About Havana
The quick version
Hey! I’m Havana and I am a User Experience Designer, illustrator, writer, comic artist, podcaster, and public speaker. I have made it to Medium’s Top 20 Writers for my two articles for Interaction Flows and Designing Tables for Reusability and I am the lead of the Ladies that UX ATL Meetup. By night, I work on an sci-fi comic called Kamikaze which won the 2015 Glyph Award for Best Web Comic and has been featured on NPR, SyFy Wire, and Hollywood Reporter.
I specialize in design ops, process, product discovery, and interaction design. My UX career has taken me through so many industries: aerospace, facility management, real estate, human capital management, and employment. In my art, I am inspired by animation, fluid linework, and emotional expression. When I am not working, I enjoy traveling, reading, painting, caring for my plants, and nerdy things.
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The long version
Drawing
I started drawing when I was 4 years old. Raised by Vietnamese refugees, I was pretty sheltered with only my animated VHS tapes to keep my company. As a kid, I used to pause the movies and draw what I saw on the screen. This blossomed into a lifelong fanatic appreciation on animation and sharpened my eye for visual details.
My first website
At 13 years old, I built my first website! The internet seemed so new and exciting and became the perfect channel for my nerdy obsessions. My first site was a Sonic the Hedgehog fansite that eventually became, at the time, the 2nd most popular Sonic sites according to multiple webrings (wow, remember those?) … much to my chagrin, I have not built anything quite as successful since then, as the site garnered thousands of visitors a day. Following my Sonic site came fansites for Sailor Moon, Disney, Harry Potter, and more. I learned that I loved creating content and I am often quick to find ways to express my passions and knowledge online. Today, I publish videos on travel and UX, co-host a Don Bluth podcast, and share insights on Medium.
My graphic design business
I became outgoing. I pursued a Bachelor’s in International Affairs. During college, I also ran a successful graphic design business called Havana Designs. Before I could drink legally, I was a frequent attendee of the local Chamber of Commerce, tech conferences, and business seminars. My business enjoyed a healthy roster of clients and helped me master skills in not only graphic and web design, but also sales, marketing, and business strategy. I also completed the full Toastmasters’ public speaking training program and served as a Club Officer for the East Cobb branch when I was 22.
So why did I pick International Affairs? Being around such passionate and sharp people of so many backgrounds energized me. I was awarded in 2010 for an Honorary Delegate Award in representing Qatar during the Model Arab League conference in D.C. Studying International Affairs has taught me how to shift my mind into a different cultural paradigm, think more critically, recognize groupthink, and improve my decision-making skills which has all helped me in unique ways in my career.
Enter the tech world
After college, I worked in technology companies as a cloud services salesperson and then later a client consultant where I helped development teams implement the software API and provide analysis and software configuration services to the client. Selling cloud services gave me a macroscopic understanding of infrastructure, e.g. understanding what database vs web server vs application server is. Troubleshooting API integration then gave me a more microscopic understanding of development, e.g. field mapping, API calls, connecting endpoints, data parsing, and data validation. I often had to explain all this to non-technical people too.
In my current UX career, having exposure to the sales, infrastructure, compliance, and backend perspectives gives me a holistic big-picture view of the product process.
… and that brings us to today!
I am a User Experience Designer and I’ve worked at traditional corporations, a mid-market startup, a software company, and aerospace. My favorite parts of the process are product discovery, user testing, prototyping, workshop facilitation, and interaction design. All of my past experiences have built me into the UX Designer I am today and I have helped teams ship products and improve usability on legacy systems as well as add value to existing products.
You can see some of my UX work here, see my process, and feel free to visit my LinkedIn. For those who want to also get into UX, I wrote about how I made my career change here. Now, I also help run Ladies that UX ATL, a Meetup that boasts 1,923 members!
Aside from UX, I also serve as the Lead Character Designer for Kamikaze and the Second Director of Moderation for Momocon.
By the way, I have a Youtube channel!
I would not have gotten where I am today without the generosity of others sharing their knowledge. My channel is where I share my experiences and insights in UX, art, career, and more. Feel free to check it out here: