“Joy is a form of resistance.”
My first case study, Star Chime, is an odd choice to lead with. The scope is small, the concept is frivolous, and it doesn’t reflect the enterprise work I do daily. Which is exactly why I ran with it.
I wanted to stretch my imagination and explore parts of the process I don’t get to use as often in my day-to-day work. I also wanted to design something that demanded whimsy on top of a scaffolding that required more thoughtful structure than I first expected.
One weekend, I challenged myself to create some lightweight art in Procreate to anchor a whimsical experience where users can toggle ambient alarms for cosmic events. Designers often talk about “surprise and delight”, and I conceived this fictional app as a small way for users to pause, bond, and enjoy the moment. A pure moment of surprise and delight.
My first instinct was to build an alarm UI that let users add their own cosmic events. But a deeper dive revealed the hidden complexity: What happens if users set duplicates? Is that level of customization worth it? I pivoted to a simpler model: preset alerts that users can toggle on/off and configure based on parameters.
That’s when the real design work kicked in. I needed a scalable IA pattern that would let these cosmic events remain modular and flexible. I share more about that process here.
Ultimately, Star Chime was the perfect way to open my portfolio. Not because it reflects what I always do, but because it reflects how I think.