TL;DR — just visit the newest version of Halfdollar.

Becoming an Adult

In my early-to-mid twenties, I began managing many expenses like rent, utility bills, software subscriptions, etc. and multiple sources of income like a full-time job and freelance contracts. As a very organizational person, I needed a way to understand at any time how much money I might have left over any given month, since some months I might be in the negative, and others I would be in the positive. …

• Just because I’m a perfectionist, doesn’t mean I should expect anyone else to be.
• My work ethic is my work ethic, not anyone else’s.
• I shouldn’t set expectations on people, let them set those for themselves.
• My phone on silent means IRL conversations and relationships are not interrupted by a vibration or ring. Even a vibration pattern can be recognized, meaning a certain app, person, and conversation might come to mind, resulting in a large distraction.
• There’s nothing wrong with the way others function. That’s who they are.
• I can only control how I respond and react.
• You can’t please…

Q. Should designers code?
A. If they want to. And if they would rather learn to cook, they should do that.

Q. Should designers create non-solicited redesigns?
A. If they want to. If they feel thats the way they can best grow and learn new things.

Q. Should designers use this or that software?
A. If they want to. And if that’s what helps them do their best work.

We’re always so quick to tell others how to do things. How best to use their resources, their knowledge, their experience. …

Context

In 2018, I joined Alarm.com to help them build a library of components for the product design team. Alarm.com provides hardware and software products that help people manage their home or business security systems and connected devices.

Introduction

When I joined, the design team was using Sketch to build mobile interfaces for Android and iOS apps by creating shared designs, synced through Dropbox. As one designer would need to use a component, layout, or styles that were previously used, they would open another Sketch file to grab those assets and drag them into their file.

This process works, but the efficiency…

Context

In 2018, I joined the Oracle Data Cloud design team as a fully remote employee. With working remotely comes the importance of being intentional about communication, and being on the same wavelength as your teammates.

When I noticed that the design and engineering languages didn’t communicate well with each other, I looked a little deeper at what could be causing this divide.

Introduction

As a part of my onboarding was the learning of style guides, and the way the design team approached a new project. While doing this, I found that the design team did not have one single source of…

Context

In 2018, I worked with Alarm.com on a mobile feature for ADT in their Control app. Alarm.com works with property security companies to manage the software and hardware that operates home and business owners smart devices to help control their property.

For many clients of Alarm.com, their mobile app uses the default styling, with only a change of brand color and logo, to bring some brand familiarity to the user. In the case of a client like ADT, the entire app is white labeled and designed specifically to fit the brand of the client.

Introduction

The feature I worked on was…

How can we encourage better communication between diverse parties using technology?

Not One the Same

We’ve all been in the scenario where we are trying to communicate something to someone. Either they don’t understand what we’re intending to say or you find yourself pausing to try and put it in their terms. While the latter is very considerate of you, it isn’t always clear.

Maybe you’re messaging a coworker in a different time zone trying to coordinate a video call. Or maybe you want to let a family member from Europe know what the forecast will be for their visit. …

How discovering my Red-Green color blindness changed my workflow

That’s right, I said it:

I’m a Designer with Red-Green Color Blindness.

It took my a long time to own this and feel comfortable sharing this in my career, so ✊.

Here’s an example of how I found out one day at the eye doctor getting contacts:

To some, the above image is a picture of numbers inside of circles. To others, including me, it’s just a group of colorful mosaic patterns. Actually, I can see about 50% of the numbers shown here. This is why I have partial color blindness…