Laura Cunningham
User Experience Design
I have 10 years of practice creating websites and people-centered applications. My goal is to create beautiful and responsive designs that enhance function, don't distract from it. I believe this can be achieved through thoughtful information architecture, tactful reduction, and a keen eye for visual detail.
Before I was designing user interfaces, I was painting. Watercolors were right up there with my next favorite hobby – coding websites. My seemingly disparate interests lead me to graphic design: a field that encompassed both my fascination with all things digital and my love for the visual arts.
At Rhode Island School of Design, I quickly learned graphic design was more than art crafted with computers. While the output is often beautiful, I find the most compelling aspect of design is the intent to illicit a desired behavior or emotion. The consideration that goes into the design process – understanding the audience and message, utilizing color and typography – is the key to achieving this goal.
An early career as a graphic designer had me designing brand identities, printed material, and websites. The more sophisticated web technologies became, the more excited I was about the next challenge: product design. Not only could good design illicit a behavior or emotion, it could help people do things by understanding them and building tools and services around their needs.
I have since spent my career in User Experience Design tackling these challenges in a myriad of consumer and business products at both large and small companies.
Experience
Signify, formerly Philips Lighting
2017 – Present
Responsible for the design and user research of several products across the business including the Interact developer portal, professional connected lighting applications, a common account experience, product catalog enhancements, and IoT cloud management applications. Work from high-level feature planning to pixel-level details to bring a user-centered mindset to our products. Conduct user interviews for discovery and concept validation. Produce clean, on-brand UI design and clear specifications for engineering.
Meed Mobile, formed from Fiksu
2016, 1 year
Create engaging mobile experiences focused on rewarding consumers for installing and interacting with new apps. As a UX team of one, design for iOS and Android employing gaming mechanics to influence user on-boarding and retention.
Fiksu
2015, 1.5 years
Drove user experience as a solo UX designer at an ad tech start up. Gathered insights from internal users and conduct surveys to build web-based dashboards around actual task flows for maximum productivity and ease of use. Re-architected both internal and external sites in favor of the user. In close collaboration with product management, identified requirements and quickly deliver designs to multiple engineering teams.
HERE, a Nokia business
2010, 4 years
Led the design of HERE’s new place discovery application and travel guide authoring tool. Engaged with product development from the earliest stages: defining use cases, minimum marketable product, and information architecture. Created high-fidelity mockups for guiding stakeholders and proof-of- concept prototypes; followed through by producing visual design and wireframe specifications with the utmost attention to detail. Gave design direction in the form of design principles and component libraries. Worked closely with Agile engineering teams and implemented UI directly as needed. Collaborated with researchers to plan and analyze user testing. Previously worked on Nokia Pulse–a location-based messaging application for Nokia, iPhone, Android, and web platforms–with full responsibility for the Windows Phone and Symbian variants.
Get in touch
I live in the beautiful Berkshire foothills of Western Massachusetts with my husband John and our dog Luca.
To connect, send me a note on LinkedIn.
