About me

Hi! I'm Nicole Araya.

Welcome to my corner of the internet☀️
I am a product designer with roots in graphic design and computer science. I enjoy tackling real problems by always putting people at the center of my design process. As a designer, I strive to craft meaningful and value-driven experiences that empower people, businesses, and communities.

In design problem solving I specialize in...
... Navigating ambiguity by identifying the greatest unknowns and risks
... Devising validation methods to gather data and inform strategy
... Zooming in and out of scales through systems thinking and mapping
... Connecting the dots between granular data and high-level, actionable insights

A bit more about me:
🏠 Los Angeles is my home
🏙️ Moving to NYC this summer to work as a UX Designer at Bloomberg (!!)
🙋🏻 Passionate about promoting diverse voices and sustainable practices in tech
🎧 Listening to How to Save a Planet and UI Breakfast
🎨 Illustrator and 3D artist! Check out some of my work below👇
Education
Carnegie Mellon University
Master of Human-Computer Interaction
August 2022

Harvard University
BA Visual and Environmental Studies,
Minor in Computer Science
May 2021
Work
Bloomberg L.P. (MHCI Capstone)
UX Designer, January 2022 - Present

BlueOcean.ai
Product Designer, March - August 2021

Harvard Design Collective
Product Designer, January 2020 - May 2021
Expertise
UX Design
Wireframing, Figma, Sketch, AfterEffects, Photoshop, InVision, Zeplin, Service Design

Programming
JavaScript, Python, HTML, CSS, SQL, OCaml

User Research
User Interviews, Think-Aloud, Usability Testing, Journey Mapping, Affinity Diagrams, Contextual Inquiry, Storyboarding, Heuristic Evaluation
Illustrations
DevOps and developer persona illustrations for Redis.com low-latency cloud storage website refresh.
UnravelData.com website refresh