Hello, I'm Mike Barker, a creative problem solver. I am currently a product manager, after 10 years in ux & product design roles.
Side-projects
I'm building SwiftUI Prototyping to give designers tutorials on using SwiftUI to create prototype apps especially for usability testing
TIMELINE
2019–present
PROJECT
SwiftUI Tutorials
MY ROLE
Design, iOS development, Writing
The introduction of SwiftUI has enabled easier app front-end development. Using SwiftUI, over the more visual Storyboard approach used with UIViewController, front-end development is now more accessible to designers. Read more...
Design work
At Canadian Tire, I used design sprints to bring stakeholders together to collaborate on a customer-centric mobile app redesign
COMPANY
Canadian Tire
PROJECT
Mobile app redesign
TIMELINE
2018–19
MY ROLE
Lead UX designer
I joined Canadian Tire in 2017 and began working on customer and employee web & mobile apps, including the ground-up reinvention of the core ecommerce app.
From day one we took a customer-centric approach starting with user research and validating solutions with weekly usability tests. This was one reason we raised our App Store rating to 4.7-stars from below 3-stars.
I worked on a team that took a new approach to retaining customers on a fashion rewards platform
COMPANY
Refash (Tipping Canoe)
PROJECT
Fashion rewards platform
TIMELINE
2016–17
MY ROLE
Lead Product/UX designer
Refash was an opportunity to start from the beginning in building a rewards platform. We made two decisions early in our process—we used lean user research and Theory of Change to identify a shortcoming with previous products.
The result was a fashion inspiration app which rewarded customer's purchases through the platform, and lveraged buyable looks within Instagram. This solved two problems existing with Instagram fashion posts—the inability to purchase items in a look, and creating a product customers would return to more frequently.
I led ux at the UK's number one cashback site for 5 years during which time we grew from 300k to over 6 million members
COMPANY
Quidco
TIMELINE
2010–15
MY ROLE
Head of Design & UX
WORK
UX design, User research, Branding
I started working on Quidco before it was spun out from the incubator and eventually joined the team in London from 2010–2015. Quidco gave me my first practical experience with UX research and forever altered the course of my career.
Along the way I was able to design one of our ATL ad campaigns (ads appearing on the London Underground, buses and taxis), designed our core mobile app (and the ClickSnap grocery coupon app), and even made of our how-to videos. I introduced design sprints in 2013 and gathered stakeholders together so we could build a thorough reunderstanding of the product and customers.