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Transforming the healthcare billing experience

 I led the team at Sequence that WON a national design and innovation challenge sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services and the AARP for a concept service that transforms the healthcare billing experience. Check out our full submission, and others, at the challenge website, A Bill You Can Understand. This service was featured on the front page of the business section in the San Francisco Chronicle on October 4, 2016. I was pleased to accept the award on stage at the fall Health 2.0 conference in Santa Clara from Karen DeSalvo, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology & Acting Assistant Seretary for Health, Department of Health and…

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How do you…make sense of it all?

 The single most, oft-asked question I get about my process is, “How do you do…what you do?” Sound abstract? It is! What people are really asking me is how I make sense of all the information gathered during design/experience audits or via customer research. Put that way, it seems like a simple enough Q/A, but…

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Where Do the Best Ideas Come From?

 Most of my good ideas come to me during my morning shower. TMI? There are other times and places, too: in the car, driving into work (mostly spaced out); in the garden, pulling weeds; on hiking trails, and in situations where I’m waiting in a line or a lobby. The pattern here is that I’m alone, zoned out (or relatively undistracted…don’t worry, I am paying attention to the road when I’m driving), and I’m not intentionally trying to think of good ideas. They just pop into existence. Recently, I read about this phenomenon in a book (can’t remember which, because I was obviously zoned out to the unnecessary details)…the author called…

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The DIY Service Movement

 The most significant service experience I’ve been designing for over the last few years can be boiled down into two words: help yourself. Sort of like the glass half full v. empty way of looking at the world, this expression can have a similar, dual meaning depending on perspective. Asking people to help themselves can seem very far from what “customer service” has traditionally stood for; that’s true if the sentiment is used as a way to ignore or dismiss people. Used in a more generous way, the sentiment can seem exceptionally friendly and lavish… there’s nothing like being invited to “help yourself” when visiting someone’s home. This kind of…

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Design is Like a Garden

 A beautiful garden must be tended…constantly. And in my toiling in the yard, I’m struck over and over again how gardening is similar to good design, and building strong teams. Plants grow and flower when you prune them. And so it goes with design. From blank white page to finished product, good design is a…

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Who Am I?

 I always seem to be asking myself, “Who am I?” Creative Strategist…Service Designer…Design Researcher…Visual Designer…UX Designer… I have been (and am) all of these things. I studied graphic design and worked in package design while in school; kicked off my professional life designing architectural signage programs, corporate showrooms, and exhibits (Environmental Graphic Design); and have spent the last decade+ crafting brand experiences through digital products and services, as well as software and device UI. I’m also an avid photographer, published travel writer, and independent book publisher. It can be disorienting. It can lead to daily identity crises. Especially because it makes “me” harder for others to understand; they don’t know…

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I’m a Travelers’ Tales Fifth Annual Solas Awards Winner

 Travelers’ Tales publishes a variety of anthologies, advice books, and single-author narratives — their books really take you places through literary stories about travel to all corners of the globe. For the last five years, Travelers’ Tales has held a travel writing competition called the Solas Awards. This year, I brought home two awards: Basking in the Shadow, my story about being a virgin eclipse chaser in Mongolia for her first TSE (total solar eclipse) took home the silver award in the Adventure Travel category. This story was originally published in Wend Magazine in October, 2009. Turkish Foreplay, an unusual romance story that takes place in a taxi, took home…

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