Beyond the five case studies on the home page, a closer look at work spanning healthcare,
ed-tech, entertainment, financial services, and consumer web.
Two mental health practice websites where patients can find care, see pricing, and book online, built with Claude AI.
Design manager on Capital One's dealer financing platform, leading the end-to-end journey and verification flow.
Makes appointment scheduling easier for Kaiser members across web and mobile, from booking to check-in.
A regional-aware welcome page that greets Kaiser Permanente members and tailors their messaging and services.
Documented every component in the Kaiser design system, from tabs to bill cards to video carousels.
The Walt Disney Studios' shared design system, giving every team a single source of truth for UI patterns.
ReRun ensures Walt Disney Studios' talent are paid residuals accurately and on time, replacing a manual process.
Places incoming students into the right math class for ALEKS, McGraw Hill's adaptive learning platform.
Internal system for authoring, editing, and storing ALEKS' 40,000+ learning algorithms, built for content teams.
A touchscreen in-vehicle cockpit concept, replacing physical controls like climate, audio, and navigation.
A beauty and lifestyle app pairing a mirror, camera, and photo editor with beauty tips and tutorials.
Styled Wheels was a custom motorcycle wheel company I co-founded and ran with a business partner.
A custom motorcycle wheel company I co-founded. I designed the wheels, designed and built the WordPress site and checkout flow, and integrated two payment processors myself, while my partner ran manufacturing.
At a Glance
IntroductionStyled Wheels manufactures custom motorcycle wheels. I co-founded the company and owned everything outside manufacturing: designing the wheel finishes, designing and building the website, and running the rest of the business, while my partner handled production. The catalog spanned six finish and series options, including Black Contrast, Black Contrast Extreme Modular, Chrome, Black and Chrome Modular, and All Black Powder Coat (standard and Modular), plus accessories like fork cans, saddlebag latch covers, axle covers, and wraparound fenders, and a dealer program offering 25% off to wholesale partners. Everything from the product design to the site that sold it was mine to design and build.
My RoleI did all of it myself, with no team behind me on the business side. I designed the physical wheels and their finish options. I designed and built the WordPress website that sold them, including product pages, the shopping cart, and the checkout flow. I integrated two separate payment processors so customers could pay however they trusted most. And I ran the business's day-to-day finances in QuickBooks, reconciling orders coming through the site against real revenue. Design, development, payments, and bookkeeping all sat with one person, and that was me.
The Problem, and the ApproachWhat made a made-to-order, single-owner e-commerce business harder than a typical storefront, and how I built around it.
Problems
Solutions
Checkout & Payment SystemThis is the part I'd point to directly for a payment-processor or checkout-system example: a customer picks a wheel, series, and finish from the catalog, adds it to the cart, and pays through either PayPal or Authorize.net at checkout.
Some customers preferred PayPal's own checkout over entering a card on an unfamiliar site, while others just wanted to type a card number directly. Running both live at once also meant a problem with one processor never cost a sale. Every completed order then reconciled against the books, so checkout fed directly into how the business actually ran in QuickBooks.
Every Screen Along the WayThe six screens above are the shortest path through checkout. The flow also covered every step in between: a billing address form for customers paying by card, PayPal's authorization hand-off, a review screen for card orders, and the brief confirming state while an order was being placed.
Designing for Things Going WrongCheckout also had to handle what customers don't expect to see: a mistyped ZIP code, an expired card, a declined charge, a cancelled PayPal session, and a delayed confirmation, across both PayPal and Authorize.net.
Order EmailsEvery order also triggered a matching email: a receipt on a successful payment, a shipping notice once it shipped, and a clear status update, instead of silence, if a payment needed another look.
Magazine AdsBeyond the website, I landed Styled Wheels coverage in print, placing ads and feature articles in several motorcycle magazines that put the brand directly in front of riders who might never have found it online.
ProductsProduct photos of the finished Styled Wheels, mounted and ready to ride.
Everything but Sales and Assembling the ProductWhat handling design, the site, and the books at Styled Wheels actually looked like.
