About Me

Meet me, Brett! I'm a New England-based UX Engineer and game design enthusiast, sharing insights on UX, gaming, and storytelling.

4 min read

Hi, I'm Brett, a UX Engineer and game design enthusiast based in Massachusetts.

From Film to UX

I started my professional career in the film industry, working as a gaffer. I loved the work: it was this exciting mix of collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity. Some of my favorite memories in my career are working on set with a great cinematographer.

I wanted to distill my job down to the parts I loved most: collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity.

There were a few downsides though. On a set, there's a lot of "hurry up and wait." I had days on set where I spent 10+ hours waiting outside until they needed some minor lighting changes.

I wanted to distill my job down to the parts I loved most: collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity.

A Passion for Making Lives Easier

Once I moved off of film sets, I realized how much I enjoyed taking that extra step to make other's lives easier. It's why I enjoyed working in customer service jobs, and why I loved to take on extra work to help out my colleagues.

However, we only have so much time in the day. Rather than spend hours taking on extra work permanently, I quickly learned that automating and simplifying processes was a much more sustainable way to help others.

From there, I was only a step or two away from UX design!

Bridging Design and Development

I've been programming since 2017 and became a certified UX designer in 2021. I've merged these two into my current role: a UX Engineer.

As a UX Engineer, I believe that designers and developers speak different languages, which all stems from their goals. Designers want to help people; developers want to fix problems.

Neither of these approaches is better than the other. Both views are necessary. However, these differences often result in miscommunication and misalignment.

I translate between the two groups, cutting out that miscommunication. With me on the team, I can help ensure that we create a solution that satisfies each group's needs.

Project Spotlight: Thermo Fisher's IVDR Web Hub

One of my favorite projects was working on a team to redesign Thermo Fisher's IVDR web hub. It required working closely with both scientific and regulatory experts, on top of our marketing and development teams.

It was a tough project to get a handle on, but the outcome was more than worth it!

What You'll Find on this Site

I post videos and articles on UX and game design.

With UX design, I like to focus on bringing the topic to people unfamiliar with the subject, and how they can use UX design practices in their own work or even their day to day life.

With games, I tend to focus on systems design. How do different game mechanics mesh together and what messages do they send to the player (either in how to play or how to think)?

And one day, I'll finally make a deep-dive into one of my favorite games to talk about: Brink.

Other Passions and Hobbies

Outside of UX design, I find myself interested in various other topics. I love the concepts that go into city planning, I build dioramas, and I even have a fascination with theme park design.

I also love story. Not stories (I mean I love those to), but story. The structure of it, how it flows, how it conveys its message. I spend far too much time of my life analyzing stories, and one day I hope to bring that to this site! This also influences how I approach UX design. We're always trying to tell a story in design!

I also run a few D&D campaigns and I'll bring in learnings from my years as a GM to discuss game design topics from time to time.

Looking Ahead

I'm currently focused on regularly releasing new videos and/or articles.

I'd much rather have an unpolished but finished video than a perfect theoretical video that never sees the light of day.

Ideally, one day I'll be able to bring an editor on board to help me better structure my videos. I once loved editing (it was the reason I went into the film industry in the first place), but I simply don't have the time for it anymore. Nowadays, I find that it gets in the way of me actually getting those videos out the door.