Darren DeCoursey's Linkedin Analytics

“Colour it and put a border around it!” That's the advice my father would always give me about my homework assignments in school. My father was a marketing professional. I should have known his words would put me on the path to becoming a designer. But it wasn't a straight path. My first love was making movies. Designing special effects, shooting miniatures, blowing them up in my backyard. Trying to replicate scenes in “Empire Strikes Back” with toys and a cheap camcorder on a chilly fall day. After completing my degree in Art History, I raced into visual effects because it was my passion. I learned all about colour, composition, lighting, dimension, and motion. Oh, and I was fortunate to work on some sweet blockbuster movies and television series too. However, I spent enough years in the film industry to realize that a crucial element was missing: interactivity. That's why I decided to switch gears and pursue a Masters Degree and focus on learning interaction design. Working with teammates from different backgrounds, exploring UX research and cognitive science with academics. This felt more ME. Fueled with a desire to make engaging and accessible digital products and web experiences, I spent the last six years in the tech industry, evangelizing the power of UX. What kind of projects have I been involved in? Mobile game menus, web designs for SMB and Enterprise-level tech companies, tablet-based ecommerce demos, interactive touchscreens for museum exhibits and large-scale LED displays for music festivals. When my father started to experience cognitive decline, I began to notice how much technology had failed him. Almost every digital experience felt like a chore. His frustrations became my frustrations. It instilled in me a deep, personal understanding of empathy, and how important user testing and accessibility are to the core of every product design. And it made me want to design better. And while he's no longer with me, I would like to think that he inspired me to add colour and a border around everything I do. Specialties: Product Design | Web Design | UX Research | Wireframing | Prototyping | Design Systems | Interaction Design | Motion Design | Conversion Optimization | Copywriting | 3D Visualization | Installation Design