Hi, my name is Ioana
Nice to meet you! I am glad you land on this page, so let me tell you about my professional journey so far.
ABOUT ME, things that resume does not tell you about myself
I am thrilled to say that I am a self-taught visual and product designer, eager to overcome challenges and lead my own way into studying and UX/UI industry. "Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is." - Isaac Asimov, American Writer.
Delighted to say that I am a graduate of the Google UX Design Certificate Program.
I started my UI/UX journey in early 2019 and everything since then has been lively. Going from pursuing a career as a Database Developer, to learning and practicing Visual and Product Designing.
During my time working as a database developer, I have ascertained that by solving challenges and always providing solutions or workarounds (especially in clutter situations) I have developed a real taste for end-to-end product development that has shaped my practice of design to this day.
I acknowledged that my way of working to iterate towards a better solution is an actual skill in UX design. Therefore, being a job for it, I have decided to pursue this career path.
Being a continuous learner I gained confidence in my professional skills and I am always looking for opportunities to challenge myself into growing. Web Designing is a space of constant improvement, exciting technology, and new.
MY STRENGTHS
ACHIEVER
I have an M.Sc degree and I overcome any ambitions I had about my college career and early years after. Since 2nd year I land my first job in the field. Full-time student and employee. While I am proud of my accomplishments and the amount of self-growth that has occurred throughout these past years, I found myself wanting to grow other skills too.
CONTINUOUS LEARNER
To make this career change possible, I attended paid online classes done by one of the best in the industry, Erik Kennedy, and read a lot of books,articles related to the topic. I did not want to invest time into unrelated courses and barely-applicable theory. I wanted to learn new technologies, workflows, ways of thinking - practical and applicable skills.
As Erik says about what he teaches "only the industry-tested lessons I’ve learned and used on the job. Think of it more like on-the-job-training or a course taught by an industry professional." I found his approach to be the best way to learn. Not shallow, not off-topic, just in-depth learning.
DISCIPLINED
Being a self-taught designer, I have learned the importance of being organized and depending only on my motivation. I strongly believe in this different kind of education, very outstanding than the traditional one.
MY PROCESS, the way I work
1. Understand & Research
2. Define & Solve
3. Design & Validate
4. Deliver & Measure + Learn
5. Repeat based on learnings
My way of working is to understand where my design fits into the bigger picture, thus I think about my design as it relates to:
- The business goals
- The user's needs
- Capabilities
- Product vision
