About Me

Hi there! I am Sarah, a Senior UX Designer originally from Austin, Texas, currently residing in the beautiful city of Zurich, Switzerland. From a young age, I have been passionate about technology and design, and I have always been intrigued by the way design elements interact with each other to create beautiful and functional experiences. 

 

After completing my Graphic Design degree, I pursued a career in the apparel and e-commerce industry, working as a Graphic Designer. However, I quickly realized that I wanted to make a bigger impact beyond just aesthetics, and found my true calling in UX. To gain the necessary skills, I enrolled in a UX bootcamp through CareerFoundry, which I completed as one of the top students. Following the bootcamp, I left my job and embarked on a freelancing journey, traveling throughout Southeast Asia. This experience taught me valuable lessons in managing my own business while immersing myself in different cultures and collaborating with locals to help grow their businesses.

While freelancing was a rewarding experience, I missed working in a collaborative team environment, which led me to transition to a role at a strategic-design agency. Here, I had the opportunity to work on various projects and discovered my interest in accessibility while working with various government and healthcare clients. Currently, I am working as a Senior UX Designer at Indeed, the world’s leading job site, leveraging my decade-long career’s wealth of experience and skills.

My design philosophy emphasizes the importance of collaboration. I believe that the best designs emerge from a diverse group of people working together to solve problems. To achieve this, I involve engineers, product managers, researchers, and other stakeholders early in the design process, ensuring that designs are inclusive, accessible, and feasible to build. This approach fosters a more efficient and effective development process.

Collaboration extends beyond involving others in the design process. My communication and leadership skills enable me to influence teams and align everyone toward a common goal. I establish streamlined processes for effective communication and decision-making, guiding teams to achieve successful outcomes that cater to both business goals and user needs.

In my free time, you can find me recharging in nature on a trail run, exploring my personal style through fashion, and acquiring new plants to add to my collection. Most recently, I’ve been learning German and finding joy in the challenge of mastering a new language. Above all, I am passionate about what I do, and I am always seeking to be challenged and inspired in both my personal and work life. I bring forth my experience and skills in technology, art, and communication while practicing the design process to create intuitive and delightful products.

Please feel free to get in touch regarding employment, collaboration or just about general life.

Speaking at Austin Design Week 2018 closing event on Locking Bias Out: What It’s Like Navigating the Design Space Today


My Resume

Work Experience

UX Designer
Indeed
December 2019-

Design for employers, account management and email communications to create an end-to-end user experience.

Sr. Experience Designer
Drawn
January 2018-August 2019

During my time at Drawn, a design-strategy agency, I have had the opportunity to solve many problems using my UX skills such as the microanimations to delight a user on an app tracking your carbon footprint, an accessible white label design system for state-level government agencies built on Angular Material, user flows for a complex VR educational experience for children with sickle-cell disease, and many more challenging projects. I oversee the design process end-to-end during product development while collaborating with engineers and researchers to validate our design decisions to ensure we are creating the best products. I also managed interns in partnership with the University of Texas.

Freelance Designer
Overton Designs
May 2012-January 2018

I have worked with clients such as EverlyWell, Gyde App and the Texas Department of Health and Human Service. I’ve worked with agencies, design studios and also taken on solo projects. The work has been primarily focused on accessibility, responsive design, interaction design, UI design and prototyping.

Lead Visual Designer
chicka-d
August 2014-May 2017

chicka-d specializes in wholesale brands that produce licensed apparel and accessories. During my time at chicka-d, I created a process for managing thousands of production art to be organized and systematically categorized. This process was adopted company-wide and introduced to two other affiliated companies: The Honour Society and Woolly Threads. As the Lead Visual Designer, I designed and developed the brand identity, textile designs, seasonal print material, e-commerce sites, and managed processes for Production Artists to ensure the quality and accuracy of files that were created while communicating with factories overseas.

Design Intern
lookthinkmake
January 2012-May 2012

Assisted with the development of advertising, marketing collateral, printed materials, and web graphics. Worked with the Art Director to develop design briefs and client presentations.

Education

Immersive UX Design Bootcamp
CareerFoundry
May 2016-November 2016
*Nominated as one of the top students of 2016

Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design
St. Edward’s University
August 2008-May 2012

Visual Communication Design
Massey University – Wellington, New Zealand
2011

Community

Diversity + Inclusion Ambassador
fresh2design
August 2017-

Technical

  • Sketch
  • Illustrator
  • Photoshop
  • InDesign
  • Adobe XD
  • Premiere
  • Figma
  • Invision
  • UXPin
  • Zeplin
  • HTML/CSS
  • Wordpress

Skills

  • Visual Design
  • Branding Design
  • Responsive Design
  • Agile Design
  • Accessibility
  • User Interviews
  • Personas
  • Wireframing
  • Rapid Prototyping
  • Usability Testing
  • Affinity Mapping
  • Journey Mapping
  • Video Editing
  • Atomic Design

My Career Journey


My References

“Sarah is a very fast learner, adept at integrating new tools, methods, and frameworks into her design process as necessitated by the project and project team. I worked on a complex embedded-team engagement with Sarah on behalf of an equally complex organization, during which time it was an absolute pleasure to collaborate with Sarah on the nascent stages of a Design Language System, the maturation of which we incorporated into a multi-track agile development process.”
Adam Zeiner, Interaction Designer @ The Design Institute for Health

“From the first conversation we had as Mentor / Mentee (via CareerFoundry) I knew Sarah GOT IT. I hired her as soon as I was in a position to do so! She’s a thoughtful, creative designer with an eye for detail. I believe the goodness she works to cultivate in her personal life also permeates her work life, making her an exquisitely uplifting asset to a collaborative team environment. I loved working with Sarah, and would do so again in a heartbeat!”
Erica Ryan, UX Lead – North America @ Khoros


Fun Facts

  • I helped start a fundraiser to get 24/7 home care for Richard Overton, who was the oldest living man in the United States and the oldest living WWII Veteran. Over two years we raised over $450,000 to ensure he could spend his finals days in his home of 70+ years. He passed away in December 2018 at the young age of 112.
  • I spent a year freelancing around the world being a digital nomad visiting Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and New Zealand. During this time, I managed to use my design skills to help improve businesses digital presence while learning about their culture.
  • At the age of ten I was on Oprah saying "I want to be a Mechanical Engineer when I grow up". Although, I am not a Mechanical Engineer now I am thoroughly satisfied with being a UX Designer - it combines my love of science research and beautiful aesthetics.