01 · Two ways to payPayPal and Authorize.net both live at checkout, so no customer was turned away over how they wanted to pay.
02 · My side, every layerProduct design, site design, development, checkout, payments, and bookkeeping all sat with me. My partner ran manufacturing, everything else was mine.
03 · Made-to-order made simpleFinish and configuration choices folded directly into a standard cart and checkout flow, instead of requiring manual back-and-forth to place an order.
Why This Fits Me
01 · Owns the whole systemI didn't just design Styled Wheels. I built and ran it, from the storefront and checkout code to the books. I understand what a design decision costs downstream.
02 · Designs for reliabilityRunning two payment processors in parallel wasn't overkill. It meant one outage never cost a sale. I design with failure modes in mind, not just the happy path.
03 · Comfortable with the whole businessDesign, code, marketing, and bookkeeping all ran through me. I'm at ease moving between the screen and the spreadsheet.
Styled Wheels is my own product, a hands-on build I created from start to finish. I designed the product, built the site that sold it and the checkout flow, integrated two separate payment processors, and made sure every order matched the books. That's the same instinct I bring to any team. I want to understand the whole system, not just the screen in front of me, and own a piece of infrastructure as critical as payments from design through to production.
Beauty tips, tutorials, and a mirror, camera, and photo editor.
Built and designed two mental health practice websites with Claude: True Haven Mental Health, a telehealth psychiatric practice, and Enraiz Behavioral Health. Both cover services, pricing, and online booking.
About the two practicesTrue Haven Mental Health is a telehealth psychiatric practice offering medication management and mental health care to patients across California, with a focus on making care easy to find, understand, and book online.
Enraiz Behavioral Health is a therapy practice serving Ventura and Los Angeles Counties with individual, couples, and family therapy and parent support, in person in Westlake Village and virtually across California.
Services, Pricing & BookingBoth sites walk new and returning patients through the practice's services and pricing, then into online booking, so someone can go from learning what a practice offers to scheduling an appointment without ever picking up the phone. On Enraiz, patients can also book a free 30-minute consultation.
Insurance & Scheduling IntegrationsOn True Haven, booking connects directly to SimplePractice for scheduling and client records, and to Headway for insurance verification and billing, so a patient's appointment, coverage, and payment stay in sync with the systems the practice already runs on behind the scenes. Enraiz books through Headway, with the free consultation scheduled through Calendly.
Building True Haven With Claude AIEvery part of the True Haven site, from the initial structure and copy to the finished design, was built end to end using Claude AI, with me directing the design decisions, content, and integrations throughout.
Why This Fits MeMaking mental health care easy to find, understand, and book is the kind of problem I like designing around, and building it end to end let me own every layer of the experience.
01 · Care that's easy to bookSomeone looking for care shouldn't have to hunt for pricing or pick up the phone. I like turning that search into a clear path from services to a booked appointment.
02 · Connected to real systemsOn True Haven, booking connects to SimplePractice and Headway, so scheduling, coverage, and billing stay in sync with the tools the practice already runs on.
03 · Builds with AI, directs the designI built the whole True Haven site end to end with Claude AI while making every design, content, and integration decision myself.
If you're hiring for a product where people need to get from needing help to a confirmed booking without friction, this is the kind of problem I want to work on. I like starting from what a patient needs to understand, connecting it to the systems a practice already runs on, and using AI to build quickly while still directing every design decision. I'd bring that same mix of clear UX, practical integrations, and hands-on building to your team.
"I had the pleasure of working with Amanda on the design and development of my website, and I truly could not be happier with the result. She took the time to understand my vision, the feeling I wanted the website to convey, and the audience I was trying to reach, and then brought it all together in a way that exceeded my expectations. What impressed me most was her ability to balance creativity with functionality. She has an excellent eye for design and detail, but she also understands that a great website needs to be intuitive, professional, and easy to navigate. She was thoughtful throughout the entire process, receptive to feedback, and incredibly patient as we refined the details. The finished website feels polished, cohesive, and genuinely representative of my brand. I have received so many compliments on it, and I am incredibly proud to have it represent my business. I would highly recommend Amanda to anyone looking for someone who is talented, creative, reliable, and truly invested in delivering a website her clients will love. She did an exceptional job, and I would work with her again without hesitation."
