Bella McLaws

Bella McLaws,
Freelance designer.

Experience

I spend my days doing freelance projects and taking care of my twin boys. Before that, I was:

- UX Consultant at Adobe (2 yrs)

- Graphic Designer at BYU Athletics (1 yr)

- Graphic Designer at Tute Genomics (UT biotech startup) (1 yr)

- Lead Student Photographer at BYU Photo (3 yrs)

Why UX design

I always knew I would be a designer, but while working at my first job in a graphic design studio I realized that print design often lacks flexibility; I didn't like that I couldn't revisit a project after its completion or have any true measure of its success in the world. UX Design provides the perfect blend of aesthetic challenge and user-centered problem-solving.

In my most recent role at Adobe, I worked to incorporate data into my design process as I helped Fortune 500 companies better their digital experiences.

These days, I blend the things I've learned into an iterative, people-centered design process that blends deep, honest inquiry with qualitative and quantitative data to arrive at thoughtful solutions for my freelance clients.

You can learn a lot about someone based on what they consume. Here are some of my recent...

Reads (books)
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The Architecture of Happiness
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of WWII
The Hidden Life of Trees
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Product Design for the Web

Listens (podcasts)
99% Invisible
Hidden Brain
Radiolab
Freakonomics Radio
Design Matters
More Perfect

Trains of thought (topics of interest)
Therapeutic landscapes
Wildfires / fire management
Attention restoration theory
Native pollinator habitat restoration
Alleviation of food deserts

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