I began my career in technology at Nokia from 2003 to 2006 where I was an Interaction Designer and User Researcher, working on early Mobile Phone digital and physical interfaces. I created designs for voice, data, multimedia, location services, and accessories during this time. I also ran qualitative and quantitative lab-based Usability Studies on hardware and software. During this time, I was the first Designer at Nokia to simultaneously hold the job title of Development Team Lead. Under my lead, code quality, ease of use, and team throughput improved.

Between 2006 and 2009 I worked at Mitchell International as their founding User Researcher. During my time there, I worked to understand the needs of people working in the Insurance and Auto Collision organizations to help reinvent flagship products. I used an adaptation of the User and Task Analysis methods from JoAnn Hackos & Janice Redish for on-site observations and interviews, and for making the transition from synthesis to design.

In 2009, I returned to Nokia where I was first part of a UX Competitive Intelligence program where I worked with a globally distributed team of expert UI Designers, Industrial Designers, Interaction Designers, and User Researchers to develop and document the state-of-the-market best in mobile UX. We used this to evaluate physical and digital experiences at different points during a development lifecycle to influence design direction and product strategy.

Between 2012 and 2015 I worked in a Think Tank at Nokia called Advanced Design as a Principal UX Designer. Over two years, we envisioned and created an innovative product family under the banner of Adventure Lab. We created two hardware devices, a range of accessories, an iOS app platform, and a web platform, as well as a full set of brand experience assets, from packaging to visual identity. One of my Design Fiction briefs during this time was to figure out where emerging flexible displays and materials would be useful and desirable. Rather than just adding a technology-driven tweak to existing products, we designed and prototyped a new totally new innovative product capable of spanning multiple generations, with technology evolution enhancing the core experience.

Around 2015 my daughter became gravely ill, and I was able to work locally at Accela, Inc. as a Principal UX Designer & Principal User Researcher until the start of the pandemic in May of 2020. Since this time I have been primarily working as a User Researcher remotely at companies like Starbucks, Tonal, and LifeData.

I hold a Masters in Educational Technology from San Diego State University, where I focused on advancing Research Methodologies. My Masters Thesis in Distance Learning was complex and complete enough to be called a Ph.D. Thesis during my defense. The goal of my Thesis was to collect a rich picture of learners’ change in knowledge as they interacted verbally with an instructor in a distance learning environment so the change could be modeled. Then I could see how the rate and amount of communication changed as learner knowledge changed so that changes in instructional approaches could be predicted.

I am an internationally ranked Masters sprinter, competing in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and long jump. In 2022, I was ranked third in the state of California, and twentieth in the USA for my age group in the 200 meters. I will be competing at the National championships in July 2024, and maybe World Championships in Sweden the same month.