"Amanda completely overhauled my website using modern tools and processes, including AI, to create an incredible site that represents who I am. The process was smooth, and Amanda's professionalism shines through in everything she does, including clear communication and responsiveness. I'm so pleased with my site! I highly recommend Amanda's services; any company will be fortunate to have her in a senior role!"
Design manager on Capital One's dealer financing platform.
Design manager on Capital One's dealer financing platform.
About Capital OneCapital One is a Fortune 500 bank holding company and one of the largest credit card issuers and auto lenders in the U.S., known for a technology- and data-driven approach to retail banking.
My RoleI led design on Capital One's dealer funding platform as design manager, from the end-to-end journey mapping through the verification flow dealers use every day and the metrics dashboard leadership uses to track how funding is performing.
The ChallengeGetting a deal funded meant a dealer assembling a full paperwork packet, pay stubs, proof of income, signed disclosures, the full deal jacket, before Capital One could release funds. Missing or incorrect documents were a top reason funding stalled, and there wasn't a shared, day-to-day view of where deals were getting stuck or how the process was performing month over month. The work spanned three pieces: mapping the full journey to see where the friction actually lived, redesigning the verification flow dealers use to submit and track paperwork, and building the metrics dashboard that gives leadership visibility into time-to-fund and return rates.
BlueprintThis blueprint mapped the full car-buying and financing journey, from research and the dealer visit through credit, the F&I (finance & insurance) handoff, funding, and the life of the loan, including payoff and total-loss scenarios, capturing where consumers, dealers, and Capital One handed off to each other and where the friction showed up along the way.
IPV FlowThe IPV flow within the Capital One funding platform.
ScreensSelected screens: the deal document upload flow, the fast funding requirements view, and the funding metrics dashboard.
Why This Fits MeA slow, paperwork-heavy back-office process is exactly the kind of problem I like taking on, especially one with real compliance stakes attached to every screen.
01 · Built for complianceDealer funding comes with real compliance and documentation requirements. I like turning that complexity into something a dealer can move through quickly.
02 · Metrics people trustThe metrics dashboard was built for people who get asked why time-to-fund moved this month, not as a status page nobody opens.
03 · Partners with the rulesVerification requirements come from outside design. The earlier those teams join the conversation, the less gets rebuilt later.
If you're hiring for a workflow where paperwork, compliance, or verification steps slow real people down, this is the kind of problem I want on my desk. I like making a regulated process feel fast without hiding the parts that matter. That means mapping the full journey first, then redesigning the flow and the metrics around it so the people relying on both can trust them. I'd bring that same approach to whatever back-office system your team is untangling next.
"Amanda was an outstanding influence on me as a designer. She was ever present. I never felt alone during the months we worked virtually, and she provided excellent feedback that molded my growth as a designer."
Two mental health sites built with Claude AI.
Makes appointment scheduling easier for Kaiser members.
Makes appointment scheduling easier for Kaiser members across web and mobile, covering everything from booking directly with a specialist to a multi-level triage flow for members who aren't sure what type of visit they need, all validated through moderated usability testing before launch.
About Kaiser PermanenteKaiser Permanente is one of the largest nonprofit integrated health systems in the U.S., combining health insurance, hospitals, and physician groups under one organization and serving more than 12 million members across 9 states and Washington, D.C. Its integrated model brings the health plan, hospitals, and physician groups together under one roof, so a member's coverage, care team, and medical records stay connected instead of living with separate providers and insurers.
My RoleI led the redesign of this appointment scheduling experience across web and mobile as senior UX designer, from mapping the triage logic through validating it with real members in moderated usability testing before launch.
