I’m Ashley. I like working through a complicated problem, making something useful, and finding a little room for creativity along the way.
You’ll find selected client work, live products I’ve designed and developed, and notes on what I’m learning. I’m learning as I go, and I hope something here gives you a useful starting point—or a little inspiration to try something of your own.
10+ years of usability testing, field observation, and behavioral research, connected to journeys, prototypes, and design across digital and physical touchpoints.
Research that reveals where people hesitate, what creates friction, and what helps them succeed.
NATIONAL BANK OF CANADA / THROUGH NCR
Extensive usability and observational research.
At NCR, I conducted extensive usability testing and observation for National Bank of Canada, evaluating how people used banking experiences, where they encountered friction, and what affected understanding, behavior, and adoption.
Across my broader NCR research work, I collaborated with contractors and psychologists in Scotland, Germany, and the United States, combining direct observation with heuristic evaluation, eye tracking, and other methods to inform product and experience decisions.
Observe people attempting realistic tasks to uncover confusion, errors, and barriers to completion. Use moderated sessions and think-aloud techniques to understand why problems happen.
Field testing & contextual observation
Study experiences in the environments where people actually use them. Identify interruptions, workarounds, physical constraints, and differences between the intended workflow and real behavior.
Heuristic evaluation & walkthroughs
Review interfaces against usability principles and walk through key tasks to identify consistency, feedback, navigation, and error-recovery problems.
Eye tracking & attention studies
Examine where people look, what they overlook, and how visual hierarchy supports a task. Interpret attention patterns alongside observed behavior and participant feedback.
Concept & prototype testing
Evaluate comprehension, navigation, and interaction choices before a full build. Compare approaches, expose assumptions, and use findings to guide the next design iteration.
Workflow, friction & adoption research
Connect interviews, observation, and task performance to the wider journey. Understand confidence, expectations, handoffs, and the support people need to adopt a product.
I connect qualitative findings with measures such as task completion, time on task, error patterns, and participant confidence. The method follows the decision: what do we need to learn, and what will we change?
HOW I RUN A STUDY
From a research question to a better product.
I connect research operations, hands-on observation, and product strategy so teams can act on what they learn. Expand each step for the decisions, methods, and deliverables behind the work.
01Frame the decision and define success
Start with the user’s goal, the business question, and the decision the study needs to support. Identify critical journeys, assumptions, risks, and a baseline. Write realistic tasks with observable completion criteria before choosing a research method.
02Recruit thoughtfully and prepare the study
Select participants who reflect the intended audience, including relevant differences in experience, abilities, devices, and context. Prepare screening criteria, a discussion guide, task scenarios, consent and recording arrangements, and a consistent observation framework. Pilot the tasks to catch confusing instructions.
03Observe behavior without leading the answer
Use neutral prompts and give people room to attempt the task. Capture hesitation, misinterpretation, errors, workarounds, and requests for help. Separate what I directly observe from what participants report and from my own interpretation. In field research, also document interruptions, environmental constraints, and handoffs.
04Synthesize findings and prioritize the work
Look for patterns across participants and tasks. Connect observations to evidence, affected journeys, and likely consequences. Prioritize issues by severity, recurrence, impact on the user’s goal, and confidence in the finding, then discuss options and tradeoffs with the team.
05Prototype, retest, and follow through
Translate findings into clear design changes and testable hypotheses. Retest the revised experience using comparable tasks and document remaining issues. After release, use product analytics, support feedback, and follow-up research to understand whether the improvement holds in everyday use.
What I measure—and how I interpret it
Task completion
Can someone complete the intended task independently, with help, or only partially? Define success consistently and record where the attempt breaks down.
Effort and efficiency
Time on task, unnecessary steps, backtracking, and requests for help. Interpret speed in context: a careful, well-understood decision can be more valuable than a fast mistake.
Errors and recovery
What goes wrong, how serious is it, and can the person recover? Look at whether feedback explains the problem and makes the next step clear.
Understanding and confidence
Can people explain what they did, what will happen next, and how certain they feel? Compare stated ease and confidence with observed performance.
Adoption and ongoing use
After release, look at activation, repeat use, abandonment, and support needs. Combine behavioral data with research to understand the reasons behind a pattern.
Evidence strength
Report the sample, context, and limitations. Small qualitative studies reveal problems and possible explanations; broader estimates and causal claims require an appropriate study or experiment.
