Everything's bigger in Texas. Desktop's become 55″ displays. Credentials become careers, at least at TSTC.
read case studyIn the AI era, how will our interactions with computers change? I can't show you, but let's talk about it.
read case studyFor the past year, I've worked within a multidiscpilinary team to concept dozens of AI-powered features and frameworks for (NDA); grounding them in the way people perceive, understand and decide —asking how we might make the unfamiliar intuitive.
1. What does it mean to design for (and with) understanding?
2. When anything can become anything, what's the right thing?
3. If information is valuable to the extent you're able to use it, how might we make information more useful?
4. How might we improve understanding in the exchanges between users and AI tools?
5. How might content transform across mediums to better support varied interests, intents and goals?
6. What would a flattened web look like?
7. How might we meaningfully accelerate people in their day to day workflows?
8. How might AI tools enable and empower instead of co-opt and compete?
9. For AI tools, when is it best to provide convenience? Control? Proactiveness? Reactiveness?
10. At which point does doing something become doing too much?
11. In a world of generated content, where's the value in you and I?
I've helped shape the strategic and conceptual backbone for my teams work— often taking a lead role in idea generation, opportunity framing, and the translation of abstract concepts into frameworks and interaction models.
And of course, with such a focus on new ideas, I've also spent a lot of time discussing, explaining and presenting, which has been a significant source of growth for me.
The only certainty is change. I'm not sure who said that, but I know I've heard it — and it rings especially true here.
When I first started in UX, I used powerpoint to create wireframes. Now, I can use ChatGPT. That doesn't mean I should — but I could. And in that is my first lesson.
It's clear that the AI landscape is changing and changing fast. Zooming out, the design landscape. Zooming out more, the creator landscape. And across all of those perspectives is the importance of knowing (or at least trying to know) what's possible.
So i've learned to ask, at this moment, what can be done? If I don't know, I seek the answer. I read the article. I watch the video. I take the course.
I've learned to embrace this as part of the job. Sometimes, I think it actually is the job.
Which brings me to the second lesson.
More important than the fact that something could be done, is why it would be done.
So I think, do I need a hammer? Or do I need to fasten a nail into a wall? Do I need a nail? Or do I need to hang a painting? But why the painting? And so on and on until the core, until the why.
This is what good design has always been—tracing solutions back to intention, back to perception, back to understanding.
So somehow, even though so much has changed, nothing has changed. We’re still just trying to solve (someones) meaningful problem, and AI is our newest lens for seeing how.
I led UX design for two interactive stations within the Texas State Technical College (TSTC) Welcome Center, helping prospective students bridge the gap between their education and career.
Stepping outside of laptops and phones, this work was showcased on several 55″ displays, requiring a mix of UX, spatial, and accessible design thinking —earning positive reviews from our client and an expansion to other campuses.
Finish high school. Go to college. Get a job. It's the well-worn promise of traditional post-secondary education. And for many students, a broken promise that leaves them to figure out how their credentials connect to potential careers.
In Waco Texas, however, they're drinking a different kind of kool-aid. TSTC looks more like a hands-on workshop than a lecture hall—rows of welding stations, utility poles, and students in work boots instead of backpacks.
The staff here have one mission. Help more Texans land well-paying jobs. But first, Texans need to know about it. Better yet, they need to see the opportunity.
Design and build two interactive stations within TSTC’s new Welcome Center—raising awareness to the school’s mission and wide range of programs, elevating the brand’s perception, and positioning TSTC as a launching pad for real careers in the eyes of prospective students.
I led UX for both interactive stations, translating strategic insights, user research, and accessibility best practices into the core UX artifacts that shaped the multi-screen, large-format interactive experience.
Before designing anything, we needed to understand TSTC at its core, asking:
1. Who are they?
2. Who do they serve?
3. What makes them different?
Over the course of two full day workshops, we investigated these questions with TSTC stakeholders, exploring their goals, their vision for the Welcome Center, and the diverse audiences they hoped to reach.
These conversations gave us both empathy and direction—clarifying the needs, anxieties, and motivations of future students, surfacing the key business goals and messages that would shape the story this space needed to tell.
With the workshop insights in hand, my next move was to translate them into something the client and internal team could align behind.
Working closely with our strategist, I scanned through the summary notes, asking:
1. What information are users searching for?
2. What already exists?
3. What structures would best support the experience?
Then, with the answers to those questions as context, I plotted story beats, defined an information architecture, and developed three personas from our initial mindsets.
With the foundation in place, we shifted into execution—designing a responsive, accessible experience for large-format touchscreens that brought TSTC’s story, programs, and career paths to life.
I created a clickable prototype and tested it with university students, co-writing the testing script, observing the session, and translating the results into actionable takeaways for the team.
We designed a system that supported both local and global movement. Users could see where they were and shift between industries and programs easily. Contextual tags like “popular” or “high earning” guided exploration.
Designing for a fixed-height touchscreen meant no vertical scroll. I researched ADA standards and real-world examples—walking malls and reading accessibility white papers—to make the experience inclusive.This led to one of my proudest contributions: an accessibility toggle that let users lower the interface for easier reach.
We used cards, carousels, and tabs to accommodate videos, data, testimonials, and text—delivering rich content without overwhelming the screen.
We aimed for a look that was technologically forward, but still human. The TSTC star was even repurposed as a UI element. Visual design was fast-paced, collaborative, and constantly evolving.
Both stations launched in summer 2024. At a board dinner hosted in the Welcome Center, one of our lead stakeholders summed it up:
“People freaking love this place.”
And a few months later, TSTC reached out to extend the work to other campuses—a testament to the value of the experience we helped bring to life.
This was a big project with a big team, so it was rewarding to find my voice and contribute to something that blended content, interaction, and space.
I’m proudest of the thinking i did around accessibility. Designing for large displays was both a new experience for myself and others on the team, challenging me to embrace a new topic and lean into my skills as a facilitator. The whole team needed to be aligned, and it was my job to support that.
If I could work on this project again, I’d push for more testing with students before launch. Still, as a "MVP", it laid a strong foundation for future iterations.