Dean Gifford

Dean is an interaction designer with over 20 years of experience in user-centred design, delivering technology solutions for digital innovation projects.

Dean employs rapid prototyping and experience design to present clients and users with tangible concepts of ‘what might be’, working with them iteratively to arrive at ‘what should be’. He casts a wide net to include as many types of users and technical and non-technical stakeholders as possible — from different backgrounds and with different abilities. He enjoys engaging with a broad spectrum of people during the design process and supports them in taking ownership of the design itself.

Dean has a wide breadth of experience working with government agencies, commercial companies, independent statutory authorities, start ups, the university sector, and clients in the enterprise systems space. He has conceptualised an internal case management system with Victorian Legal Aid and worked through an iterative design process to make a user-centred intranet with the former National Recovery and Resilience Agency. He has helped Data61, CSIRO’s data and digital specialist arm, to evaluate and improve the user experience for their Terria Spatial Digital Twin platform. He has prototyped concepts for Cochlear’s Professional Digital Portal experience to support professionals working with Cochlear implant patients.

Dean has a Bachelor of Multimedia specialising in Design. He has co-founded three companies: a full-service digital agency in Australia, a mobile game development company and an interactive 3D design product company in the UK. He presents his work at conferences around the world; sharing his learnings and thoughts on the future of experience design.