Hey, I'm
Brooke!

UX Design isn’t the solution to my equation, it's the formula for it!

My whole life has been a series of trial and error, looking for that passion I see in everyone else. Lighting up their minds and bodies, magically transporting them to their happy place, I’m always so amazed and envious at the same time. Even as a kid, I found myself engulfed in my quest to help them fuel their fire, to figure out how they found this passion of theirs, and what it might take to find mine. I won’t say that this is it, that I found my passion for design. That’s too easy and it’s too generic. Nope, design is not my passion, design is simply the perfect outlet to channel it.

You can’t imagine how many different types of jobs I’ve had over the years, how many different majors I temporarily declared in college before finally graduating with a BS in Aviation Sciences. Let’s just say, it’s enough to get deemed “well-rounded” by those around me. I did everything from running corn mill operations to filleting fish in Alaska. As for hobbies, I’ve tried them all, but why don’t any of them ever stick? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a lot of different activities, but I always thought that in order to be passionate about any one of them, I needed to actually desire to do them consistently. 

In my mind, I always refer back to my brother. Unlike myself, school didn’t come easy to him growing up, so you probably wouldn’t have approved of his GPA, but he had a thing for music. It didn’t mean he was incredible at it, he wasn’t in a band or anything. What mattered was that he thoroughly enjoyed it. To this day he still plays a myriad of instruments in his free time, and he’s pretty good at it. He told me once, that he just finds himself doing it. Almost like an impulse without pressure, he just plays. 

Those words he relayed so casually stuck with me, and after really digesting everything I’ve done and learned so far, this is what I know about my well-rounded self… I’m a curious person. In fact, this may be my best quality. Maybe I won’t ever find that spark of passion for all the activities and hobbies I try, but I do know what I find myself doing in my free time, and that's learning. As crazy as it sounds, I spend my time searching for things to learn about. Reading all kinds of books and articles, solving puzzles and riddles, experimenting with makeup and behaviors, creating new recipes and action plans based on what I’ve learned, diving into the psyche of everyone around me in an attempt to understand them better. I crave information. Information to process and interpret. Every tiny nugget of information I digest gets me that much closer to a greater understanding of the world around me.
‍
So, how does this all equate to design? It keeps me on my quest, the same quest I set out on as a curious kid. Simply put, it’s an outlet to channel my passion. The design process provides me with a problem that requires a solution. In order to create a successful solution for the problem, I need to gain a better understanding of the problem itself. This is done through research, by collecting and analyzing information. Once I process that information, I’m able to interpret it by creating an effective solution. It’s this perfect formula, a unique combination of research, empathy, analytics, problem solving, and creation that keeps me trekking on my quest and ignites my true passion.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

– Albert Einstein