A different kind of investment

What if the true value of what you design lies not in the product itself, but the feelings it inspires in those who use it?

There is something powerful and unique about discovering that what you have built is not just about the product itself—but about how it makes people feel. My goal is that whenever I design something, it should enable the individuals who use the product to achieve their goals and tasks with true simplicity, and inspire them.

It was on September 1, 2015, long before I knew about user experience principles, a passionate boy sat with pencil and paper and designed his first logo and then later going on to design sports products, I didn’t know it then, but my design journey began that day. I was 11, and I had built my first business concept.

The first logo young David drew at age 11.

What had begun as drawings became digital, first with Canva, then Figma, Adobe XD, and more. Over period of more than a decade, I grew from a child drawing and tracing cartoons to a designer who could empathises with users to craft digital solutions that truly solve challenges and enable users on their daily lives.

Homer Simpson drawing and tracing by young David.

Fast forward to this year, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Investment Banking, earning First Class Honours. This discipline is rooted in logic, analytics and precision - and I thrived in it. Individually, I am fuelled with a deep relentless curiosity that drives me to search, question and connect the dots. A great deal of good came from my finance degree. In my Financial Technology (FinTech) module, I undertook a personal project where we had to design a bank account powered by cryptocurrency, this was one of my favourite projects, where I had the chance to design a banking interface, account specifications (statements, fees and interest rates). For me, this represents the intersection between finance and design for me. I have combined my years of experience to hopefully one day become a design powerhouse with a strong business and finance acumen.

I have been granted the opportunity to leverage my background in business and finance, alongside a growing fluency in human-centred design. The challenge was not just technical but required absorbing both those disciplines into something practical. So, I took the opportunity to reimagine the Coutts banking application—not just to be known as a comprehensive banking platform, but as a thoughtful, intuitive experience for the people who rely on the application everyday.

Beauty in function

I am now a multidisciplinary designer. Graphic design was the first design language I spoke—logos, brand packages and physical products but I found my voice in user experience (UX) design. My love for UX is not just making things look good, it's the opportunity to make them feel good to the user. I want to design experiences that are a natural extension of the human user, so that they do not have to change themselves for the experience—an experience built in simplicity and clarity. To me I believe beauty and function are inseparable, and this has led me to hold the belief that an experience is not beautiful when it is not functional.

My personal role model as a designer has always been Sir Jony Ive, who once spoke about spoke about designing a simple, trivial cable tab within device packaging that could make somebody's day just a little easier, that the person would know somebody cared about them, this truly resonates with me deeply. For me, design is an expression of the designer's love and care—an act of kindness embedded in each interaction, and whether the user consciously notices or not, I want users to have the sense that they were truly concerned, that some cared to listen and empathise with them. The Apostle Paul said love "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7).

"I think there is a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity; in clarity, in efficiency. True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter and ornamentation. It's about bringing order to complexity." — Sir Jonathan Ive KBE

Empathetic design

When I first began to think about how to approach my designs, I turned to Scripture with verses such as Colossians 3:23, Romans 12:15 and 1 Peter 3:8. These are some example of verses of which my designs are hinged upon. True empathy is positioning yourself in the place of others to truly understand their situation, I strongly believe empathy is the key to truly building usable and simplistic solutions,

Purposeful design

In the past, I delivered projects have spanned from recruitment agency websites to procurement platforms for large community groups, and I admit not every project was glamorous, but they were all meaningful, because they addressed real challenges faced by real individuals.

The values I anchor to my work always remain constant; simplicity, clarity, functionality, usability, emotional resonance, diligence and empathy. These values transform products from tools to meaningful experiences.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" – Leonardo da Vinci

A journey without end

Design has always been a constant in my life—even when rest was due, I kept returning to it, driven by a simple question: can I make this better for someone today? Design is dynamic, an ongoing conversation that demands empathy, care and humility.

From financial systems to design systems, my journey is always the same, designing for people, and every person who uses what I designed, I want them to feel it was made just for them.