The ChallengeMembers needed one scheduling flow that worked whether they already knew which specialist to book, or had no idea what type of visit they needed. There wasn't a way to triage by symptom, so members either guessed at a visit type or called in. The redesign added a multi-level triage layer, a visit-type selection step, and a location picker, and it needed to hold up the same way on mobile as it did on desktop.
ScenariosThese scenarios covered the core flows in the appointment booking redesign: booking directly with a specialist from the reason page, a multi-level triage layer to route members to the right visit type, a visit-type selection page, and a location map component.
ResearchI evaluated a revised design for scheduling multiple appointments at once, testing with Kaiser Permanente members to see how well they could self-triage by reason, understand phone vs. video visit types, select a location, and follow a new date-and-time picking flow. A mobile summative study then put a high-fidelity mobile prototype in front of eight members.
FindingsA follow-up mobile usability study tested a higher-fidelity prototype of the multiple-appointments booking flow with more Kaiser Permanente members, tracking where the workflow, the reason-for-appointment step, and the new scheduling layout held up, and where the experience still needed work.
PrototypeDesktop and mobile prototypes of the Appointment Scheduling redesign.
Why This Fits MeGetting someone to the right kind of care, quickly and without guesswork, is the part of healthcare UX I care most about.
01 · Designs for ambiguityMembers don't always know what kind of visit they need. I like building systems that route people to the right place anyway.
02 · Tests before launchI ran the usability studies myself, watching real members work through the triage flow before any of it shipped.
03 · Consistent across devicesDesktop and mobile needed to feel like one flow, not two different products that happen to share a name.
If you're hiring for a healthcare or other high-stakes scheduling flow where getting people to the right place actually matters, this is the kind of problem I want to solve, and I'd want to validate it with real users before it ships, the same way I did here.
"I know I can reliably count on her for solving complex UX problems, designing and documenting design system components, and prototyping large-scale flows at blistering speeds."
Design manager on Capital One's dealer financing platform.
A welcome page tailored to members' local care network.
A regional-aware welcome page that greets Kaiser Permanente members and tailors their experience, the messaging, services, and resources they see, to their local care network.
About Kaiser PermanenteKaiser Permanente is one of the largest nonprofit integrated health systems in the U.S., combining health insurance, hospitals, and physician groups under one organization and serving more than 12 million members across 9 states and Washington, D.C. Its integrated model brings the health plan, hospitals, and physician groups together under one roof, so a member's coverage, care team, and medical records stay connected instead of living with separate providers and insurers.
My RoleI designed this regional-aware welcome page as senior UX designer, from the personalized member greeting through the responsive layout, documented across every breakpoint for engineering.
The ChallengeKaiser members belong to different regional care networks, each with its own contact numbers, resources, and services. The welcome page needed to greet every member by name and automatically surface the right regional information, without anyone having to hunt for their own region, and the layout had to hold up cleanly from a full desktop screen down to a phone.
DeliverablesSupporting deliverables for the regional-aware welcome page.
Why This Fits MeA page that has to feel personal for every member, not just the one in the mockup, is exactly the kind of constraint I like designing around.
01 · Designs for every caseMaking a page work correctly for every regional variant, not just the demo case, is where the real design work happens.
02 · Documents for engineeringI specced this across every breakpoint so engineering had exact, unambiguous references to build from.
03 · Personalization with a pointWelcoming a member by name only matters if what's underneath it is actually relevant to them.
If you're hiring for a product that has to feel personal at scale, correct for every region or segment and not just the one in the demo, this is the kind of design problem I enjoy untangling.
"I know I can reliably count on her for solving complex UX problems, designing and documenting design system components, and prototyping large-scale flows at blistering speeds."
Makes appointment scheduling easier for Kaiser members.
Documented the Kaiser design system.
Documented every component in the Kaiser design system, from tabs to bill cards to video carousels, giving engineering and design teams one consistent reference to build from instead of reinventing each pattern on their own.