Choosing the right method: moderated sessions help explain unfamiliar or complex tasks; unmoderated studies suit clear tasks people can attempt independently. Interviews reveal expectations, analytics locate drop-offs, and usability testing shows what happens during the task. When a question calls for a causal comparison, a properly designed A/B experiment can test the proposed change.
02 / SELECTED WORK
Different challenges. One connected skill set.
Explore the problem, my contribution, and the evidence behind each project.
Showing 8 selected projects
01 / FOUNDER-BUILT AI PLATFORM
Waymaker AI
A connected platform that helps people move from an idea to a product, a plan, and the next useful action.
Connecting the invitation, registration, and activation experience for an actor audition platform.
12 emails · 3 onboarding prototypes
Lead consultant · Lifecycle strategy · Email · UX · Research
Explore the case study
The challenge
Email engagement alone did not explain why invited actors were dropping out before becoming activated users.
My contribution
Mapped the full journey from invitation through registration, activation, and the founding-member survey.
Used Mailchimp funnel data to diagnose the registration experience.
Created a 12-email program across four creative directions and three interactive onboarding alternatives.
Delivered market research and a roadmap for behavior-triggered messaging.
Evidence & scope
The deliverables demonstrate lifecycle strategy, copy, research, and product UX. Behavior-triggered sends were a next-phase recommendation; no unverified conversion lift is claimed.
A learning platform needs an effective path from initial interest to enrollment, continued participation, and completion.
My contribution
Built learning pathways, curriculum, community, and event programming for K–12 and adult learners.
Connected the brand, content, onboarding, and education experience.
Expanded one education concept into a platform with 50+ learning products.
Evidence & scope
The source portfolio reports 300% platform growth, 25,000+ learners, and a 25% lift in course completion. These are reported platform results, not a claim of isolated attribution to one campaign.
Bringing an emotional travel brand into a clear, connected digital planning experience.
Brand storytelling + functional booking UX
Creative Director · UX / UI
Explore the case study
The challenge
A broad family of vacation experiences needed an experience that supported both inspiration and practical exploration.
My contribution
Designed landing pages, experience-planning surfaces, and storytelling-led journeys.
Connected visual design and content architecture across vacation collections.
Balanced a distinctive consumer brand with useful navigation and discovery.
Evidence & scope
The original work collection includes multiple Disney Vacation Ownership screens and collection designs. This case highlights design scope; no sales or conversion result is inferred from the visuals.
Extensive usability testing and observation for National Bank of Canada through NCR, focused on behavior, friction, understanding, and adoption.
Hands-on banking research within 10+ years of usability testing experience
NCR · Usability testing · Field observation · UX research
Explore the case study
The challenge
Banking experiences need to work for the people using them in real situations. Understanding hesitation, confusion, and workarounds is essential to improving the experience.
My contribution
Conducted extensive usability testing and observational research for National Bank of Canada through NCR.
Evaluated user behavior, usability, adoption barriers, and friction across the banking experience.
Connected research findings to product and experience decisions.
Brought a broader NCR research background working with contractors and psychologists in Scotland, Germany, and the United States, using heuristic evaluation, eye tracking, and other methods.
Evidence & scope
Usability testing and observation for National Bank of Canada through NCR. Representative NCR interface imagery comes from my original work collection.
Diagnosing a stalled healthcare-automation pipeline and rebuilding the path from interest to a sales conversation.
4 booked demos · 2 closed deals · 11 days
Lead consultant · GTM · Funnel strategy · Sales operations
Explore the case study
The challenge
A payer-workflow software business had website interest that was not turning into booked meetings.
My contribution
Reworked the CTA architecture around a clearer demo path, a revenue-leakage review, and an ROI calculator.
Sharpened positioning against an AI competitor and developed signal-aware outbound.
Built a Supabase-backed campaign approval portal for client review and feedback.
Evidence & scope
The source portfolio reports four booked demos and two closed deals in eleven days. These are engagement-specific results, not a forecast or promise of future performance.
Creating consistent interaction systems for banking, retail operations, and everyday self-service.
Connected patterns across products and teams
Creative Director · UX / UI · Design systems
Explore the case study
The challenge
Complex product families needed a consistent experience across different devices, brands, and operational contexts.
My contribution
Designed touchscreen-first ATM flows, consumer savings experiences, and retail interfaces.
Built an HTML/CSS iconography and animation library and documented reusable patterns.
Created Product Center of Excellence practices for Wells Fargo and National Bank of Canada engagements.
Connected personas and journeys with mobile templates, components, and delivery practices.
