Portfolio

Hi!

If you’re looking at this page, you’re probably looking at my resume. So here’s what my resume doesn’t tell you.

I love designing processes and navigation.

An Accessibility case study process flow.

The more complex, constrained, regulation-crazy, or unmapped it is, the more fun the project. Check out the following case studies where processes and navigation were key:

(If you don’t have the password from my resume, contact me.)

I love organizing and sorting things, whether they’re content inventories, design systems, or intranets.

A Figma variant grid of 108 button variations. All disabled buttons use the same colors.

My father started me at an early age sorting screws in his basement workshop, and I’ve been organizing things ever since. Check out the following case studies about information architecture:

I love making the world more accessible.

A box for the accessibility deck, with the deck, with letter z on top

An Alphabet of Accessibility Issues was the surprise hit of my career, but everything I’ve done has been touched with the need for accessible interfaces since the beginning. Check out the following case studies:

I love when I’m allowed to ensure my designs and development are data-informed.

A fragment of a site map indicating that a user would be in the same silo of the site for steps 2-5 and the again for 17-19 but far across the map for the in between steps

My first few months in Information Architecture were spent identifying opportunities for user research and then writing many many many Cognos (database) query requests. So many, in fact, that the data team gave my team special Cognos cubes so we could run the queries ourselves. All of the case studies you find here are backed with data.

What don’t I love?

Well, I’ve had a team of UX Researchers with me for almost every position I’ve worked at for the last 20 years, so I’m not always confident that I’m creating a good research design without them. I don’t love the feeling that my data might be invalid because I designed my research incorrectly. That doesn’t mean I can’t do it! I’ve done the work. I’m more confident when I have a research team with me.

I don’t love React, or for that matter, any of the other Javascript frameworks. When I started in the design work my developers were still using Java, and I was coding any necessary Javascript with plain old vanilla Javascript. That’s still my tool of choice if I absolutely can’t avoid scripting for a solution

As for AI, well, you’re hiring me to think, not to ask the computer to think. You can ask the computer to think on your own. (Good luck with that.)

What holds me back?

  • I’m East Coast blunt, and not everyone is prepared for that.
  • I want to know how things work, and when, and understand the big picture of things, and sometimes the engineering manager just wants me to shut up and draw the pretty pictures already so they can start building.
  • I’m not ambitious. I would gladly be a senior designer for the rest of my life.
  • I get frustrated by people who care less about quality than I do.
  • I expect people to value accessibility. Most people don’t, but I expect it of them anyway.

The deep dive

Want to know more? Here’s the full list of my work.