Work
My name is Ben Paddock. I am a hands-on design leader, mentor, and strategist, experienced with building an inclusive, experimental culture that inspires others to think big.
Below is a sampling of my most recent and ongoing work:
Extend
Over 5 years, I had the privilege of building and leading a wonderful, full-stack design team of 6. We excelled at blending story-driven, user-centric design practices with ambitiously creative thinking and refined craft. Through empathetic leadership, I developed an inclusive approach to mentor and grow the design team, find efficiencies in company process, craft a customer-beloved brand and experience, and guide broader business strategy through design. As a hands-on Head of Design, I served as the Director of Product Design, Creative Director, and Lead Product Designer.
Workforce Data Portal (2019)
MySchools (2018)
Mobile App for Small Businesses (2018)
Working with the non-profit arm of Goldman Sachs, we built upon an existing progressive web app, creating a sophisticated, user-friendly hub for small businesses owners to connect, share information, and gain insight from thought leaders from across industries. Due to the nature of the client, I cannot publicly display my work on this project. However, I can show screens in a 1-on-1 environment.
Mellon.org (2017)
I had done Mellon’s branding and website back in 2013, and it’s held up for quite some time. But with the advent of their 50th anniversary this year, it was time to take a hard look at the site and revamp a number of things. I led branding exploration and a website re-design to expand upon and refine what already existed, without losing the spirit of Mellon and its existing brand. This included rethinking the IA to create new connections between disparate content, a modernized layout and aesthetic with more emphasis on media, and a unique story-telling system for their 50th anniversary (as well as future campaigns). This is actively being worked on, but the client was so excited with my new design work, I felt compelled to share it with you.
College Board – Table Guidelines (2016)
Carnegie (2015)
Carnegie Corporation has been one of the largest grant-giving institutions for decades, but the knowledge and change they cultivated often went unnoticed. After helping their team adapt their dated offline branding to a flexible, web-friendly format, I worked closely with our UX team to give all that information and wisdom a proper voice. This lets Carnegie.org function as a true convener of knowledge from which other institutions can learn. I’m currently working with their new team to build out a better digital strategy, along with design updates to better suit their current needs (read: much simpler plugin implementation).
Massport (2015)
Massport.com is the online home of Boston’s leading transportation hub which encompasses Logan Airport, regional airports, and the Port of Boston. I led design in creating a focused, accessible redesign, inspired by the utility of airport signage. This mobile-first website provides an efficient resource for travelers in a hurry, solidifying Massachusetts as a forward-thinking transportation and tourism authority.We were able to do some particularly exciting in-person user-testing for this project, involving opt-in video tracking of users on their phone, in a controlled environment. It allowed us to match their facial expressions alongside their interactions, enabling us to pick up on small moments of delight or pain points they may not have vocalized.
Yale Law School
Years ago, I’d led design in creating a new, WCAG compliant interface and brand for the YLS class sign-up system. Recently, YLS tasked us with porting that system to numerous other external and internal web-apps and admin systems. The scope and actual work requirements were unclear, in terms of what needed UX, Visual Design, and Development. I took it upon myself to build out a rubric, breaking down the templates/components into discrete tasks that our ux, design, and front-end devs could digest and tackle piece by piece. This was a big success, turning a nebulous client need into a tangible, achievable set of deliverables. This proved so effective that I’ve begun adapting a larger-scale version that starts in UX Discovery and builds upon each departments’ skills to create, effectively, a Product Design Master Document.
Brainfacts’ Core Concepts
It may not be the flashiest project in the world, but working with neuroscientists to build a simplified education tool on the 8 core concepts of the brain was a pretty fascinating endeavor. I led concepting and design on these fun little games that teach children and adults alike, breaking down complex ideas into short, quirky interactives. The scaffolding is subtle enough that you might even learn by accident. I’m including a link to one, but we made 9 total (8 concepts + 1 intro). The success of this project led to a “How Neurons Work” project with Brainfacts, a pair of one-off educational games about neuron anatomy and neural networks.
Lincoln Center Theater
A remarkably flexible site for its age (going on 6 years), with the Show Detail pages the focus of the site (and where the vast majority of their traffic settles). I led design, focusing on bringing each show to life, while scaling to any and all assets available throughout a Broadway show’s wild lifetime.
George Street Playhouse
I was able to build upon lessons learned during LCT, leading not just design, but offering art direction for the client on how best to showcase their show art and photography. We were able to create a clean, modern site.
Long Island Children’s Museum
This is a humble site, but an absolute blast to work on. Visiting the museum and learning from how the children interact with the exhibits was key in translating that experience to a digital medium. I had a lot of fun leading design while offering oversight on UX and Front-end for this one, and really appreciated being able to try out a very different aesthetic style than I’m used to.