Hello.
I'm a product designer experienced in websites, enterprise software, design systems, eCommerce, and web applications.
Currently a design lead at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs for the clinical decision support software and the VA clinical design system leading UX/UI design, generative, and evaluative research across teams.
Recent work
Maturing the VA Clinical Design System
My role
Design System Lead
Overview
I lead the VA clinical design system including a group of product designers, engineers, accessibility specialist, and product manager. Creating components, patterns, tokens, and utilities for a consistent experience across apps used by over 30,000+ clinicians.
Impact
We continue to expand the design system by codifying design decisions to scale efficiency across design and engineering across many teams. Recent efforts include adding design patterns for data visualizations, global navigation, and patient summary data.
Improve findability with search filters
My role
Design Lead – primary product designer for this initiative
Overview
Over 20 million Veterans visit VA.gov every month to find and learn about benefits they may be eligible for. After digging into lower CSAT scores and open feedback survey data, findability of relevant content was a primary and constant source of frustration. Veterans depending on this content to understand their health and benefits eligibility. As part of this work, known accessibility issues were also addressed in collaboration with our accessibility lead.
Impact
Veterans will have the ability to adjust their search with filters or browse with filters without requiring a search. This work led to search filters being contributed back to the design system ➚.
Providing Veterans the capability to add type of care for a more accurate facility search near them
My role
Design Lead – drove decision-making with design direction and feedback to the designer and content lead on the team
Overview
Increasing VA facility data was available via API so this became an opportunity for the team to make search improvements including a new layout that incorporated progressive disclosure and an autosuggest combo box component for a long list of services.
Impact
Reducing cognitive burden by increasing search complexity on the back-end to make the front-end more intuitive, showing only what is needed as input is entered.
Mixed Methods Research for a global fortune 500 company
My role
Senior Product Designer
Overview
While at FM Global, I led and facilitated generative research for an enterprise software application that is used to manage projects during the process of accreditation and ongoing auditing for commercial building supplies used in approved roofing assemblies utilized by corporate insurance customers and their building contractors.
Impact
Numerous insights included improved ease of use by addressing time efficiencies, and forced workarounds. Task flows and service blueprints served as the base knowledge for roadmap planning.
Mobile App Design for a Seamless Checkout
My role
Personal project
Overview
Tava Ski Resort App is a conceptual self-initiated project based on a favorite local, family-owned ski resort our family holds season passes to. This ski resort does not currently have an app and it was a great opportunity to get my family involved and show them what product design is.
Impact
Opportunity to have fun with my family pairing what they love with what I love!
What colleagues have shared
Design Leadership Initiatives
Mapping user research into Agile sprints to foster clear communication across disciplines
Overview
Product design work at the VA is planned into sprint work, including user research. In an effort to foster collaboration and eliminate frustrations of unclear research study timelines being met between researchers and our product managers, I mapped out what a typical usability study might look like, the happy path.
Impact
All team members had clear expectations and were able to plan ahead, point sprint work, and have point of reference when laying out quarterly roadmaps and sprint goals for research practices.
Documenting the new VA Clinical Design System Contribution Model
Overview
I led an initiative to document how product teams using the VA Clinical Design System can contribute their work back to the the design system in order to scale the work across teams. The current documentation was outdated and left teams confused and consistently asking in Slack how to contribute or requesting a feature to be built by the design system in short timeframes.
Impact
New documentation clearly communicated how teams can collaborate with the design system team efficiently and without it being a blocker to their product initiatives. Reducing confusion and number of questions asked each week on how to work with new components they have created but not yet in the design system.
Course Creation and Facilitation: Visual Design
Overview
As part of the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs’ OIT Skillshare program, I was selected to create and teach a Visual Design Course to those within our Office of IT. The course consisted of a presentation followed by a hands-on activities and open discussion.
Impact
This provided an opportunity to improve IT skills across the OIT organization of up to 7,200 employees in Human-Centered Design practices that meet the needs of the VA in improving digital user experiences for Veterans.
More about me
I am a systems thinker, always thinking broadly how a design could scale across products. I am driven by finding ways to make tasks easier for users, customers or employees.
I value self-awareness in self and others, transparent candor, humor, oversharing, and openness to different perspectives. I was raised in a rural farming community where being self-reliant was a necessity. If I don’t know how to do something I’ll figure it out.
Outside of design, I love being deep in the mountains and forests. I’ll hike in any weather with the right gear. Camping with no cell service is the kind of danger I’m comfortable with.