Nathanael Boehm: Professional designer

Are you looking for my personal bio?

Imagine you’re at an outdoor café. You’ve waited 10 minutes to be seated so you’re feeling a little uncared for by the staff, but the place seems popular so it must be good. There’s water on your chair, which you didn’t notice till you sat down. Oops.

The menu is hard to read and you spend ages trying to decipher and interpret the options and match them up to prices. You are served your drink. The table is on an uneven surface and wobbles; your drink spills a little bit.

A breeze picks up and a table umbrella nearby falls over, crashing into another group sending drinks, pizza, chairs and people flying, startling you. You manage to knock your drink over and it all goes into your lap. Fun.

The food might taste good but I think it would be safe to say you did not have a good experience at this restaurant. As an experience designer, my job is to ensure your users and customers have a positive experience. I bring together people and technology — computers, the Internet, business frameworks, social networks, innovation, design — following a human-centric approach to ensure that technology enables and supports people rather than allowing technology to enslave us. This includes in-built system resiliency and scalability in both business design and technology to adapt to change and absorb unexpected situations and crises.

By combining user research, heuristics and your brand I develop strategies, frameworks, processes and interfaces that maximise the likelihood of people having a good experience with your organisation. I draw on knowledge and techniques from the domains of cognitive psychology, social research and even philosophy to go beyond the superficiality of screens, colours and procedures down to people’s values and motivations, relationships with peers and friends and models that are sensitive to and leverage social norms, human biases and cultural parameters.

I specialise in web and software user interface and interaction design including social interaction design and social media but my design and creative skills are useful in pretty much any business situation. I use prototyping and visualisation techniques to communicate and analyse problems, solutions and ideas. Whilst I work well on my own I prefer involving the unique experience of others and collaborating on developing the best outcome. I’m great at leading and facilitating workshops and ideation sessions with groups, both with internal stakeholders and external customers and users.

To discuss freelance and contract opportunities please contact me:

I come highly recommended by my peers, previous employers and clients, and have over 10 years of experience in the industry in both private and public government sector with web application development, web systems deployment, mobile and touchscreen applications, e-Learning, e-Commerce, business and service design, online communities, social networks, web 2.0, marketing, social innovation, usability and accessibility.

Previous experience

I am active in the web industry and attend many conferences and events including Web Directions, UX Australia, Edge of the Web, BarCamp and UX bookclub and am a judge of the Australian Web Awards 2010. My articles have been published at UX Magazine, UXmatters and SitePoint and my blog appeared in Blogs.com list UX Blogs to Watch in 2010.

I was also quoted and mentioned in inspireUX’s list of 50 Sketching Resources for User Experience Designers. I was interviewed by local newspaper The Canberra Times on Government 2.0 and social networking, and by ABC Triple J Hack on Canberra Coworking.

Download my resume/CV

User experience design for DEEWR • Online community management for Department of Health and Ageing • Web analytics software configuration and customisation for AFP • Social media engagement with stakeholders and users for DEEWR • Content publishing for Department of Health and Ageing • Social media factsheet design for Centrelink • HTML development and accessibility compliance for Department of Veterans’ Affairs with ZOO • Accessibility advice and compliance for DEEWR • User experience design for Centrelink • Established and chaired Wiki Working Group for Centrelink • CMS configuration and customisation for AHTCC • Wiki user interface design and information architecture for Centrelink • Project planning and management for Centrelink • CMS configuration and customisation for AFP • Contract writing and management for DEEWR • Paper, whiteboard and digital prototyping for Centrelink • Enterprise 2.0 discussion paper for Centrelink • Front-end web development for OpenAustralia • Front-end web development for AFP • CMS configuration and customisation for Sports Hydrant • Social media strategy development for DEEWR • Accessibility advice and compliance audit for Optus • CD-ROM production for ATO with Catalyst Interactive • Touchscreen kiosk user interface and interaction design for Centrelink • Social media discussion paper for Centrelink • Proposals and lead generation, self-employed • Internal blog implementation for DHS Portfolio • Front-end web development for various clients, self-employed • Web application development for ANZ with Catalyst Interactive • Web application development for Greening Australia • Front-end web development for Sports Hydrant • Web application development for Department of Defence with Catalyst Interactive • Web application development for Medibank with Catalyst Interactive • e-Commerce web development for various clients, self-employed • Business process analysis and workflow engineering for DEEWR • Blog implementation for DEEWR • Executive reporting data aggregation prototype for DHS Portfolio • Vendor management for DEEWR • Vendor management for AFP • Paper, whiteboard and digital prototyping for DEEWR • Style guide production for Optus • Web application development for Qantas with Catalyst Interactive • Staff attitudes survey and analysis for DHS Portfolio • Project register and reporting tool development for DHS Portfolio • Content publishing for ScreenSound Australia • Usability testing for DEEWR • Front-end web development for Optus • Social media strategy development for OpenAustralia • Web application development for Defence Material Organisation with Catalyst Interactive • Front-end web development for DEEWR • Front-end web development for Department of Health and Ageing • Business operations, self-employed

Side projects

I am also the coordinator for Canberra Coworking, Canberra Twitter meetups (CTUB) and Canberra Freelancers and Entrepreneurs Coffee meetups, a coordinator of BarCampCanberra, the Australian Social Innovation eXchange (ASIX) and TEDx Canberra, a designer, strategist and coordinator for OpenAustralia, UXnet ambassador, event photographer including official photographer for Schmooze Canberra, Johnny Holland UX Flickr photo group curator, a Goodreads librarian, campaigner against Internet filtering and censorship, and previously a coordinator of Free Australia Wireless and Resilient Nation Australia.

// purecaffeine.com, UX, design, social media and Gov 2.0 blog by designer Nathanael Boehm, Canberra, Australia. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.