About me

All the good stuff.

image-of-KirstenMy background in Anthropology helps me to understand humans and their context, while being a mum of two brings a level of acceleration to everything I do. I have gone through numerous life experiences (an English teacher, a food truck owner, and an investments administrator, to name a few 😁) until a destiny-shaping encounter with Python and learning to code led me to a job in the UX field, where I’ve been happy ever since.

I have successfully delivered projects with Avanti West Coast, VetPartners, BSI, and Fortius (audits and competitor analysis; research, design, and testing solutions as well as creating new features).

As someone who came to design later in life and through a “non-traditional” background, I find that storytelling has given me a voice, helping me to gain significant experience in research and design, as well as stakeholder management and strategy. So I gladly share, blog and create resources about many things I encounter along my UX path.

Fun facts:
◾ My dad taught me how to juggle when I was 5.
◾ When I was 20, I spent the summer in Rome working in a hostel.
◾ I moved back to Texas in 2015 for a few years. My husband and I owned a food truck called The London Express where we sold fish and chips.

View my CV

Kirsten with two daughters

My most important job

kirsten playing guitar

My stress reliever

What people say...

Kirsten is a force of nature!
Since our first call, I've known her progress within the design field will be unparalleled - since she has set her mind on design as a career, she has been achieving that goal with speed and determination. From self-learning coding to the ease with which she applies UX frameworks, to her confident and inspiring presentation skills, she's been nothing but brilliant. Clients absolutely love her, and the account she has been working on has significantly grown, due to the brilliant work she's been doing. I have immense respect for how much energy and passion she spends on learning, she made our team so much better since she has joined in so many ways, from working on our progression framework, to systematising our library, to proactively leading research on design ops and looking at how it can help improve the whole organization beyond our team.”

Aleksandra Melnikova, Head of Experience Design, Inviqa

I love working on UX projects with Kirsten.
She is great at engaging multiple stakeholders across different areas of the business and making workshops fun and insightful. She has a great level of attention to detail and tenacity when exploring problems and ensures solutions are all encompassing of different customer scenarios. In the rail industry, this can be challenging but Kirsten leaves no stone unturned.”

Tom Rowe, Digital Optimisation Manager, Avanti West Coast

She goes above and beyond to make things run smoothly for the team.
She's innovative and forward thinking. Her idea to create a template to track progress has been super helpful and I think that's a really strong area for Kirsten. She sees how systems can be improved, creates a solution and is generous enough to share her ideas without hesitation."

Sarah Haidermota, Early Stage Designer, Inviqa

I was one of the lucky ones that got to work with her first and at no point did she fail to impress, especially as it was a baptism by fire. The project, one of her first at Inviqa, was testing, gruelling, had a huge time pressure and was stressful for the team. Kirsten came in with buckets of enthusiasm, calmness, positivity, quickly onboarded and got stuck in. She took the initiative to implement efficiencies in the project, making things smoother and more manageable for me and the team. She was instrumental to that projects success. We now both look back on it with pride.

Owen Hughes, Experience Designer, Inviqa