch of the redesign saw traffic increase over 30% month-on-month
Pitched, scoped, designed and delivered a site for an external client
Developed a proposal for a new on-line hub site covering a number of magazine titles and replacing current individual sites. Followed by scoping and design. Currently in production.
Head of User Experience

Semantico

(Privately Held; Online Media industry)

December 2007 — March 2008 (4 months)

Digital publishing market. Complex XML data structures. Clients included Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Blackwells, CABi and Random House.
Defining the design process & creating associated documentation
Iterative User Experience Design in line with agile production
Production Consultant

Sift

(Privately Held; Internet industry)

May 2006 — December 2007 (1 year 8 months)

Recruitment driven by the need to deliver more concurrent projects
Team motivation to deliver on a new software platform
Successful introduction of agile production methods
Scoping and defining projects with clients, using UCD methods and workshops
Clients included Centaur Publishing, William Reed, Wiley’s, NHS Connecting for Health and United Bristol Healthcare Trust.
Marketing Officer

University of the West of England

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

December 2004 — April 2006 (1 year 5 months)

Marketing Officer in the Centre for Research, Innovation and Graduate Studies. Responsible for the dissemination and promotion of research at the University and liaison with business. Developed new internet and intranet sites for the centre and associated projects - information architecture and design. Also played a major role in the procurement of a new CRM system and especially the procurement process using user stories.
Business Analyst

ShowBiz Media

(Online Media industry)

April 2002 — April 2006 (4 years 1 month)

Web design, digital design and software development for clients including Camelot (National Lottery), Lever Faberge, Becta & S-Cool.
I looked after staff, the office, accounts and clients.
Marketing Consultant

Becta (British Education Communications and Technology Agency)

(Government Agency; 201-500 employees; Research industry)

May 2002 — May 2003 (1 year 1 month)

Brought in as a Marketing Consultant to launch 3 new Government initatives in the Education sector. Marketing budget of £750k plus on each project. Responsible for strategy, planning, project management and buying. Really enjoyed this position which also allowed me to delve further into my main area of interest which is digital media and online marketing etc. Created some really nice materials like interactive DVD's, obviously having a massive budget really helped!
Marketing Manager

Tyrolit

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Mechanical or Industrial Engineering industry)

September 2001 — April 2002 (8 months)

Marketing Manager for UK & Ireland for Tyrolit Ltd.
Marketing Manager

Promac Window Machinery Sales

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Construction industry)

January 2000 — August 2001 (1 year 8 months)

Marketing Manager for this SME selling capital machinery to PVCu window manufacturers.

Laura Francis’s Education

University of Derby

BA Hons , Business Studies , September 1995 — June 1999

Activities and Societies:

President of the Snowboard Club

Additional Information

Laura Francis’s Websites:

Find me on Twitter

Laura Francis’s Interests:

Digital Media, new technology, promoting Bristol, politics, snowboarding. Agile development and project management methods, user centred design with agile.

Laura Francis’s Groups:

Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Underscore, Connecting Bristol, SkillSwap, IxDA, UPA, Bristol Usability Group, Common Purpose Graduate, Bristol UX Book Club