Building user Experiences
How do you build great experiences?
I believe that all great experiences start with research. Whatever the product is, it is vital to understand what your users truly want and need before, during, and after creation.
Using that preliminary research, I follow with sketching and ideation, prototyping, user testing, iteration, and another (potentially Final) experience. In building the initial prototypes, I try to base all my designs on clean lines, accessible navigation features (readable fonts, large buttons, clear instructions, contrasting colors, etc.), and communicating the information in an aesthetically pleasing and uniquely enjoyable ways.
User Experience is a vital part of building great products. As I continue to learn, I hope to apply my knowledge to a variety of areas, including improving accessibility in data, health, politics, education, and/or hardware.
Past Projects
Many of my courses in school have taught me the methodologies of building user experiences. My first HCDE course, User Centered Design, involved building an app to improve public transit experiences.
Since then, I’ve expanded my knowledge with courses and projects like building a more inclusive period tracking application for preteens, where we made sure to think about what kids need as they’re navigating growing up and understanding their personal health. In building this experience, we wanted to provide information in a clear way, remove unnecessary complications, and make it lightly gamified so it would be fun and less traumatic of an experience. More details can be found here.
Present Work & Future Goals
I spent two years at Microsoft in their Human Factors team. Research and Experience are interconnected here, as I work on research studies to understand and improve the experiences of users. As a researcher, we also have the opportunity to improve our experiences by experimenting with methodologies to communicate our findings effectively and streamline our processes.
I was a volunteer for Geek Girl Con 2019, and as the workshop coordinator, I organize the 22 workshops before and during the convention in November. On first glance, this may not seem like User Experience, but managing all these events involves utilizing my UX principles. In making the schedule, I communicated with all stakeholders while considering how to best arrange the schedule for attendees, such as making sure kids content was earlier, and that everything in the program was communicated well.
I continued this role remotely for Geek Girl Con 2020, which involved creating videos and making the experience still valuable even fully online.
In my free time, I’m working on a website to help people build care guides so they can improve their mental health and take better care of themselves and others. I hope to improve my skills and continue to build products that improve accessibility and enjoyment in technology.
