What I Do
UX Design
I create a wide variety of UX deliverables for mobile and desktop platforms, including user journeys, storyboards, wirefames, and visual designs.
UX Research
I'm skilled in generative & evaluative research methods for discovering user needs, understanding user behavior, and communicating insights to teams.
Web & UI Design
I create clean, beautiful visual designs for websites, mobile, and web applications. From responsive designs to highly complex interactions.
Recent Focus
Design Systems
I went deep into design systems, spending 3+ years building and evolving a highly detailed and intuitive design system for building great products.
UX Research
I spent 4 years conducting UX research within healthcare, recently serving in a contract research role within the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Prototyping
I made extensive use of interactive prototypes for modeling user tasks & interactions, and for user research & testing.
Case Studies
I was the product design lead for Delivery Manager, a mobile web application for medication and pharmacy materials transport. I conducted user research, and was responsible for UI/UX design, prototyping, and user testing.
I conducted user research and delivered UI/UX designs for BoxPicker Manager, an application for pharmacy warehouse automation solutions. Based on my research, I created new designs for Dashboards and order management workflows.
Background
DeliveryManager was a well-liked desktop application but the user interface was outdated, and it was being challenged by competitors. I worked closely with the product owner and users to understand their needs and make the product better.
The Situation
The pharmacy technicians who used Delivery Manager were frustrated with their lack of mobility while working with deliveries. The system didn't allow certain functions in the workflow without being at a computer workstation. Users had been asking for a mobile solution for a long time.
Tasks & Actions
Working with the product team, I created a plan for developing a mobile solution. This included user research to establish baseline metrics, including a survey and interviews to dig deeper into user needs, sketches and wireframes to establish the initial concept, and prototyping and usability testing to validate the design solution.
Surveys, Interviews & Observation
I designed a survey to get a baseline for user satisfaction and other qualitative measurements, and followed up with interviews to dig deeper into user needs and goals. As the final piece of the research stage, I arranged to observe some users remotely as they went about their daily work. These observation sessions made clear the obstacles users were facing, and strongly underscored the need for increased mobility.
Sketches & Wireframes
Based on my research, I started with sketches and wireframes to establish the initial concept for the mobile version of Delivery Manager. I shared early concepts with the product team, and with users, to get their feedback. These early iterations were positively received and set the stage for prototyping and testing.
Prototyping
Once the mobile design concept was vetted with the product team, I was able to move on to high fidelity design and prototyping. Again, I shared prototypes often in order to get feedback and clearly define all of the user interactions. I used Figma to create new mobile variations of lots of components, and to create interactive models of the Delivery Manager workflows.
Usability Testing
Having created a solid foundation for the mobile workflow, interface components, and user interactions, I was ready to let people try using the fleshed out prototype. I designed usability tests to evaluate different parts of the product, and recruited some new users to see what we could learn. I advocated for adopting UserTesting.com as our research platform, which helped streamline all aspects of our research, from session moderation to data collection and analysis.
Final Designs
After several iterations of prototyping and testing, I implemented a final round of design updates and presented them to the larger organization. Our vision for the new mobile version of the product, based on thorough research and testing, was made available in a prototype form that anyone could use. The excitement among our users and the product team was contagious. Engineering couldn't wait to get started on building it.
The Results
The new mobile version of Delivery Manager was piloted with the customer who had been our research partner. Users loved it, and the customer was very happy. We knew already from usability testing that all of our metrics saw big improvements, and those trends continued with the pilot. After the initial pilot, Swisslog began to roll out the new product to other select customers, and it was a major success.
Background
While BoxPicker was a very successful product, the user interface was outdated and also lacking in certain areas. I worked closely with the principal designer, product owner, and users to design a robust dashboard and elegant multi-faceted filtering for BoxPicker orders.
Situation
Although users really liked BoxPicker overall, and found it generally intuitive and useful, the BoxPicker Manager application had become outdated. Users were finding certain features lacking or convoluted, and there were several competitors making more modern applications and slowly stealing market share.
Tasks & Actions
We had identified several opportunities for feature improvements, but decided to do further research before getting too far into the design process. I helped to structure the research and chose several methods, such as a survey, interviews, observations, and usability testing. I wanted to deeply understand our users and their workflows, and then move through iterative low and high fidelity designs.
Surveys, Interviews & Observation
An initial survey of user satisfaction and usability ratings, and subsequent interviews and observations, confirmed a lot of our thinking about what users wanted and where they struggled. We also learned a lot of things we hadn't known yet, particularly in the user observations sessions. For example, the noise level and number of distractions within the pharmacy environment were more of a factor than previously thought.
Sketches & Wireframes
I started with lo fidelity designs to create the early concepts for Dashboard, New Orders, and other core features. After some iterations of sketching and feedback, I moved on to interactive prototypes to model the workflows and user interactions.
Prototyping & Usability Testing
Making prototypes in Figma, and sharing them with users, allowed me to get very valuable feedback early in the design process. I went through several rounds of building and testing informally, and then made formal plans and recruited users for usability studies. Although these were small studies, targeting certain features and steps in the workflow, they provided invaluable data leading to many improvements in the user experience design.
Final Designs
Users in our study groups, and the product team, were very excited about the updated designs for Dashboard and New Orders. I spent some time polishing the visual design, and documenting our research, before presenting the final designs to the larger organization. It was met with lots of positive feedback and enthusiasm about the value it would bring to the business and to our customers.
The Results
Our customers had been asking for updates to BoxPicker manager for a long time. Competitors were encroaching on our market share. However, the new Dashboard feature and updated ordering workflow created a lot of buzz within the company and with our customers. We used fresh primary research to support our past knowledge and research, and went through a robust iterative design process to design and build the things that users really wanted. My team was lauded and was able to build strong support for UX research and design at Swisslog.
About Me
Background
I started my career doing front-end web development, learning usability principles and design skills as I went.
Experience
I have nearly two decades of combined experience in Web/UI and UX Design. I've served in several lead design roles.
What's Next?
I'm currently searching for my next big career challenge! Healthcare, startup, big tech? Get in touch if you're hiring!