I am a multidisciplinary designer with over 14 years of experience designing and building digital products in the education and government sectors.
Early beginnings
As a child, I loved my grandfather's creativity, turning each alphabet letter into a fun animal shape which influenced my major art project in my final year of school.
Read more about my journey into digital nerddomMy love for computers began with video games, though they used to crash and freeze back then – not so fun! But hey, fixing them was strangely satisfying.
This combination of joy and pain taught me to persevere, a desire to understand systems, interfaces and eventually push me into coding and design.
After finishing an Advanced Diploma of Graphic Design in Visual Communications in the early 2000s, I set out on a journey working as a designer in print both in Sydney and abroad, which gave me a solid foundation of universal design principles, which has given me the ability to spot misaligned objects from a mile away to this day :)
In 2009, with guidance from a developer friend, we co-founded FindaTeammate, a website linking local basketball players. The countless design iterations!! While I relied on my instincts and best practices, it provided a valuable lesson in understanding how websites are built, how they break, and the intricacies of SEO.
It was a steep learning curve, but it ultimately paved the way for my journey into digital design, coding, and understanding user needs and their frustrations.
I currently work as a Senior UX/UI designer for the NSW Design System.
Outside of UX and design, you'll find me in nature, in the garden, cycling or on the kayak around the Central Coast, and exploring the world with my wife and two amazing children.
My approach
A continuous cycle of learning, testing and iterating.
🔍 Discovery and strategy
Who are the users and their needs, pain points? What are the goals/outcomes of the business and why is it on our desk to begin with? What technical limitations should we be aware of? What activities will the strategy include to test our assumptions? What else is there to learn to better define the problem and how success be measured moving forward?
💡 Ideate and design
Reflect and apply what we have learned through user stories, and design mockups.
🧪 Test and build
Prototype to test our assumptions and validate/invalidate our user needs. Iterate on the design based on feedback to refine the product. Leverage metrics to measure the success of our build.
🤝 Leadership and mentorship
I’m passionate about using the knowledge I have learned to lead and support others in growing their talents.