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Laura Block
Portfolio OS 2026 · Version 4.9
- Chip
- Product designer
- Memory
- 6+ years in product teams
- Location
- London, UK
- Built with
- Claude Code, designed by a human (Laura)
- Background
- Created with Claude, inspired by my home office
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Hey, I'm Laura Block
I'm a freelance product designer based in London. I do user research, UX and UI design, user testing and content design, and I take a content-first approach to everything I make.
Available now for freelance projects
Skills
What I do
UX research
Understanding your users. I'm experienced in stakeholder interviews and workshops, journey mapping, building archetypes and personas, and identifying job stories.
UX and UI design
Building the experience. I use Figma to build wireframes and high-fidelity screens, and I'm experienced in designing responsively across web, tablet and mobile apps.
User testing
Validating ideas. I build rapid, high-fidelity prototypes and get out in the field, testing remotely online and meeting research participants in person. Build, test, iterate, repeat.
Content design
What's a UI without words? I take a content-first approach to my design work, so the language is accessible and intuitive, with design elements there to make it work even harder.
My favourite tools
- Figma
- FigJam
- Miro
- Claude
- Gemini
- HeyMarvin
- RallyUXR
- Noteful
Interviews
Featured in
Got a project? Drop me a line.
Immediate availability for freelance projects.
Off screen, I'm on stage
I took my first improv comedy class two years ago and have been hooked since. I've performed in shows across London, including the Hen & Chickens Theatre, founded my own troupe, Shoes Daddy, and I'm now training in improvised musical theatre.
How can improv grow workplace skills?
- Public speakingThinking on your feet in front of a room makes the weekly presentation far less daunting.
- ConfidenceImprov asks you to make choices even when you're unsure, and teaches others to back you wholeheartedly.
- CollaborationEveryone in the room gets space to contribute, not just the loudest voices.
- Creativity"Yes, and" turns half-formed ideas into something worth building.
- TrustBeing silly together builds the trust it takes to make bold calls.
- EmpathyStepping into different characters helps you see a problem from someone else's point of view.
I'm now booking pilot improv workshops for teams.
Whether you're a project manager, software engineer or customer support specialist, improv can help your team take their soft skills to the next level, while having fun, of course!
Now booking pilot workshops
Book an improv workshop for your team
I'm looking for teams to pilot a new offering of improv workshops and give me feedback.
Every workshop is co-led by me and an improv coach. Together, we design the session around your team's real challenges and bring you closer together.
- 2- or 4-hour workshops
- Teams of up to 16
- No acting experience required or expected
- Provide a meeting room, or I'll book one for you at cost
My work
I enjoy projects with complex, undiscovered problems and real end users. Below is a selection of projects that show the kinds of problems where I can flex my skills best.
Featured case studies
Below are two projects and my impact in more detail.
Other projects I've worked on
Solar panels, EV chargers and heat pumps: a single set-up journeyWeb
New build homes now come with green tech built in, but buyers had no digital way to get set up, and most didn't stay with E.ON Next. I designed a QR-led setup hub that tailors itself to what's installed in each home, from registering the property to setting up an EV charger and getting paid for spare solar energy.
How much of your family holiday would you hand over to AI?WebI led research and discovery for an AI family holiday planner and designed V1 of the web app. I tested a landing page with six families to find out how much planning they'd hand over and what data they'd share to get there. They were comfortable sharing as long as the AI felt backed by real holiday experts, and that evidence gave the team confidence to push further into an AI agent-led proposition.
Automating multi-million insurance deals in a business built on lunchesWeb
Neuron set out to automate commercial insurance, so a broker placing cover for a multinational could get quotes in minutes instead of months. I secured the research budget, built a research practice from scratch and interviewed two dozen US brokers to test whether the UK product could work in the US market. Brokers wouldn't adopt a tool that made their relationships with insurers invisible, so the research reshaped the product's direction in the US towards the backend: an integration with brokers' existing software instead of a separate Neuron interface.
Fast-track your financial goalsMobile app
I helped design Your Money Coach, a feature that aimed to encourage and empower the financial wellbeing of the bank's 10 million mobile app users amid a cost of living crisis. Research showed people felt overwhelmed, so we turned dense financial guidance into bite-sized exercises with a to-do list and progress bar, and it launched in August 2024.
Booking a desk shouldn't be the hardest part of going to the officeMobile appKitt's app was how clients booked desks and opened office doors, but its navigation was fragmented, and failed door opens were the top complaint on live chat. I redesigned the app and applied the new brand at the same time, rebuilding desk booking and laying the groundwork for Kitt's design system, Folio.
What makes a live chat feel human?WebKitt promised clients a human reply on live chat within two minutes, so I ran a series of workshops with the customer service team to understand how they managed incoming messages and met that target. Together we roasted real replies to show where they let clients down, then practised writing in Kitt's tone of voice. To make that standard sustainable, I designed a system of keyboard shortcuts for quick access to standard replies the team could then tailor to each client. That kept every reply on brand and took pressure off the team.
Redesigning how global fleets manage their payment cardsWeb
I led the design of payment method management on BP's global fleet management platform, where the new frontend had to match a dense legacy backend. I ran a series of workshops with fleet subject matter experts to untangle that system, then designed a frontend that did the heavy lifting, so fleet managers had a simple experience however complex the rules underneath were.
Got a project? Drop me a line.
Immediate availability for freelance projects.
To: Laura Block
Hello! I hope you're enjoying having a root around my desktop 👀
Got a project, a role or an improv workshop in mind? Leave me a message right here and I'll get back to you.
Prefer email? design@laurablock.co · LinkedIn
Otis is my dog. He is available for projects, but he charges much more than I do.
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