Design that compiles.
Twenty years in, I still write production HTML5 & CSS3, build prototypes in real code, and pair with engineers. The handoff isn't a wall — it's a conversation, and half the time I'm on both sides of it. Designs that account for the medium ship faster and break less.
Compressed, not cheapened.
AI didn't replace my process — it collapsed the slow parts. Research synthesis, ten exploration directions, code scaffolding — done in the time one used to take. I bring the human judgment to the decisions that matter, and the craft bar keeps going up while the timeline comes down.
Eight phases, one straight line.
Discovery & Alignment
Before a single pixel: what's the business actually trying to move, and how will we know we did? I run stakeholder workshops, pin down success metrics and constraints, and write the brief everyone signs off on. Alignment here is the cheapest it will ever be.
Research & Requirements
User interviews, competitive audits, analytics, support tickets — the evidence. This is where AI earns its keep: I cluster interview transcripts and feedback into themes in an afternoon instead of a fortnight, then bring human judgment to what the patterns actually mean.
Information Architecture
Structure before surface. I inventory the content, map the flows, and model the navigation so the product makes sense before it looks like anything. Get the bones right and every later phase moves faster — get them wrong and no amount of visual polish saves it.
Wireframing & UX
Low-fidelity layouts that pressure-test interaction patterns and edge cases before the visuals can hide them. I use AI to spin up ten structural variations and stress flows quickly — then it's human taste that picks the one with the strongest experience strategy underneath.
Visual Design & Design Systems
Now the look and feel — type, color, motion, hierarchy — layered onto a structure that already works. I don't design screens, I build the system: tokens and components the whole team ships on, accessible to WCAG AA, consistent across every surface.
Prototyping
Static comps lie about feel. I build clickable prototypes — frequently in real code, not just Figma — so timing, motion, and responsiveness get tested for true. AI scaffolds the boilerplate; I shape the interaction. Stakeholders touch the thing, not a slideshow of it.
Front-end Development & Handoff
This is the part most design leaders skip — I don't. I write production HTML5 & CSS3, deliver responsive, standards-based front-end, and pair with engineers through implementation. Because I speak their language, the design that ships is the design that was approved.
Test, Ship & Measure
Usability testing, QA, launch — then back to the metrics we set in phase 00. Did it move the number? The loop doesn't end at ship; it feeds the next iteration. A process that can't measure its own outcome is just decoration.