Design’s star has been shining more brightly lately.
Many aspiring designers are eager to dive in. But it can be a tough career to break into. I’ve spent the past decade helping to nurture and grow the next generation of designers–both within the walls of a traditional learning environment as well as internal to organizations. I directed the Masters in Human-Computer Interaction program at Carnegie Mellon University, and taught human-centered design courses at University of British Columbia (UBC) as well as the Centre for Digital Media (SFU). To learn more about my UX Education experience, please visit uxdesigneducation.com.
My past teaching, training and mentoring experiences include:
Team Mentorship
A design leader is only as good as the team. And tapping into what will help individuals grow is often key to this. As a leader to creative teams, I’ve coached many aspiring and junior designers. Often this translated into hands-on training in design and user research methodologies, supporting them with resources, and encouraging their development.
Designing Courses + Exercises
I’ve created graduate-level courses to teach human-centered design fundamentals; storytelling; empathy; prototyping; qualitative research; and design thinking. I’ve also weighed in on–and gotten my hands dirty–retooling existing design, digital media and HCI courses to incorporate aspects of interaction design, agile methodology, and improv. More informally, I’ve mentored teams of students for their industry projects, including Capstone projects.
Facilitating Workshops + Speaking Engagements
Outside of the academic world, I’ve also created design training activities for organizations. As a big believer of experiential learning and democratizing design, I’ve created customized workshops and design challenges that are all about co-creation and bringing the design process alive for the community. Other times I’ve organized and facilitated customer discovery workshops and in parallel, offered an opportunity for stakeholders to be involved in the process. The multidisciplinary nature of design means I often do talks or short seminars for individuals who are interested in design as a career.
Industry + Academic Matchmaking
Wonderful things can happen when industry and academia meet in creative partnership. In the past, I’ve brought together industry leaders, community organizations and students to make magic together.