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Laura McCutchan

Laura McCutchan is a Lead Product Designer with over 20 years of experience in the field. She got her start as a web designer in the early days of the dot com boom, and organically moved into UX/UI practices to help solve complicated processes within user journeys. She is a keen facilitator among stakeholders and looks to elevate others in design thinking and advocating for the end user. Laura has also taught digital design and UX courses in both New York City and Toronto. She holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree from Parsons School of Design. Outside of work, Laura is a DJ and has performed in multiple cities in Canada, the US and the UK.

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Recent Posts by Laura McCutchan

Ask A Designer Round 7: AI & Design

Laura McCutchan

From experimenting with various AI-driven design tools to the rise of ethical concerns in the wake of artificial intelligence, the evolution of AI has left a profound impact on the design industry. For designers, this evolution has led to a reshaping of our approach to creativity, a paradigm shift that has resulted in exciting opportunities for design professionals, but also a rise in design challenges and concerns. In Round 7 of our Ask A Designer blog series, Director of Design Laura McCutchan once again sits in conversation with our design team to discuss the ground realities of their experience with AI in everyday work.

Ask A Designer Round 6: Empathy in Design

Laura McCutchan

User personas play a crucial role in humanizing the design process, providing valuable insights into the motivations and preferences of our target audience. In this article, brought together by Laura McCutchan, Director of Design, delve into the insights of a design team as they navigate empathy in design.

Ask A Designer Round 5: The Dos and Don’ts of Design Thinking

Laura McCutchan

From empathizing with users to iterating solutions based on feedback, design thinking, when done right, can foster user-centric innovation and creative problem-solving. In this article, brought together by Laura McCutchan, Director of Design, explore the insights of a design team as they delve into the dos and don’ts of design thinking. Our team members navigate the complexities of design thinking, offering insights that emphasize the holistic approach required for effective problem-solving. Design thinking isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about deeply understanding user needs and iteratively refining solutions to create meaningful impact. Stakeholders must recognize its value in fostering user-centric innovation while aligning with business objectives, and skipping stages or treating design thinking as a rigid process risks compromising the effectiveness of the solution. By the end of this article, you’ll have insights that will inspire you to embrace the iterative nature of Design Thinking, and it’s significance in delivering impactful solutions that resonate with users and drive business success.

Ask A Designer Round 4

Ask A Designer Round 4: Considering Accessibility and Designing Inclusively

Laura McCutchan

As a team, we recognize the importance of designing good experiences for everyone. And as the world becomes more and more impacted by advancements in technology and the evolution of digital experiences, our design team decided to actively play a responsibility in ensuring everyone is accounted for. Making it a priority during the first quarter […]

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Ask A Designer Round 3: Staying Curious

Laura McCutchan

From books to blogs to podcasts, UX/UI and product designers have always sought sources of knowledge and inspiration that help keep them on top of the latest trends and advancements in such a competitive field. What methods they adopt, what they suggest designers should do to stay sharp, and what their favorite sources of learning are, Director of Design Laura McCutchan gets the answers to all of these questions in this third part of the Ask A Designer Series — and its a conversation with our design team that you don’t want to miss!

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Ask A Designer Round 2: Questions For Designers, From Developers

Laura McCutchan

In our previous (and first!) Ask A Designer segment, we sat down in conversation with our design team for up close and personal insights into their day to day lives, their challenges, and their ways of working. This time, we’re taking an outside look: our development team sat down with our designers to ask them questions that they’ve always wanted answers to! In an effort to best understand how designers work, and their perspectives on important factors like accessibility, research, etc., this QnA between the two teams did much more than answer questions — it helped break down barriers in communication, improve collaboration, and make the process of working smoother and easier for both sides.

Product-&-UX-Designers

Ask A Designer: An Open Conversation with Product & UX Designers

Laura McCutchan

If you meet any designer and ask them what their day-to-day life looks like, they’ll tell you how many questions they have to deal with on a regular basis. Be it answering to other stakeholders or discussing deadlines, there is a plethora of questions that any UI/UX designer or product designer has to face. So, in order to equip designers to better tackle certain situations, we sat down with five of our own design team members to learn their unique perspectives and approaches in dealing with these various questions and circumstances. Meet our designers and uncover their answers in this Ask A Designer blog.

User Experience Research

Why Ignoring User Experience Research is a Mistake

Laura McCutchan

Oftentimes due to time and budget constraints, organizations will end up ignoring or completely cutting out User Experience research from their project. This means you’re missing out on essential UX research tools and methods that can help you understand your target user much better than what you think you know about them. In this article, we discuss the grave consequences of ignoring UX research, the benefits of investing in a UX research process, how research can be done with limited resources, and how UX and product designers can convince stakeholders about the value of UX research.

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