Service design

Mazepath Design  - navigating the labyrinth of pathways a business, product or digital service could travel.  This brand was created by Skyler Newton, to showcase and communicate my learnings and accomplishments in the field of digital product and service design. 

Background

My working career commenced early as university education was not within my capacity at the time.  After starting out with part time work in entertainment and retail, I moved into full time work as a bank teller at 19 years old - to enable me to live independently and support my partner at the time.  The bank branch later promoted me to lead teller and customer service specialist.  Following this, I have spent 17 years serving the federal government department that registers Intellectual Property (IP) rights for businesses in Australia (these are Patents, Trade Marks, Plant Breeders Rights and Design rights).  Here I predominantly worked in trade mark registration. This role involved market impact research for new products and services entering the marketplace, i.e. brand distinctiveness and  consumer protection. I then completed a graduate certificate in trade mark law and practice with the University of Technology Sydney by leveraging my work experience. Most recently I moved into the coordination and design of digital services operated by the department from 2017. 

Overall I have invested 4 years in digital services and strategic design, and my most recent qualification is from the completion of a short course in Service Design.  From 2021 - 2024, I served as Strategic Designer for the IPAVentures innovation lab.  Here I performed innovation and customer experience research to design new digital services and explored new opportunities for government policy.  Please see this portfolio of digital services and publications that I contributed to delivering.

Creative design

Since my career of nearly two decades has mostly centred around government services, from 2022 I decided to invest in a personal creative design venture - leveraging innovation and design thinking principles.  In late 2022 when the results of this became more successful, I established a small business in order to showcase my capability in applying product and service design principles outside the government sector. 

The results of this can now be seen in my designs made from salvaged items and materials. My creative design page lists new use cases for upcycled materials  using LED lighting. From this experimentation and in consultation with a brains-trust engineer, I created a baseline product and online store. 

This venture has now ceased while I resume full time study in UI design and Cybersecurity. 

Innovation in practice

While my creative venture has ceased, what I have proven from this is the versatility and transferability of skills in the field of design thinking and innovation practice.  Whether it’s innovation discovery and use case analysis, facilitating and coordinating qualitative and quantitative research, prototyping & experimentation, iterative testing and design update processes - these are the skills in human centred design (HCD) that I can bring, providing valuable contributions to either public or private sector projects.