About Kaiser PermanenteKaiser Permanente is one of the largest nonprofit integrated health systems in the U.S., combining health insurance, hospitals, and physician groups under one organization and serving more than 12 million members across 9 states and Washington, D.C. Its integrated model brings the health plan, hospitals, and physician groups together under one roof, so a member's coverage, care team, and medical records stay connected instead of living with separate providers and insurers.
My RoleI authored this documentation as senior UX designer, specifying every component down to its states, spacing, and usage rules so engineering and other designers had one accurate source to build from.
The ChallengeKaiser's product teams were rebuilding the same UI patterns slightly differently every time: tabs, bill cards, utility components, with no single source of truth for states, spacing, or when to use one pattern over another. The documentation needed to cover default, hover, active, and disabled states for each component, plus responsive behavior, so teams could implement consistently without redesigning from scratch or guessing at edge cases.
TabsThe Tabs component was documented down to every state: default, hover, active, and disabled, along with responsive behavior, spacing rules, and guidance on when to use tabs versus another navigation pattern, so any team building with them could implement consistently without redesigning from scratch.
UtilityUtility components covered the smaller, reusable pieces of the system: buttons, tags, icons, tooltips, and similar elements, each one specified with sizing, spacing, and interaction states so teams could drop them into new features without guessing at behavior.
Bill CardThe Bill Card component documented how a member's billing summary should display across account types and edge cases: partial payments, past-due balances, multiple accounts on file, with every state annotated so engineering could build it once and reuse it everywhere it appeared.
View More/LessThe View More/Less pattern was documented with its expand and collapse states, animation timing, and rules for when content should truncate, giving teams a single reference instead of reinventing the interaction each time it showed up in the product.
Video CarouselThe Video Carousel component was documented with its playback states, navigation controls, and responsive breakpoints, so teams embedding video content across the site could do so consistently rather than building one-off variations.
Why This Fits MeThe unglamorous work of documenting states, edge cases, and usage rules so a whole team can build consistently is work I'm genuinely good at.
01 · Documents the edge casesI document the cases that get skipped, like current and future states, partial payments, and past-due balances, not just the happy path.
02 · Writes for other teamsA system only works if every team actually uses it. I write documentation other designers and engineers can build from without asking me first.
03 · Comfortable going deepSpecifying five components down to hover states and spacing rules is slow, deliberate work, and I like it.
If you're hiring to build or maintain a design system, this is work I'm genuinely good at and enjoy, the unglamorous documentation of states, edge cases, and usage rules that lets a whole team build consistently.
"I know I can reliably count on her for solving complex UX problems, designing and documenting design system components, and prototyping large-scale flows at blistering speeds."
A welcome page tailored to members' local care network.
Walt Disney Studios' shared design system for UI.
The Walt Disney Studios' shared design system, giving every team a single source of truth for components, patterns, and UI behavior so products across the studio look and feel consistent instead of being rebuilt from scratch each time.
About The Walt Disney StudiosThe Walt Disney Studios is the film and entertainment production arm of The Walt Disney Company, spanning labels like Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm, and overseeing studio operations from production through talent and residual administration.
My RoleI designed and documented this shared design system as senior UX designer, specifying components like tables, charts, and core UI patterns so every team building on Disney's platforms could pull from the same source instead of reinventing it.
The ChallengeDifferent teams across The Walt Disney Studios were building similar dashboards, charts, and UI patterns independently, with no shared guidance on when to use a bar chart over a stacked one, or how a component should behave across products. HEX needed to give every team, from Studio Technology to individual product teams, one consistent, documented system to build from.
Tables & ChartsTables and charts documentation from the HEX style guide.
ScreensScreens from the HEX style guide.
Why This Fits MeA design system only earns its keep if teams actually use it instead of quietly rebuilding their own version.
01 · Documents the reasoningThe bar chart guide doesn't just show what a stacked chart looks like, it explains when to use one instead of a vertical bar chart.
02 · Works across productsHEX had to make sense to Studio Technology, product teams, and operations, not just the team that built it.
