The Useful Interface
Designer of Experiences & Interfaces. Illustrator. Wearer of Cat Shirts.
Designer of Experiences & Interfaces. Illustrator. Wearer of Cat Shirts.
I’ve been in the business of visual communication for the past 10+ years. In that time I have worked in a variety of roles as an illustrator, book jacket designer, UI/UX designer, animator and programmer. On the surface these roles seem very different, but at the core they are all about communicating an idea quickly and effectively. That is what I do.
My process always starts with thumbnails and sketches. From there I test out what I’m thinking against a few people to figure out if I need to refine further. If my designs are successful I move on to finals, production,example documents and prototypes to help guide engineers on everything from styling to transitions.
Some of the companies I have brought my talents to are Hasbro, MIT, Harmonix, Farrar Straus and Giroux, Scholastic and Macmillian. In addition to these companies,I frequently work with smaller start ups like Navitome, Earplay and Superhealos who need someone that is a bit of a one-stop-shop in regards to services. Regardless of the size or scope of the project I always bring a keen eye and an innate ability to gauge experience from a variety user’s perspectives.
When I'm not working I'm an avid cyclist, triathlete, snowboarder and lover of a good amount of ice cream after a long ride.
Doctor Who: Pocket Paradox was a Character Collector mobile RPG and spiritual successor to Star Trek: Timelines. I was brought on as the Lead UI/UX Designer for the project where I used Sketch to create UX Wireframes, Styleguide Libraries and led a small team of designers. Unfortunately Disruptor Beam fell apart and the project was cancelled before it could be launched.
I was contracted by Rocket Farm Studios to handle UX and UI for the Gigsmart App, a gig app directed at blue collar jobs in the Pittsburgh area. I took the initial wireframes and fleshed them out fully with expansions on the first time user experience, account creation, onboarding and list features (swiping for quick controls). All of my wireframing and designs were created in Adobe XD, Sketch and Zeplin.
Star Trek Timelines is a Character Collector mobile RPG for iOS, Android, Facebook and now Windows. It has been running strong for near four years now and continues to improve and add new features for an avid fanbase.
I came onto the project and quickly began modernizing the out-of-date Sketch libraries and taking quality of life features including: modernizing mission results, unifying scrolling elements in daily missions, fixing scaling issues causing text to be illegible and new iconography. In addition to this I handled the UX and UI for a new Campaign feature which incorporates a battle pass feature. Ultimately this feature was highly successful and increased revenue as well as improving user engagement.
Walking Dead: March to War was a mobile War Game for iOS and Android incorporating a survivor collector mechanic to differentiate it from other titles in the genre. I brought my technical expertise to the project creating shaders, building transitions for the majority of in game panels, building particle effects for celebration moments and scripting complex UI animations and panels when no engineers were available for QOL features. In addition to this I handled the UX and UI design of Elite Survivor selection, In-Game Mail and Weekly Events.
Navitome is a unique web application where authors can make actionable, step by step process guides for internal purposes, onboarding new hires or even technical support.
My role on the project was the primary UI/UX designer. In this role I reworked core sections of the application as well as developed new features. I concepted and designed all marketing materials including: posters, pamphlets and one pagers. Additionally, I redesigned and programmed the new corporate website for Navitome as well as their sister company, Exceptional Lives.
Earplay is a start up company that combines top-notch storytelling with industry leading narrative designers of the gaming industry. What you get is cutting-edge interactive stories you can play with your voice.
Earplay brought me on early as a brand, UI and UX designer. In this part of the project I helped out specifically with investor materials, logo design and UI flow/design of the prototype story player application.
Rock Band Blitz is a different take on the Rock Band franchise favoring standard controllers over the iconic plastic instruments. Having this as an option, I was able to create a wheel style menu system allowing users to hop from the store to their song list in a few seconds as opposed to a linear heriarchical one which took significantly more effort but felt more natural using the guitar. Admittedly This was a bit of a risk since it was so drastically different from the other menu systems in the franchise but through a prototype I constructed in Flash, combined with user testing, it showed great promise. Ultimately the menus were a success leading to that rare occassion where a reviewer actually complimented the menus. Blitz was released on Xbox 360 and PS3 in the summer of 2012.
On this I was the primary UI and UX designer for the game's menu systems barring background illustrations (Jacques Peña) and game iconography (Colby Grenier). In addition to this I did light 3D work, scripted UI effects, animated transitions and built the menus using the Harmonix proprietary game engine.
Go Home Dinosaurs is a fun, light hearted tower defense title with collectable cards and puzzle like elements. Working on this game was a unique experience as we were actively developing the engine for it as we created content. This presented an interesting challenge working with developers to refine or implement systems and pioneer art pipelines for the project with little to no support.
. Much of my focus on this project was iconography, menus, 2D illustration of HUD elements, fontography, logo design and UX design of the loadout / pre-game screens.
Interested in working with me on a project? Are you a student or new to the art field looking for some advice? Want to just say you appreciate my work? All inquiries are welcome, send your messages to and I will get back to you shortly.
