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Should you become a design manager?
Hi, I'm Lewis
A multidisciplinary, full-stack designer and community builder from Nairobi, KE 🇰🇪 I'm currently building the web and mobile insights platform at Lookback.
I also help students increase their hireability for an entry-level job in the UI/UX design field at Springboard, a learning platform bridging the world’s skills gap and offering transformative online education.
Before Lookback, I shaped how users interact with the web and mobile products, branding and creative work that draws in new customers, as the First Designer (Design Team of One) and Growth Marketing Lead at Kwara.
Before Kwara, I designed the conversational and transactional social network experience on Zwuup (formerly Bonga) at Alpha Innovation Incubator. Alpha was part of Safaricom, the home of the famous Mobile Money service- M-PESA.
I go by @ngeshlew on Twitter and most other places on the internet.
👨🎨 Featured work
Digitizing SACCOs | Kwara
Read Case Study →
A Fresh New Look | ARK Africa Redesigned
Read Case Study →
Mobility for the Visually Impaired | The Able Cane
Read Case Study →
🎙️ My version of a Ted talk
Connecting designers across Africa during COVID-19 🇰🇪
An interview hosted by Whitney Ogutu and Bailey Richardson with Lewis Kang'ethe, the community lead for the African chapter of The Fearless Community. They are bringing together design leaders to share knowledge and stay connected during lockdown.
Published on March 1st, 2021: by the Get Together team - People & Company →
The designer role in a startup
Design is central to the revolution and growth of the African startup ecosystem. At FFA, we want to celebrate Design influence within startups and organisations. The talk was about how design is helping startups in Africa change the narrative of innovation on the continent through these inspiring talks.
Presented at 2020: Hatch by FFA: Design month 🎨 by FFA x Fearless - Slides →
Video available on YouTube →
Prioritization of UX Issues
It’s our one-hour live Twitter discussion (via the #uxchat Twitter hashtag) where you can rub virtual shoulders with some of the most knowledgeable UXperts on the planet and discuss a different UX topic every week. I was answering the following questions:
- How do you prioritize features? How do you factor in technical feasibility, importance to users, and importance to business?
- How do you create systems that will help you track and prioritize user feedback?
- Are there techniques out there that can help prioritize UX issues?
Presented at 2019: #UXChat by UserZoom - Twitter Moment →
User Research / Design in Foreign and Emerging Markets
It’s our one-hour live Twitter discussion (via the #uxchat Twitter hashtag) where you can rub virtual shoulders with some of the most knowledgeable UXperts on the planet and discuss a different UX topic every week. I was answering the following questions:
- How would you approach user research / UX design across different cultures in an emerging market?
- What methods do you use when creating digital solutions for a non-digital audience?
- How do you build trust with research participants as a foreigner?
Presented at 2019: #UXChat by UserZoom - Twitter Moment →
🎯 Essays
Launched design/research directories
Built both talent and hiring boards for the Kenyan product/design space. →
UX/UI/Product Design Slack groups
Join all these groups to up your Design skills →
Lessons I learnt from Scott Chacon (Founding CTO at GitHub)
During the "Power Speaker Series" hosted by @ianetworktweets →
Tool Stack
Favorite tools of my trade as a Product Designer. →
Managing your Design Project
How we use Slack, Trello, TeamGantt, Illustrator, Photoshop and Zeplin for a design project →
Scheduling your life as a Freelancer
Working for yourself means you can control your availability and also your income →
UX folks in Kenya that you have to follow
Wanted to say on Twitter OR Medium but… →
More here →
🏗️ Side projects
Product (Design & Research) talent and hiring boards
Make it exponentially easy to hire in the Kenyan product/design space →
[FREE] Job Search Tracker template
Job hunting isn't easy and after a while of doing it, I built a template to help with that →
A - Z logos
Push through to finish the A-Z logos and more... →
Morning Routine Sketchnote
Took on to learn some quick and handy sketching techniques that will propel your visual communication skills to the next level. →