Conducted extensive usability and observation testing for National Bank of Canada, connecting research with experience design.
Evidence & scope
The original collection shows ATM, mobile banking, merchandising, self-checkout, and design-system artifacts. The online portfolio documents the leadership and delivery context.
DISNEY / ENTERPRISE INFORMATION18,000+users supported by the BI initiative
08 / ENTERPRISE PRODUCT LEADERSHIP
Disney business intelligence
Product work focused on enterprise information discovery at large organizational scale.
18,000+ users · $8M initiative
Enterprise product leadership · Information discovery
Explore the case study
The challenge
Enterprise users needed a more useful way to find information within a large operational technology environment.
My contribution
Worked on an enterprise business-intelligence initiative serving a broad internal user base.
Connected product and experience thinking with a complex enterprise information environment.
The source case situates the $8M initiative within a wider $40M+ Oracle Retek implementation.
Evidence & scope
The online portfolio supplies the initiative scope and user figures. Budget figures describe program scale; they are not savings, revenue, or a personal budget-ownership claim.
Understand what produces a valuable outcome, then test how that insight applies to the next challenge.
I study successful products, services, campaigns, and customer journeys to understand how their parts work together: the audience, the promise, the experience, the distribution, and the conditions that make the model viable. That analysis becomes a set of decisions and experiments tailored to the business in front of me.
01
Define the outcome
Specify what success means for this audience and business: completing a task, reaching first value, converting, returning, or reducing support effort. Establish a baseline and ask what evidence actually supports the claimed result.
02
Trace the path to value
Walk through discovery, positioning, the offer, signup or purchase, onboarding, and continued use. Examine messaging, proof, interaction design, lifecycle touchpoints, and the work needed behind the scenes.
03
Explain the likely drivers
Look for mechanisms such as clearer expectations, lower effort, faster feedback, stronger trust, or better timing. Consider audience fit, brand recognition, pricing, distribution, costs, and operational constraints that may also explain the result.
04
Adapt, test, and learn
Turn the most promising mechanism into a specific hypothesis. Design the smallest useful prototype or experiment, define success and guardrail measures, and decide in advance what evidence would lead us to keep, change, or stop the approach.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE / ONBOARDING
What helps someone reach their first useful result?
Studying an effective onboarding experience, I map the steps, the questions asked, the reassurance provided, and the moment the user receives value. A possible hypothesis: showing a useful preview before asking for detailed setup will help new users understand the product and continue.
Test: prototype the revised sequence and observe realistic first-time tasks.
Measure: comprehension, independent completion, time to first value, and errors. Check that people still understand permissions and commitments.
Follow through: if the prototype supports the hypothesis, validate at an appropriate scale and monitor activation, retention, and support demand.
Public examples reveal only part of the story. I distinguish observed facts from assumptions, consider unsuccessful comparisons, and validate the explanation in the target context. AI can help organize comparisons and generate hypotheses; research and results determine what we adopt.
I enjoy solving problems, building useful things, and sharing what I learn.
My AI experience spans conversational banking, founder-built products, business automation, and practical education.
That means working on both sides of adoption: what the technology can do, and what people need to trust it and make progress.
FOUNDER-BUILT / WAYMAKER
From an AI answer to a useful next step.
Waymaker brings product strategy, UX, engineering, and go-to-market execution together in one platform. Cameron provides AI guidance; Builder DNA personalizes the experience; the product connects planning with building and learning.
4+production AI products reported in 12 months
End to endroadmap, design, engineering, and go-to-market ownership
Claude and OpenAI workflows, tool use, multi-turn context, voice, app-generation pipelines, and an open-source guardrails SDK.
CONNECT
Workflow automation
Customer acquisition, onboarding, approval flows, and business processes connected to the systems teams already use.
ENABLE
Human adoption
Clear interaction design, useful feedback, practical instruction, and coaching that help people apply AI to real work.
AI-FIRST TESTING & EVALUATION
Does it help someone finish the real task?
I bring my research background and hands-on AI product experience together to evaluate the complete workflow: the person, the model, the tools, and the outcome. My approach covers:
Task success and output quality. Define realistic scenarios and clear evaluation criteria for relevance, accuracy, usefulness, and successful completion.
Agent behavior and failure recovery. Examine tool use, multi-step actions, incomplete information, incorrect outputs, and how the experience recovers when something goes wrong.
Trust, control, and adoption. Test whether people understand the AI’s limits, can review or correct its work, and know when approval or a human handoff is needed.
