Product Design
30+ Years of Product Design
From Early Interfaces to Modern Prototyping
My journey in product design began at Terabyte Interactive, when digital interfaces were evolving into everyday experiences. One of my first major projects was designing an interactive product for Boehringer Ingelheim, where I learned to create an engaging digital experience for complex medical content. This was a time when usability was still a developing field, and every interface had to be built from the ground up, no shortcuts, no templates, just pure problem-solving.
I led the interface design for Auckland Museums first interactive kiosks. Creating a touch driven interface for patrons to explore core elements of New Zealand’s make-up and geological history.
As the internet matured, so did product design. The web became a technical playground with interactive experiences going global. Flash meant there were wide-open playing fields where tech-infused programatic designerds flourished. Animation, video, interfaces and apps appeared everywhere. Experimental code-driven designs inspired us all.
I went on to keep working on interactive products with the start of Mata. I designed numerous interactive Flash websites for clients in all areas of business. I designed an interface for an online sign creation tool. Cloud products became the catch-cry online and at that time I was designing the Infinity RMS (Retail Management System) mobile cloud driven website solution. That integration meant I was very well-versed with how Inifinity worked. I was asked to lead the design of the Infinity and Freedom Furniture Australia omnichannel retail integration.
The Freedom Furniture project marked a transition into online prototyping. InVision became my tool of choice, allowing me to refine interactions and test usability with the client before the build even started. It was a game-changer—being able to show working prototypes, which bridged the gap between my design team, the team and developers, making collaboration smoother and more iterative.
Fast forward to 2025, and Figma and XD are now my primary protyping workspaces. As the industry has evolved, so have the tools, but the fundamentals remain the same: understanding users, designing for clarity, usability and experience, all making technology more accessible. I’ve worked across a spectrum of product design challenges—from startup innovations to established B2B tech solutions and large-scale website upgrades.
Product Design Skillset:
Product Naming and URL sourcing
Brand design / voice / strategy
Schematic product overviews
Wireframing
User pathways
Prototyping
Design and front end build
Testing UI and improving UX
Art direction
Functionality additions.
Each project demands a different approach, whether it’s shaping a brand-new experience from scratch or refining an existing digital product to better serve its users.
The last three decades have shown me that product design is never just about aesthetics, it's about how things work, how they communicate, and how they help people, even improve people’s lives. Whether it’s an interactive medical interface in the ’90s, an e-commerce platform in the 2000s, or a sophisticated SaaS product today, the goal remains the same: create experiences that are as intuitive as they are impactful.
Product design is something I love; it’s a continuous evolution. And after 30+ years, it’s still evolving and let’s get excited about what’s next. I talk about what I think is coming next in my Auckland Design Week Keynote.
Game Design
With all my experience, one thing that helped me adapt to digital change was gaming. Each game was a different interface, control method and world with problems to solve.
During my 2011-12 sabbatical I decided the one thing I wanted to create some games. Having that experience growing up, then a digital designer meant I could create games 100% on my own. From pencil sketches and concepts to playable demos. Game design and development is some of the most challenging out there. You create worlds inside engines. Everything has a consequence and you need to be multi-threaded in every aspect of the design and build.
Gembugs
Gembugs is a platform game that used my original Flash game name of Gembugs. The game has 20 playable characters each with their own special powers and abilities. The level based platform game solved the huge problem of platform games on touch devices. The control method is tilt-and-tap. The tilt-and-tap control once learned meant for fast and acurate game play.
Quadraslam
Quadraslam is a space shooter game that uses colours to control the weapons. When aliens of a certain colour appear the weapons systems power up, add the colour to attack those ships. The HUD interface shows the colour of a special shields the aliens have allowing them to be shot down in a single shot. The interface is a rotational system. There’s shields and four incredibly difficult stages to complete. The galaxies behind the hud rotate and the music thumps as you are pelted with return fire, it’s full-on.
