UX… what?
“I design websites.” That’s usually the short answer for civilians.
With a little more detail? I design web-based applications.
The longer answer? I figure out how information, interactions, and visual design need to work together so people can understand where they are, find what they need, and know what to do next.
Sometimes that means untangling a complicated platform. Sometimes it means shaping a product before there’s a screen to design. It starts with understanding what people are trying to do—and what’s getting in their way.
What does that involve?
Design, research, and strategy—three connected ways I turn complex requirements into experiences people can use.
Make complexity usable.
A platform can have all the right features and still leave people wondering what to do. I work on the connections: between information, actions, screens, and the people using them.
- Interaction design: What happens when someone takes an action? I shape flows, navigation, and feedback so the next step makes sense.
- Information architecture: When content and functionality get tangled, I organize them into structures people can navigate and understand.
- Visual design: Typography, color, spacing, and hierarchy help people recognize what matters and make the experience feel coherent with the brand.
- Information design: I turn dense content into something people can scan, interpret, and act on.
- Service design: I look beyond an individual screen to understand how a digital interaction connects with the wider experience.
The question behind it: Can someone understand this without needing us beside them to explain it?
Look beyond our assumptions.
Knowing a product well can make it surprisingly hard to see where someone else will get stuck. I look for the gap between what a team expects and what people actually understand or do.
- Industry & competitive research: Explore the sector, compare products and approaches, and identify patterns, expectations, and opportunities.
- User understanding: I clarify user needs and workflows through stakeholder conversations, available information, and feedback, using these insights to guide design decisions. This can include focused surveys for early testing and feedback.
- Usability testing & evaluation: Observe how people complete tasks in a product or prototype, and use walkthroughs and feedback to identify friction and guide improvements.
- Accessibility & human factors: Consider different abilities and ways of interacting, mental effort, clear feedback, and error prevention throughout design.
The depth of research depends on the project and the access available. When something is an assumption, it needs to remain a question to investigate.
The question behind it: Does this make sense to the people who need to use it?
Give the work direction.
There is usually more than one possible solution. The challenge is deciding which problem deserves attention, what matters most, and what can realistically move forward.
- UX strategy: Connect user needs with business priorities and technical constraints to give design decisions a clear direction.
- Content strategy: Decide what information people need, when they need it, and how to keep language and structure consistent.
- Customer experience: Look across the journey to understand where expectations and actual experiences fall apart.
- Collaboration: Bring stakeholder perspectives, product requirements, and development considerations into the same conversation.
- Prioritization & experience quality: I balance the scope of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) with an MVE (Minimum Viable Experience), defining a UX threshold: the minimum experience quality a release needs to meet. I work through what people must be able to understand and accomplish from the start, what can wait, and what we need to learn through iteration. That threshold gives the team concrete criteria to evaluate as the product evolves.
The question behind it: Are we making the right thing clearer, or just making more things?
