Hi. I’m Steve.
On design
I really enjoy the breadth of activities, knowledge and domains that you touch as a UX designer, as well as the creative spaces you get to inhabit. Having the opportunity to collaborate with other talented people of diverse backgrounds, building off of each other’s viewpoints and ideas, is exciting and inspiring.
As it is that an artist’s ability to see is more important than their technical skills with brush and paint, so it is that a designer’s ability to ask the right questions, observe and detect the most important insights is even more important than their technical skills with tooling.
A designer’s ability to be successful also depends on their ability to communicate, educate and envision so that all of their team has a clear understanding of user needs and an illuminated pathway to address them.
My journey
As a youngster, I liked to build and create, which took various forms such as designing a model train layout, creating a newsletter for my family, staging shows. or exploring letter shapes. In high school I remember noticing a line graph in a book and learning that there was a career that involved detecting relationships in data. As I look back, I can see how experiences like this were natural precursors to a career in user experience. But, my route to UX was not direct.
As a person who was both analytical and creative, and interested in far ranging topics, my choice of career was challenging. I started my career as a developer. But, having explored other creative pursuits on the side, such as art, drama and filmmaking, I looked how I could transition to a career that included more of these elements and could benefit others. I took an opportunity to attend Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction program, launching me into an exciting and nuanced career in UX design.
Me
I am a curious person who loves to learn. I am also a person of integrity, who wants to make a difference by helping to improve lives. I draw inspiration and ideas from a wide range of subjects such as health research, sociology, stories of people’s lives, and music.
I enjoy spending time with my beautiful wife, including sharing our love of the outdoors and nature. I like to travel, take photographs, cook overly ambitious meals, and play piano. I also play tennis in a local league and bike.
Frontiers
In addition to continuing to grow my existing knowledge in Design Thinking and AI, I would like to delve more into motion design and AR/VR. These areas overlap with my interests in filmmaking and storytelling, and open up new possibilities for impactful and useful experiences.
