Sydney · Design · Research · Development
I’m Matthew Kane, a one person studio in Sydney. I do the research, the design and the build myself, so the problem gets found before anything gets made.
Selected work
Client work, and a few things I built for myself because nothing else did the job.
Next.js + Shopify API · TypeScript + Firebase + custom design system
Custom headless Shopify platform for a multi-location collectibles retailer. Built a full-stack storefront, admin portal, HR system, and bulk operations engine. Online revenue more than tripled.
React + TypeScript · Tailwind CSS + Firebase
A Central Coast builder paying an agency over $3,000 a month for a site that looked like a trades directory listing. I rebuilt the positioning, the site and the photography around the clients they actually wanted. The agency is gone.
React + Firebase · TypeScript + CRACO + Stripe
A collection tracker for people who treat graded cards as an investment. Live PSA valuations, profit and loss on every card, invoices ready for tax time. I built it because spreadsheets and the existing apps both let me down.
Investment platform · End to end research/design/development
Bullion tracking in Australian dollars, which nothing else did properly. Live spot prices for four metals, what you paid over spot, and a clean record for when you sell.
React 19 + Vite · TypeScript + Firebase
A free personal finance tool built around the pay cycle rather than the calendar month. Its debt simulator shows what paying extra actually gets you: $500 a month more on a 5.79% home loan saves $131,000 and five years.
Research
I’m a designer, researcher and developer. Before I build, I do the research to find the real problem: interviews, usability testing, journey and scenario mapping. Here’s that side of my work, in depth.
UX Research & Usability Testing
A brief to “show promotions better” became a research-led redesign. Six user interviews, usability testing and three rounds of prototype testing that reached 100% task completion.
Read the case study
UX Research & Service Design
Two accounts customers thought were one, driving thousands of support calls a week. The research, alignment and validation behind a single sign-on for Woolworths and Rewards.
Read the case study
How I work
From first conversation to launch.
First I work out what the real problem is, which is usually not the one in the brief. For Ace Building that meant going through their ad spend and their competitors before I touched any code, and finding the site was pitched at completely the wrong buyer. You get findings you can act on, not a deck.
I design against what the research found. That covers the interface, but also the parts people skip: how staff will use the admin screens all day, what happens on a phone in a shop, who is allowed to see what.
Then I build it. No handoff to a separate developer, no theme with your logo dropped on top. Swapitt’s bulk upload tool exists because I sat and watched someone spend ten minutes listing a single card.
Real users change things. I would rather get it in front of people early and fix what breaks than spend another month in Figma guessing.
I stay on after launch. Swapitt went live over a year ago and I still work on it every day.
Contact
Send me the details and I’ll come back to you.