Hi,

I’m a UX/UI designer and software developer based out of Denver, CO dedicated to delivering solutions at the intersection of user centered design and high quality code. I am currently a full time software engineer at Medpace and a graduate student at Iowa State University pursuing my Masters in Human Computer Interaction to be completed December of 2025. Below is some of my most recent work in UX/UI design, HCI research, branding and campaign projects, logo & image design, digital artwork, project coding, and an assortment of other fun personal projects.

I’m always happy to discuss my work. Feel free to reach out:

izzypj2000@gmail.com

UX/UI Design & Research

Beyonder: A new way to navigate

How might we empower travelers to confidently explore unfamiliar areas while prioritizing personal safety, accessibility, and autonomy?

Applying full cycle UX solutioning to research, design, prototype, and propose a new application aimed at enabling simpler, safer, more comfortable navigation through everyday life.

Design System Innovation: Drive Thru Sign Language Avatar

Drive-thru fast food experiences are not very accommodating for people with disabilities, especially deaf and hard of hearing customers using ASL to communicate. ​

My team set out to create a design system and iteration process to enable fast food enterprises to improve their drive-thru technology with real time sign language avatar communication.

​My primary contribution to this process was the prototyping of our design system documentation site.

Our Prototype
Our Pitch
Design System Website (Prototype)
Project Presentation

The "Build-A-Bot" project develops a novel research platform implemented as a web-accessible 3D game that affords data collection of user-provided robot designs. The designs are used to train ML models to better evaluate robot designs, predict how a given design will be perceived, and create new robot designs. Within this interdisciplinary team of students, professors, and post-grad volunteers, I have contributed to the UX/UI testing, machine learning, and neuroscience experiment teams.

One of my largest roles was for our fNirs (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) neuroscience study for which I was tasked with altering images of both people and robots to match two stimulus conditions: painful experience and pleasurable experience. This image editing proved an interesting challenge, to imaging how visual objects made for humans (medical syringe, cotton swab, etc) would look and interact with a robot subject.

Project led by Dr. Kerstin Haring and Dr. Daniel Pittman at the University of Denver.

UX/UI Design Team Lead - 2022 (Project Inception)

DiscoverU is a safe, trusted, user-friendly platform to connect people to information and resources regarding adolescent and young-adult mental health. It draws on Colorado themes of journeying and climbing higher to provide a fun and relatable narrative for the learning process.

My role as the UI Design Lead was to meet regularly with our team from the Graduate School of Professional Psychology to conceptualize the application from a student-user perspective as well as the content creation website for the professional psychologists. This included creation of feature and functionality requirements, user flows, themes, graphic designs, and Figma prototypes for the development team to reference.

Read More
Build-a-Bot Website

Accessible Design: Augmentative and Alternative Communication Device Modalities

Diving into the cognitive psychology of language processing, considerations of visual perception, and the design of both interface displays and controls, it was the aim of this review to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of various proposed interaction modalities for AAC devices accommodating severe motor impairments and to discover areas of psychology and/or interaction design that need further research.


Read the Review

Branding & Campaign Projects

  • Energy Company Redesign

    A comprehensive re-branding effort for an existing energy company such that said company may benefit from an updated brand identity reflecting the modern energy values of innovation, sustainability, reliability, and accessibility. This work has included a redesigned logo and color scheme along with a corresponding icon set to create a refreshed visual identity for the company.

  • Montana State Icon Set

    Ideation and implementation of different visual design principles to create a set of icons inspired by state flora, fauna, and industry.

  • Try Space

    TrySpace: in the spirit of a "third-space", this project proposes a dedicated public place meant for people in a community to gather, interact, and spend their time doing things for the sole purpose of enjoying themselves. TrySpace would specifically be implemented with a core characteristic of open mindedness and trying new things. By creating spaces and opportunities for people to try something new on a daily, weekly, monthly basis--be it novel writing, pottery, robot programming, or rock climbing--TrySpace would not only introduce people to skills, interests, and hobbies they had never before considered, it would also serve as a system by which folks can connect to people in their communities and form new relationships through shared interests and experiences. The goal of this project is to encourage people to engage more with their minds and hearts, put more active effort into pursuing joy, and bring folks together to enhance the quality of their lives.

  • Regeneration Education

    Campaign design proposal for partnership with Kiss the Ground to bring lessons and information on soil restoration and regenerative agriculture to schools. The goals? To teach younger generations about the history of agriculture and the myriad of issues that have arisen from recent problematic agricultural techniques, but also show them how these daunting problems can be addressed. From big picture lessons on ecological systems, to ground level hands-on experiences with farming itself, students of all ages would be given the tools to become active and informed citizens of their communities and, more importantly, of the planet.

  • Royal Gorge Railway Redesign

    Re-imagining the visual identity of a transportation company’s logo, demonstrating its flexibility and appeal across various real-world touch points, including advertising, physical assets, and digital interfaces.

    The Royal Gorge Route Railroad: a widely loved passenger line through Colorado's greatest canyon. This redesign maintains a fun and playful energy with a bright orange and blue color scheme while reflecting the high quality service and experience of the railway in the typography and clean motion of the mark itself.

Gallery

A look into some of my early coding projects:

  • PacMan Agents AI (Python)

  • Socket Painter (Java)

Code Work