Learning from experience

I got an early start with computers.

From my first Apple IIe computer in 1984, I was always fascinated with software. I learned programming from books and experimentation, and received a scholarship to Purdue University for Computer Science.

Spending 5 years full time as a programmer, I honed my skills, but eventually found that I enjoyed designing software even more than building it.

After moving to Boise, and starting at ProClarity, I pitched the idea to my manager of starting a User Experience team, and built the team, handling all parts of the UX design process, including user research, UX design, user testing, visual design, implementation support, and optimization.

We sold ProClarity to Microsoft, and I was hired by Microsoft. There, I worked as a program manager, performing UX design and product management for the PerformancePoint, SharePoint, and Office teams. I worked on designs on web-browser based analysis tools.

I loved the idea of starting something with a small team again.

I was a cofounder of WhiteCloud Analytics, a software company in healthcare analytics. I helped build the company from 6 founders to about 45 employees.

I was the principal designer of all the commercial software, which measured provider behavior to improve cost and health outcomes. It saved millions of dollars for our clients and improved tens of thousands of lives. I was told by a chief quality officer at a large health system that the software I designed "saved lives". We successfully sold the company and I transitioned into head of user experience group at Relias, a healthcare education and analytics company.

Now I’m designing full time.

Enter Fancy Nerd Design. For 3 years now, I’ve been doing projects for startups and established companies that need a little extra UX help. I’ve found it’s so common that a small company doesn’t have the amount of work for a full-time designer, and a little extra help can make all the difference.

User Experience-Related Patents

US20080319822A1: Method and system for creating and trading schedules
US7765220B2: Data relevance filtering
WO2008147729A1: Data visualization (I dare you to try to figure out my invention from this patent, haha!)