Billie Cara McMillan

Hi, my name is Billie and I am currently a UX Designer at SEGA HARDlight.

After gaining my BA in Graphic Communication from Loughborough University I found myself moving to Royal Leamington Spa to work for a business consultancy. Here I got to work with some great clients such as John Lewis, Marie Curie and the NHS mostly on internal projects with a focus on customer experience. One of my last projects at the consultancy was to rebrand the games studio SEGA HARDlight, it was working on this project I realised that working in games is a viable option and I made the transition over to working for them. 

I am passionate about people, we really are fascinating creatures. Observing, understanding and communicating with people is key in my job role. Alongside a person's behaviours and interactions you have their environment, cultural constructs, technology and personal expectations to contend with in design. Increasingly people expect their digital world to be one with their physical one, and to naturally jump between the two states with no friction. It is us designers who are here to not only facilitate that, but make it look, feel, sound and if possible smell beautiful - or horrendous, it all depends on what we're trying to achieve.

When designing something I do my best to ensure I identify the actual problem rather that what we initially assume to be the problem to then build a solution which is relevant and sustainable, all with the end user in mind.

When I started to work in the digital realm, I realised how strongly I feel about creating a great experience in this medium - like many people in my generation most of my life it spent on my phone. Digital products are becoming a much larger part of everyones lives, it is a way to converse, connect, collaborate and on the flip side, ignore people in mass.

To read more about me, I have featured in a MCV's Rising Star article, the contents of which you can here: https://www.mcvuk.com/sega-hardlights-billie-mcmillan-dont-let-never-having-worked-in-games-before-put-you-off-applying/