About
A practice and a publication. One practitioner.
The practitioner, how the practice runs, what the publication does. For buyers and readers alike.
01The practitioner
Chris Leo.
Eighteen years in user‑centred design. The first ten in commercial work, the last eight in UK central government. The transition was deliberate: services that touch every citizen are the work where good UCD makes the most difference.
Most recently Head of UCD Assurance at Defra, leading the team that assured around three hundred AI‑enabled and digital services against the Service Standard. Cross‑government and HMRC Service Standard assessor. Trained on Cambridge's HCI for AI Systems methodology, which underpins Loopwork's approach to AI‑enabled service design.
Currently delivering AI UCD services to Defra via esynergy Solutions until 22 May 2027. Loopwork is the practice for AI UCD work with other UK central government departments, ALBs, and devolved administrations both during and after that contract.
Outside Loopwork, an interest in how methodology becomes professional practice: how the things one practitioner figures out turn into what the next generation reads. The book that Loopwork serialises is part of that interest.
Drawn from
Cambridge HCI for AI Systems·MRS Diploma·BSc Psychology
02The practice
Built as a small, deliberate practice.
A practice for AI user‑centred design in UK central government. Sold to heads of profession across the four UCD professions, and to the practitioners they lead.
One practitioner, by design. Chris is the practitioner on every engagement. The work is 1:1 because senior judgement on AI‑enabled service design is what the brand sells, and senior judgement does not delegate.
Three rungs to the offering. Free interactive frameworks to use in your own time. Self‑serve courses for individual or team learning. Embedded consultancy at a day rate. Each rung is sized to its reader.
03The publication
A book, written in public.
Loopwork serialises a book on designing AI‑enabled services in UK central government. Sixteen chapters across six parts. Each essay published here becomes a chapter, refined through reader response, then compiled into the manuscript.
Newsletter via Buttondown. One email per essay. No promised cadence: the publication is patient. Subscribers receive each essay before it's archived to the public list, and an annual reading list at year‑end.
04Two doors out
If you've read this far, the next step is yours.
Two natural paths from here. Either is welcome, neither is required.
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For buyers
Talk about an engagement.
A thirty‑minute intro call to test fit. The contact page has the email and the calendar link.
Get in touch -
For readers
Read what Loopwork publishes.
The essay archive holds the work in progress. The newsletter delivers each essay as it's finished.
Read the essays