Born in Nevada and raised in Colorado, I went East in my twenties to live the Big City life in Boston and NYC. A decade later, I returned to Colorado with a renewed appreciation for the beauty of the Western mountains and plains and a more relaxed, outdoor-oriented pace of life.
I came to product design later in my career, after curious explorations into craft beer sales, social media marketing, copywriting and UX content design. I’m inspired by vintage brands and logos, American traditional tattoos and Peter Saville/Factory Records.
I’m a dedicated climber, leisure camp skier, dog mom to two rescue pups and stepmom to two young humans, based in Denver, Colorado.
Most of the time, I have a vision or ideal that I’m striving toward, and aim to always deliver high-quality work with integrity. I’m always looking for ways to improve my process and design skills, work better with cross-functional teams, and advocate for business and cultural practices that center our customers and employees.
Continuous learning is one of the ways I stay engaged, whether it’s UI design, illustration, logo design, merch design, giving effective presentations, Adobe XD, Figma and Webflow. I also seek to understand the business, the problems, the “why,” and what’s important to my colleagues and our customers.
There are many real factors into why something may not be able to be done as designed. I try to figure out how we can still improve the customer experience within those constraints. Habits done consistently over time produce big results.
Success in design means figuring out what’s important first. Perhaps the natural outcome of being idealistic and practical, determining our strategy helps me stay on track as an individual contributor.
“Melissa is an amazingly talented human who elevates the entire team. She's customer- and data-centric, continually asks thoughtful questions, and ensures that all use cases are considered. Her background in content strengthens her approach to UX, and she's skilled at collaborating/driving alignment with other designers, product/business owners, and stakeholders.”
“Melissa is a one-two punch of both content and UX design. Her ability to break down complex problems in a way that makes it easy to understand is a talent that not all designers have. She also did this while juggling all kinds of requirement changes and undecided stakeholders that were all over the map with direction. I'd jump at the opportunity to work with her again.”