Senior UX / Product Designer · 9+ years

Wan Dee Brown

I turn spreadsheets, paper and scattered forms into tools people actually use.

I research, design, prototype, and stay with the work until it ships, mostly in manufacturing and enterprise IT.

Late at night, by lamplight, a worker's monitor shows a cluttered screen ringed with sticky notes, with a cheat sheet on the desk and the clock near 9:45. Then the same desk in afternoon light, at about 3:30: the screen is clean and organised and the notes are gone.
Late at night, by lamplight, a worker's monitor shows a cluttered screen ringed with sticky notes, with a cheat sheet on the desk and the clock near 9:45. Then the same desk in afternoon light, at about 3:30: the screen is clean and organised and the notes are gone.

How I work

Questions first. Screens second.

Four habits behind every project on this page.

  • Understand before designing

    I ask questions, map the process and find the real source of friction before I sketch a thing.

  • Make ideas tangible early

    Clickable prototypes let people react to something real and catch problems before development starts.

  • Build consistency on purpose

    Shared components and standards mean fewer one-off decisions across every product.

  • Design for confidence

    People should always know where they are, what to do and what happens next.

On a factory floor, a hand holds up a phone showing an incident form, next to a traffic cone and a spill. In the office next door, a person at a desk sees the new incident at the top of a list.

Case study 1 · Safety Incident Tracker

Metal building manufacturer · Sole designer and builder · Microsoft 365

Two forms and a spreadsheet became one workflow.

Safety reports came in through two intake forms and piled up in one overloaded spreadsheet. IT leadership gave me five business days. As sole designer and builder, I mapped the overlap, merged the forms, and automated only the predictable steps: records and IDs. Judgment calls stayed with people. It shipped on time, on tools the company already owned.

Status: Shipped

5 days

From request to a working system: designed, built, documented and trained, solo.

From the back of the room, three judges score on their phones while a ranked list is already up on the stage screen, with four trophies and a big check waiting on stage.
From the back of the room, a judge scores on a phone while a ranked list is already up on the stage screen and four trophies wait on stage.

Case study 2 · Innovation Challenge Scoring

Building products manufacturer · UX research, design and build · Power Apps

Judges stopped doing math. Results came out faster.

Judges at an internal automation competition scored on paper, and a coordinator rechecked every sheet by hand. I interviewed and observed eight judges and admin users. The real fix wasn't a digital score sheet; it was taking the math out. I designed and built a three-step phone app: sliders with clear definitions, automatic totals, and a clear confirmation.

Status: Shipped

75%

Less score-processing time than the paper process, and 45 minutes saved per scoring cycle.

One unbroken line carries information from a sales person's phone, through the project manager's computer where it's typed in, to the date the scheduler's hand presses on the wall calendar.
One unbroken line carries information from a sales person's phone, through the project manager's computer where it's typed in, to the date the scheduler's hand presses on the wall calendar.

Case study 3 · Production Scheduling Redesign

Metal building manufacturer · Led UX and prototyping · 8 weeks

Prying Excel out of the scheduler's hands, gently.

The production schedule lived in three spreadsheets, so sales quoted dates blind. I led UX on a team of six: a survey of 30 subject matter experts, three days of interviews, a persona for each role. People trusted Excel, so I kept what worked and iterated with them weekly. The master scheduler went from "pry Excel out of my cold, dead hands" to "I can see myself using this."

Status: Paused Paused before development when company priorities shifted. Research and prototype fully documented.

60+

Prototype iterations in 8 weeks. My AI-assisted prototyping method was then adopted on 3 more projects.

One shared component board hangs above three desks, with a separate line down to each of a laptop, a tablet and a monitor, all showing the same button. The old tangle of cables lies unplugged on the floor.
One shared component board hangs above a desk, with a separate line down to a tablet and to a laptop, both showing the same button. The old cables lie unplugged on the floor.

Case study 4 · Design System for 6 Internal Apps

Metal building manufacturer · Led the design library · Figma + MudBlazor

One system, so nobody rebuilds the same button again.

Every internal app was designed from scratch, so the same dropdown behaved three different ways. I led the redesign of the design library: foundations, 30+ components and usage standards. I matched every token to the developers' code library, fixed brand colours that failed contrast checks, and put developer notes beside the designs. New apps started from one shared foundation instead of a blank file.

Status: Shipped

6 apps, 1 system

30+ shared components, used by designers, business analysts and developers. Every token maps to a code property.

Also worth a look

Two more, in short.

  • A shipping planner's hand pulls one carrier card, with a truck icon and a rating, from a desk card file, while a flatbed truck loaded with steel beams waits outside.

    Shipping Planning & Reporting

    Metal building manufacturer · UX lead

    Status: Not built

    18 findings

    I audited a 19-screen planning prototype against Nielsen Norman Group usability heuristics and WCAG 2.2 AA, the web accessibility standard. Then I refined 7 screens so every status pairs colour with a shape and a word.

    Development hadn't started when I left. Everything is documented for handoff.

  • A welder, seen from behind, holds a tablet that has scanned the barcode tag on a steel beam clamped to a welding table.

    Scheduled Weld Drawings

    Building products manufacturer · Research, design and automation

    Status: Piloted

    5 to 10 minutes, down to about 30 seconds

    Scan, don't search. After observing five welders, I designed drawing lookup around the barcode already on every part, with manual entry and a help button for when a scan fails. Piloted on the floor, with welders in real conditions.

Let's talk

Hiring a Senior UX / Product Designer?

I'm open to remote Senior UX / Product Designer roles, full-time or contract. Bring me the workflow everyone complains about. I'll bring the questions, the prototypes and, on a good day, a truly excellent dad joke.

Download my résumé (PDF, 137 KB) Connect on LinkedIn Email me

simplywandee@gmail.com