How writing poetry makes you a better problem thinker and solver — What rhymes with orange? Before I answer that question, I want to take you on a journey of how writing poetry can make you a better problem thinker and solver. I’ll be touching on my personal examples as a poet (by hobby) and as a product designer, though these parallels…

This is my origin story of how I became a UX designer. This is where I came from — There I was on the first day of my last year of high school, sitting in my school’s fabled ‘museum,’ Mr. Delo’s room. It was filled with dozens of posters, paintings, knick-knacks, and artifacts from various places, and a door plastered with all things Toni Morrison. He had a very…

SPOILER ALERT: I will be referencing some important events and plot points in the shows Attack on Titan and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Click away if you plan to watch these shows (I promise they’re well worth the watch)! While some may dismiss them as ‘cartoons’ or ‘weird obsessions,’ anime can…

I live and speak through art, and so, I’m going to intertwine music in to the story of my 2022 and the things I’ve felt, seen, heard, learned, am still learning. — The State Of My Life [Psycho-Pass OST — The State Of My Life] My 2022 has been, to quote a friend, a “great unraveling.” My year was marked by losses, shadow wars, forced reconciliations, self-love, oscillations between strengthening and stagnating, goals, between faithfulness and rage, and dead dreams. I’ve noticed that our collective (un)conscious has…

A reminder (or epiphany) we all need sometimes — September 1, 2022. 3:01PM; it was kickoff time. As I sat down on the sofa with the sun to the back of my head and my neck, uncharacteristically silent for a football game, I knew in my heart of hearts how this would end. Back-and-forth the ball and bodies ran…

I lost a friend 2 weeks ago, one that I admired. It also happens to be ~5 years since Chester Bennington’s passing on July 20, 2017; ~4 years since my aunt’s passing on August 22, 2018; ~3 years since my grandfather’s passing on July 10, 2019 (incidentally enough, the day…

For the brave who press on, the golden-scarred warriors. — Nights spent dreaming an end, A quiet departure to planes beyond, hugged by winds, kissed by sun, clothed in shade and grass, a weary traveler, admiring stillness, an apathy of tranquility, Only to awaken in the morning, ignited inferno, about-face to my reflection, implosion of the monotony and a prison break towards Change…

This is the story of my UX journey. This is where I plan to go — The human experience is not a monolith, and it’s just as evident in the design work we do as it is in our own design journeys. You never know where you’ll get to plant yourself and flourish; you never know which door(s) will open for you to walk through. My…

How might we restructure NASA SEWP’s website to be more appealing and intuitive? — Some time ago, I applied to a UI Designer role at NASA SEWP (Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement), a subdivision of NASA that government agencies can work with to purchase and secure IT-related goods and services. …