Hi, I’m
Heather

01 /  Your dog doesn’t care if you were right or wrong. They can only respond in the ways they know how.

^{The same could be said for your users.} Users do not care about your ego; and they often cannot articulate why an experience is poor, only that it does not function as predicted.

02 / A dog’s behavior is learned based on pre-established routines, patterns, and reinforcing behaviors.

^{We set rules and patterns within our own products to help guide habitual usage.} Only ^some rules are meant to be broken, but it should be understood and clearly communicated within teams which ones must be followed in order to be a user-first product.

01 /  Solo travel is great because every decision you make is entirely your own, and you are able to become closer to yourself in the absence of others.

Similarly, I prefer to work in an environment that ^{celebrates my desire for autonomy} rather than seeking to tame it. I don’t believe in micromanaging, or being micromanaged.

02 / Solo travel is hard because every decision you make is your entirely your own, and you are solely to blame for your own decisions.

^{In a team setting, working on an island will almost always leave you stranded.} It’s all about balancing self motivation/personal autonomy with openness to feedback from others

01 /  Elevating package ramen to something more delicious requires inherent respect to the dish, but also enough bravery to deviate from the recipe. ^{Great product design is not so different.} Innovation is born from new retellings of old recipes.

02/  Cheap ramen is almost always better than the alternative, and ^{simple ideas are almost always better than overly complex ones.}
My goal is to make products using scalable design systems in order to conserve development effort, and reuse UI patterns in order to keep it simple as heck for the users.
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I often ask myself: what can I strip out of this design, and how much of it can I take away?

01 /  Life is not a bucket of daisies, and neither is the learning process that accompanies any final design. I learn from my mistakes & I’m not afraid to reflect on what I could have done better. Without self reflection, we would never grow as people.

02/  The data doesn’t lie, and we can’t cherrypick it to support our hypotheses. One part of honest storytelling, especially in design and product, is to look at the story the data is telling and learn to be honest with yourself about your own biases & assumptions.

01 /  The best design is often inspired by the world around us. Exploration is key, in all facets of life, whether that means traveling around the world, trying a new recipe, learning to pogostick, or curating your everyday style. ^{I would describe my own design style as highly experimental, thought provoking, and inspired by just about everything.}

02/  Originally from the coast of Maine, I now reside in the state of Utah, nestled in the mountains near Park City. ^{I find my own work to be inspired by natural tones, colors, and experiences}. My hope is that the digital experiences I have the privilege of creating feel like a natural extension of being human.