design process
I was lucky enough to be introduced to human-centered design and design thinking at a young age by a teacher who passionate about the field. She taught me that HCD and DT are toolkits and muscles that need to be exercised and stretched. I try and frame all my thinking from that perspective, whether I'm working on a design project or on my own. Below is an example of my general process. I'm still learning, and this example doesn't hit every step of the human-centered design process. But, in my opinion, as the name itself explains, if you're focusing on users, you're on the right track!
Yale Menus, now used by over 2000 students, started with a simple insight:
students need a better way to know where to eat
Yale has 14 dining halls across downtown New Haven, and menu offerings are not all the same. Students wanted to plan their days with the knowledge of where they were going to eat. This was especially important for students with dietary restrictions.
Yale had built a dining app years before to show current dining hall options that students could use. The app was old, slow, and riddled with obvious bugs. But we wanted to understand where the precise pain points were, how the app was working well, and how a redesign could best address students' needs.
How to get to "How Might We..."?
... with user interviews, of course!




Hover to see the new Yale Menus



With donuts, pen, and paper, I interviewed a diverse set of students to try and understand the central need students faced!
pain points with the current app

A non-intuitive interface and a slow, old feel that was unpleasant to work with.


Poor architecture that prioritized information that was unnecessary the vast majority of the time.
