Q&A
Where did you go to school?
I graduated from the University of California, San Diego with degrees in Visual Arts and Communications. Within UCSD I attended Revelle College, known for its rigorous curriculum rooted in Math and Sciences, but balanced with courses in Humanities, Language and Fine Arts.
How’d you get started in the design industry?
I made the leap from set design in the film industry in LA, to the tech/start-up scene in SF back in 2004. The “design” industry was still in its infancy, and the sphere of today’s traditional roles of Product, UX, UI Designer and Researcher were not yet defined. So a “designer” at the time, typically wore a number of different hats. This trial by fire approach really helped shape me into a versatile designer today, comfortable, versed and considerate of all aspects of the production process.
What’s the most challenging thing about designing?
Unpopular answer here but I’d have to say being innovative or finding a company willing to invest in innovation. Let me explain. Innovation is a term used somewhat liberally to describe the aspirational goals of a company and product teams. But in my experience, the majority of businesses just don’t have the time to properly invest in the process; ideation, research and interviewing, experimentation, failure, revising and reflecting. Pair this with prioritization roadmaps, new features for go-to-market push, revenue targets and point-driven sprints and wham, you’re left with a conflict of interests. What I’ve found works best is to focus on ensuring the primary actions and fundamental processes are functionally and elegantly sound. Couple that with foundational principles like responsive grid alignment, vertical and horizontal rhythm, and hierarchy of content layout and you should have a solid foundation to work from. What this does is buy the organization time. Time to then innovate, experiment, test and be creative. To me, it’s a more calculated approach to innovation in light of how many companies operate.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
Architecture; the flow, usage and underlying structure of any building, house, restaurant, museum, etc. We’re lucky that software is malleable. But many product decisions can feel as permanent as pouring concrete (think of all the products stuck on legacy code). What a foundation is to a building, a design system is to a product. Developing a proper grid, a library of modular components and a network of templates organized for action and purpose, all act as the foundation to meet immediate needs now, but also provide the footing for growth and unanticipated events down the road. I believe a good foundation inspired by architecture, can do both.
What design project are you most proud of?
Being a Designer has opened doors to industries and organizations I never imagined setting foot in. From some of the oldest utilities companies on the east coast, to the largest e-commerce beauty brand in the US, to a beloved, neighborhood grocery store from Pasadena. But a project for one of the big three telcos resulted in a team of three amassing a 90+ page, fully annotated specifications document with a level of breadth and detail unmatched in my time as a designer. The document provided product managers, developers and leadership with every combination of interaction for a pricing platform that consolidated a paper and spreadsheet-based process into a single lens tool. This allowed the telco to generate pricing quotes for enterprise scale in hours versus days, and gave pricers the power to make immediate, real-time adjustments during negotiations with clients.
