Experience nerd, journey junkie

I've been a UI/UX Developer & Product Designer at Gendac for four years, working on many different projects, from internal tools in rugged, industrial spaces like mining all the way to public-facing fintech tools. My case studies go into a little more detail, and you can preview some of my process here.

I've worked in small teams and in larger corporate environments. Since I both design and build, I work across the whole team, from users and clients to other designers, developers, business analysts and QA testers. Getting to know people with different roles and perspectives is what makes my work so exciting. Along the way I've also enjoyed mentoring graduates, running workshops, attending university events and giving talks. You can see one of these experiences here.

I believe UX problems lie beyond the obvious, and usually far beyond the screen. That's why I prefer to start with the people: how they work, what they need and where they get stuck. From there, it's usually easier to understand what might be missing in a digital (or even physical) process. See what I mean in one of my case studies here.

Looking back, my love for UX started long before my professional career. When I was about seven, my birthday party flopped. We were all quite shy and nobody knew how to start talking, which made for an awkward situation. My next birthday was a year away, but you know whose was coming up? Our Jack Russell's. So I convinced my (very embarrassed) mum to let me throw a party for the dog. Pets were the one thing we could all happily talk about, so I figured this could be a way for us all to connect better. I built the activities around that, and this time even the parents got chatting.

This carried on into my adulthood. I always take care to look at who's coming and find ways to make it easier for them to engage, whether that's with the activity itself or with people they might not usually click with. At our wedding, my husband and I matched guests from very different backgrounds through short descriptions and hobby intros and sent them off to find each other. At my sister-in-law's bachelorette, guests who'd never met teamed up for a blindfolded game of building a Mr Potato Head version of the groom, and I've also hosted a mad-libs dinner with friends.

BIS Multimedia stands for Bachelor of Information Science (Multimedia). About 60% of the degree was shared with Computer Science students (everything from assembly to data structures and algorithms), and the rest was split between visual design, web and interaction design, and a little 3D graphics, animation and videography. During my studies I was awarded the best grade in the course, and our team won Best Game on project day.

You'll usually find me playing a good board game with friends, having a braai with family, enjoying a good cup of coffee, planning my next trip, playing guitar, petting any dog I come across or trying to convince cats to like me (whenever I get the chance). And, as you might have guessed, planning the next fun experience or event.

I've recently moved from Pretoria to Rotterdam and I'm taking Dutch lessons (Afrikaans helps with understanding, but I'm not conversational yet). I'm looking for a UX role, or something close to it, where I get to understand people and make the processes they're part of work better for them. If you think I'd be a good fit, I'd love to hear from you.