I’m Branden.
I’m a UX designer based in Northern VA seeking an entry-level UX position. What drives my passion for user experience are the pillars of empathy that uphold it and their necessity for designs that make people’s lives easier, even if just by a little.
Outside of UX, I love to create with Adobe Illustrator. I also enjoy playing the piano, video games, streaming shows online, and reading—preferably with my cat by my side!
My Bookshelf
The Design of Everyday Things
Don Norman
Really drives home the idea that good design starts with understanding the people that use it. Breaks down valuable design fundamentals like concept models, affordances, and cognitive loads with countless great real-world examples (see Norman doors).
Laws of UX
Jon Yablonski
Yablonski uses his deep understanding of cognitive and behavioral psychology to develop 10 guiding UX principles. He argues that we can leverage our understanding of the mind in psychology to inform effective design.
Don’t Make Me Think
Steve Krug
Krug makes the case that a website’s effectiveness is negatively correlated with the amount of thought required for users to understand its purpose and function. He demonstrates his point with countless examples of good and bad design and details ways to overcome these usability failures.
Creative Confidence
David & Tom Kelley
The creativity that leads to strong, impactful design isn’t something that people are born with. Rather, everyone has the potential to be creative and to innovate with the right mindset and methods for drawing out that potential. It requires a sense of openness to ideas and a willingness to fail in order to achieve meaningful design solutions.
Universal Principles of Design
William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, & Jill Butler
A collection of principles applicable to the whole of design as a discipline. A digestible explanation for otherwise complex design concepts make it great for later reference.
100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know
Susan Weinschenk
Similar to Universal Principles of Design and Laws of UX, Weinschenk breaks down a slew fundamental rules of design that leverage our understanding of human psychology for effective design solutions.