Hi, I’m Emily.
My Work
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Helping Minority businesses with UX
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Modernizing Library Processes with Libby
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Gamifying SHEETz’ Reward Program
How do I explain what I do at a party? The short version is that I humanize technology.
– Fred Beecher, Director of UX, The Nerdery
Welcome to my portfolio!
I am a Senior Product Designer dedicated to creating digital experiences that are as intuitive as they are impactful. I believe that great design is the bridge between complex human needs and sustainable business growth.
My approach focuses on human-centered design — ensuring that even the most sophisticated systems remain accessible and usable. In practice, this looks like:
Strategic Alignment: Bridging the gap between high-level business objectives and user needs to translate vision into clear, actionable, and data-driven product strategies.
Scalable Design Systems: Building and managing robust design systems through the creation of reusable components and patterns that ensure visual consistency and increase engineering velocity.
Inclusive Excellence: Serving as a dedicated accessibility advocate, integrating WCAG standards into the core design lifecycle to ensure products are equitable for every user.
AI-Optimized Workflows: Pioneering the integration of AI tools—including Microsoft Copilot—to automate repetitive tasks, streamline handoffs, and maximize design efficiency.
Evidence-Based Design: Leading the transition from "gut feeling" to "grounded evidence" by testing hypotheses with real users and iterating based on measurable results.
By balancing empathy with technical feasibility and business logic, I help teams build products that don't just work—they thrive.
Education
Maryland Institute College of Art
Masters degree in User Experience Design
May 2020 – August 2021
Ohio University
Bachelors degree in Visual Communications
August 2014 – May 2018
Experience
Northwestern Mutual
Aug. 2021 – Present
Senior Product Designer
(Promoted from Contract UX Designer, July 2022)
Intranet Replatforming & Strategy: Spearheaded the end-to-end design strategy for migrating the enterprise employee intranet from SharePoint to Optimizely, translating complex stakeholder requirements into a modernized, user-centric product ecosystem.
Systemic Scalability: Architected and maintained the Digital Commons design system, delivering a robust library of reusable components and patterns that standardized the UI and significantly reduced engineering velocity.
Inclusive Excellence: Directed comprehensive WCAG 2.1 audits and technical remediation for the portal, ensuring equitable digital experiences for a diverse, nationwide workforce of 10,000+ employees.
AI Workflow Integration: Pioneered the adoption of Microsoft Copilot in a departmental pilot, leveraging AI to automate documentation and synthesize research data to accelerate the design-to-prototype cycle.
Technical Execution & Leadership: Facilitated cross-functional design thinking workshops and delivered high-precision Figma hand-offs, aligning Business Analysts and Engineering teams on a unified product roadmap.
Visual Designer
(Contract, Aug 2021 – Dec 2021)
Translated research insights into user-centric mockups and interactive prototypes for the Digital Commons platform, ensuring brand cohesion and usability across new portal features.
Bully Pulpit Interactive
August 2020 – December 2024
Freelance Designer
Collaborated with cross-functional agency teams to execute high-impact digital campaigns for clients including the Biden-Harris Campaign, ACLU, and AT&T.
Delivered rapid-turnaround visual assets and interactive social media content optimized for high-volume user engagement and national reach.
General Electric
(GE Aerospace)
May 2019 – July 2020
Digital Communications Specialist
Designed and prototyped customer-facing product pages for the GE Aerospace website, focusing on information architecture and user journey optimization.
Developed multi-channel digital campaigns to support global product launches and internal engagement.
Skills
Design & Strategy
Product Strategy: Bridging business goals with user needs to define roadmaps and product North Stars.
Design Systems: Architecting and maintaining scalable component libraries to ensure consistency and development velocity.
End-to-End UX/UI: From high-level information architecture and journey mapping to high-fidelity, interactive prototyping in Figma.
Inclusive Design: Specialized in accessibility (WCAG 2.1) audits, remediation, and universal design principles.
User Research: Leading usability testing, hypothesis validation, and translating raw data into actionable insights.
Tools & Emerging Tech
AI Integration: Expert in leveraging Microsoft Copilot and AI-augmented workflows to optimize design production and research synthesis.
Design Tools: Mastery of Figma and Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro).
Platforms: Experience designing for enterprise CMS environments including Optimizely and SharePoint.
Leadership & Collaboration
Cross-Functional Leadership: Facilitating design thinking workshops and aligning stakeholders across Product, Engineering, and Business teams.
Agile Methodology: Working within rapid-iteration cycles and managing seamless hand-offs to developers and BAs.
Let’s work together.
Interested in working together? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly!
We can't wait to hear from you!