Design Philosophy

Most people believe that design is something that is used to "enhance" a product; to make it better looking or more pleasing to the eye.

To me, design is a problem solving methodology with a focus on the impact to humans.

UX Design Work

I'm a User Experience (UX) Designer at REDCOM Laboratories, Inc. working with various teams including: Software Engineering, Product Managers, Customer Service, Technical Publications and Marketing.

My main duties involve the Sigma® voice call controller, the Secure Conference Manager, and the REDCOM® Secure Client for Windows, Android and iOS platforms.

As a UX designer, I collaborate with the various teams on the product information architecture, workflow development, Visual & UI design, design system development, and user research and conduct user testing.

Design Process Tools

To assist the various teams, I produce wireframes in Balsamiq, prototypes in Framer, Axure, and Figma, demonstrate micro-interactions and animations in Principle, create icon webfonts in Glyphs, lead product user discovery exercises with affinity diagrams. Of course, I also use the entire Adobe Creative Cloud suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, After Effects, Audition) for many day-to-day tasks as necessary.

For user research, I use a combination of direct and open ended interviews,  contextual inquiry and user surveys. With this information compiled, I create affinity diagrams to organize the information to reveal a deeper understanding of user needs.

Branding and Style Guide development has also been a large component of my work at REDCOM. Working closely with the Software Engineering teams to develop Digital Style Guidelines. Since I am the only designer in the company, the guidelines have been written to provide clear, but generalized guidance for design patterns as well as a clear hierarchy for development. This has helped the development teams to discuss and solve their own problems without need for direct input.

In 2018, I worked with the Marketing teams to refresh the company brand identity including specific elements like color palettes and typography choices for both digital and print.

MFA & Design Education

MFA in Visual Communication Design

In 2018, I received a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Communicaiton Design from the School of Design at Rochester Institute of Technology. My emphasis of study was in Interaction Design. 

My MFA thesis project, Paleo Journey, explored the process for creating an immersive interactive environment for children aged 5-7 to learn about the Upper Paleolithic Cave Art of Southern Europe. This research led to some important insights in children during these important developmental years. about the relationship between cognitive development  and how children 

You can read more about the design process and final artifacts on my desicated thesis page here.

Design Instruction & Mentoring

Beginning in 2018, I have been regularly teaching undergraduate design classes as an Adjunct Faculty member to the Graphic Design BFA program at Rochester Institute of Technology. 

The courses have been in Motion and Interaction Design covered a variety of topics including:

Interaction Design
User Experience (UX) Design
User Interface (UI) Design
Visual Design for Software and Web
Prototyping in Figma, Axure and Framer
Wireframing
Information Architecture
Critical Thinking Skills for Design
Creating Design Guidelines
HTML / CSS Basics 
Motion Design
Storyboarding
Typography
Information Design
Design as Storytelling

I enjoy the challenges of working with college students as their design skills bloom and they learn about themselves in the process.

You can read more about my teaching philosophy and see some examples of student work here.