About Dakota
Who am I?
As a seasoned UI/UX designer with close to ten years of hands-on practice, my enthusiasm for gaming emerged from an arduous family ordeal, and ever since then, it has been a big part of my life. In the professional sphere, I excel at finding ways to simplify impossibly complex problems.
What Am I Currently Playing?
World of Warcraft: Classic, Flesh & Blood TCG, Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons
Quick Links
Origin Story
How I Got Into Games
My older brother and I were raised by our grandparents out in rural Missouri on a farm from ages 4 and 2, respectively. My brother had severe scoliosis which made it basically impossible for him to walk. We were fortunate enough to get my brother a life changing surgery for free thanks to the Shriner's organization.
In St. Louis—about four hours from home—he and my grandma lived in the hospital for a few months. He had to have multiple revisions which gave him a longer than normal recovery time.
My grandfather's coworkers at General Motors all chipped in and bought our family a Nintendo 64 after hearing about how happy it made my brother during his stay at the hospital. Upon his return, he taught me how to play our new system, and we never stopped—even after nearly thirty years.
Photo credit: Analogue
It Comes Back Around
As an interesting coincidence, I had the privilege of working on some next-generation technology for degenerative and deformity thoracolumbar fusion surgery—the latter of which my brother had almost 25 years ago! Thanks to surgical robotics, the recovery time is now down to weeks instead of months, and hospitalization is as short as 48 hours, down from weeks. I wonder how different our lives would be if we had that technology back then!
I'm happy to report that my brother is doing very well today! He's a talented iOS software engineer and happily married to a wonderful sister-in-law. They had a beautiful and healthy daughter (my niece!) nearly two years ago. We live far apart—I live in Minnesota, he in North Carolina—but we play Dungeons and Dragons together via Discord on the regular with some of my friends we grew up with.
Resume/CV
Work History
Principal UI/UX Designer | Medtronic Neuromodulation
2024 - current
Medtronic | Minneapolis Metro, MN, USA
Lead UI/UX efforts for complex applications, including deep brain stimulation apps, services, and websites for movement disorder patients and neurologists.
Completed UI/UX overhaul of a clinical web product that achieved significantly improved user perceived usefulness, value, and willingness to adopt.
Re-strategized information architecture and worked with the business team to rethink what the product is and what it does, while recycling underlying data models and existing technology to reduce technical burden to implement.
Guide the overall experience for interwoven systems, simplifying information and making bleeding edge movement disorder treatment technology and insights more approachable and learnable.
Uncover unmet user needs for clinicians and patients using human-centered design user research methodology.
Sr. UI/UX Designer | Medtronic Innovation Lab
2022 - 2024
Medtronic | Minneapolis Metro, MN, USA
Lead UI/UX projects as part of an internal Human Centered Design consultancy, consulting with product teams across all of global Medtronic.
Maintain stakeholder relationships, communications, milestones, and targets in a highly collaborative environment.
Bridge needs of business stakeholders, end users (patients, clinicians, internal), and engineering constraints.
Create and maintain design systems for broad, complex medical products (VR, surgical robotics, patient apps, and clinical SaaS).
Trained and mentored junior- and mid-level UI/UX designers.
Consult and advise director- and executive- level stakeholders for product strategy, direction, and rollout.
UI/UX Designer | R&D
2020 - 2022
UnitedHealth Group | Minneapolis Metro, MN, USA
Executed UI/UX projects for fortune 500 healthcare corp in a fast-paced R&D organization
Worked closely with engineering and business to coordinate user needs, business requirements, and engineering constraints
Trained junior UI/UX designers
Collaborated with UI Development COE to create and maintain design systems to increase throughput, efficiency, consistency, and maintain cost
Creative Manager | Print & Web Services
2019 - 2020
Prophase Marketing | Minneapolis Metro, MN, USA
Lead creative services team
Executed print and digital deliverables for clients
Managed production and improved pipeline
Lead digital services redesign that saw 1,500% growth, leveraging UI/UX principles and user research
Creative Manager | Product Design & Web Design
2018 - 2019
iSense Sleep | Springfield, Missouri, USA
Lead development of visual identity
Executed digital and print deliverables
Lead the design of the product line (physical and digital) using UI/UX principles and user research
Graphic Artist
2015 - 2018
Springfield Sign | Springfield, Missouri, USA
Executed digital and print deliverables
Created wayfinding and signage for Fortune 500 companies
Education
Advanced UI/UX for Games
2024 (Certificate)
ELVTR | ivy sang (uX Lead @ blizzard)
UI/UX for Games
2023 (Certificate)
ELVTR | ivy sang (uX Lead @ blizzard)
Bachelor's of Fine Arts - Game Art (Magna cum Laude)
2020 - 2022
Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design (RMCAD)
The Fun Stuff
Currently Playing
Destiny 2: Lightfall, prepping with my friends for The Last Shape! I love playing Titan (who doesn't love bopping stuff?), either supporting my allies in Onslaught with a baffling amount of Overshields via a Sential Shield Void build, or slippin' and slidin' around the Crucible as the chill as heck Behemoth.
I got back into Destiny 2 as part of some coursework, and I have been LOVING it. The whole concept of "mythic sci-fi" is such a fascinating, unique sub genre that blends elements of fantasy with a sci-fi universe. I recently completed the King's Fall raid as my first raid with some friends, and got into some trouble for gawking at the environment design and not paying attention to the fight… Whoops! The Hive, especially, is such a cool faction to fight… it reminds me of fighting things like the Burning Legion in Warcraft, but with this really cool futuristic icing on top.
Most Hyped For
Destiny 2: The Final Shape, Ashes of Creation, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Favorite Games
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Halo 2
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
World of Warcraft (2005 - 2012)
Baldur's Gate III
If I Could Work On Anything…
It's been a dream since childhood to work on an MMO and/or RPG. I used to bring the World of Warcraft game manual (the one with Thrall on the front) to class every day, wondering how they decided on what buttons to choose for different abilities, and coming up with my own ideas for spells and talents.
Favorite Bands
Elder
Amenra
Gojira
Behemoth
Alcest
Mastodon
Favorite Music
Post-Metal
Black Metal
Psychedelic Rock
Progressive Rock
Basically, anything heavy with a solid groove, atmosphere, and story. Bonus points if it makes you want to paint a wizard on the side of a van!