Other Work
Over the course of learning about UI/UX design, I learned how to use and develop other forms of media as well!
Game Design
On top of my Major in Interactive Media, I also took a Minor in Game Design. I always loved playing games as well as eventually making my own small games ever since high school! Using the engine Construct 3, I made several small games, having fun with all the different types of genres and learning the whole way.
UX Design in Game Design
My second semester senior project that was a part of my last year at Bradley University was a Game Design project where I was tasked as one of the few UX designers. I was a part of the team to help with the latter half of the game development process for a game titled "In Harmony" (which is available now on itch.io!).
This semester showed me more about how to work with a large team and how to properly implement my UX experience into an actual video game. We had a team of around 30 or so members, all with different roles to help complete this game before the semester ends. This was a very different but fun semester to be a part of not only when it came to UX Design but also being around other hard-working people all trying to reach the same goal!
OTHER WORK
Marketing Assistant/Designer
During college I was also a part-time Marketing Assistant for Martin Creative and Uplevel Tourism! I designed several customer profiles, made countless documents containing competitor research, interviews, and feedback with clients trying to find their ideal user.
Gaining experience creating client-sided graphics, as well as internal content such as presentations, this avenue helped me navigate the design space a lot more over the multiple years I was at school.
Wordpress Experience
While working as a Marketing Assistant, I got to naturally learn how to navigate and create user-friendly interfaces on Wordpress! This was a skill that proved to be useful when handed tasks such as creating a new blog page, fixing text via HTML, etc.
Wordpress was one of the most fun and easy applications to learn and operate as I love creating public facing designs for others to see. Other applications such as Website Builder were easy to pick up as well, with my past experience coming in handy.
My major in UX design also plays a big part in making the user journey for websites an easier experience for users to follow through.
Construct 3 Games
I have two public games on Construct 3's site that anyone can play, under my account named Jakes Makes. With one of my games reaching over 219,000 players that have played! I always try to find time to develop more games and hopefully get them completed enough to be able to publish more.
Graphic Design
Working as a Marketing Designer I also had a hand in creating client headers from various logos, as well as creating templates and images for audio interviews and podcasts, and anything in between.
With the time I have put into learning Adobe products, FIgma, and Sketch, designing has become a part of how I think about anything!
Sound Design
Helping alongside everything else was taking a sound design course, not only because I was interested, but also because it would help bring sound out and improve my games being developed so much more! Working and messing with sound was very entertaining and was definitely an interesting experience.