About Me

I am a (mostly) self-taught design professional who caught the experience bug reading How Users Read on the Web while managing my local ABC affiliate's website and I have never looked back.

After nearly two decades in the industry, my desire to make complex work easier for humans has only grown. This includes both the users I'm designing for and the builders I work with daily; I'm especially proud of the Community of Practice I built during my time at John Deere.

I learn by doing and most of my skills have been acquired on-the-job. After catching said bug, I attended Northern Illinois University to pursue a master's degree in Technical Writing. There I took a seminar course on Usability Testing and other classes focused on creating better experiences for everyone.

I believe* that content people should come first, user testing (and design and ideation!) should be iterative, decisions should be data-driven have confidence and risk clearly stated, and that success is measurable when you set goals and evaluate progress.

*Reflects edits made in 2021. Original statment written in 2017.

Interests & Hobbies

Coffee, biking, beer, and baking, though generally not all at the same time. During the summer of 2017, I participated in RAGBRAI XLV and spent a week biking across Iowa.

Me smiling with my cycling team during RAGBRAI 2017.

I also enjoy playing board games, especially strategy-based and/or Euro-style games with creative themes and unique play mechanics.