As a UX Designer on the Enterprise Personalization team at USAA, my goal is to provide our members with empathetic experiences that humanize digital banking through orchestrated, real-time, contextually relevant interactions. In 2022, I began to co-lead the design process for a new feature aimed at scaling and centralizing personalized member insights. We had begun a partnership with a third party platform called MX, which provides data about members’ spending habits and financial activity. With the growth of our program, a new member experience was needed.

We knew that a modern, centrally organized hub for personal financial activity was desired by members due to past internal research. To confirm, we conducted a competitive analysis, as well as an updated study of mobile users’ mental models around managing finances.

As design concepts for an activity feed/personalization hub took shape, we conducted User Zoom tests around possible names and icons for this new space in our mobile banking app. Using the results, we moved onto a click test for possible entry points to the space, again leveraging User Zoom.

Simultaneously, we collaborated with several stakeholders, business units, development teams, executive leadership, and our design language system team to map dependencies, identify risks, develop KPIs, and coordinate capabilities and roadmaps.

Having determined an MVP and an initial pilot release target date, we are currently conducting usability tests on the flows and interactions of the Insights Feed, as well as prepping for qualitative interviews with pilot members.

We are confident that providing financial insights, advice, and servicing tasks in a personalized feed, working in concert with contextual actions across multiple digital platforms will increase engagement, primacy, member-retention, and product acquisition.

At the end of 2019, I joined the development team for an enterprise fundraising and marketing tool. As lead designer, my task was to evaluate the current state of the product’s user experience and strategically update the most significant problem areas, with the longterm goal of a complete product update.

We began with a product experience survey, which illuminated the pain points and problem areas of the product. The general sentiments were that the product is outdated, difficult to learn, and time consuming to use. From this data, we were able to narrow down a few specific problem areas in need of redesign, as well as some overall usability enhancements. I developed a plan for moving forward and we continued to refer back to it as we iterated.

The email marketing portion of the product was chosen as the place to start because it is the most widely used tool among clients, and because we could borrow from other products in our company portfolio with successful email tools.

Beginning with a deep dive into the email experience, we conducted a heuristic evaluation and several detailed interviews and observations with client users. From there, I was able to produce and test some initial concepts with internal and external stakeholders, and moved on to a high fidelity prototype for usability testing.

Development has begun on the newly designed email application, as I continue to iterate and test the more advanced features, and vision type the next product areas to receive an experience update. I’m pleased to report that the reception for this product upgrade has been extremely favorable across the company and our client base as we work toward an early adopter program.

For two years, I was the lead designer of an event management tool for an enterprise-level fundraising and marketing cloud application. I saw the project from start to finish; from evaluation of needs to product release.

At the beginning of 2018, I began by evaluating the current database legacy product, a competitive analysis of similar products on the market, and generating requirements from marketing professionals.

I then conducted some early discovery sessions with client users, and led a site visit at Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, a client organization with many event coordinators, for an affinity diagramming session.

A round of prototyping and user testing followed, which led to our Beta test of a new, user-centered event management experience by the end of 2018. We measured our success of the beta release using the HEART framework for measuring user experiences.

The start of 2019 saw the additional complexity of a new product market: church and faith organizations. It was clear that these users needed a way to manage their event planning activities, but in different, and more nuanced ways than traditional non-profits. Rather than create two distinct products, I was tasked with iterating on our current events tool to incorporate the needs of these new users.

After some new protoyping and user testing was completed, another early adopter program began for the new market’s clients. My focus as lead designer during this phase of the project was to maintain regular collaboration, inclusion, and dissemination of business decisions across several scrum teams and business units.

By the end of 2019, we were able to provide a general availability release to a new market, and I was then able to to focus on future features that would delight our users.

Objective: Create a customizable registration form for complex events that have many sub-events, multiple attendees, and various add-ons or additional options.

Process: I conducted several rounds of client interviews, research into best practices for web forms, and a competitive analysis of similar event registration services and forms. Design began with paper sketches, then moved to wireframes and prototypes in Axure, followed by user testing.

Solution: I designed a web form that allows for complex functionality, while being easy to use.Employing devices such as a form overview, collapsible sections, and a progress indicator made it easy for users to maintain their place, see what's next, and move forward and backward as needed.

As with all of my design work, I provided development with a detailed specification document (last image).

Refocus is an interactive form of cognitive behavior therapy exercises. Designed for the iPhone, this mobile app uses design techniques and gamification features that are rooted in psychology, making them uniquely helpful for learning how to restructure negative thinking habits.

These images show the design process of User Interface and User Experience design for the Refocus mobile application produced as part of my graduate thesis research. The first step in the design process, after gathering research, was to diagram the functionality of the app using post-it notes which could be easily rearranged as needed.

Next, wireframes were drawn on paper templates of an iPhone screen, to plan out each screen's content. 

Due to the sensitive nature of my thesis topic, I was not allowed to ask participants certain questions, so I had to create a prototype with alternate questions. This first round of user testing was done with a paper prototype of the app using similar questions and functions, but with a different topic. Removable pieces were used for markers, pop-ups, and other functionality.

A second round of user testing was performed using a digital prototype of the app online with the InVisionapp prototyping software. Users were able to click through a mockup of the app in real time and leave feedback.

These are infographics I produced for the Texas Fair Defense Project, which works to improve the Texas criminal court system and ensure that all Texans have access to justice. I was responsible for the art direction, illustration, and layout of these graphics to be used on their website and in reports and publications. 

My process for this project began with a face-to-face discussion with the organization members to learn about their work, their mission, and their marketing and design needs. Together, we determined that they could benefit from some infographics to help visually tell the stories of issues facing Texans dealing with the criminal justice system. 

Next, I spent time researching the organization by reading their literature and watching several videos explaining the issues they work to resolve. Additionally, I did some research into the Texas criminal justice process and specific laws, in order to properly illustrate and write about them. I also studied TFDP's branding guidelines to come up with a complimentary color palette and illustration style.

The mapping of the "Cycle of Ticket Debt" took a few iterations, with brainstorming sessions between myself and the organization to determine the most logical, factual, and user-friendly narrative path.