03 · Designs for adoptionA system only works if people actually reach for it, so I document the why alongside the what.
If you're hiring to build or scale a design system across multiple product teams, this is exactly the kind of foundational, cross-team work I want to be doing. I like building the shared language a system needs to actually get adopted, not just published somewhere and forgotten.
"Amanda is a no-drama senior level experience designer that I have relied upon to consistently perform, meet and exceed expectations. She is diligent, organized and practical. Amanda is unassumingly awesome."
Documented the Kaiser design system.
ReRun pays Disney talent accurately and saves millions.
ReRun ensures Walt Disney Studios' talent are paid residuals accurately and on time for years to come, replacing a manual, error-prone process and saving millions of dollars by reducing late fees.
About The Walt Disney StudiosThe Walt Disney Studios is the film and entertainment production arm of The Walt Disney Company, spanning labels like Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm, and overseeing studio operations from production through talent and residual administration.
My RoleI led design on ReRun end to end as senior UX designer, from personas and site map through the logo brainstorm and the finished product, working closely with analysts, payroll, and legal to replace a manual, spreadsheet-driven process with one system.
ImpactBy replacing manual, paperwork-heavy processing with an automated residuals workflow, ReRun helped Walt Disney Studios pay talent accurately and on time, saving millions of dollars by reducing late fees. The old process relied on spreadsheets and manual handoffs between analysts, payroll, and legal, which meant obligations could slip past their due dates before anyone caught the error. ReRun centralized that process into one system, giving every role visibility into where a payment stood and enough lead time to catch problems before they became missed deadlines.
Logo BrainstormBefore settling on a direction, I explored a range of logo concepts for ReRun, testing different marks and wordmark treatments to find one that felt trustworthy and modern while still fitting within the Walt Disney Studios' broader brand system, and landed on a mark that could scale cleanly from a favicon up to full marketing use.
Site MapThis site map laid out ReRun2's full information architecture, from residuals search and the dashboard down to product setup, obligation processing, master records, admin tools, and reporting, with each section scoped to the right role, whether analyst, manager, payroll, or super user.
PersonasTo make sure ReRun worked for everyone who'd touch it, I built personas around the different roles who'd use the system, from analysts processing residual obligations day to day, to managers overseeing the queue, to payroll and super users who needed full visibility into records and reporting. Each persona captured that role's goals and pain points with the old process, shaping decisions on what to surface, simplify, or restrict within ReRun.
Personas for the manager, director, team lead, and preparer roles on the Residuals team.
ScreensScreens from the finished ReRun product.
Why This Fits MeGetting a payment wrong here means real people don't get paid on time, and that stakes level is exactly what pulls me in.
01 · High-stakes dataI designed for a system where the cost of an error is a real person's paycheck, not a minor inconvenience.
02 · Designs for every roleAnalysts, managers, payroll, and super users each needed something different from the same system, so none of them got an afterthought experience.
03 · Sweats the brand detailsI don't treat a logo as separate from the UX. ReRun's mark had to hold up from a favicon to a slide deck.
If you're hiring for a system where getting the data wrong has real financial consequences for real people, that's the kind of stakes I want to be designing for, where accuracy isn't a nice-to-have, it's the whole job.
"I worked with Amanda to bring a complicated financial enterprise application to life. She is a quick learner who makes sure all the right questions are asked, then executed on the solutions, able to convey product needs through her design and deliver high-quality applications for our users."
Walt Disney Studios' shared design system for UI.
Places students into the right ALEKS class.
Places incoming students into the right math class.
About ALEKSALEKS (Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces) is an AI-driven adaptive learning and assessment platform from McGraw Hill, used across K-12 and higher education for subjects like math, chemistry, and statistics.
My RoleI was Lead Designer and Researcher on ALEKS PPL, owning the experience end to end: writing the test plan, recruiting high school seniors and incoming college freshmen, running the moderated usability study myself, and turning the findings into the redesigned flows and visuals.
