Hello, I'm Carnell Simon, UX Designer based in the Silicon Valley. Designing has always been a field that has intrigued my interest, I enjoy the entire process of bringing together ideas for the early stages of initial ideation. I often label myself as a creative due to my level of intrigue in the volume of anything that's design related. I know to truly be a great designer, that one must know how other disciplines of design interconnect to work together, whether it be visual, industrial, architectural, interaction or experience based. Designer Massimo Vignelli said “If you can design one thing, you can design everything” and I idolize this ideology to drive my interest in seeking design related knowledge. My approach to solving problems is often equal to my interest in examining existing solutions because many solutions are found not always created from scratch in life. I have a degree with a background in Sociology with a minor in Communications. With nearly three years spent with experience in marketing while using comprehensive structured courses to study the principles and fundamentals of visual design, information architecture and design thinking. I was inspired to pursue the career of a UX Designer due to a free seminar in the summer of 2017 by General Assembly that was taught by an industry leading professional that had amassed over 15 years of experience working for many of the top tech companies. My passion would cause me to pursue earning my User Experience Design Certificate in late 2018 for the role of a UX Designer from General Assembly.
More Personal Details
I have fitness, and educational ideas for VR and AR concepts and ideas that I plan to bring to life once some things on the hardware side become more advanced. Me and my brother (who has been in engineering and design in the valley for over 10 years), will soon jump into the exciting world of content creation as a small business doing multimedia production. I always have a place in my heart for social justice and inequality advocacy or programs.
Core Design Beliefs
Now I seek to join a UX team dedicated to bridging the gap between implementation models and user’s mental models by creating better tools, processes, systems and products while matching and exceeding user expectations in the process. I believe data is the most powerful information that a team of creatives and thinkers can have when solving for a problem, or approaching possible solutions. Asking "why" enough times to get deep enough into discovering the root of user problems. A shared belief of Aristotle that asking the right question is half the answer. I believe that everything we use can marginally improve, and finding the ways to meet at the intersection of business and user goals is an ever-adapting researching and iterative process. I believe approaching User Experience starts with strategy, scope, structure, skeleton and then ends with the surface layer completing all five planes of UI/UX design. I believe in practicing “context of use” as a practice often used in good UX design. Involves using form and function often together but measured by how well the project mets the goals success criteria. I believe in designing elements of value, finding the reason why a certain something matters to the user. I believe good design solves problems, and deciding how to solve that problem is a question for good design thinking. Also the cornerstone of my principles and beliefs rest at fully understanding the system or product and field (along with the users motivations and task flows) when designing a product to ship.
