UX Designer. My mantra is Listen. Get to Why. Test. Iterate. Award-winning graphic designer with a strong focus on user experience. Designing responsive web sites, iOS and Apple Watch apps, logo and icons, corporate identity, and print collateral.

BEGININGS

I have always been designing user experiences – as a classical musician (an oboist) I sought to reach my audience, digging deep into a piece of music to find the connection that brings the piece alive and gives meaning to all. Musicians, like designers, don't play in a vacuum, we ask for feedback from mentors, colleagues, and listeners to find the best user experience. If you don't connect with your audience, what happens? They're going to jump out of the funnel of coming to hear you play and not come back. The transition to design built upon those user experience skills.

MEANINGFUL DESIGN

I worked as a visual designer for many years at Nationwide Children's Hospital. The end goal was to save lives and create a better health care experience for patients and their families. From a complex form, to a hang tag on a patient's IV pole meant to prevent medication mistakes, to a cycling jersey to raise money for cancer research, the end goal was for the benefit of our patients. The user might be a parent, a nurse, or an employee interested in cycling 100 hilly miles to help raise millions to find cures for cancers. I worked for so many different "clients" in the children's hospital, including the CEO and the Foundation, but ultimately all the clients had the same goal – to make a child healthy again – and to keep them healthy. That passion for a great user experience has had a huge impact on my design thinking.

The last two years have found me wearing many hats as the lone designer at a startup including: interviewing users; researching personas and market fit; mapping sites and user journeys; wireframing web and mobile apps; testing wireframe and high-fidelity prototypes with users; designing user interfaces, logos, icon, and other graphics; developing branding identity and content voice; recording and editing voice and video; and working with developers to iterate quickly on web and mobile app designs given bootstrapped resources. I love all aspects of design. And if I don't know how to do something, I'll find out how. I love learning.

So I care. I care a lot about creating good user experiences. About communicating clearly. About creating products and user experiences that don't make your brain hurt. I've worked with people that have a hard time keeping things simple. It can be a challenge to distill thoughts down to something the user can quickly understand, but I love the challenge! Like a complex piece of music, there is always an essence that the composer is trying to communicate. I enjoy finding that essence in all things design.

RECHARGING

I love to recharge my batteries by getting outdoors to hike and camp in the mountains, explore the coastline of California, cycle, swim (yay Capitola!), travel off the beaten path, and spend time with friends and family – including a Maine Coon cat. Follow me on Instagram at @sdcreative1 to see some of my recent favorite places.