Darrin Knode

UX/UI Designer
I find problems and fix them with a bit of detective work, thoughtful design, & creative implementation.

My Career

I am a lifetime tinkerer with all things web related, having got my start with an internship at the local public library in 2001 during high school and beginning my professional career in 2006 while still enrolled in college.

A myriad of industries have made their way into my resume and my job titles have shifted from more front end focused to more design focused over time. Truly, I believe my front end experience gives me important insight into a complete picture of how our online experiences operate and how we might design solutions.

The dream career path I would love to tread, is to someday lead an UX team in an industry I am personally passionate about.

I have never been fond of convention outside of observable success, nor of frivolous change for its own sake. Virtue is the mean between two vices. I am a proponent of achieving objective results to problems and staying scientific in my outlook on those problems and the proposed solutions.

One of my strongest assets is the ability to be able to think through a problems solution from the perspective of persons working on all ends of the process, being that I have usually been involved in the process myself from ideation and identification to the design and final codified implementation and testing.

Here is my resume in pdf format.

Education

I am a lifelong student and found the most important education sources to be knowledgable coworkers, discussion online and in person, experience, and youtube :)

I graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts [BFA] in Interactive Media Design from the Art Institute of Washington in 2008 before UX or UI was in anyone's job title.

Prior to my college education, I spent the later half of my high school years at the trade and industries school in Washington county Maryland in Advanced Computer Applications which was my first introduction to programming, adobe products, and working with websites in general. I immediately began tinkering with html and JavaScript at home not really knowing at the time it would become my career.

Skills in Focus

Research

Developing user workflows

Identifying process problems and user friction

Analyzing observable behavior patterns for solutions to identified problems

Interpreting data from heatmaps, session replays, error logs, A/B tests, and voice of the customer into actionable UI design solutions

Design

Wireframing

High fidelity comps

Scripted Prototypes

Responsive design

Establishing design patterns and solutions

Software & such

Sketch / Figma / XD (I vastly prefer Figma or XD)

Zeplin

Monetate (a hybrid testing and personalization platform)

Photoshop & Illustrator

Jira

Development & Implementation

Vanilla JavaScript

HTML and CSS

Versioning control (SVN, Git)

Soft Skills

SCRUM Trained

Cross department communication born of working with and within those departments across 15 years of experience

Demonstrated ability to learn required skills, software, and languages quickly

Experience with remote and in-office collaboration on large projects

Ability to communicate effectively from remote positions

My communication style begins with providing relatable examples and using precise but accessible language