TL;DR: I love my family. I love design and the way it helps me look at the world, and using it to make people’s lives easier, more connected and better.
Looking for some of the things I’ve worked on? head over here
Sticking around for the longer story?
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Cool, I like telling stories.
The long arc
In the fifth grade I won a grant to build my first robot.
An upside down garbage can painted silver with a custom built circuit board, controller and tethered remote control – I was hooked on tinkering.
EXCERPTS FROM THE FEB. 1987 BOYS’ LIFE MAGAZINE ARTICLE I BASED MY ROBOT ON
In high school, I traveled abroad to Russia on an aerospace exchange program.
Visiting a completely foreign culture and land really opened my eyes to different ways of thinking and that not everybody uses or experiences things the same way – a great perspective on accessible use and design.
Red Square, Moscow, 1992 just after communism fell
In undergrad, I studied Philosophy, Computer & Cognitive Sciences and AI.
Out of school I landed a position at Charles Schwab designing and developing interfaces for complex financial transactions and reporting, including a 3D interactive portfolio tool and biometric authentication interfaces. I also built a custom CMS interface for the company – I learned rigor and attention to detail early in my career.
After 6 years at Schawb I went back to school for a Masters in HCI and Internet Engineering – that was a blast. My graduate thesis was a mix of hardware/software design for a smart home device that would help you figure out what to cook based on what ingredients were available. It used an AI bot that would intelligently search the web rapidly for matching recipes, as well as scale them for dietary needs and number of people – I learned the value of hands on usability research.
Getting back to the real world, I joined a search and curation startup right out of grad school. After that, I moved on to development, design and building teams at a handful of large companies, such as the Gap and MTV. Having experienced both large and small company cultures, I learned that I crave the innovations, collaborations, and bigger impacts available in the startup world. In my portfolio, you’ll see some of the fun and impactful projects I’ve enjoyed working on.
I’ve worked for many years as a hands-on UX Director and Manager, contributing at many levels from hands-on-design, prototyping, information architecture, wireframing, interaction design, research, testing, analysis, and strategy, as well as brand and team management and leadership.
I’m highly creative with an ability to connect the dots and innovate new approaches to existing problems. I motivate and encourage the people around me to do the same.
Of note
Built 2 web + mobile usability labs from the ground up
Primary inventor on 2 interface design patents in messaging, as well as a number pending in robotics interface & interaction design, and in smart filtering for preferences across a catalog
Once built an 880 foot long runway with programmable LEDs and flame jets, among many other large scale and technically challenging, interactive art projects 😀
Lighting test for the 880 foot Raspberry Pi controlled LED and flame jet runway