Post Graduate Program in User Experience Design
McCombs School of Business x Great Learning, University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX (Online), In-Progress (expected completion in Fall 2025)
Experience: During my time as a Partnership and Program Facilitator at Big Brothers Big Sisters, I learned that every decision—whether in communication, program flow, or design—directly impacts how people engage and feel supported. Seeing how small details could influence participation and outcomes made me realize the importance of thinking through the entire user experience.
This inspired me to pursue a postgraduate degree in User Experience Design, where I could blend my background in graphic and instructional design with a stronger focus on user research, interaction design, and accessibility. My goal was to create solutions that aren’t just visually appealing, but thoughtfully designed with the user’s needs, emotions, and journey in mind—whether they’re learning, viewing, or making decisions that impact their lives.
Project 2: Information Architecture (IA), Sitemaps, and User Flows (June 2025)
Task: Imagine you've been appointed as a UX designer for a start-up gearing up to launch a travel planning and booking platform. You will compete in a market that has established players such as Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Kayak, etc. However, your company, being a new entrant, is confident that they will be able to create a unique and user-centric experience in the Travel Industry. You will:
- Pick one existing platform within the Travel Industry and create a sitemap of its website
- Create an Information Architecture map for your company's website, illustrating the proposed structure
- Create a user flow of searching and booking a stay on your company's proposed website
Design Analysis: For this project, I began by analyzing the sitemap and information architecture (IA) of Expedia.com, one of the leading digital travel platforms. Expedia’s hierarchy—from Stays to Cruises—reflects user priorities and brand positioning, with a consistent page structure that emphasizes deals, trending destinations, and travel types. This analysis helped me understand how established platforms organize content and user flows to balance business goals with usability.
Using these insights, I designed the IA, sitemap, and user flow for Inn Route, a travel platform focused on independent motels, boutique hotels, and campsites. Inspired by hotel rewards programs like Marriott Bonvoy, Inn Route offers standardized booking flows and a unified rewards system while preserving each property’s unique identity. A key IA feature is the “Routes” concept—curated, bookable road trip itineraries that create an experience-driven alternative to chain hotels. I also accounted for the property-owner side of the platform, which would require a separate, backend-focused IA.
Tools Used: FigJam, Google Slides
Use this button to access the Google Slides Report of the overall project:
To access the FigJam boards for the Expedia.com Sitemap Case Study, and the Inn Route IA and User Flow, use the corresponding buttons below:
Samples from the project are shown in the photo grid below:
Project 1: User Research, Competitive Analysis, User Personas, and User Journey Maps (May 2025)
Task: Assume that you're a UX designer for a new app in the Music Streaming Industry. Your company has charted out a plan to create an app similar to the major players in the streaming industry. In a market dominated by established players, your company is a new player eager to make a mark. Your mission is to understand the target audience by conducting user research. The goal is to reveal different user types, their motivations, and the challenges they face when streaming music. You will:
- Conduct Primary Research by creating a survey, float it to 10 real people, and summarize the results & key insights that should be shared with the design team
- Create two user personas representing distinct segments of your target audience.
- Develop an empathy map for each persona to gain deeper insights into their thoughts, feelings, and motivations.
Design Analysis: Through market research, it became clear that breaking into the music streaming space would be difficult due to high user loyalty and limited brand switching. When designing my survey, I focused on identifying both pain points and loyalty drivers within existing services. The results revealed two clear user segments:
- Onika, a tech-savvy college student and aspiring music producer frustrated by poor recommendation algorithms and limited tools for reaching new listeners.
- Robert, a middle-aged construction manager and retired veteran who, despite being more traditional, is eager to discover new music, but wants an intuitive interface and affordable pricing.
Both personas shared concerns beyond interface design, including pricing structures and user status-based discounts (e.g., student and veteran discounts) that could influence their decision to switch platforms.
Taking these insights into account, I recommended that the new app mimic familiar user interface patterns (like the simplicity of a car radio) while also introducing social networking features for emerging artists, creating a unique niche that blends music discovery with community-driven engagement.
Tools Used: Google Forms, Google Sheets, Google Slides
Use the button to access the Google Survey, Survey Results (Sheets), Survey Analysis (Slides), and User Persona & Empathy Maps (Slides):
Samples from the project are shown in the photo grid below:
