

Polonnoruwa, Sri Lanka, 2016

A bit about me
I wasn't always in UX, but kinda always was, too?
My philosophy is that User Experience is in everything we do and how we live our lives. We engage in UX Design when we arrange and decorate our living spaces, choose where, when, and how we shop and what we buy, and plan which aisle to tackle first. We practice competitive analysis when we look for a place to live, plan a vacation, or decide what insurance to buy. We notice areas of opportunity to improve our commutes, create a workaround for a product that isn't working well for us (or reject it outright), and what we would do to improve our day-to-day experiences if we could. So, because it's in our every day, you could say I've always been into User Experience design, noticing the things that could be just a little bit - or a lot - better and fixing the things I can fix.
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In my previous life as a Production Services Manager for digital media company Corbis Corp, I was always looking at ways to improve efficiencies for my team and for the clients we served. I created product workflows and developed an intranet site to provide transparency into sales and research requests and improve the delivery process. I may not have even heard of the term UX Design, but I was practicing an "unofficial" version of it by building, testing, iterating, and eventually launching systems for new and existing projects, and problem-solving using data-driven insights from how the team accomplished their tasks to how we were engaging with sales and research teams, photographers, and meeting our SLAs.
I believe in being a lifelong learner and keeping an open mind to new technologies and methodologies. When I'm not obsessing over how to be better than I was yesterday as a designer and person, I'm spending time with friends, drawing, bonding with my newly adopted cat Bo, reading about inspirational people, and watching old shows and movies on TV. Although the pandemic put a crimp in it, I love to travel and have been to Japan, England, Canada, Aruba, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, and Italy. Some of my fondest memories are co-planning, co-piloting, and co-navigating a cross-country drive from New Jersey to San Francisco with my friend in her Subaru Impreza and snorkeling in the shallows of Hanuama Bay in Hawaii. The Oregon coast and Tulum, Mexico are definitely two places on my bucket list!
TL;DR Random fun facts:
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Has double-jointed thumbs. Great for freaking people out.
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Adopted a pet lizard that hatched out of a houseplant in 2012.
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Adopted a cat in 2023 who is now my boss, I think.
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Has traveled to England, Japan, Italy, Costa Rica, and Sri Lanka.
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Co-piloted and co-navigated a cross-country journey from New Jersey to San Francisco in a Subaru Impreza.
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Worked on three "Max and His Alphabet Adventures" shorts for Nickelodeon as a digital ink and paint artist: S, T, and M.
"Max and His Alphabet Adventures: S"