I started as a graphic designer in Colombia, laying out print work long before “UX” was a job title. Twenty-some years later I’m still doing the same thing at heart — making things clear, usable, and good to look at — just on screens instead of paper, and with a lot more research behind the decisions.

I moved to the Bay Area, picked up an MFA in Interaction and UI/UX Design at the Academy of Art University on top of my Industrial Design degree from Universidad Industrial de Santander, and spent the years since figuring out where craft and usability actually meet. My take: most interfaces fail people quietly — not through some dramatic flaw, but through a hundred small moments where the design didn’t bother to think about how someone would actually experience it. That’s the gap I try to close.

Accessibility is part of that, not a separate concern I bolt on afterward. If a design only works for the easiest, most typical user, it isn’t finished yet.

I’m the person on the team who’ll notice the four-pixel misalignment and the confusing error state in the same pass — and who’d rather fix both than pick one.