Get to know me

Work wise

I like to work efficiently. I enjoy the conceptual phases and having worked in an environment where the brief isn’t overtly defined it’s a discovery process. Leading to a lot of flexibility in terms of functionality and potential on what things can be and do eventually. I have experienced being adaptable to project teams and their processes is really important. I will say I enjoy getting feedback quickly with user testing to validate and improve initial assumptions by not staying in concept mode for too long. User feedback is really important and having seen what negative effect it can have by disregarding feedback, I can honestly say it’s a key element of any project.

I like to debate decisions and what potential effect they could have and not afraid to create different variations and try new approaches. When working in a team it’s always fun to have a little bit of a friendly competition between who’s assumptions was better. It’s always a learning journey that we ourselves go through as well. I always strive to learn from other people and try to impart knowledge as much as I can. I enjoy working in and with a team, where we can make collective decisions and bounce ideas off each other. I don’t mind working on my own either as I have had smaller short term projects that only needed one designer.

I would say I have a keen eye for consistency especially for journey flows and component usage. I quickly spot misalignments while reviewing with my team, things that need to be adjusted or aligned. I would enjoy to lead a team as I think I have the potential to do really well and enjoy helping and guiding.

Having designed two really big design systems I have learned a substantial amount about efficiency of building with a design system and it's contribution to the design environment. Being the only creator for the Centralised design system I always review with the broader team to ensure everyone is on board. At the end of the day the design system is for designers and it becomes their tool.

I’m getting more interested and curious about Game UX and designing for VR, I will be looking at short course in the near future to expand my skills.

More on the personal side

Hailing from South Africa, I have grow up in a beautiful country. My family received an opportunity to move to Dubai and I was able to finish high school in a very interesting city. I learned a lot about different cultures and life in general being in such a diverse group of people. I moved back to South Africa to start my studies which at that point was Architecture but quickly realised that it wasn’t really the thing for me. I always sketched products whether it be furniture, cars or physical things around me being very invested in the balance between usability and aesthetics. I came to realise that I absolutely love product design and definitely found my calling. Deciding to study both Interaction and 3-Dimensional design was one of the best decisions to develop my skills.

I added some hobbies and things of that nature further down on this page so will skip talking on and on about that... What I can mention is that I like to be home, home is my favourite place to be, hosting family and friends making food, making cocktails, catching up and I’m into product design so of course decorating. I really love marble! Fond of making my own stuff or buying something second hand and giving it new life, I always have a few projects lined up or ready to be started. Having always had an adventurous streak, I try not to say ‘no’ unless I’m in dire need of some rest. I’m very focused on being a calm individual and not let too many things bother me, this world is chaotic so that might be a really good trait if you ask me.

Let me quickly rewind for a second back to my last year of college when I met whom I now call my husband, we got married last year June and it’s been a blast. Communication is a cornerstone of our relationship and something we always emphasis. We love playing games, especially a good couch co-op and not to mention the love for boardgames! I can say one thing that we realised in our time together is that watching shows and eating snacks are two things that go really well together - but not too much because you need to exercise at some point right. Which is also why we are on a little bit of a health journey or trying to be at least.

My family is very fond of travelling which I have been lucky enough to accompany on all the journeys both locally and internationally. Hands down - Europe is one of my favourite destinations having such diversity in culture and language. I actually had French in school, but it’s been a while so maybe not that great at it anymore... The Netherlands is a place we have returned to a few times and definitely a place we would like to potentially call home in the near future, our best friends are also moving to The Netherlands so even more motivation. We just got back having seen Madonna live the 1st of December and it was epic! Bucket list item checked! My curiosity always fuels my desire to see something new so next on our list for an adventure is Spain! Really want to see the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao!

I can’t wait to tell you more!