Aidan O'Brien Portfolio

Experience

Larger companies

I started at larger companies like BBC and Google where I was in various roles

Google Science Fair

Very complex project to using Google's tools - Slides and Docs to enable kids aged 6-18 to submit Science Projects to Google. Using existing tools that were very siloed and didn't work together to create a joined up, consistent sign up and project creation and submission tool. I lead the UX and design for this and submissions were up over 80% compared to the year before.

BBC iPlayer

Many, many years ago when iPlayer was in version 1, I designed the Radio Player homepage (which has since become BBC Sounds). This was a very different approach to that of TV as was less about catchup and more about trying to convey the 'liveness' nature of radio.

Tesco - blinkbox

blinkbox (small b intended cos brand) was a startup acquired by Tesco was an on demand TV and Movie product competitor to iTunes at the time. Historically a browser based experience, I led the creation of a new Android and iOS tablet experience for the purchase and viewing of content.

Experience

Startups and new products

Most recently I have been working with startups as both early employee and also co-founder where we did a pre-seed raise. I have been moving between product and design roles.

Making recording matches simple

Iterating an MVP process that allows people to record ball sport matches. Thinking about how real world hardware crosses with software. This decreased failed upload attempts and boosted early user adoption.

See the project

Part Two - Iterating learning product MVP for scaling business

Making a learning platform MVP into a scalable product and business. Improving experience for learners and allowing companies to create and measure learning content easily.

See the project

Part One - Building and validating learning product MVP

Working as product and design lead to create an MVP to deliver training content to a remote workforce based in South America. This would validate a problem that would turn into what EduMe is today.

See the project

B2B SaaS dashboard - high level view

Backend dashboard for eduMe allowing customers to manage learners and content

See the project

High level - Building a flexible system around video content and data

Building a flexible data system so content can be brought into a view depending on context.

See the project

High level tour of some other projects

A few high level snapshots from some projects I have done.

See the project

PAST WORK

High level snapshots

A high level little peek at some work with some words and pictures.

Aidan was with eduMe from the start and was pivotal in driving the product from a proof of concept MVP to a successful offering with product market fit. Grasping complex problems quickly and turning them into working products for users is his superpower and will mean you are able to iterate with speed and build products customers want.

Jacob Waern, CEO & Founder

side projects

Side projects

I am aways tinkering with random ideas. I am a firm believer in just doing the 'thing' in the fastest way to validate and get a sense if something is worth pursuing.

As online learning continues to grow it is becoming harder to find the right course or bootcamp. I wanted to create a single destination for people to find the course they want without having to go to different providers.

I gave myself a week to build a CMS powered website to start testing this and I learnt that there is actually a huge unserved group of people - the teachers. By serving these people, a potentially huge database of great courses is created as a by-product.

So this idea is now about giving online teachers tools they need to succeed as an indepdant teacher not reliant on the platforms. Now in MVP - Sept - 2023.

I'm working on a simple continuous scroll iOS game with a developer. I have worked up a rough brand and currently churning through the illustration, artwork and UI assets as we develop the build getting the game mechanics and interactions right.

Have a look at Commuter Run

Critbee was an experiment to provide startups with 'design as a service' to help them get started at a reasonable price. This idea came from having worked at many startups and knowing at these early stages it can be hard to cover all the skills needed and design seems to the one that is let go.

I wanted to provide a simple service providing great design to help these companies get going. I created this at a time additional income was needed while our startup was looking for funding.

(You might get a bit of dejavu as I borrowed a bunch of styles to make this site in the spirit of speed 🏃)

Onwards, to Critbee

How it works

Design that slots right into your team

We try to keep things simple so you get unlimited design requests and unlimited revisions until you are 100% happy. You are in full control and can pause at anytime for those periods where design isn't needed.
‍
We use Trello for communication and to keep everything organised.

Step 4

Deliver

We deliver however needed. Files to dev team, walkthroughs, whatever really.

Step 4

Deliver

We deliver however needed. Files to dev team, walkthroughs, whatever really.

Step 4

Deliver

We deliver however needed. Files to dev team, walkthroughs, whatever really.

Step 4

Deliver

We deliver however needed. Files to dev team, walkthroughs, whatever really.

experience

Previous roles

Overview of some teams I have been a part of and the role I played.

We Play Sport is a startup I co-founded and allows people to record their sports matches using a smartphone. Videos are uploaded to us and then using AI, dynamic highlight videos are created and match data pulled out automatically.

My Role

Leading product and design. In terms of design, coming up with a basic brand to get us started, carrying out user research and testing sessions, idea workshops, high level user flows and product structure. UI and interaction design, building prototypes, rough component library to help speed us up.

Product

UI & Visual

user testing

leadership

Fundraising

brand design

Prototyping

Startup

iOS

Android

Web