Remember when tech was supposed to make life easier?
Hello, we're Hostile Sheep, your friendly digital boutique. We've been in this industry long enough to get gray hair, which is exactly why we design digital experiences that won't give your users any. We help mission-driven organizations untangle legacy chaos, eliminate cognitive debt, and build systems that actually do what they promised to do: help.
WHAT WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY...
cog·ni·tive debt
The mental burden imposed on a user by convoluted navigation, unclear language, and systemic digital waste. Every time an interface makes someone guess, hesitate, or feel stupid, cognitive debt increases. Paying down this debt means stripping away friction until the experience feels completely intuitive.
Select Work
Digital Cancer Guidelines
Hostile Sheep was hired to create a digital system for health care professionals to access cancer guidelines in an interactive way. This project involved a redesign of the information language, all the way to co-creation and testing of the digital experience.
Family Portal
Hostile Sheep was hired to uncover needs of the family of students. We determined who was most in need of the platform and recruited from that underserved group. We co-created a digital experience with them to define a desired north star prototype.
Hi, I'm Jordan.
I am the founder and principal architect behind Hostile Sheep. I started this practice to build an environment that fosters the best possible work for the people who need it most.
I was tired of seeing systems treat users like sheep. When we work together, you get me in the trenches. Supported by a bespoke team of apprentices and experts, I personally untangle your complex digital messes to pave an easier path forward for your users.
Connect your mission to the hands that need it the most.
You're tackling complex, real-world challenges in health, education, climate and equity. But the people you are trying to help are often already overwhelmed. When your digital tools are exhausting to navigate, you accidentally exclude the exact communities you exist to serve.
WHAT WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY...
chal·leng·er
An ambitious organization determined to disrupt the status quo. Rather than trying to outspend established legacy giants, a challenger "out-cares" them. They might not currently have the best experience on the market, but they absolutely believe they can get there. Their defining trait is wanting the most human-centred digital experience on the market.
Endorsements
We brought Hostile Sheep in to help us move a stalled project forward. Another shop failed to deliver what we needed and it became clear that it wasn't going to happen. Jordan and his team came in, asked the right questions, and put the project back on the rails in two weeks.
Hostile Sheep is our goto user research partner. Every study we've commissioned with Hostile Sheep has returned actionable results we were able to implement immediately - as well as recommendations we're planning on implementing in future releases.
I am confident that what Hostile Sheep provided us with is what we needed to evolve the site into a stronger digital communications tool. I always learn something new which is something that I love!
Humans aren't cursors.
Most digital products are built to harvest clicks, even at the expense of our mental energy. This is what we call cognitive debt, an invisible tax on our brain that exhausts users and stalls progress. Hostile Sheep eliminates this friction to help people reclaim their agency. We align your technology with human intuition so your mission can finally scale.
WHAT WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY...
u·ser a·gen·cy
The capacity for a person to act independently and make informed choices within a digital environment. It's the safety that comes from mastering a tool instead of feeling manipulated by it. When people know they are in complete control, they stop fearing hidden traps, accidental clicks, or confusing dead ends.
Design for the brain, not the metric.
When you prioritize click-through rates over comprehension, you build traps instead of tools. We look past the analytics dashboard and focus on the psychological reality of your audience. By aligning your digital systems with how the brain actually processes information, we create experiences that feel less like software and more like second nature.
WHAT WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY...
hu·man-cen·tered
More than co-creation or putting people first, it is prioritizing a person's psychological well-being, limited time, and natural intuition to drive sustained growth. Organizations designing for human needs don't sacrifice business metrics. Instead, they secure them for the long term by earning unshakable loyalty and trust.
Trusted by
