I'm Eleanor, a UX and Service Designer working in civic tech. I live in Seattle and am a graduate of the Masters of Human Computer Interaction + Design program at the University of Washington.
Sometimes people are surprised to learn that my undergraduate degree is in political science. But if you work in UX design you may have come to the same conclusion I have – computers are the easy part, it's understanding humans that is difficult. I credit a lot of my critical thinking and research skills back to my foundation in the liberal arts and what I call *the art of asking the right question*.
After undergrad, I volunteered as a digital literacy teacher at an adult English language school in my neighborhood. I spent a lot of my time watching my students struggle through poorly designed technology that was meant to make their lives easier...but was doing the opposite.
Frustrated but seeing an opportunity, in 2018 I enrolled in the University of Washington's Masters in Human-Computer Interaction + Design program, where I enjoyed delving into both UX research and design alongside service design, prototyping, and even some physical computing (but please don't quiz me on how to make a circuit).
From there I went to Redfin, where I designed pricing tools for agents. Working on a new business venture let me wear a number of hats on top of designer: conducting my own UX research, working closely with our field and product leaders on the product roadmap, and collaborating with our Machine Learning team to best combine modeling and agent expertise.
I'm now at A1M Solutions where I'm using my strengths in systems thinking and full design process to deploy Service Design in the Medicare/Medicaid space.
In my free time you can find me hiking up my favorite PNW volcanos and skiing down them, or lying on my couch tearing through old NYT crossword puzzles.