I’m a UX Designer and an Army Veteran. I grew up in Indiana playing basketball and performing in the school band. After I graduated from Highschool I joined the military and received my commission as an Aviation Officer from the United States Military Academy. My military experience exposed me to things that I may not have had the opportunity to experience living in Indiana. The Army trained me to be a helicopter pilot, but in addition to my flight training I lead teams, planned and managed training events for my organization, worked as a project manager, and mentored Soldiers that went on to have successful careers. One of my greatest accomplishments was when I was selected to lead the effort of reestablishing a unit that had been dismantled for several years. I helped establish procedures and process, build a team starting with only 13 people to over 60 personnel while simultaneously providing training and evaluation support to National Guard Aviation Units before they deployed oversees.

My military career gave me the opportunity to live and work with people all over the world. My experience in the military has shaped me to be a driven individual that cares about the people I work with, have empathy, work efficiently, have attention to detail, the ability to decipher complicated processes or organization structure, and manage multiple projects at a time.

My path to UX design was not typical. I have always cared about making things easier for my soldiers to do their job well whether it be streamlining processes or creating a guide to walk a person through a process. I always wanted to take the complicated and make it less complicated and a smoother experience. It was really just luck that UX came into my life. I never heard of UX design until a family member mentioned it to me one day when I was telling them that I was having a difficult time figuring out what I wanted to do after I leave the Army.  They told me I should look into UX Design because they thought my skills aligned well with that career field. I quickly went to the internet to look up what exactly UX was and I immediately fell in love.  Since then UX Design has been my focus and passion.

UX design is so critical to ensuring a product is designed is for the user. It is too often a product is designed without keeping the user in mind.  A poor design can cause frustration, dissatisfaction, or even stress.  Digital products are incorporated into every aspect of our lives and the design of those products should be thoughtful and help a users task be easier. To quote Jonas Lowgren and Erik Stolterman the authors of Thoughtful Interaction Design

"To design digital artifacts is to design people's lives."