Digital is unpredictable

I can’t predict what is going to happen in the next 5 years, but can you recall life before Youtube, Google and Facebook? Just because we don’t know what the next big thing is doesn’t mean we can’t do meaningful work. Change. Adapt. Improve.

Transformation is about catching up

So you’re going ‘digital’. Well you’re in safe hands – but you gotta move fast because you’ve already been left behind.

I can help.

Iterate! Iterate! Iterate!

What I love most about design is the ability to improve on the experience once something has been launched. Have a grand vision but start small, from little things amazing things happen.

Creativity requires psychological safety

When I worked in Advertising you can be guaranteed that ideas are celebrated and cherished. The day you run out of ideas then you’re out of a job. It’s no wonder the environment is designed to stimulate creativity. But in the real world having permission to be creative is all it takes, because innovation hardly occurs sitting at the desk right? Thinking time allows you to connect the dots. Design Thinking allows for everyone to be bring their ideas to the table, all you need is a ‘what if’ and away you go.

Design Thinking

So you’ve got a great idea. How do you know it’s the right idea? How does it enhance people’s lives? Are you thinking short term or long term?

Design Thinking is the process of using research to understand the real problems that people face. From there we can create meaningful innovation that is purpose led. Happy users are happy customers.

My top 5 strengths

Source: Gallup CliftonStrengths

1. Relatedness

People who are especially talented in this theme enjoy close relationships with others.

They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.

2. Empathy

People who are especially talented in this theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others’ lives or others’ situations.

3. Strategic

People who are especially talented in this theme create alternative ways to proceed.

Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

4. Maximiser

People who are especially talented in this theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence.

They seek to transform something strong into something superb.

5. Adaptability

People who are especially talented in this theme prefer to “go with the flow.”

They tend to be “now” people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time.

Best hits

AskNicely

We make award-winning customer experience software to help frontline teams serve every customer right, powered by customer feedback (specifically, appreciation). The science and psychology of human behavior proves that people are best motivated when you catch them doing things right. When people feel appreciated in their role, their customers (also people) have a great experience and the business (which is really just a collection of people) sees better results on the bottom-line.

It's all connected.

Alister Coyne - Director of Design

Auror

Auror is a real-time crime intelligence platform that transforms the way retailers and Police work together. It make it easy for businesses to report information about crime in their stores, and use that information to provide actionable intelligence to solve and prevent crime, delivering results that make communities safer.

Design Team

Alister Coyne - Director of Design
Olivia Cato - Product Designer

Trade Me Property

In 2013 I embarked on a journey to grow Trade Me Property team and introduce design and user experience to the Auckland office. Within a couple of years we had the largest design team in Trade Me producing effective, high quality outcomes.

Design Team

Alister Coyne - Design Lead
Mark McIntosh - Senior Designer
Tanja Kolrus - Senior Designer
John Christall - Senior Designer
Rob Ralston - Senior Designer
Sejal Shah - Designer
Demi Schanzel - Junior Designer
Cody Iddings - Senior Designer
Paul Scott - Senior Designer

Trade Me Property Insights

Insights was created to free up a whole lot of data that typically sat behind a paywall. Once launched, we continued to build upon the platform by adding estimations on sales and rentals.

In 2017 we delivered 125m ad impressions. It’s fair to say it’s well used and loved by house hunters.

Trade Me continues to build upon this hugely strategic initiative that will help level the playing field for buyers.

Insights for 32 Oxford Terrace, Devonport

Property estimate for 32 Oxford Terrace, Devonport on mobile

Property sales history for 32 Oxford Terrace, Devonport on mobile

Map detail of 32 Oxford Street, Devonport on mobile

Map view of 32 Oxford Terrace, Devonport

Highlights

Using machine learning to create estimates, buyers love the ease of use and presentation of content that was enhanced by ongoing user research & testing.