The ChallengePlacement decisions have real stakes for an incoming student. Get it wrong and they land in a math class that's too easy or too hard on day one. The existing flow blurred the line between a low-stakes Knowledge Check and the high-stakes Placement Assessment, and students lost track of where they stood across a long process spanning onboarding, a proctored assessment, module selection, and reporting.
FlowsUser flows for the ALEKS PPL placement experience.
Test PlanThis test plan defined how I evaluated the new flow and navigation for PPL students, recruiting high school seniors and incoming college freshmen to identify pain points and improve the overall experience.
Test ReportAs Lead Designer and Researcher, I ran a moderated usability study with incoming college and high school students to evaluate the ALEKS Placement product's first-time-use flow, its assessment results and reporting, module selection, and the distinction between a Knowledge Check and a Placement Assessment.
VisualsThis visual set spans the full PPL experience: the welcome and introduction flow, the onboarding survey, a tools tutorial, the proctored assessment pages, the Placement Assessment itself and its results, choosing a prep and learning module, and the resulting homepage, reports, and dashboard.
ScreensScreens from the finished ALEKS PPL experience.
Why This Fits Me
01 · Research-informed designI don't design placement flows from assumption. I write the test plan, recruit the actual users, and run the sessions myself, then let the findings drive the redesign.
02 · Designs for high-stakes momentsGetting a student's placement wrong has real consequences for their semester. I design for clarity in the moments that matter most, not just the easy screens.
03 · End-to-end ownershipI owned this work from research plan through final visuals, comfortable driving a project across its full lifecycle rather than handing off between stages.
If you're hiring for a product where getting one decision wrong has real consequences for someone's education, I want to be the designer running the research and owning the outcome, not just handed a spec.
"Amanda handled complex projects with ease and speed, creating high-fidelity prototypes to illustrate concepts to stakeholders and for usability testing. It was a pleasure working with her. She is a great asset to any UX design team."
ReRun pays Disney talent accurately and saves millions.
Internal system for authoring 40,000+ learning algorithms.
Internal system for authoring, editing, and storing 40,000+ learning algorithms, built so content teams could manage the full pipeline end to end, from first draft through review and quality assurance.
About ALEKSALEKS (Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces) is an AI-driven adaptive learning and assessment platform from McGraw Hill, used across K-12 and higher education for subjects like math, chemistry, and statistics.
My RoleI was the User Experience Designer for Gibbs, the internal CMS that ALEKS/McGraw Hill authors, reviewers, and external contributors use to move every textbook's content through its full production pipeline.
The ChallengeA single book can carry 40,000+ algorithms, each one needing to move through program design review, content review, and quality assurance before it ships, tracked chapter by chapter, across both internal staff and outside contributors. The existing tools made it hard to see, at a glance, where any one piece of content actually stood in that pipeline, which slowed down every release.
OverviewGibbs, the ALEKS CMS, is where authors and reviewers move each textbook's content through the full pipeline, from algorithm authoring through program design review, content review, and quality assurance, tracked chapter by chapter for both ALEKS/McGraw Hill employees and external contributors.
ScreensScreens from the ALEKS CMS.
Why This Fits Me
01 · Designs for scale40,000+ algorithms across dozens of books isn't a UI problem you solve with one clever screen. It takes a system that stays legible at real volume.
02 · Built for mixed audiencesInternal staff and external contributors need the same tool to make sense at different levels of familiarity with the content pipeline.
03 · Comfortable with dense dataI'm at home designing status-heavy, data-dense internal tools where clarity at a glance matters more than visual flourish.
Internal tools rarely get design attention, but they're what your whole content operation runs on. I like making the unglamorous, high-volume systems easier for the people who use them all day.
"An efficient worker with excellent problem-solving abilities, adept at the agile process and quick iterations. Amanda steps in to assist with user research too. She's a flexible worker and an asset to the team."
Places students into the right ALEKS class.
A touchscreen cockpit concept replacing car controls.
A touchscreen in-vehicle cockpit concept, replacing traditional physical controls like climate, audio, and navigation with one unified digital dashboard built to keep every frequently used function reachable and legible at a glance.
