My Process
It isn’t just about what we do, but also how we do it.
To meet the unique needs of each project, my design approach is a balance between an organic creative flow and a disciplined process.
The steps below broadly outline how I apply design principles, tools, techniques, and skills to create human-centered designs. If you would like to learn more about my process, reach out to me and we can schedule a chat!
🙂 Understanding the User
My design process begins, ends, and is centralized around empathy for the user. To develop an understanding of the user’s needs I conduct user interviews, build empathy maps, construct personas, flesh out user stories, spot and resolve edge cases, as well as apply other UX Research methodologies as needed. This step ensures my design decisions are informed by research and data.
🎨 Design Principles
With a combined degree in Psychology and Cultural Studies, I understand what makes certain designs particularly appealing, and user-friendly for our minds, and our culture. I marry my understanding of universal design principles with my hands-on graphic design skills to create designs that minimize the user’s cognitive load. I weave my knowledge of symbolism through my designs to add layers of meaning and intricacy while maintaining the simplicity of the designs.
⚒️ Tools
I’ve been working with Adobe Creative Suite’s industry leading tools for more than a decade for a swath of projects including film and video production, creating prints, designing logos, and more.
With mastery of this essential toolkit, I can pivot to various applications of these tools as per project and team needs.
Building on this experience, Figma has been a personal favourite addition to my toolkit. It enables me to create even more powerful user-centred designs while collaborating with other team members on the go.
🗺 Prototyping
While the research and user empathy form the groundwork of my process, I rapidly implement design principles and insights from the user research in the form of wireframes to design high fidelity prototypes for web and app development. I quickly circle through prototypes, testing them, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, to refine and validate the design.
🧭 Exploration
My approach to design is like play in that there is a suspension of whether something is right or wrong, possible or impossible. Leaving room for imagination, innovative and creative solutions to arise. With genuine passion and dedication, I am committed to exploring iterations, possibilities, and ideas, backed by the verification of usability testing, until users experience not only satisfaction but the seamless joy of good design.
🤓 Resourcefulness
My capabilities, skills, and knowledge are all fueled by my motive to perpetually learn and grow. When I have a clear vision of what needs to happen, I figure out the how. I take the initiative to kick off a project and have the dedication to see it to a successful completion, finding solutions to any challenges along the way. I bridge together my multidisciplinary skills such as empathy for the user, visual design, problem solving, collaboration, UX Design, and communication to design impactful, relevant, cost-effective, and functional solutions.
