Immersive Tech, Efficient Workflows, and Global Brands
My time at Dynamic Business Services, a Leeds-based digital learning agency, was a fantastic start to my career. I gained valuable experience in both the creative industry and operational strategy. I worked with the latest technology trends and learned to work efficiently in a diverse, international client-facing team.
Working in such a fast-paced, welcoming environment meant I was handed significant responsibility early on. I was trusted to lead major builds and communicate directly with stakeholders. Whether I was creating complex media assets or leading the design and development of modules, I was constantly learning from my peers and thinking of innovative ways to improve the products we provided.
Creating Immersive and Engaging Experiences
Shifting from standard digital media to immersive formats taught me a completely new way to tell stories. I spent a lot of my time getting hands-on with extended reality (XR) and learning how to build these experiences. However, creating an immersive experience doesn’t necessarily mean working with XR technology. Most of the time it means creating a product that immerses the user through compelling storytelling, motion graphics, and engaging interactions.
My day-to-day work meant jumping between photo and video editing, creating engaging motion graphics, and building modules in e-learning platforms like Evolve and Articulate Storyline. I was involved in the whole production process, from helping write scripts and storyboarding to editing spatial audio and designing modules. The goal was always to keep things engaging but easy for the user to digest. This hands-on process taught me the core principles of good UX design—specifically how to map intuitive user journeys and reduce friction, ensuring that the technology always served the learning objective rather than distracting from it.
Developing a More Efficient Workflow
One of the things I’m proudest of from my time at Dynamic was finding a more efficient way to create assets for one of our clients. Creating the Zero Suicide Alliance (ZSA) projects usually meant dedicated days of shooting to match the complex conversations and characters present in the scenario modules. We then edited these in a stop-motion-like manner, manually adding a special effect to each frame. This was both expensive and incredibly time-consuming.
As the lead developer for this client, I devised a new workflow to significantly cut down on the time and costs of traditional photoshoots:
- Strategic Sourcing: I started relying more on high-quality stock footage to build the foundation of the project, which meant we only needed to film the most specific, custom elements ourselves. Using resources like Artgrid, we were able to find the same actor in many different scenarios to maintain visual consistency.
- Automation: To make everything look cohesive, I created pre-made Photoshop actions for color grading and adding filters. We could easily apply these to both the stock footage and our own original clips. This cut days out of the production process.
- Streamlined Final Steps: Putting these together was now an easy job in After Effects. I also created a tutorial so that any other developer could pick up and work on the project, ensuring consistency across all modules.
I also acted as lead developer on a ZSA project aimed at people with Autism. For this build, I researched design rules specific to neurodivergent users and redesigned the project’s approach. This new design was so successful that it became the standard for all future ZSA projects and ultimately helped ZSA win the Mental Health Award. You can view this project here: zerosuicidealliance.com/suicide-autism-training
Delivering Impact for Global Brands
Combining these technical skills with a more efficient workflow meant I got to act as lead-developer for some great organisations, including:
- Warburtons: This project was a fun mix of 3D modeling and live-action video. We used Blender to create an animated “bagel character” to guide users through their training, and composited it into live-action footage we shot right at Warburtons’ HQ using After Effects.
- World Rugby: Working in sports compliance meant things had to be built fast and accurately. I led the development of several interactive safeguarding and governance modules using Evolve and Articulate Storyline to create gamified experiences, helping them roll out training on a global scale.
- Warner Music: I was originally assigned to this project to design a prototype, but its successful reception morphed my role into lead developer, and my initial design carried over through to delivery. I worked on a mobile-friendly onboarding program for their staff. By making the modules bite-sized and heavily branded, we helped them get new starters up to speed much faster.
(Note: Since a lot of this work is client-confidential, I can’t display all the final assets here. I’d be happy to share more examples in person.)
