About Me

Design
As I grow as a designer and broaden my personal design education, UX is still my dream job, but I also want to contribute more. I want to be a full-stack designer. I'm learning about branding, a little coding, and business. After I feel more comfortable with this, I want to move on to marketing, copywriting, and service design. I'm not aiming to be an expert, but learning other disciplines is great for collaborating and learning new systems. The only way I can keep all this straight is with Notion. I've been using it for a few years, and it continues to evolve to include notes, ideas, and project management. I'd be lost if it wasn't for stumbling onto a second-brain YouTube video. I thoroughly enjoy everything I've written here; I do this for its intrinsic value and the false pursuit of mastery.

Personal Life
I've always enjoyed being outside, so I came to Washington, which has some of the best wilderness in the country. Like many people in the PNW, I love hiking; it's a way for me to get away and think deeply about many things in my life and make breakthroughs on personal and work projects. Snowshoeing is another way to get away and think for long periods of time. Backpacking and camping extend the solitude and allow me to work on landscape photography. Biking is a mix of flow and thought, but it helps me get places or exercise. Snowboarding is fantastic for me; it was one of the best things I did as a young teen that allowed me to feel a flow state before I knew what a flow state was. Snowboarding and photography are two of my top hobbies. Where snowboarding is a fun activity, I plan to one day make a side business selling my photography prints on my own and through galleries.

This love of the outdoors is one of the main reasons my wife and I started dating. We met just before the pandemic and got married shortly after. Towards the end of the pandemic, we had our son. As a family, we've traveled to four countries and plan to continue this trend to introduce the world to our son.

A main staple in my life has been music. I've taken guitar lessons for two years, and after a ten-year break, I forgot everything except for the cords. I'd love to get back into it and get a semi-hollow body like an Italia Mondial.

My career in mechanical design is coming to an end after 16 years in the industry. I got into it to get my engineering degree and design race cars. After about 6 years of this, I wanted something different. I thought about industrial and graphic design. When researching these two options, I discovered UX design, jumped in, and got my bachelor's degree in design.

Professional Goals

Enter the UX field and learn as much as possible.

1 Year

3 Years

Become a product designer or senior UX designer.

Manager/strategist and possibly start my own consulting studio.

10 Year

Notable Mechanical Work

Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal

AGP Ship Loader

Potash Compactor

Gunpowder Flaking Mill

My Top UX Books

UX Research

One of the first UX books I read to help me better understand the research process for my projects.

The Design of Everyday Things

I mean, this is basically required reading, but I still use this as a resource for heuristics.

User Story Mapping

This was a great book for understanding feature project planning.

The Lean Startup

It is a great book that shows user feedback and that being nimble and willing to adjust is key to startup reality.

Get Into UX

I found this book helpful in understanding the UX career space. I'm glad I took notes to revisit some of the key parts.

UX Strategy

This was another great book to read early in my UX journey. This book helped me to understand competitive analysis and planning.

Zag

Great book to read to understand differentiation.

Evil By Design

This isn't the most entertaining book, but it's full of great insight into dark patterns.

Mapping Experiences

This book was hands down one of the best reads at a time when I needed it.

Sprint

Another required reading book but it was worth it. Sprint complements Lean Startup so well and I'm excited to participate in one someday.

Purple Cow

I keep coming back to this book. Building a remarkable business is partially about making great products.

Strategic Writing for UX

I'm not the best writer, and this book helped me understand the importance of group unity and how to define the tone.

Storytelling in Design

An excellent book for story structure, design, and ways to use it in UX.

Made to Stick

I read this book twice because the first time, I didn't take notes. Great insight into how to make stories sticky.

The Power of Moments

After reading this book for a second time, I realized it is a great book for service design.

Some of My Favorite Photos

Here's a sample of some of my favorite photography work. It's been a long journey spanning ten years. I've learned a lot of techniques from several genres to understand and produce better work. I'm nowhere near where I want to be, but that's part of the fun!