“Good job, but can you design an interface that feels a little more serious?” Throughout my career, I’ve primarily worked in industries where flashy, trendy web design is considered inappropriate—healthcare, higher education, information technology, and environmental health research. These are disciplines that deal with critical, often life-changing information. A website designed for a cancer research…
For much of my career in UX, landing a role at a big-name social media company has been seen as the ultimate achievement—the mountaintop of success. Among peers, it’s often viewed as proof that you’ve “made it,” that you’re among the best in the field. Despite their prestige amongst my peers, I’ve never wanted to…
These reflections are meant to inspire discussion and continuous growth — not prescribe perfection. I’ve worked across teams with varying UX maturity and always aim to adapt strategy to context. Confession: I’ve probably spent more time thinking about stages of UX maturity in my career than any other concept. You may be familiar with the…
More than nine months out from my latest post, I have a confession to make: The heaviness of last year’s events have kept me from being able to dedicate any mental energy to updating this blog. I realize that there isn’t a teacher or boss sternly tapping their foot at me for neglecting to post…
Hello there! Welcome to this “I’m so proud of myself” blog post. I have big news! Drum roll please. . . As of December 2019, I am officially done with my Digital Media Master’s program at Northeastern University! Over the course of 32 months, I completed 13 courses and one semester-long thesis project, all while…
Digital Accessibility: This site was included in a response to a civil rights lawsuit filed against Northeastern (as well as 49 other higher education institutions) on the grounds that many of the web properties for the university were not meeting digital accessibility standards. One of the main hopes in building this site was that it…
For those that are interested in UX/UI, I recently stumbled upon an incredible TED Talk by Aza Raskin, the head of user experience at Mozilla Labs and lead designer for Firefox, called “Don’t Make Me Click.” Before I delve into a discussion about it, let me get this straight: I wouldn’t normally write a full blog…
