I design the first version, then I build it well enough to argue with.
I’m Mina. For nine years I’ve designed software for people who would rather be doing something else: volunteers fundraising after work, school coordinators building a term in a spreadsheet, a grandmother checking whether she already took her evening pills.
I work best on the first version of something, or on the version that has to replace a spreadsheet everyone secretly depends on. I research with the people who will use it, design in the browser as early as I can, and hand engineers prototypes that already behave the way the product should.
Before going independent I led design at Fieldnote Health and worked on scheduling tools at Marquee. I studied communication design at Ashby State, where I helped start Studio Hours, a campus design community that is still running without me.
What I do
- 01
Product design for first versions
From a messy brief to a product people can use: research, flows, interface, and the decisions written down so they survive the handoff.
- 02
Prototypes in real code
React prototypes that behave like the product, with real data and real edge cases, so engineers and stakeholders react to the thing itself.
- 03
Replacing the spreadsheet
Internal tools for teams who run on a shared sheet: scheduling, intake, operations. I map how the sheet is really used before touching it.
- 04
Accessibility and older adults
Research and design reviews for products used by people over 70, people with low vision, and people who didn’t choose to be your user.
Experience
- 2023 – nowIndependent product designerBrooklyn
- 2020 – 23Design leadFieldnote Health
- 2017 – 20Product designer, schedulingMarquee
- 2016Design internAshby State University Libraries
- 2013 – 17BFA, Communication DesignAshby State University
Selected clients
- Openhand
- Fernwood Community School of the Arts
- Northside Elder Care Network
- Kittiwake
- Studio Hours
- Halyard Credit Union
- Tandem Public Libraries
- Pocket Orchard
- Fieldnote Health
- Common Table Food Co-op