About me

My name is Colin Dyke and I'm a user experience professional based in London. My own personal design philosophy is heavily influenced by Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things, which underpins my belief that good design is far more than just a beautiful aesthetic.

I get my inspiration from observing people and making things. Getting beyond the 'what' people do, to the 'how' and 'why' is often key to providing an experience which feels simple, intuitive and meets customer needs. As digital experiences become more complex and sophisticated, delving into behavioural psychology will continue to play an increasing part in being able to understand users' needs and design elegance and simplicity for customers.

Things I like

Clichés aside, I enjoy running, photography, films and eating good food (with this last one in mind, I'm also working on improving my culinary skills). I've always enjoyed thinking too - about the world, about people, about trying to make sense of things. I'm naturally a curious person and I've found that embracing this curiosity has often helped me face challenges and solve problems in the best possible way.

Creativity and logic - art and science - are sometimes seen as opposing forces, but my experience suggests using applied thinking can unify these disciplines with remarkable results.

Personal projects

When I'm not crafting digital experiences at work, I still enjoy making stuff and getting creative. Having a 5 year old step-son gives me a legitimate reason to play with Lego and as well as getting involved with arts & crafts.

We recently produced some hand-made 'thank you' cards which was far more engaging and rewarding than using a usual template from an online service. I've also build a new lighting feature for the living room (for fun!) after seeing a Philips Hue device in action and thinking it'd be interesting to create a similar effect myself.

Home made LED light (off)

Home made LED light

Hand written note by Will (5 yrs old)

Scanned, adjusted and colourised

Inside the card

Front covers

Lasagna preparation

Topping of prociutto and mozarella

The result

My background

From a young age I was encouraged to try my hand at many things - including swimming, drums, football and gymnastics. However it's fair to say I was usually in my own element when I was creating things; either out of Lego, drawing on our patio, or making things out of paper with whatever materials I had at my disposal.

With hindsight, it's possible a career in creating and designing things was inevitable.

It's perhaps noteworthy that my mother is a support teacher and has a very empathetic, tactile nature. By contrast, my father is an engineer and far more reserved in character. I suspect this has influenced my interest working in a field such as UX which involves a high degree of analysis, consideration and quantitative metrics as well psychological aspects such as behaviour and emotions which are more qualitative in nature.