I’m Neil Dickinson, a UX/UI product designer with over 20 years of experience helping teams create products that not only look great—but solve real problems. I specialise in strategic product design, where user insight, business goals, and technical feasibility meet.
My love of design started early—though I didn’t realise it at the time. As a kid, I was captivated by the UI and visual elements in Star Wars, Terminator, arcade games, and magazine typography. I was always drawing and painting, but in high school I found myself more interested in layout, type, and ad design—even though I didn’t yet know what “graphic design” was. I was literally painting graphic compositions onto my wall without knowing I was doing design.
After high school, I studied at York Art College, then moved into craft design—mainly because I was told I wasn’t a great illustrator. That blunt feedback helped me shift towards the core principles of visual communication.
I later enrolled at Scarborough College, where I properly dug into graphic design, information design, and photography. That’s when I really started absorbing influence from Neville Brody, David Carson, and others pushing expressive, style-driven design.
University followed with a focus on Information Design. It was here I got into early web design and HTML, and was completely drawn in by the visual worlds of Designers Republic, Emigre magazine, and Peter Saville’s iconic work for the Hacienda.
I started my career at the Yorkshire Post, designing and coding websites for the newspaper. I helped redesign the Yorkshire Post and Blackpool Gazette websites—building early experience in front-end development and editorial design.
From there, I co-founded an e-commerce agency called Chapter Eight, where we built websites for brands like Aston Villa FC, Coca-Cola, Gatecrasher, Barry’s Jewellers, Sock Shop, and more.
I also began helping businesses strategically—aligning their sites to performance goals, accessibility standards, and responsive design best practices.
Later, I moved into product design full-time at BTL Surpass, where I worked on SaaS-based assessment platforms used by clients like City & Guilds, NBME, the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, and the Welsh Government. I was embedded in cross-functional teams, focusing on improving usability, accessibility, and long-term service design.
At OneMedical Group, I worked on a range of digital tools, including a bespoke CRM for property management and several internal service platforms—helping streamline patient journeys and internal operations through UX strategy and design systems.
Along the way, I’ve found huge satisfaction in helping others grow. I’ve mentored junior designers, shaped hiring practices, and supported cross-functional teams in maturing their design approach. I believe design is at its best when it’s collaborative, open, and shared—and I enjoy helping teams foster that kind of environment.