Hi, I'm Marissa
I'm a UX designer based in Austin, Texas that's passionate about user-centered design, interaction strategies, and visual design. In my spare time I love biking around town, bouldering at the gym, and cuddling with my sassy cat, Deja.
My UX Journey Map
Here's a little bit about my journey into the world of user experience design.
Granbury, Texas
As a child, I was always begging my parents for the latest gadgets and gizmos – magic tricks, walkie talkies, spy gear, RC cars, computer games, or miniature cameras, I was fascinated with anything I could get my hands on.
When I wasn’t occupied with toys, I loved helping my parents out in the garage; my dad spent a lot of his free time restoring cars, and my mom loved crafting things with stained glass.
High School
In ninth grade, I decided to take my first Photoshop class and fell in love.
As a sophomore, I enrolled in a digital interactive media class and earned my DIM certification through Weatherford College.
I was also a photographer and writer for the school yearbook where I was introduced to more Adobe products such as Bridge, InDesign, and Illustrator; but being able to attend a variety of extracurricular activities, capturing all of the details, and interviewing students was my favorite part. On top of all of this, I dropped my love of playing volleyball to take art.
I continued yearbook and took a commercial photography class to hone my DSLR skills, earning my Commercial Photography license which I put to use by doing senior pictures for close friends.
In my final year of high school, I continued onto AP art and enrolled in a game design class where I was first introduced to coding. I also took a computer maintenance class where I learned how to build a computer.
Weatherford College
After I graduated high school in May, I enrolled in some basic courses at Weatherford College and started working at GameStop.
I drove down to Austin for the first time to visit some friends, and I fell head-over-heels for the city. I found the Web Programming degree at Austin Community College and thought I’d give it a shot, so I moved a few months later.
Austin, Texas
Austin Community College
After taking an Intro to Coding class, I realized I wasn’t on the track I thought I wanted to be on, so I started looking at other programs. I found the UX degree plan and after some thorough research about what UX design even was, it sounded like something right up my alley. I switched my degree plan the following semester.
I was fully immersed in all aspects of UXD: design thinking, visual design, responsive design, research, product design, and so much more.
I also dipped my toes into some graphic design courses (I’m not going to lie, mostly for funsies) and learned basic design principles such as color theory and typography.
Over the summer I attained an internship at Smart Home Hero where I worked alongside the product manager, producing wireframes for their newest ecommerce site.
While finishing up my degree, I dedicate a good amount of my time on personal projects. I began designing a voice user interface for a messaging platform, and I’m also collaborating with a couple of developers to make a financial management tool.