Hello!
I’m Suzette Ballew
Senior Experience Designer
About me
A creative in San Marcos, TX
Product Designer with a passion for building projects that promote behavior change and bring good to the world.
As a Senior User Experience Designer, I champion user needs across all interactions with UX teams, clients, and cross-functional partners. I specialize in applying behavior change science, using models like the transtheoretical model, design with intent, and self-determination theory, to create motivating user experiences. My passion for innovative, user-centered design stems from a deep understanding of user behavior and a commitment to empathy-driven design. I excel in rapid problem- solving and fostering team collaboration for efficient design solutions.
Experience
Senior UX Designer
Deloitte
- In a squad-based approach, I crafted a mobile application interface aimed at facilitating behavioral change for individuals with diabetes. Our squad’s mission centers on educating and empowering diabetics, equipping them with the knowledge and tools to adopt healthier lifestyles. The app I designed encompasses various features, including setting health goals with a corresponding score, tracking blood glucose readings, and identifying lifestyle factors affecting these readings. Additionally, the app addresses healthcare gaps, offers medication education, provides timed nudges for accessing relevant information, and includes an education and quiz model to assess users’ understanding of their condition.
- I also extended my design expertise to cater to cardiac rehab patients, creating an eight-week program that promotes exercise and healthy eating.
- As part of my innovative contributions, I led a behavioral change design sprint, serving as a master class for UX designers seeking to integrate behavior change theory into standard UX design sprints within the healthcare sector. This approach can be applied to industries seeking to influence user behavior across the board.
Head of User Experience and Strategy
Cat Ballew Designs
- Established the UX research practice at Cat Ballew Designs and led diverse UX
teams to foster human-centered innovation. - Achieved a remarkable 38% increase in user engagement and traffic for the ChiKeey Smart Mood Ring website and mobile app.
- Proficiently plan, execute, collaborate on, and facilitate agile design sprints and research projects, employing various methodologies, including experimental design, surveys, interviews, focus groups, and rapid prototyping.
- Exhibit expertise in selecting the most suitable qualitative research methods and frameworks for guiding product development.
- Conduct empirical research, drawing from computer science, quantitative social science, statistics, and other disciplines to decipher user behavior and discern meaningful patterns from extensive datasets.
- Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams encompassing engineering, design, marketing, product leadership, analytics, and business insight to align with objectives and meet business requirements.
Senior UX Design Architect
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Established the UX research practice at Cat Ballew Designs and led diverse UX
teams to foster human-centered innovation. - Achieved a remarkable 38% increase in user engagement and traffic for the ChiKeey Smart Mood Ring website and mobile app.
- Proficiently plan, execute, collaborate on, and facilitate agile design sprints and research projects, employing various methodologies, including experimental design, surveys, interviews, focus groups, and rapid prototyping.
- Exhibit expertise in selecting the most suitable qualitative research methods and frameworks for guiding product development.
- Conduct empirical research, drawing from computer science, quantitative social science, statistics, and other disciplines to decipher user behavior and discern meaningful patterns from extensive datasets.
- Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams encompassing engineering, design, marketing, product leadership, analytics, and business insight to align with objectives and meet business requirements.
MY PROCESS
QUALITATIVE & QUANTITATIVE
In my work, I employ a comprehensive approach that combines qualitative and quantitative UX design and research, integrating principles of behavioral change design within the interaction model process. This holistic strategy is driven by the goal of creating user experiences that not only fulfill user needs but also induce desired behavior change.
First, the process kicks off with the qualitative aspect. I engage in in-depth user interviews and ethnographic observations to gain a deep understanding of user motivations, pain points, and behaviors. This qualitative data forms the foundation for identifying opportunities for behavioral change. I closely examine user feedback and experiences to formulate hypotheses about what specific behaviors I aim to encourage or modify.
Simultaneously, I harness the power of quantitative research by collecting user data on a larger scale. Surveys, analytics, and A/B testing are vital tools in this stage. Quantitative data provides valuable insights into user preferences, trends, and patterns that can guide our behavior change design decisions.
The interaction model process is integral throughout. I use this model to map out user journeys, creating wireframes and prototypes that reflect behavioral change goals. These prototypes are tested with real users in usability studies, where I gauge their reactions and behavior changes in response to designs.
Ultimately, the integration of behavioral change principles occurs during iterations on designs based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative findings. I tailor the user experience to nudge users toward the desired behaviors, be it improved health habits, increased financial savings, or sustainable choices. The iterative process continues until the desired results are achieved and can be measured by the impact of our behavioral change interventions.
This combined approach ensures that my UX design and research efforts are grounded in a deep understanding of user behavior and are fine-tuned through a structured interaction model. The ultimate aim is to create user experiences that not only satisfy users but also positively influence their behavior, yielding valuable results for the projects and industries I serve.