2013 - ‘16: Early UX Experience at The Hamilton Project
Economic Data & Interactive Features
During my time as a Web Coordinator for The Hamilton Project at Brookings (2013 - 2016), I collaborated with front-end and back-end developers, statiscians, and economists to create interactive features and tools that displayed compelling economic data. Many of these tools were shared widely on major news publications. This was my earliest exposure to user experience design and research.
For these projects, I contributed by:
providing project requirements and key stakeholder feedback;
providing hand drawn wireframes or simple visuals created in Canva or Sketch;
suggesting ideas to improve usability;
user testing
The links below show the projects I contributed to during my time at THP:
For this interactive feature on THP’s website, I provided a wireframe identifying content to show on hover, drop down menu ittems, and clickable thumbnails to change the view.
THP Website Redesign Project
In 2014, THP’s independent website was redesigned. These efforts were led by the Communications Manager and myself. We collaborated closely with an independent UX Designer and frontend web developer to provide direction on the project. In this project, I was responsible for:
auditing all of the content on the website
recategorizing content labels and tags
making decisions about imagery and use of color
general proofreading, copy editing, and drafting policy brief information
user testing
staekholder feedback
created wireframes using Sketch to design page layouts for video and article content
In 2015, I continued to develop my newfound UX skillset by enrolling in a 12-week immersive UX professional training cohort at The General Assembly in D.C., sponsored by THP. Shortly after, I departed THP and got my first job as a UX Designer.
