My Bio

I create custom web designs for coaches with integrated UX - beautiful, functional experiences that will delight your clients. Intuitive solutions, simple, elegant designs and frictionless content, all with an attention to detail in every project. 

I'm not a coach; I don't even play one on TV. I'm a UX designer passionate about tinkering, woodworking / furniture making, technology, and DIY projects. I'm absolutely obsessed with understanding the design of pretty much everything. So, why websites for coaches? I live with and am married to a coach - you can check out our story below. 

From 2003 through 2014, I provided IT support and quite a lot of training, teaching, and technical writing for several companies. I also started tinkering with website design and by 2006, I was designing digital and printed matter and building websites for artists and non-profit organizations. I had taught myself enough HTML and (eventually) CSS that I could modify almost any template or style sheet I could find and I spent endless hours online hunting for add-ins like forms, photo galleries, and calendar widgets that I could customize.

Then, in 2014, someone I worked for said "You know, you should check out the User Experience team. I really think you'd enjoy that kind of work" The "what" team? I'd never heard the term "user experience" before.  /facepalm 

I'd been trying to do that for the prior eight years without knowing it was a "thing" I could learn. Thanks to a few people willing to teach and mentor me, I got up to speed pretty quickly and got work as a UX designer as fast as I could.

• 2012: I worked for Cox Media Group as a Consumer Systems Support Team member. It was my first foray into Agile development, and I loved it! My team supported the in-house Content Management System (CMS). 
• 2015: I worked as a Senior UX Designer on several small Agile development teams at the CDC. We were primarily working on enterprise business information systems.  
• 2016: I worked for State Farm as a UX Architect. I did UX and UI design for web-based account registration and Customer Information Management (CIM) processes (e.g., identity verification, PIN code management, online bill pay). I also got a lot of experience with Agile mobile design (Android and iOS). 
• 2017: We moved to Asheville, NC, and opened a short-term vacation rental business. I got to design the interior of our tiny house - it was a huge thrill to be responsible for ensuring the design and layout created a comfortable and stylish interior that "never broke the spell." The house tests my UX skills every day as I continue to upgrade and improve it, trying to make the whole experience as seamless as possible.

EDUCATION 

Master of Fine Arts 1994

University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Bachelor of Fine Arts 1990 

University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA