5 Questions with Emily McCammon, Product Designer @ Femme Digital
5 Questions is a series where we ask CMCI Studio alumni to share insights about the future of design and how to grow as a creative. To learn more about the Studio masters program check the details at the end of this story or visit our website. Enrollment is now open for fall 2019.
This week we’re featuring Emily McCammon, Freelance Product Designer @ Femme Digital and UX/UI Teacher.
After graduating from the Studioprogram in 2011, Emily moved to LA and had the opportunity to work at agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi and Trailer Park. Emily worked with clients including Toyota, Lexus, Apple, the Oscars, MTV, Fox, and more. While in LA, Emily also worked with startups including Tuition IO and Shift.
After 5 years in LA, Emily moved back to Colorado and took a client-side role at Gaia, a quickly growing streaming media platform where she was able to broaden her UX practice and grow her leadership experience as the lead for the Product Design team.
Recently, Emily decided to form her own UX & Product consultancy, Femme Digital. She currently works with two amazing Denver based clients in the cannabis and healthcare industries.
Emily has done work for a lot of great companies, but one of her favorite projects was a continuing education iPad app for Brandman University, which she worked on while at Trailer Park in LA.
“The project was technically complicated — multiple data sources, dynamic coursework engines, various user roles to deal with, etc. It was also incredibly dramatic, at one point in time the entire team got food poisoning. What I loved about it was that everyone who worked on the project truly leveled up their own skills in the process. The final execution was stunning. In the end, it was ultimately a success for the client and profitable for my team.”
5 Questions with Emily
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned over the course of your career so far?
[Emily] As a designer, it is just as important to continuously work on your communication skills as it is to work on your design skills.
When you look at the current landscape of design and technology what are you most excited about and most concerned about?
[Emily]I love that design is increasingly respected as an impactful aspect of crafting a thriving business. There are endless opportunities to redesign the micro and macro facets of how we live, work, communicate, peel bananas — you name it.
There is a dark side of design’s influence. Designing for growth and designing for data collection are hallmarks of modern UX — and too often we chase these dragons with reckless abandon. In social media and in any other industry where profitability is relative to growth, it is possible to lose sight of well being of the people who interact with our products & services; which is the antithesis of user-centered design philosophy.
When you think about the designers of the future, what do you see as the most critical skills they will need in order to be successful?
[Emily] Designers of the future will need to be highly strategic and largely medium agnostic. In my career, I’ve designed for web, mobile, chat, leap motion, tv, mall kiosk, a chef’s station, and one amusement park ride entrance. The complexity and variety of digital & analog interfaces out there will continue to increase.
Being strategic does not preclude designers from going deep on tools & skills. Specialization can co-exist with agility. It may be counter-intuitive, but going deep actually helps you learn new things quicker. The best specialists, if they can balance specialization with change, will always get work.
How did your experience in the Studio graduate program impact your ability to be successful in your career?
[Emily] My experience in grad school completely changed how I approach work and exist in the world. Studio graduates expect to be part of shaping process, not just executing work — and I don’t think I fully realized my ability to construct the process in my own life and work prior to grad school.
What are some of the most important tools and processes you use in your job right now?
[Emily] Asking questions is a critical creative tool. At any level of seniority in a creative field, your individual success is tied to your ability to gather requirements. In an organization or as a freelancer — no one is going to tell you exactly what to do or how to do it.
You should figure out what to do through the art of asking questions. What does the business really need? What are the real user motivations? Start with questions, and come back to questions often. If you are a manager, you need to ask the right questions to send your team in a productive direction. As a freelancer, I’m currently practicing how to ask questions that will ultimately lead to successful work.
You can see more of Emily’s work here. You can also hear her every week as a co-host of the Sprint UX Podcast.
Follow the rest of our “5 questions” series here.
About CMCI Studio
CMCI Studio is a design graduate program at CU Boulder. Driven by a culture of collective creativity and fueled by design thinking, our mission is to transform our students into design professionals capable of leading us into the future and solving problems in a rapidly changing world. Our graduates have gone on to design and lead teams at Google, Apple, Spotify, Uber, Pinterest, Dropbox, Airbnb, Wieden+Kennedy, R/GA and many more.
We are currently accepting applications for our 2019–2020 school year. The application deadline is March 1st. Get more details and apply at our website.