Repeatability and regression. Re-run a consistent set of scenarios across prompt, model, or workflow changes to compare results and catch new failures.
AI can also assist with study preparation, transcript organization, and initial synthesis. I validate those outputs against the research evidence; real participant behavior remains central to usability findings.
Selected hands-on tools
Claude & Claude Code · OpenAI · Grok Bot · Higgsfield · Next.js · TypeScript · Supabase · Vercel · AI SDK · n8n / Make / Zapier
04 / TEACHING & EDUCATION
Build capability. Then build what’s next.
Teaching is a core part of my work. I turn complex ideas into learning experiences people can apply—from their first design project to a working AI workflow.
Founder-led STEAM and technology education for K–12 and adult learners. Curriculum, community, onboarding, content, and programming developed as a connected learning experience.
CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION
Flatiron · Thinkful · Chegg
Product education leadership and founding-faculty work across product, UX, and technical programs. Curriculum design, live teaching, mentorship, and career-focused learning.
AI ADOPTION & ENABLEMENT
Two Mondays to a Side Hustle
A live build-along for exploring an idea with AI, from validation and planning to design, coding, testing, and marketing. Bring a small project and learn alongside me.
I’ve spent more than 20 years helping organizations turn complicated challenges into products, experiences, and programs people can use.
My experience includes enterprise work at Disney and NCR, building and leading Nerds Agency, founding CodeTeachers, and designing and shipping Waymaker. Each setting has required the same discipline: understand the problem, bring the right people together, make clear decisions, and follow through.
01
Start with the real problem
Connect customer research, business context, and evidence before deciding what to build or market.
02
Make the work concrete
Use journeys, prototypes, clear priorities, and working software to align teams and move decisions forward.
03
Design for adoption
Connect launch, onboarding, training, and measurement so the work can create value after delivery.
07 / WHERE I’M BUILDING NOW
A few things I’m building. You’re welcome to explore.
These are places where I put ideas into practice, learn from what happens, and share the process. Feedback helps me make the next version more useful.
WAYMAKER / A PARTNER FOR YOUR NEXT STEP
From an idea to something you can try.
I’m building Waymaker to help people work through ideas, make a plan, and take a useful next step—with Cameron, an AI cofounder, and Builder DNA to help personalize the experience.
I’m sharing the ideas, decisions, and revisions behind real projects. Follow the work, borrow a useful starting point, and adapt it to your own skills and time.
Free planning tools and practical guides
Real builds, open questions, and lessons along the way
Explore a selection of live products I’ve created, from practical tools and learning platforms to experiences for everyday life. Open a site to see the design and functionality in action.
A CLOSER LOOK / NEUROCOACH
Making room for care. And everyday life.
NeuroCoach helps people and caregivers find support, understand options, and keep the next steps together. It brings care information and practical planning into one place, with room for the person’s routines, interests, and independence.
Find a starting point. Explore plain-language guides, evidence labels, care programs, community activities, and funding resources.
Keep care organized. Bring medications, appointments, reminders, journal notes, and questions into a personal care plan.
Plan for real life. Gather ideas to try, build manageable routines, track follow-ups, and make space for caregiver support.
An educational and care-navigation resource to support planning and conversations with qualified professionals.
Join me for Two Mondays to a Side Hustle: a practical workshop for learning what you can make with AI.
I’ll build a product live and explain the decisions as we go—from validation and planning to design, coding, testing, and marketing. Bring a small idea of your own, practice between sessions, and ask questions when you get stuck.
Optional setup help, three group office hours, workshop resources, and 30-day access to teaching replays
Optional support schedule
All on Zoom, all times Eastern.
Setup: October 22, 7–8 p.m.
Office hour: October 27, 7–8 p.m.
Office hour: October 29, noon–1 p.m.
Office hour: November 1, 4–5 p.m.
An educational workshop with a small project scope; a completed business, sales, and income are not guaranteed. Software, hosting, domains, and usage are separate. West Palm Beach venue details and Zoom links will be shared with registrants before the sessions.
HELP SHAPE WAYMAKER
Curious to try the beta?
Leave your details and I’ll follow up about getting started with Waymaker. I’d love to hear what’s useful and where you get stuck.
This sends an access request; it does not create an account or subscribe you to the newsletter. Privacy details. Questions? Email Ashley.
THE WEALTH EXPERIMENT / FIELD NOTES
What I’m learning, as I go.
Occasional notes on what I’m building, a useful lesson from the work, and something you can try. Plus new guides and workshop updates.
