Back in 2018 Figma was one of the few free design tools that worked on Mac and PC. I played around with it as I learned the basics of UI & mockup design. 

Today Figma is the new industry standard, and for good reason. It’s super collaborative, accessible from almost anywhere, and robust enough to tackle anything from lo-fi wireframes to hi-fidelity clickable prototypes.

I’m convinced that features like Auto-layout, component variables and cloud auto-saves save me hundreds of hours per year.

I graduated from the University of Houston in 2018, and joined the IT Consulting industry (at Avanade, a joint-venture between Accenture and Microsoft) as a Business/Functional Analyst. 2 years and 5 projects later, I transferred to the UX Design division at my firm. Nowadays I focus on the front-end experience of a product, but I never removed my Business Analyst hat.

Requirements Gathering skills turned into Design Thinking Sessions, knowing User Stories helped me inform my User Personas, and writing Documentation became writing design annotations for my DEV teams.

These skills allow me to design through ambiguity, even if the requirements are still TBD. Got a cool but unpolished idea? Let’s brainstorm, iterate and design it together!

As a senior designer, I’ve had the opportunity to lead junior UXers on 2 projects so far. When mentoring new designers, I try to pass on the importance of talking to clients in terms of value, not just design buzzwords. Everyone on a project might have the same goal, but people in different roles have different priorities, jargon, experiences, etc.

I’ve also had the privilege of having several mentors since college. I like paying it forward by volunteering as an alumni mentor and onboarding buddy every chance I get.

Many creatives I speak to are skeptical about generative AI, LLMs, and tech in general. It’s clear that policy is struggling to keep up with the rapid improvements of the technology, but in the meantime I feel it’s important to use generative AI tools to form my own opinions. So far, I’ve used Chat GPT , Adobe Firefly, Microsoft Copilot and more to:

• design a custom icon library (in SVG format) from scratch

• replace placeholder text (lorem ipsum) with realistic content for client-ready prototypes

• generate names and profile pictures for Persona Profiles

• ideate 5+ divergent page layouts to inspire my wireframing process

• learn the basics of audio editing with step-by-step guides for Adobe Audition

I don’t think AI will be “good enough” to automate all aspects of UX Design tomorrow, but it might be 5 years from now. By collaborating with intelligent systems today, I’ll be able to bring them into my design process tomorrow and beyond.