Too long, didn't read:
My name is Christina Valentino, I hold a Bachelor's degree from OCAD University and I live for UX/UI design. Specifically, service design allows me to think about problems beyond profits and revenue generation. I enjoy improving workflows, raising the bar for accessibility standards, and enhancing user's day-to-day practices to meet their goals.
The full story:
My name is Christina Valentino and my journey began in OCAD University's Advertising program where fell in love with creative problem solving. As much as I enjoyed and excelled in those 4 years (graduated with distinction, woohoo!), I could not envision myself in the advertising world.
While working at a start-up with a role in marketing/graphic design, a UX designer's absence was an opportunity for me to give it a shot. Target personas, consumer needs, technical constraints, goals, research, deployment planning and working in budgets were all skills I practiced in Advertising (hmmm what a coincidence).
When I started to peak interest new features being added to apps and websites on my free time and analyzing them (very nerdy, I know), I knew it was meant to be! UX/UI design allows me to be creative in logical ways. I hold no singular style of design. I immerse myself into the brand and empathize with my users through the entire journey.
I consider myself a very logical creative. I seek clear problems, gaps, growth opportunities, accessibility barriers, setting up initial KIPs (learned my lesson with this one) and research to back up my design choices. Through my career, I have been able to conduct user research through various methods such as surveys, feedback forms, user interviews and having users reach out to me directly.
I work in agile teams where I see my designs and research come to life in the full UX development cycle. While user research is my main driver when designing, gathering feedback and critique from my own team is just as important to practice. I take initiative to gather critique from my team to ensure open communication is being practiced from start to finish (I always make sure my team knows that no feelings will ever be hurt here...you want me to re-do it all? Doing it right noww!!!).
Service design excites me. I can solve real-world barriers that impact people's day-to-day necessities. I don't want to only drive profits for an institution; I want to help the everyday citizen reach their best potential through efficient, helpful, smooth and accessible UX/UI design.