Throughout my career, I have established a set of design principles that have allowed the projects I work on to be completed successfully, meet a client’s business goals, and allow for sustainable scaling and ethical practice.

Human-Centered Design

I believe that great design is grounded to a core underlying concept that has its roots in business or customer insights, which in turn allows anything built from that concept to be crafted with meaning and integrity. This all-encompassing approach to idea and execution should always work alongside the needs and experience of its audience.

Good design- design that is striking, persuasive, pleasurable, transformative, and responsible- always requires a human touch. It ensures that designs can be seen and experienced by larger audiences and translate into healthier business outcomes. These are designs that always put people first.

Accessibility

The tasks designers get asked to solve have become increasingly complex, which has lead me to learning more about accessibility standards for the web. Practices like contrast checks, navigability, text readability, alt text for images, and inclusionary language are all small steps to ensure my designs can be experienced by the most people possible. The internet is the greatest information resource in human history and I believe that anything designed for it should be easily usable by anyone.

Sustainability

It is increasingly important to be mindful of the impact web technology has upon the environment. My approaches range from designing around dark modes and high contrast colors to using featherweight animation code- all simple solutions that can reduce the amount of energy screens use. These minimal energy practices also translate to not tracking cookies to ensure data privacy- another green point that puts people first.

Responsible AI

The use of AI in design is still being debated since these Large Language Models all operate on stolen data, producing results that are extremely biased and inaccurate. I have an evolving list of things I keep in mind as I’ve begun integrating these tools into my design process in an ethical fashion:

• I selectively use AI plugins to automate repetitive tasks (duplicating complex flows for context adjustments, reorganizing components, labeling for dev handoff, etc) across a project’s lifecycle.
• If part of a flow/wireframe is stumping me, a prompt can provide a helpful jumping off point- there’s no shame in using that as a first step to then bespoke a creative solution for a problem.
• AI isn’t usually needed in the design process, especially since using these LLMs more is undermining our intellectual development and creative curiosity.
• AI engines are more environmentally destructive than fossil fuels, and we need to be as discerning as we can regarding their use.
• AI is (for the most part) lazy- and you’re not hiring me to be lazy.

If any of these principles vibe with you, then give me a buzz- I bet you’re cool and I’d love to work with you.