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About Me

My passion in designing products and visuals has always been about getting a message across in an efficient and pleasing way. It is very important to me to do this for individuals or companies that want to make a difference in people's lives.
Working on a cross-functional team is my ideal.

My Philosophy

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“Lack of communication is the root of all evil”

 

I want to enable people to be more efficient and happier in their daily interactions with technology.

 

I want to do something that matters—change the world, even if it’s just a little…

 

  • Well-thought-out design requires wearing many “hats”.

  • Form needs to follow the End Users’ function – beautifully.

  • Teams collaborating well generate the best products.

  • Present clear, clean, concepts.

  • Being a mentee is just as important as being a mentor.

  • Always consider Accessibility and Localization.

  • Consistency is critical to instilling trust in a brand or product.

  • Whimsy, when appropriate, enriches a product.

My Background

 

My roots are in print, so problem-solving and user-centered design were already part of my toolkit. I was hooked on usability when I won an STC award for a greatly simplified, localized, hardware setup card I designed for Sun Microsystems. Since then I have acquired a rich range of experience doing interaction/visual design for website and mobile applications, for small, medium, and large companies. I’ve worked on every aspect of the development process: task analysis, running user studies, brainstorming, information architecture, wireframing, interaction / visual design, prototyping, production, and making sure to work with engineering to see the project through. This diverse set of skills allows me to wear many hats and to understand the big picture clearly. I have always enjoyed working with a diverse group of technical and non-technical personnel.

Specialties: User Studies, Analyzing the end-to-end user experience for a consistent look and feel/Branding.

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How I Work​

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Communication = Collaboration

First things first:

Determine the best way to communicate with your teammates.

What works best for each individual? Are they local or remote?

Establishing a rapport is key to a good working relationship.

Find common interests and delight in the differences!

Consensus

  • Coordinate ideas with individuals before your meeting.

  • Get people’s real feelings by speaking with them 1:1 about the topic/issue.

  • Get to know the people better (faster).

  • Identify opposition early to avoid any confrontation in the meeting.

  • When the meeting finally happens everyone knows what to expect.

  • Doing daily “stand-ups” is another way that I have seen work well.

  • Have a centralized location for a project – so all can reference materials.

Requirements

  • What is the challenge?

  • Who is the Target Audience?

  • Who is our competition?

  • What is the schedule?

  • Are there company guidelines?

  • Are there industry standards?

  • Who has final approval?

  • What does success look like?

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Process (Ideal)

RESEARCH (Before, During & After)

  • Task Analysis

  • Gather requirements

  • Competitive Analysis

  • Individual user studies

  • Alpha and Field testing

DESIGN

  • Brainstorming

  • Wireframing / Workflows

  • Mockups

  • Meetings with Development

  • Prototypes

PRODUCTION

  • Written Specifications

  • Meetings with Development

  • QA

  • User Feedback in Beta Incorporated into Production Release

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Process (Reality)

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The creative path is perhaps not straight, but it does have a purpose: the end product. It can incorporate many of the items mentioned in the list above, but the reality is that you don’t always have the luxury of time, or manpower to cover all these bases perfectly, so you might have to use your experience and seek out some “creative” ways of working. One example is below.

  • RESEARCH  When only given requirements, ask many questions of the source and do a competitive analysis to define your objectives.

  • DESIGN  A series of brainstorming/white-boarding sessions, using quick paper or interactive prototypes to validate progress.

  • PRODUCTION  A close-knit team of designers and developers co-located discuss and fill out edge cases and QA each other’s work.

 

That all said, no two projects are the same.

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