Real quick, a bit about me
Born when I was young, raised in the Bay Area, got a degree from UCLA in Design | Media Arts and fell in love with UX Design. LA didn’t suit me at the time, so I moved back to SF for a forever to dig into my life and my career. Now I’m back in Los Angeles and it’s...fine. I’m mainly avoiding the sun, but genuinely trying to take advantage of the diversity, art and snacks the city has to offer. I play video games, I shoot film photography, I visit ghost towns and I read a lot. I’m terrible at frisbee, but excellent at Ms. Pac Man. I’m intensely curious and in love with everything. It’s kind of exhausting.
If you’re curious about ghost towns or Ms. Pac Man techniques, or if you just want to know more about my work (more likely), say hi.
Experience
If I could affinity map all day long, I would. It’s one of my favorite things (like, in life, not just design, if I could affinity map which sandwich I should get, I’d do that too). I love how, from a pile of notes, inputs, concepts, whatever...things that seem to have no relationship, overlaps being to emerge. Those initial overlaps can then be sub-divided or smaller sets regrouped, and out of it all common themes begin to emerge. And with that, the design process can proceed. It rules.
Affinity Mapping for Liiiiiiiiiiiife
There have been so many times where I’ve started a sentence or a sketch or an idea and knew immediately it was trash. But I let the thought play-out. Even the bad ideas have to be explored as they show the edges of where things should, or could, go. They are topic-starters and a place where another idea can come from. So I keep them out, in pile in the corner. They also made solid team room decor (back when we had team rooms).
Bad Ideas are Good
As I began to work on, research, and use VR I was excited by everything about it. It’s a new wild west where new patterns and experiences are being defined. Which is neat. That being said, it makes me question everything about reality and consciousness and existence (and while I’m already freaking out, what the hell is going on at the quantum level? It’s insanity down there). All that being said, it’s an incredible space to craft new experiences in and, overall, I’m here for it.
VR is…Unsettling
This is what you get when you search “Post Its” on my Google Photos. What did I ever do without them? Shh. I don’t even want to think about it.
Weapon of Choice: Post Its
Taking a quick pause from the general levity of this section to call out something that is about as serious for me as it gets: accessible design. The flattening of digital experiences to be usable across all people of varying abilities is an area I am deeply passionate about. I’m still learning, and by no means claim I am an expert, but I have taken every opportunity available to me to learn more about accessible design. This has included working on accessible design systems, conducting AA compliance audits, and updating established content to be more inclusive. I’m currently enrolled in Deque’s Web Accessibility Training Course, and hope to be IAAP certified soon.
Accessibility
IA maps, despite their importance, drive me crazy. It feels like the 2-D diagram never quite works. But I do it because it’s, you know, my job.
Architecture is Hard
I don’t know what this is from, but I like the fact that Hunter Thompson is in it so that’s why it’s here.
Gonzo
Whenever I am mulling something over or need a break from staring at my computer screen, I doodle this little cat. My coworkers at Faire noticed this and made a bunch of swag for the design team. Honestly, I think my career peaked with this.
That Cat I draw
At some point I realized that my tendency to throw my hair up into a bun became a defining feature I have. The other is that I almost exclusively wear black. So if you’re going to wear a Chelsea costume, you wear black and put your hair in a bun, as evidenced by my coworker’s at my remote going away party. (I also tend to have some cat in space with a synthesizer as my meeting background.)
My Bun. My black.
If there is one thing I am committed to, it is that everything I work on and everything I do HAS to have some element of fun in it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a serious designer who takes serious things, uh, seriously. All I’m saying is that I’ll probably be giggling while I do it. But if I’m being honest, I really just added this so I could look back at old photos and see all the fun I’ve had doing this job.