Meet the human

Bright shirts, serious strategy

Your product isn't landing. Your teams aren't aligned. I fix that, then teach your team to keep it fixed.

I'm Paul Wilshaw, a UX strategy, design systems and AI consultant based in Manchester and working with teams across the UK. I'm also the founder of Designed for Humans. I bring product strategy, UX, design systems, AI and accessibility together as one service: your creative department, without the headcount.

I've spent 15 years leading design at Barclays, Blue Prism and UKFast/ANS. I built Blue Prism's UX team from nothing to more than 20 people, and led the UKFast/ANS design system, now used across 100+ products. At Barclays I won a 3D printer at a Google hackathon, brought 3D printing into the bank, and watched it inspire the maker capabilities across the Eagle Labs network.

I've designed with AI since early 2023, when I built On the Go Tours a GPT that picks your tour and shows the itinerary. I then spent two years as chief product officer at a behavioural biometrics AI start-up. Now I build Design Systems for Humans, whose MCP server gives AI coding tools your real tokens and components, so what they build stays on-brand. And I train design teams to do the same.

I co-host the Faster Horses podcast, speak at events like Finovate Europe and ProductTank, advise Blake Mill, and have been a school governor since 2017, championing disadvantaged pupils and children with special educational needs.

Off the clock: Star Wars, board games, and comics with a good story. Which explains why this website is a game.