I am a product designer utilizing specialized research and design frameworks to guarantee customer success, business growth, and digital influence.
My talents are rooted in a deep understanding of user psychology, a keen eye for design aesthetics, and a talent for visualizing and understanding the intricacies of purpose driven design and information systems. From concept to execution, I will ensure a seamless and delightful user experience by making educated, user-centric decisions that manifest real brand success. A powerful user experience bridges the gap between real people and the products they use.
Self-imposed design principles and guidelines
Design Philosophy:
My design values are simply the principles and beliefs that structure my decision-making during a project; be that ideating, researching, designing, developing, or otherwise. These values help shape my design process and ensure that the final results of my work aligns with the initial project requirements. These foundational philosophies influence the overall mindset and output of every design professional.
My Personal Design Values:
"The Hoefle Framework"
The "Core" System:
The process of designing and developing products for end-users is tried and true. "User-Centric Design", "The Design-Thinking Framework", "The Product Development Lifecycle", whatever you may call it, these systems always embody the same 6 core steps.
Understand/Define - Research - Ideate - Design/Develop - Pre-Launch Testing - Post-Launch Testing
Where I fit into this process:
Following these core steps from ideation to delivery requires the compounded talent of numerous design specialists. Oftentimes, these same specialists have a working generalized knowledge of the other design domains as well. This type of generalist/specialist designer is referred to as a "T-shaped designer".
As a "T-shaped designer" myself, I specialize in information architecture, while also maintaining a broad technical understanding of other roles including user research, visual design, interaction design, prototyping, and usability testing. My ability to intuitively develop enjoyable and highly strategic experiences through superior information and system architecture is my specialty. Being able to fluidly transition to other role-specific perspectives only adds more value to the rest of my generalist capabilities.
Everything begins and ends with user research:
Crafting a superior user experience for any product initially requires that the design team compiles and understands all qualitative and quantitative research data about the target audience. UX is science based design. This is why it can have such a significant short and long term implication on a product or company's success. By researching, studying, and actually understanding our users, we can shine light on hidden and underlying challenges that may have been overlooked otherwise.
Foundational research entails the primary data collection and systematic investigation of the project's intended context, users, and technical requirements. This phase takes place prior to the actual design process and is crucial for ensuring that future design decisions are informed by a deep understanding of the target audience and their needs.
This is arguably the most important point in the research process. This early research has the greatest impact to the business and product long term. It is also the most intensive stage of UR as it can involve multiple methodologies within a single study all aimed at answering a broad set of research questions.
Design research focuses on gathering insights and feedback during the design process to inform and refine design decisions. It is an ongoing and iterative process that involves testing assumptions, validating ideas, and gaining a deeper understanding of users' interactions with the product. Design research helps designers refine and improve their designs based on user feedback and real-world testing.
Post-launch research involves evaluating the user experience of a product or service after it has been released to the public. This phase aims to gather insights, assess the impact of design decisions in the real world, and identify opportunities for ongoing improvement. Post-launch research helps teams understand how users are interacting with the product, address any unforeseen issues, and make informed decisions for future updates.
Ideation & Design Strategy:
At this point in the process the foundational research is complete and we know who we are designing for, what they want/need, and how they will fundamentally use our product. Now the planning, ideating, and rapid prototyping begins. This part of the process is equally important in that the quality of the product strategy will directly influence the rest of the process going forward. A well engineered strategy will facilitate the duties of researchers, designers, writers, developers, and all other specialists further down the line by addressing and eliminating questions and challenges early on.
With all bias eliminated and a bulletproof design strategy in place, the time has come to build.
Maintaining Consistency in Design:
Every project is unique in nature, each requiring its own specific design strategy. Although, more crucial than the strategy itself, is the reasoning behind why it was developed. The entire strategy is used to pursue a specific set of project goals and it is our responsibility to make sure that the work done in pursuit of these goals is focused and never diluted by the details of day-to-day operations. Keeping the project, team, and stakeholders in alignment is the "glue" holding any project together, ensuring it adheres to its requirements without negotiation.
Priority guides are a content-first variation of traditional wireframing and prototyping. This design method ensures that the work being done on both a micro and macro level, is truly guaranteeing the best end product. By communicating the hierarchy and priority of content and features within a project, this approach aids in making informed decisions about what tasks should take precedence based on user needs, project restrictions, and available resources. This design method streamlines the design process by minimizing low value tasks in favor of rapid, purpose driven tasks.
The importance of consistently performing a heuristic analysis of your work cannot be understated. Heuristic analysis is a usability evaluation method that entails evaluating UI and UX designs against a set of recognized usability principles. These heuristics serve as guidelines for identifying potential usability issues and areas for improvement.
The importance of heuristic analysis in UX design lies in its ability to provide valuable insights early in the design process, offering a cost-effective and efficient way to enhance the user experience.
Avoid binary decisions by instead integrating opposing ideas to construct new and unique solutions, models, and frameworks that will be usable, equitable, useful, and enjoyable, to all user demographics. As an experience designer, it is my job to create new solutions that cater to the needs of every user, no matter what. I will always grow to meet the needs of each project. I will never scale down any project 's vision to simply facilitate my role.
Limiting binary decisions in UX design, where users are presented with only two options or choices, can have various effects on the overall user experience. While simplicity and clarity are often desirable, strict binary decisions may not always align with the complexity and nuances of user preferences or tasks.
Friction analysis refers to the process of identifying, evaluating, and mitigating points of friction within a user experience. Friction refers to any element or aspect of a design that creates resistance or obstacles for users, hindering their ability to complete tasks or achieve their goals smoothly. The goal of friction analysis is to streamline the user journey, reduce barriers, and enhance overall usability.
Bridging the gap between users and shareholders:
There exists a fundamental conflict on interest between business executives/shareholders, and the wants/needs of their product's users. The unpopular truth is that the role of UX design in any business is so important that the interests of both groups must be satisfied at the end of the day.
The "Constants" of my Work
Every project is unique in nature; although, there are certain methodologies that can, and should be applied throughout the ideation, design, development, and testing phases of user experience optimization. These methodologies, similar to design values, are the "glue" holding a project together and ensuring it adheres to its requirements without negotiation.
As with other avenues of design, developing superior online products that not only appeal to users, but serve an overall purpose, requires the knowledge and deep understanding of many other industry tools and resources.
- Micro and Macro Optimization (Section Heading?)
- Qualitative and quantitative research data supports... (Text better used in case study?)
- Measure design success against business metrics (Text better used case study?)
- The user research I conducted defined the "context of use", allowing for "product pruning" to focus and optimize for the project's main purpose and goals. This resulted in a delightful and valuable user experience (Case study?)
Agile and Flexible > Static
Many new designers and developers rely on static design systems learned during their education. The truth is that it's far more important to utilize dynamic design systems that are tailored to your design team and the project's needs, goals, and requirements. Developing the capability to strategically apply single foundational concepts from the core design systems, as needed, is paramount to building an ideal framework.
I have a talent for visualizing and understanding the intricacies of purpose driven design. My broadly compounded background has equipped me with many unique and empathetic perspectives, with which I can visualize and nurture both potential problems, and solutions.
Who am I outside of my office?
Dedicated to my story:
I am an extraordinarily passionate and dedicated designer, so of course I do spend my fair share of time in front of the screen.
However, lets put that aside for a moment. I am a health conscious, athletic, and adventurous person by nature.
If you are curious about my experience, projects, or qualifications, send me a massage and let's get in touch!
I am currently open to both contract and full-time opportunities.