About the Car Dashboard Design ExerciseThe car dashboard design exercise was a personal concept project exploring how a single touchscreen cockpit could replace the traditional cluster of physical controls in a car, consolidating climate, audio, and navigation into one unified digital dashboard.
My RoleThis was a design exercise. I set the design direction myself, from the initial premise through the final interactive prototype.
The ChallengeAs car interiors shifted from physical buttons and dials to touchscreens, frequently used controls like climate, audio, and navigation could end up scattered or buried in menus, forcing a driver to look away from the road to find something they used to reach by feel. The challenge was consolidating that cluster of switches and gauges into one screen without losing the reachability and at-a-glance legibility physical controls gave for free.
Why a Unified DashboardThis concept explored consolidating those controls into a single touchscreen cockpit, replacing the traditional cluster of switches and gauges with one unified digital dashboard designed to keep the most-used functions reachable and legible at a glance.
Why This Fits Me
01 · Self-directed explorationI don't need a brief to go deep on a design problem. I pick concepts that interest me and take them all the way to a working prototype.
02 · Designs for divided attentionA driver can't dedicate full focus to a screen. I think about how an interface holds up when someone is only half paying attention to it.
03 · Comfortable outside software UXAutomotive cockpits, physical-to-digital transitions. I like stretching into interaction problems outside a typical app or website.
If your product lives outside a typical screen-in-hand context, in a vehicle, on a wall, anywhere attention is divided, I bring the same rigor to those constraints that I do to any other interface.
Internal system for authoring 40,000+ learning algorithms.
Beauty tips, tutorials, and a mirror, camera, and photo editor.
Beauty tips, tutorials, and a mirror, camera, and photo editor.
About My Looking GlassMy Looking Glass is a beauty and lifestyle app pairing a mirror, camera, and photo editor with beauty tips, tutorials, and shareable community groups, giving users one place to look, learn, and connect.
My RoleI was the User Experience Designer and Researcher, running the initial user survey myself and using it to redesign two core sections of the app's Beta version.
The ChallengeBefore redesigning anything, I needed a real read on who the app's users actually were, since a beauty and photo-editing app has to fit into an existing habit of using other tools like it. Without that grounding, a redesign risks fixing the wrong things, or missing the features people already expect from the category.
ResearchTo understand The Looking Glass's potential users, I ran an online survey of 29 women about the beauty and photo-editing apps they already used, what they liked, their pain points, and features they wished they had. That research shaped a persona I built around a target user, which I then used to redesign two sections of the app's Beta version: the login screen and the in-app navigation menu.
FlowsFull user flow mapping for My Looking Glass, tracing every path through Tips, Groups, Mirror, Photos, and Profile from first launch to each screen's logged-in and logged-out states.
ScreensScreens from the My Looking Glass app.
Why This Fits Me
01 · Starts with real researchI ran the survey myself before touching any screen, so the redesign was grounded in what actual users said, not assumptions about them.
02 · Builds personas that get usedI turn research into a persona built for a specific design decision, not a poster that gets made once and forgotten.
03 · Designs for consumer habitsBeauty and photo apps compete with habits people already have. I design with that existing behavior in mind, not against it.
If you're building a consumer app that people pick up one-handed, often mid-routine in front of a mirror or camera, I want to start where I started here, with real users, before a single screen gets drawn. On My Looking Glass, that meant designing navigation within easy thumb's reach, keeping the path from opening the app to the camera as short as possible, and testing every layout on an actual phone rather than a desktop mockup, since a habit-driven mobile app lives or dies on how it feels in someone's hand.
"Amanda put together not only a plan but also a prototype to execute it. Working both individually and collaboratively, the result was on time and on budget. She's good at running with concepts and putting in the time to get it right."
A touchscreen cockpit concept replacing car controls.
Co-founded and ran a custom motorcycle wheel company.
Amanda Schmutzler
Prototype
Prototype
Prototype
Prototype