Design credits

Alister Coyne - Design Lead
Tanja Kolrus - Senior Designer
Sejal Shah - Designer

Trade Me Property Apps

Once users download the apps – they tell us it’s the best one for house hunting. With strong ratings in both Play and App Store, Trade Me Property apps are consistently in the top 5 in the lifestyle category of the app stores.

Design credits

Alister Coyne - Design Lead
Rob Ralston - Senior Designer

Trade Me Property App home screen for iOS

Trade Me Property App search results for iOS

Trade Me Property App Insights map view for iOS

Trade Me Property App Insights detail for iOS

Trade Me OneHub

Trade Me's biggest customer is the real estate industry. 90% of their listings come from hard working real estate agents located all over New Zealand.

We embarked on a journey to help agents be better by creating tools and insights they simply couldn’t get elsewhere.

Highlights

Data plays a huge role on OneHub. If Agents know where they’re customers are coming from then they can market accordingly.

Design credits

Alister Coyne - Design Lead
Mark McIntosh - Senior Designer
Sejal Shah - Designer
Demi Schanzel - Junior Designer

Preview

Trade Me's responsive website has been more than four years in the making.

Here’s a sneak peak.

Design credits

Roxy Huntington - Head of Design
Rachel Radford - Design Lead
Mark McIntosh - Design Lead
Central Product - Design team
Alister Coyne - Design Lead

Trade Me Rebrand

Working as part the design leadership team and Assignment Group we were tasked to rebrand one of New Zealand's most well loved brands. It’s been a huge success and has been an important milestone to help Trade Me set itself up for the future.

Design credits

Roxy Huntington - Head of Design
Rachel Radford - Design Lead
Alister Coyne - Design Lead
Mark McIntosh - Design Lead
Kendyl Bird - Brand Guardian

2000 - 2016

2016 - current

Air New Zealand

This ambitious project sought to create a place for Airpoints members to discover, read and peruse relevant and timely content. With personalisation high on the agenda, we sought to create a media channel brought to life with an exceptional design system.

Design credits

Kyle Morris - Head of Creative
Alister Coyne - Senior Creative

Countdown

We completely rebuilt Countdown from scratch for our Onecard members. We built a brand new product search that supported over 30,000 items and localised to your favourite store.

We even crafted an elegant shopping list that could be printed out on a single A4 sheet of paper because people prefer paper over devices.

Design credits

Kyle Morris - Head of Creative
Alister Coyne - Senior Creative

Milkbooks by Blackwell & Ruth

We teamed up with internationally acclaimed publishers Blackwell & Ruth to create the user experience for their new product offering – Milkbooks.

We created beautiful wireframes and prototypes to help define the user experience as well as a fully integrated direct marketing programme to hold the experience together.

5 years on, it’s gone from strength to strength and is a hit with image makers from all around the world.

Design credits

Kyle Morris - Head of Creative
Alister Coyne - Senior Creative
Design Partner - Salted Herring

Mercury Energy

We re-imagined the painful process of deciding which energy plan is right for consumers without having to get a degree in mathematics.

Our signup process was a breeze. By cutting down the time taken to join from 10 minutes to 60 seconds this gave Mercury Energy the edge on its’ competitors.

Design credits

Mark Zeman - Design Director
Alister Coyne - Senior Creative
Design Agency - Shift

Blues

I worked with the Blues to help redesign their entire platform for both fans and staff alike. The new platform was instrumental to moving the Blues and it’s fanbase to the 21st century.

Design credits

Alister Coyne - Senior Designer
Design Agency - Ice Interactive

Cassius Eyewear

Cooler than cool. Too cool for me. Cassius Eyewear are an independent eyewear brand from New Zealand, producing high quality handcrafted optical and sunglass frames since 2008. I helped balance the functionality of eCommerce with the brand’s desire to be unique.

Design credits

Alister Coyne - Senior Designer

Bobux

When Bobux were between a rock and a hard place, I was called in to help them get to where they needed to be, fast. I lead Bobux through a creative process that helped them unlock their creativity to deliver a global ecommerce site that helped drive sales from all over the globe.