Stephanie Francis. Service & Interaction Designer based in Dublin, Ireland.

I am a Service & Interaction Designer at FJORD Dublin, part of The Dock which is Accenture's flagship R&D and Global Innovation Centre. I love solving problems and creating great experiences informed by core values that incorporate inclusivity, sustainability and responsibility.

Consultancy work

In 2016 I helped plan, design and ship ShareCar, a new modular booking system for car sharing operations. In 2017, I worked with WeddingDates on a major design-lead iteration of their expanding management platform for wedding venues and partnered with Olytico to bring their Social Wall product vision to life.

Side projects

I spend some of my time on non-for-profit, volunteer-led projects in the design community and beyond. In 2015, I co-founded, organised and managed a successful new design conference called Rebase. It ran over three days and was attended by 200 people from Ireland, Europe and the U.S.

Likes & loves

I have loved radio since I was a tot and now I adore podcasts. Current favourites include Gravy (a bi-weekly podcast that tells stories of changing American South through the foods people eat), Mothers of Invention and every designer's required listening, 99% Invisible.

“When we wanted to redesign our software for hotels and wedding vendors to make it mobile responsive, I knew that user experience was key. We provide a vast amount of information to our clients and in our old system alot of it was buried, difficult to find and rather clunky.

For the duration of the project Steph became 100% part of the WeddingDates team. We are based in Cork and she spent a week in our offices immersing herself in our culture, talking to each member of the team on their role and how the system impacts them as well as surveying and interviewing our customers. She has an amazing ability to quickly understand all the players and how they connect and the key drivers for them. She collated all the ideas as well as my brief into a system that is something I am truly proud of.

Steph kept to the tight timeframe and though she worked remotely we communicated well with weekly Skype meetings and sharing visuals on inVision. Steph has a great can-do attitude and is a fantastic collaborator. We had lots of fun on this project and we will always consider Steph an ‘honourary’ WeddingDates team member!”

Ciara Crossan
Founder & CEO of WeddingDates

Read the case study

Who am I?

I have been working in the tech industry for over ten years, starting out as a front-end developer, before moving into the beautifully broad field of designing for our digital world. I am a generalist; comfortable moving between research, code, wireframes, mockups, documentation always eager to learn new skills.

I am selective and principled in the work I choose to do. I choose projects that resonate with me and align with my values. I believe in leaving the world a better place than how I found it and see design as a means through which we can achieve that goal. I'm also a strong believer in giving back to the community and wider world and our collective responsibility as designers and makers.

What I've been up to

2019

FJORD

In August 2019, I joined FJORD Dublin as a Service & Interaction Design Associate Manager to work on a range of both client-lead and internal innovation projects with talented multi-disciplinary teams at The Dock.

2017

New challenges

I continued to work on a consultancy basis throughout 2017, including working with Olytico to make their Social Wall product vision a reality. In July, I was contracted via Fjord Dublin to the Accenture Amadeus Alliance, a joint initiative to dream up and deliver innovative, human-centric solutions to the challenges faced by stakeholders in air travel including passengers, airlines and airports.

2016

Going solo

After a short break post-Rebase, I decided to start working on a consultancy basis. I brought Good Travel Software to shipping a new product and lead WeddingDates to releasing a major new iteration of their management platform.

2015

Ch-ch-ch-changes

In September 2015, I said goodbye Engine Yard. Took the lead on making Rebase happen for a month, which was a happy success. Took some time out to travel a little, cook and work on some personal projects.

2013

Product designer

Hired by Engine Yard to work on the system and interface design for their new product. Also help out with branding, swag, growing the team, defining a design process and promoting a design-first way of shipping.

2007

UX designer

Landed a job at the original iteration of the award-winning X Communications, an agency whose work I had admired for years. Starting as a front-end developer, I learn my trade as as a UX designer eventually leading the design a number of different projects.

2006

Junior web developer

Graduated from Dublin City University with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Multimedia. Got my first "real job" as a junior web developer at Xwerx in the Digital Depot. Learned the ropes of the multi-hat agency life.

2005

Internship

Completed a fantastic, hands-on nine-month internship at Intuition e-learning. Returned to university to complete my final year and thesis project, a Pocket PC app for guiding art students around the National Gallery in the pre-iPhone age.

2002

College

Moved to Dublin city and for a summer internship at EmergeSmart e-learning company. It was meant to last a week but I stayed for the entire summer until it was time to start university.

2000

Late adopter

Finally persuaded my parents we needed a home computer. Shortly after, I decided we should have the internet. The large phone bills went unnoticed for a number of months and I started learning HTML and trying to make a website.

1984

Hello world

Born at Christmas in 1984, I grew up on a dairy farm on the west coast of Ireland in the heart of The Burren, Co. Clare. Like @ev, I believe I got my strong work ethic from growing up on a farm where "working nine to five" was – and remains – an alien concept.

"When we build, let us think that we build forever."
– John Ruskin, cited by Wilson Miner in his talk at Build 2011.