My Background

I’ve lived many lives before I became a UX designer. I earned a bachelor of arts in English and Sociology from Grand Valley State University. I then moved to South Korea where I spent two years teaching English. I taught in China for another year, worked as field hand in Japan for a summer, then enrolled at the University of Michigan to begin my career in UX. 

Like every UX professional, I’m always asked, “how did you get into UX?” Well, I blame the Chinese government.

It was 2008, and I was living in Qingdao, China. It was a big year for the country - there was the Beijing Olympics, the Sichuan earthquake, and the Tibetan riots. The Chinese government is infamous for Internet censorship. They censored most news article covering those events, and I saw the effects firsthand. It drove me to study informatics, accessibility, and later interface design. My passion for UX was kindled.

My UX Bio

In 2010, I enrolled at the University of Michigan’s School of Information to study Human-Computer Interaction and Community Informatics. My favorite courses were pervasive interaction design, educational software design, and research methods, which jived nicely with my social science background. In 2013, I interned at Cengage Learning where I put my studies to work.

I graduated in 2012 and took a job at TIAG / T2 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, WA. There I led the design of websites and mobile apps to help soldiers and veterans combat mental illness. 

In 2013, I started at ACS Technologies in Seattle as a UX / UI designer. I led the desktop and mobile design for The City, a private social network for churches.

And now I’m back in Michigan looking for my next step.