Paul Rouke

Name	Paul Rouke
Job Title	Head of Usability & Conversion
Organisation	PRWD
Member Level	Gold
Member Since	18 Apr 2005
Areas of Expertise	E-commerce, User Experience and Usability, Conversion Rate Optimization, Customer Experience
Contact Details	Telephone: 0161 228 0585 Address: 22 Lever Street, Manchester, M1 1EA, United Kingdom

About Me

Paul is a consultant and trainer in usability & conversion optimisation with over 11 experience, working with clients including Speedo, Lakeland, Monsoon Accessorize, Stella McCartney, Bank of America, The Scout Association, Speedy Hire, Butlins and Pentland Brands (who own and manage brands including Berghaus, Kickers and Boxfresh).

Paul runs Manchester based usability and conversion optimisation consultancy PRWD (PRoductivity Without Difficulty), providing services including expert evaluations, user testing (moderated and remote), conversion rate optimisation, in-house consultancy and training to some of the UK’s most respected brands.

Previously he worked for 7 years in user experience at the UK’s biggest home shopping retail group, Shop Direct Group, starting in 1999 when the group first began exploring the potential of selling online to their millions of customers.

Paul is extremely passionate about both delivering conversion improvements and sharing best practice usability for all sizes of clients, with a particular focus on improving the conversion rates of ecommerce platforms. Examples of his desire to share his expertise can be seen in both the training courses and usability events that Paul plans and delivers alongside the likes of Google and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Paul regularly publishes articles on usability and conversion optimisation including Econsultancy blog posts, and all these articles are available online (http://bit.ly/UX101resources).

In his spare time Paul enjoys playing football (although age is catching up with him), spending time outdoors when the UK weather permits, watching arthouse movies and spending quality time with his family.

My Links

Blog
The usability and software development blog for PRWD, featuring article on best practice and user-centered design for retailers and IT systems

Twitter Profile
Paul Rouke's twitter profile

Online Bio
Paul Rouke's online bio, including project experience and areas of expertise

LinkedIn Profile
Paul Rouke's LinkedIn profile, including recommendations received and made

Career History

E-commerce and Usability Trainer at Econsultancy
From October 1, 2008 and still in this role.

Delivering the 1st training entitled High End E-commerce Usability and Best Practice in April 2009

Head of Usability & Conversion at PRWD
From January 1, 2005 and still in this role.

Responsible for delivering client projects such as expert evaluations, usability testing, in-house consultancy and training.

Education and Qualifications

After gaining 3 A's and 6 B's at high school, I began an engineering apprenticeship with BAe Systems. After becoming the Apprentice of the year in my 2nd year I decided to move out of the engineering industry and into retailing at Great Universal Stores.

I am proud to say that my experience and expertise in all areas of usability and user experience has been developed purely in a commercial environment, most importantly during 7 years at the UK's largest home shopping retailer Shop Direct Group.