Steve O’Connor
Principal UX & Interaction Designer, Accessibility & Inclusive Design Systems, Team Leader
Experienced Principal UX Designer blending strategic leadership with hands-on delivery. Specialist in accessible, inclusive digital services for public, charity, education, and healthcare sectors. Proven impact through design system creation, interaction design, and user-centred service delivery.
Core Skills
- Inclusive design: WCAG 2.2, ARIA, GDS standards
- Design systems: Figma, Zeroheight, Storybook, GDS, scalable pattern libraries
- UX & interaction design: complex user journeys, public and charity sectors
- Prototyping: Figma, Axure, GOV.UK Prototype Kit
- User research & testing: usability testing, synthesis, accessibility audits
- Leadership: team mentoring, coaching, design ops
- Collaboration: agile delivery, cross-disciplinary teamwork, stakeholder engagement
- Front-end awareness: HTML/CSS collaboration.
Experience
Principal UX Designer — Nexer Digital
Mar 2024 — June 2025
- Lead UX strategy and delivery across public, charity, education, and healthcare services.
- Shaped and scaled inclusive design systems supporting multi-team environments.
- Embedded WCAG 2.2 and GDS standards ensuring accessible product lifecycles.
- Mentored junior and mid-level designers, strengthening internal capability.
- Supported proposal development and early-stage client engagement.
- Drove improvements in design ops to optimise sustainable delivery.
Senior UX Designer — Nexer Digital
Mar 2017 — Mar 2024
- Redesigned Mind’s donation flow, achieving a 70% increase in online contributions.
- Delivered accessible, user-centred services for Department for Education, Research Data Scotland, AstraZeneca, NIHR, Sanger, NCC Group, and others.
- Created and evolved design systems and pattern libraries aligned to client needs.
- Led user research synthesis, service mapping, and iterative prototyping for complex B2B and B2C products and services.
- Contributed to cross-government design communities and GDS Design System enhancements, including designing the latest (link opens in new tab)Tag component, and co-designing the (link opens in new tab)Task List component and (link opens in new tab)Complete multiple tasks pattern.
- Balanced multiple concurrent workstreams, ensuring alignment to product goals and team wellbeing.
Lead Designer — Airsource
Sep 2010 — Mar 2017
- Established and embedded UX / UI design in a development-led agency.
- Delivered interaction and visual design for clients including Merck, Cambridge Medical Robotics, Linde, Ilika, CSIRO, and Sagentia.
- Developed reusable UI components and design systems to accelerate delivery.
- Increased sales of company-owned apps by combining targeted marketing strategies with design improvements, successfully winning over four hard-to-convince clients.
- Hired and mentored a second designer to expand team capability.
Earlier roles
- Lecturer — Cambridge Regional College
- Studio Designer — Cream Group Ltd.
- Freelance Design Consultant
- Design & Training Manager — Vellum Software UK Ltd.
Volunteering
Director & Organiser — CamCreatives CIC
Feb 2008 — Present
- Organise events supporting the creative sector in Cambridgeshire, including speaker panels and workshops.
- Advocate for inclusive design and creative entrepreneurship
Education
- BTEC Graphic Design (Merit/Distinction) — Southport Technical College
- BA Hons Graphic Design & Illustration (Incomplete) — University of Central Lancashire
What others say
“Steve is one of the best UX designers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. He’s got a deep understanding of interaction design, always puts users first, and makes space for content design from day one.”
“Steve leads with values of fairness and accessibility. He brings deep experience, great instincts, and a knack for gently guiding teams toward better choices—without ever being preachy.”
“A dependable, thoughtful colleague and the steady heart of CamCreatives. Steve’s grown into a confident presenter and trusted organiser—with a great sense of humour too.”
“Steve brought top-tier prototyping and design skills to our Alpha phase, while keeping things grounded in GDS patterns, user needs, and stakeholder reality. A real asset to the team.”