Hi! You came here from a recent job inquiry I submitted, let me quickly introduce myself: I come from a startup background and I focus on UX flows but I can do icon design, content design, and frontend. It sounds contrived but I enjoy making things just a little happier, I hope you can sense it here

I've spent most of my design time at startups working on 🍃 flows and 📈 onboarding. Finding the right paths and guilding people through to the desired destinations for all parties is rewarding to me.

When things get complicated, I take pride in breaking ideas down and showing or explaining new ideas in ways that feel natural. For flows the options can be endless and it's important to narrow down the core loops. For onboarding, you reallly have to be in tune with how people behave and their expectations. It's the most fun when you see the lightbulb turn on in someone else because of something I helped a team build. So that's what I do, that's me

Hey, so here's a bit more on design process

I can see us working together like this

1. The PRD

In the beginning there is a PRD, if there isn't, we develop it together. The PRD isn't infallible and set in stone so our first job is to test it: is it missing something? Does it need more clarity? Does its premise hold water for what we are trying to achieve? Communicating with each other is key for us to move forward with clarity.

2. Content & color blocking

I normally get into content and color blocking very quickly. Why? When we use what we already know, for instance brand colors/imagery and common design patterns, we remove unknowns so that we can make clearer decisions. We arrive closer to our goals more quickly when we can easily talk about the big picture in simple forms.

Design Fidelity:

Wireframe

Content & color blocking

High-Fidelity

3. Refining & refining

This is like washing rice repeatedly until the water is clear. Details and discoveries will come during the process and we need to see if they're meaningful. Don't wash rice for paella and risotto though.

4. Finishing touches

The last stretch is about focusing on quality. When the vision is fully formed, we can see the product evolve from good to great. We then work with developers and builders, bringing quality with us.

5. Building & Testing

This also can happen at anytime before the design is approved and signed off. There may be a time when we see our roads branching out and we see that A/B or user testing would add to our confidence. If confidence from testing is needed, we should seek it out so that we are in a comfortable position.

6. Refinement never ends

Whether we refine the design in front of us or move onwards to other projects, we take what we learn and apply it to our future endeavors. We keep refining our process to help the team do great work. Refining in a logical way for everyone involved is how strong teams stay together.

This has been an example of a complete design cycle but design like life comes unexpectedly. There are many circumstances that change the process so we have to be flexible. We can't plan for too far ahead or we lose the sight of what is there now. We stay humble and forge ahead.


Really, thanks for coming by ☂
- Dat

The font used here is Chango, designed by Manuel López Rocha. I love the personality in the letterforms