Meet Jade Goodwin-Carter, a talented tech enthusiast, UX maestro, and visual designer at Do Tank. Or, should we say, re-meet Jade Goodwin-Carter?
If you’ve partnered with us in the past, there’s no doubt you’ve encountered Jade through her work. Across our playbooks, workshops, and canvases, Jade’s UX-minded artistry expertly guides participants to the information they need.
The result? A win-win scenario. You spend less time warming up and more time crafting innovative solutions with engaging visuals. Call it: Pretty with a purpose.
Jade recently attended the Lesbians Who Tech & Allies :: Queer. Inclusive. Badass. Conference in San Francisco. We caught up with her to hear about the fresh UX ideas she’s pinned on her drawing board. Here’s a summary of our conversation.
Where do visual and business design meet?
Visual design is how you present your business to the world. Most people who come into contact with your business are not your clients. However, if everyone you reach understands what your business does, you start to grow the pool of possible clients. This is especially true in a world with so much visual competition.
On an average day, countless ideas are competing for your eyes. As a visual designer, you have a tiny window to hold someone’s attention long enough to inspire action. Every element counts.
Visual design is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It’s like a first impression, and it’s essential to maximizing your business’s effectiveness.
As a designer, what excites you about a new UX project?
It’s all about the challenge; finding tension inside the message and communicating it to the audience. There are many ways to skin a cat.
“There are always multiple ways to solve a UX problem.”
There are always multiple ways to solve a UX problem. Exploring the different avenues of that problem, eliminating the pros and cons of each solution, and examining past approaches are the most gratifying parts of UX design.
What do clients not know about UX design?
There are a lot of things that clients tend not to know about UX. The most common? Research. When talking to a client about target audiences, assumptions get tossed around. That’s because everyone’s visual preferences and stylistic desires are different.
When planning a project, you must have more than just the persona of whom you’re selling to in mind. You need to understand that person, their desires, and how those desires differ from yours. You can’t ignore the end goal.
How do you see the future of UX and visual design?
I am cautiously optimistic about the future of UX and design. As technology becomes more advanced and integrated into our daily lives, the possibilities keep expanding. The pace of technology frightens me because of a lack of oversight. When I see innovative tech, I ask myself: Is this growth in a good direction? Will this have a positive impact on society?
Lesbians Who Tech? What did you learn?
I had an excellent and informative time at the Lesbians Who Tech Conference. The event solidified how we can better incorporate equity, diversity, and inclusion at Do Tank. I’m more educated about what’s possible, what’s necessary, and how much I have yet to learn.
Could you elaborate on a recent design success?
We just closed a project with a fabulous healthcare client. The challenge was creating activities and curriculum for the second day of a two-day program that has been historically un-engaging. Participants took part in the program because they had to, not because they wanted to—which is a bummer because their objective was to affect change within a healthcare system.
We set out to make the program more engaging, create activities with compelling visuals, and assure people left knowing what their next steps are and excited to take action. We went back and forth for months, working with business and visual designers to prepare.
After testing the curriculum, we know we had a hit. We sorted out lots of bugs and solidified what worked well. Testing let us validate that our changes positively affected the goal: Keeping participants engaged and simplifying complex language around the next steps.
One workshop facilitator noted: “In the twelve years of running this program, this was the most engaged team we’ve ever had.” That felt amazing.
I’m always drawn to people who are passionate about their work. Helping people make sense of that work is the most rewarding part of my job.
Ready for Jade Goodwin-Carter to supercharge your next project? Reach out at dotankdo.com or on Linkedin!
