I'm David Hall, Lead Product & UX Designer focusing on user experience, strategy and how language and psychology work together to shape great experiences.
I lead design at C&R, where I create enterprise solutions for many of the largest and most interesting companies around, including the top 10 electronics manufacturers, top 3 sporting labels, coolest gaming company, largest furniture retailer and the foremost maker of children’s interlocking plastic bricks!
As a mentor, I've guided budding designers, sharing my knowledge of design principles and best practices. I've also played a key role in organising online talks for the UX community. Find me on LinkedIn.
Case studies 01
Design ProcessAI Tools
Design year zero? A case study in AI driven design using Vercel’s v0
With the rise of new and interesting AI powered design tools, I saw an opportunity to rethink the entire UX design process.
UX DesignAI search
Euro Law: Designing an AI search experience
The challenge lay in creating a search experience that delivers precise results swiftly, while also providing essential context for informed decision-making for law makers in Europe.
UX DesignOnboarding
Customer onboarding: Onboarding experience using behavioural design
I created an onboarding experience to solve the avalanche of content for compliance teams.
Product DesignFinance app
Mighty’s new interface
A redesign of Mighty's financial platform was badly needed to enhance usability, reduce complexity and create a modern experience.
Product DesignDesign language
A new design language for Compliance & Risks
Showcase for product design at Compliance & Risks, containing design principles, microcopy guidelines, components, and other resources.
Graphic DesignBranding
HireHive branding
Branding and illustration for recruitment software platform.
Personal projects 02
Graphic designBook jackets
Science Fiction Classics
Redesigns of famous and unique science fictions novels.
Graphic designPoster series
Kubrick
Poster series featuring redesigned Kubrick film posters.
Graphic designPoster series
Masters of perception
Poster series focusing on unique creatives.
Graphic designCartography
Lost cities
When we have colonised other worlds, explorers will come back and discover our ancient cities. What will remain are the rivers that they were once built on. This is a poster series based on this concept.
Articles 03
ArticleAI experience
Avoiding pitfalls of AI for designers: guiding principles
With the AI landscape changing daily — even by the hour — how do we design for the power of AI without falling into the trap of bias, misinformation, and dubious ethics? It feels like a tall order.
Published on LogRocket
ArticleUser experience
The rise of agentic AI: designing for a new era
Pattern matching AI is giving way to a new era of agentic AI, powered by reasoning, goal-oriented behaviour and world models.
Published on LinkedIn
ArticleDesign history
Graphic notation: A brief history of visualising music
Design and music intersect in many areas, yet one relatively obscure but creative area is in the design of graphic notation by composers.
ArticleDesign history
Pilot error, Alphonse Chapanis and the shape of things to come
How Alphonse Chapanis, a young psychologist, saved the lives of WWII pilots through clever design.
ArticleUser experience
The essential guide to Microcopy and becoming a more literate designer
Designers should not be mere decorators, but have an understanding of language and microcopy, which is a crucial design skill, now more than ever.
ArticleDesign process
The starter guide to using behavioural design
Behavioral design uses behavioural science and psychology to guide how people use our products.
ArticleDesign process
Making smarter UX design decisions with the Cynefin framework
The Cynefin framework is a sense-making tool created by Dave Snowden that helps to identify the nature of a problem, and the best approach to solve UX design problems.
ArticleDesign history
Cardew’s Treatise: The greatest musical score ever designed
The ‘Mount Everest’ of graphical musical scores, Treatise still surprises with its invention and beauty. It is also one of the finest f*ck yous to the musical establishment ever created.
ArticleDesign history
The Vignelli Canon: a design classic from the last of the modernists
Massimo Vignelli's views feel unfashionable today, yet, younger designers can learn much from the Canon.
ArticleDesign process
Chaos, Derrida and pigeons: Things I learnt from Dave Snowden
To hear Dave Snowden talk at Design Thinking Ireland was to be treated to an avalanche of fascinating and deeply interconnected ideas like no other. The talk also seriously overwhelmed my sketchnoting abilities.
ArticleUser experience
Storytelling: Designing the user’s journey with UX story mapping
This is the story of a novel and powerful way to visualise your user’s journey, and a traumatising childhood gaming experience.
ArticleUser experience
Design principle: Effective listening through reflective questioning
Listening is a vital UX skill we can all get better at, and a chatbot experiment from the 1960s teaches us how.
ArticleDesign history
The Barry Lyndon poster is a design classic, not designed by Saul Bass
The poster is an iconic masterpiece that contains interesting layers of inaccurate attribution.
ArticleUI design
The essential elements of login screen design
Login screen design is not the sexiest of topics, yet without attention, the login screen can literally make or break a product experience.
ArticleUI design
Design detail: Crafting better shadows for interaction
Shadow doesn’t get as much love as other design elements, such as cool colour palettes or super sexy shapes, but it is vital in communicating interaction. reatise still surprises with its invention and beauty. It is also one of the finest fuck yous to the musical establishment ever created.
ArticleDesign process
Design principle: Avoid the need to ask the question
Steve Jobs’ challenge to the engineers of the first iPad keyboard is an excellent lesson to us all.
ArticleUI design
Basic principles of design: Five must knows I’ve taught my kids and other designers
In this article, I share the core set of principles of design, which you, as a designer, can adhere to and should learn early in your career.
ArticleDesign philosophy
Creating a design philosophy for yourself and your company
Design philosophy can feel like the fashion equivalent of the turtleneck, but it doesn't have to be.