About Me
All about my education, career, process, skillset, and contributions to the UX community.
“Morgan’s attention to detail, ability to hit deadlines and engaging personality make her a delight to have on any project…
Her input and focus on user experience were integral to project success. On these projects, she skillfully balanced an optimal user experience with the technical and business cost of implementation.”
– Chris woodruff, Sr. Project Manager
A Not-So-Traditional Path to UX
I was freelance writing and in my master’s program for teaching when I found UX. My focus was on globalization and technology in the classroom, thinking I would teach English here and abroad.
When I graduated, I decided to focus on technology to make it easy for all users, not just those in the classroom.
Masters in Teaching
21st Century Skills (technology and globalization)
Study abroad: Universidade Federal do Parana, Brazil
Bachelor of Arts
Mass Communication and Social Issues
Professional Writing Minor
Professional Development
DesignOps: Scaling UX Design and User Research
Design Tradeoffs and UX Decision Frameworks
(Nielsen Norman Group, UX Management Specialty)
“Morgan is most enthusiastic and passionate about designing great user experiences. She’s a huge advocate and defender of the digital user.
She learns very quickly, picking up on banking processes and terminology within her first few weeks.
Morgan understands how to provide the best possible user experience while balancing business stakeholder goals, and technical constraints.
She works well with a variety of personality types, and brings a good sense of humor to the job each day. I hope to work with her again.”
The Process
I’ve integrated this general flow in agile, lean, and waterfall environments (including dual-tracking Jira boards to view process and progress).
Discover
De-Risk
Design
Determine
Deliver
My Skillset
After 15 years in the field (many as a contractor and consultant), I’ve honed skills in many areas – and realize there’s always more to learn.
I’m a T-shaped designer with deep knowledge in strategy (connecting dots), innovation (finding new opportunities), and information architecture (organizing information) – all of which are heavy in research.
I’ve also built design systems – and branded startups and small businesses – however it’s the creative problem-solving that really gets me excited about the work.
The messier the problem, the happier I am.
Recommendations
These people risked their reputation on LinkedIn to vouch for me.
“She approaches every problem that can be solved as a challenge and never hesitates to put in additional time or effort to deliver better results.
She brings her expertise in human-centered design and systems-thinking to the table. Is a great mentor and a cheerful team member to have.
What stood out to me the most about her is her ability to navigate ambiguity with ease and her willingness to teach. ”
“Morgan was pulled onto our team to flesh out use-case stories for a new product concept… She listened to what others were saying, engaged in useful conversation, and helped extract the ideas that were in people’s heads.
Morgan’s approach was quite inviting, observational, and conversational. Much of her background experience added to her ability to engage us in useful and intelligent discussion. Her people skills are as tremendous as her technical skills.”
“Morgan is a UX Wizard… I can count on Morgan to take my requirements or even just a quick one liner, and come back with a strategic, thoughtful and exceptional user experience.
Her designs are intuitive and she has a strong eye for what our users need.”
Speaking Engagements
Local design organizations have asked me to speak about multiple aspects of UX / website design and digital processes.
Data-Driven Storytelling (Tuscarawas Arts Partnership, 2020)
UX Framework (Interaction Design Association, 2019)
Be Prepared: Less Stress and More Success for Digital Products (Columbus Web Group 2017)
What Your Website Needs (Business of Art, 2018)