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About the Whale

Whale User Expe­ri­ence is the con­sul­tancy of Antoine Valot.

In every­thing I do, I strive for sim­plic­ity, usabil­ity, and human-centeredness. I believe in the trans­for­ma­tive power of design think­ing. I wield it with pas­sion and discipline.

Design think­ing trans­forms prod­ucts, com­pa­nies, and mar­kets for the bet­ter. In my 17 years of expe­ri­ence in the craft, artistry and busi­ness of the web, I’ve refined prag­matic approaches that I adapt to my clients’ needs and con­text, to deliver cus­tomized strate­gies, plans, blue­prints and products.
In this way, I can help you find the gaps in your knowl­edge and com­pe­ten­cies, strate­gize and plan for trans­for­ma­tive UX, help you steer clear of com­mon pit­falls, and train, sup­port, and men­tor your in-house tal­ents toward express­ing their full potential.
On a tac­ti­cal level, I spe­cial­ize in early-stage UX def­i­n­i­tion: I syn­the­size your mar­ket dynam­ics, expressed and implied cus­tomer goals, data struc­tures and infor­ma­tion archi­tec­ture, cul­ture and brand, with your unique vision and require­ments, to dis­cover the most effec­tive, ele­gant and delight­ful solution.

I offer trans­for­ma­tive con­sult­ing ser­vices on mul­ti­ple levels:

  • Busi­ness Strategy
  • Web, Social & Mobile Strategy
  • Product/Service Man­age­ment Strategy
  • Infor­ma­tion Architecture
  • Inter­ac­tion Design

I call my ser­vices trans­for­ma­tive because I spe­cial­ize in help­ing you find the new big idea to trans­form your prod­uct, your ser­vice, your industry. Big ideas aren’t nec­es­sar­ily expen­sive, or rev­o­lu­tion­ary. They are always rad­i­cal. Some ideas can scale up to enor­mous. Some dif­fer­en­tia­tors can truly dwarf the com­pe­ti­tion. Some oppor­tu­ni­ties are truly open-ended. To find them, I explore the full con­text of cus­tomer goals and behav­iors, and map them onto fric­tion­less interfaces.

While your com­pe­ti­tion is busy giv­ing the mar­ket what it asks for, I help you build what the mar­ket actu­ally wants, and is unable to artic­u­late. In some cases, we might be able to enable a much big­ger mar­ket: Your very own ecosystem.

When the right con­di­tions are set, your prod­uct and ideas can become the DNA for a new mar­ket, the struc­tural cen­ter for self-sustaining com­mu­ni­ties, expand­ing at expo­nen­tial rates, grow­ing your bot­tom line for you. Lever­ag­ing the ver­sa­til­ity of web infra­struc­tures, we can enable your mar­ket to bloom, by:

  • Com­modi­tiz­ing and democ­ra­tiz­ing the use of com­plex prod­ucts and services.
  • Remov­ing bar­ri­ers to entry
  • Flat­ten­ing learn­ing curves
  • Spread­ing risk and exposure
  • Decou­pling domain exper­tise from sales and trade
  • Bypass­ing insti­tu­tional gate­keep­ers and entrenched dom­i­nant players
  • Mobi­liz­ing and empow­er­ing a com­mu­nity of support

When you expand your mar­ket, you grow the ecosys­tem that feeds you. By build­ing a sym­bi­otic rela­tion­ship with your cus­tomers, I can help you make sure that your busi­ness is the foun­da­tion of their suc­cess and delight.

Big and benev­o­lent. I believe that’s the recipe for suc­cess in the wide ocean that is the web.

Get the details on ser­vices and approach. Then take the plunge and con­tact me to get started.