HELLO THERE.
I’m Diane.
I am a Principal Design Engineer located in sunny Oakland, CA.
25 years of design & engineering leadership rooted in the nuance of being human.
“Diane has a rare mix of front-end, back-end, and design skills. Above all, she cares about building a product that is exceptional.
Beyond technical and design skills, Diane cared about the company and our customers. During peak times, she helped pack orders and handwrite thank-you notes to customers. As a founder and CTO, this care is what makes a team member stand out.”
Sameer Iyengar | Co-founder, Beautylish
Principles
Value Time
Each and every person interacting with your product has a limited amount of time in their life. DO NOT WASTE IT. Not even a second.
Each year, 50 million people interact with something I made. If I wasted 5 seconds of their collective time, that is 9.6 years of human life that is gone. So I don't do that.
Know thyself
Doing a job that involves creating things requires practice and process. Figure out how to find problems, know when to change, create something from nothing. Find out how you get those ah-ha sparks. Grow your toolbox – find your favorites.
I use: wholistic with notebooks
I say: Gestalt , double diamond, wavy line, 5 circle, lean-agile, agile, standup, scrum, yum, lunch
Draw First
Get a pencil.
Design for Real Life
Create for the trembling hand, not just the steady one. Anticipate the user's worst day, not their best. Remember, even those on the happy path can suddenly fall off a cliff.
Ask yourself: Could a sleep-deprived parent use this at 3 AM? If not, fix it.
Design in Code
Design with code, not just mockups. Static designs fail to capture the interactive nature of a site in the browser. Building working prototypes reveals true usability and technical constraints.
I do this all the time.