The Beginning

As a kid, I loved creating custom backgrounds on my desktop. I would spend hours cutting photos from Google Images and copying them into Microsoft Paint, adding shapes, changing colors, and editing them to match my vision. I always enjoyed this creative outlet but never considered it as a career option.

On the other hand, I love science. I studied Biology in college and was hired to work for a pharmaceutical company shortly after graduation. I was working on medications that literally saved people's lives. It felt as if I had landed my dream job. However, there is no creative outlet in the drug manufacturing process. The pharmaceutical industry is extremely regulated, which leaves little room for the implementation of creative improvements into the process. I had the opportunity to design a pH table using AutoCAD. This table was made with the user in mind and improved the day to day operations of our technicians.

That Fateful Night

Everything changed for me one night in 2017. At the time, I lived in an apartment with one of my long time friends, who happens to be a web developer. We enjoyed brainstorming quirky business ventures that we would never actually pursue. One idea was to take old, worn-out purses and upcycle them. We called it “From Hearse to Purse.”

On one fateful night, we thought of an app concept that we believed to be our best idea yet. We called the app Points - Your Actions Matter. Essentially a long forum scoreboard, the app would allow users to award and deduct points away from their friends. The prospect of actualizing our idea into reality enveloped our lives. We purchased a computer and decided to develop the app. My roommate developed the back-end code, while I worked tirelessly on designing front-end mockups. With no formal training or experience, I designed the entire UI of the application. I worked on branding, including logo design, color palettes, and typography. After two years of nights and weekends, a lot of trial and error, and phone calls with Apple, our app was approved and made available on the Apple app store.

Here We Are Today

The experience of designing an app sparked my passion for user-center and process-driven design. I am genuinely interested in UX because it is the merging of both of my passions, science and creativity. I get to use the research skills I learned in pharmaceuticals and combine them with my zest for creativity to design solutions to problems. I get to turn a thought into a tangible product with no bounds or restrictions.

When I began my journey into UX design, I would create designs based on how I thought they should be. I was not cognisant of how the experience would be for the users. I have since learned that design is much more than looks. It is about solving problems for the user through an iterative process that requires empathy. User experience design is like an endless game of brainstorming to create the best possible solution and that is why I find it so enjoyable.

What Sets Me Apart

The last thing I will say is that I think I can bring something to table that most people cannot. What that is, is a deep understanding of the importance of accessibility. My wife works as a disability rights advocate in the state of New York where she is constantly advocating for disability rights. One of those rights is an accessible internet. Because of her, I am able to understand why it is so important to have an accessible internet and just how inaccessible our current internet is. She is constantly fighting for the basic needs of people with disabilities and I want to help her on her crusade to make the internet more accessible. I promise to make it an absolute priority of mine to make sure that every design I create is accessible to all. Having this knowledge is not only important, but it makes me a better designer.

I hope you liked what I had to say, and I hope you decide to work with me. Please send me an email or message me via the contact page and I will respond to you as soon as possible. Cheers!