Marketing tells people why a product matters. UX makes sure it does. I design with both in mind.
I didn’t take the traditional route into design. I started with , moved into , and became fascinated by how products were sold to me. That curiosity led me to at Drexel, where everything clicked: marketing and UX both start with understanding people.
Today, I bring storytelling, visual thinking, and that understanding into the products I design.
Big family, busy city, and a calling I found by building things.
I grew up in a busy city, in a big extended family. We traveled a lot, so I changed schools often and learned early how to walk into a new room and make friends.
Moving to Canada and getting into project-based work is where I found my calling: building things that make life easier for people.
A redesign of Philadelphia's transit app around what riders do most: buy a ticket, plan a trip and follow it live.
Role
Product Designer. Research and design; the team chose this wireframe as the foundation for the final prototype.
Context
Academic project, no access to SEPTA's backend
Timeline
3 months
Tools
Figma, Miro, Notion
The problem
Riders used the app every day and didn't trust it.
Riders get logged out at the exact moment they need directions. People depend on transit to get to work and to medical appointments, so when the app fails, it affects their day.
7 steps to buy a ticket
45% task success
68% of sessions involved ticketing
Research
Interviews with 8 daily commuters, and tests of the current app.
Interviews, a heuristic evaluation and usability tests fed an affinity map of pain points. Three findings set the direction.
Finding 01
Every commuter interviewed kept Google Maps open while using SEPTA, because the app had no integrated map.
Finding 02
Login failed in 6 of 8 test sessions, and failed logins made people doubt the app was reliable.
Finding 03
Finding a schedule took 4+ taps through menus labeled "Schedules," "Trip Planner" and "Routes," and people still couldn't find their route.
The direction
The app was organized around the trip.
Riders plan by where they are and where they need to go, so the structure was rebuilt to answer that first. Extra items in the nav bar and separate destination search and filters were folded together, leaving fewer places to look.
BeforeFive tabs that mirrored SEPTA's internal categories
→
AfterThree tabs organized around what riders are trying to do
Final solution
The prototype covers sign-in, trip planning and live directions.
This is the interactive prototype. Step through a trip from Drexel to Fishtown, from Face ID sign-in to live directions.
Riders look up destinations on a map, and were juggling SEPTA and Google Maps to do it. I put the map on the home screen to remove the juggling and give an overview at a glance. It meant rethinking the whole information architecture and risked overwhelming people who wanted a quick schedule lookup, but testing showed even those riders pictured the trip on a map first.
BeforeMap buried in a secondary tab, so riders opened Google Maps
→
AfterMap as the main screen, with route overlays and real-time updates
Decision 2: Faster sign-in
Riders stopped relying on the app when sign-in failed mid-trip. I designed sign-in around Face ID, with a password as a fallback, so getting in takes a second.
Decision 3: One search and a ticket button on every screen
Riders saw "Schedules" and "Trip Planner" as one task, so I merged them into a single search with predictive text. Finding a route takes 2 taps instead of 4+. I made ticketing a persistent primary action, so riders who already know their schedule can buy or activate a ticket without going through trip planning. That cut a purchase from 7 steps to 3. The single search does favor riders who already know where they're going; someone who only wants to check a schedule may take an extra step.
Decision 4: Three tabs instead of five
I folded the extra nav items and the separate destination search and filters together, so riders have fewer places to look and every tab maps to a task.
Task success in usability testing
45%→92%
Buying a ticket went from 7 steps to 3, and all 8 participants did it without help.
Outcome
Riders could plan a trip without leaving the app.
In usability testing, all 8 participants bought a ticket without help, and people could plan a trip without leaving the app.
Ticket purchase: 7 steps → 3
Task success: 45% → 92%
8 of 8 bought a ticket unassisted
Shortly after the project, SEPTA released a revamped app with biometric login, map integration, predictive search and improved accessibility controls, the same needs this research had pointed to.
This was a student project without access to SEPTA's backend systems or usage analytics.
Next steps
Including riders with disabilities from the first interview.
Research covered only daily commuters. A real rollout would recruit a wider range of riders from day one, especially people with disabilities.
