Collaboration, empathetic innovation, research-driven, user-centered and inclusive design.
Collaboration, empathetic innovation, research-driven, user-centered and inclusive design.
Who I am.
I’m Kate, a passionate UX Designer based in the Twin Cities. My journey to design has been an adventure of self-discovery and adaptability that began when I was in the midst of earning a Bachelor’s degree in history and a global pandemic struck.
In a few weeks, I went from spending my days in class collaborating on research projects with my peers, working at my university’s Library of Architecture and Design, and interning in a paleolithic archaeology lab to living my life through my laptop screen.
It quickly became apparent that the digital spaces I encountered were ill-equipped to handle this change. I didn’t realize it then, but that was the moment I started thinking like a designer—when my thoughts were filled with “What if X” and “Did they try Y before choosing Z?”
This shift made me realize that, as someone who thrives on teamwork, I loved my degree because it meant I spent my time working with my peers—asking questions, examining historical issues from multiple perspectives via research, and deriving answers from thorough analysis—and that history, while fascinating, wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life.
I ultimately decided to explore the field of UX/UI because I found its position at the intersection of creativity and utility very exciting. From the moment I completed my first Figma project for UX Academy’s Foundations course, I knew I was hooked.
It was thrilling to be responsible for creating something that could improve the quality of a user’s daily life and to see my initial sketches develop into a high-fidelity mock. I continued on to the full-length UX Academy boot camp and was delighted to find that my empathy and curiosity, my skills for conducting research and analyzing the results to address problems and inspire solutions, are so applicable in this field.
When I’m not designing, I’m most likely to be found with my nose in a book or spending time with my family, friends, and my dog Daisy.