A quick background!
I'm Wilson (he/they), and I'm currently getting my Master's in Human-Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington.
Prior to this, I graduated from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor's in Computer Science, where I specialized in Media and People.
Q: Why switch from CS to UX?
One of the core principles that my CS education taught me was that technologies and users are entangled in an inseparable web of interactions and effects. In the latter half of my degree, I became acutely aware of that fact.
I believed that I would have more impact by pivoting to user experience, where I could directly understand users and use these insights to drive more purposeful product direction. My background in engineering helps me understand technical limitations and allows me to communicate effectively across teams.
My philosophy.
My approach to UX is informed by the belief that technologies cannot be understood through engineering alone. It's only by including the people both directly and indirectly affected by the artifacts we create that we can start the good work. My priorities lie in empowering communities with solutions that are useful and usable, and addressing our duty to be good stewards of the experiences we deliver.
Other things I'm doing right now!
I'm so glad you asked :D!
There's a lot of really exciting things taking up my time this winter. Even though they're not yet in a state where I can place them on my portfolio as proper case studies, I think they're really cool and I do want to share what's happening right now.
I'm...
- Working on a sponsored project with Duo Security (the 2FA service, not the language app)! We're in the process of designing and conducting a usability test on their mobile experience.
- Learning about physical computing and prototyping! This is my first real expedition into using sensors, breadboards, and Arduinos to create tangible prototypes. We made a traffic light on the first day!
- Doing academic research with PhD student Nina Lutz on Latin American Migration and Election Imagery! As part of the quantitative research team, I'm currently figuring out how to create and use scripts in Python to detect whether images have been manipulated (image forensics!)
We're connecting our Arduinos up to a real Seattle traffic light here!