My first example of user experience comes from my dad. He loves having
people over for dinner, and every time, before they arrived, we did the
Front-Door Check. We would walk in through our own front
door as if we were the guests, to see how they were going to
experience the party from the very first impression. Was it inviting?
How was the lighting? What did you smell first? Did anything need
changing? We made the final adjustments, and voilà — we were ready.
I've always appreciated that viewpoint: putting myself in their shoes.
I think it's what makes me good at designing the experience of the user.
My bachelor's in public health gave me a holistic,
system-level perspective and a real value on prevention, consistency and
risk reduction. Through it I worked with the Alzheimer's Foundation and
with residents at continued-care retirement communities. Then I decided
to practise public health one person at a time, as a personal trainer and
fitness coach, for ten years.
The pandemic catalysed a shift. I had loved helping people get healthy,
but the growth was limited to more of the same. I wanted
ownership over my work, more room for creative
problem-solving, and a team — most of what I'd done before had been
self-started, and I believe one goes further as a team.
Alongside the fitness career, I'm creative. I trained and coached aerial
arts and built acts and choreographies for myself and for clients. (I find
a great deal in common between design thinking and building a
choreography.) I even produced a fundraising aerial show and raised
$3,000 for charity.
I've worn a lot of hats, all of them about communication, ideation,
relationship-building and getting things done. Web design lets me use
creative problem-solving at a system level — and if it means more time
cosied up at my computer with my cat at my feet, I can't complain.
My two years at Ticket Attendant gave me software from start to finish:
research, design, testing, feedback, iteration and roll-out.
I'll bring that, and everything before it, to whatever comes next.
