LET'S WORK TOGETHER
Katharine Marsh
I love to study design in everyday life; whether it’s a website's UI, the UX in a popular app, or packaging that draws consumers to it. These observations inspire new designs and tactics I bring to my work to better develop products.
MY JOURNEY INTO UX
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Illustration
I went to CSULB for my BFA in Illustration. There I studied composition, proportion, balance, flow, and how these aspects are crucial to all forms of art and design. I also learned how to critically look at my own work and give constructive feedback to my peers.
Graphic Design
While in undergrad I took a few graphic design courses and fell in love with the precision and form I could create in Adobe Illustrator. I began adopting a more graphical illustration style in my work and studying graphic design more in my spare time. I decided I wanted to pursue this field and got a job as a graphic designer.
Web & App Design
I was offered the opportunity to work as a graduate assistant in the University of Utah’s experimental gaming GApp Lab. While there I studied UI & UX design and implemented what I learned into my projects. The final project I worked on was awarded 1st place in Clinical Games by Games 4 Health.
UX/UI Design
I have discovered UX/UI design requires the same principles I learned in my undergrad, with the added component of analyzing how users respond to and interact with your design. I love the qualitative and quantitative research that goes into understanding your users and designing a better solution. By acknowledging their needs and frustrations you can improve functionality, ease of use and enjoyment.
Entertainment Arts & Engineering
My love of video games and interest in the industry lead me to graduate school and the University of Utah for video game design and developement. It was there that I discovered I could incorporate my love of video games and graphic design in the form of UI design.
Joined a Start Up
While still in grad school I was hired at, and became a founding member of, a start up. I was the Lead UX/UI Designer in charge of the entire design process and managing the front end programmer and backend tasks. It allowed me to see how a lot of different roles function and work together, as well as how to efficiently communicate design directions between multiple departments.
MY DESIGN PROCESS
Being a good designer is not about a moment of inspiration, it is about the iterative process that requires collaboration between multiple teams, departments, and the end user. It is easy to become attached to initial design solutions and ignore research and testing, but good design is able to adapt under critical analysis and scrutiny. An important aspect of this is answering the 5 W's (Who, What, Where, When, and Why) before tackling the How.
Prototyping and user testing are essential because first solutions are often wrong. At the beginning of a project, it is hard to know enough about the problem you are attempting to solve or if your initial solution will work with constraints that may be found in other departments. If a solution isn't working it is better to discover and discard it early on.
Great design requires attention and understanding of the user, their environments, and their goals. Conducting research, collaborating with different teams and departments, testing prototypes, and talking to users are all crucial to the development of a project. A successful design project stems from good communication and keeping the end user in the forefront.