I collaborated with a mobile startup to create an iPhone app for plant enthusiasts. Our goal was to increase user retention and activation by continuously iterating, interviewing customers, and striving for product-market fit. By prioritizing the needs of plants and fostering a community, we helped users find success with their green companions.
As the first designer with this Kona, a SaaS B2B startup, I worked with the founders to improve on their initial product. I set up design processes, created a design system, and helped the founders untangle their vision for product features. With all that in place, we were able to focus on building a dashboard that gave managers insight into how their team was doing and how to keep everyone engaged.
I loved working with the co-founder of Dwell to improve their mobile consumer app. I created a design system to guarantee visual consistency throughout the product and overhauled the onboarding flow to make it more user-friendly and intuitive. Together, we brought ideas to life by moving them from sketches to wireframes and finally to high-fidelity designs that were ready for development.
I loved working with the founders at Paramint to redesign and website. We created a fresh new brand and design language complete with custom illustrations that brought it all together. We worked through my design process to take ideas from sketch to wireframe and high-fidelity. Plus, I made sure to give the content a little love to make the user experience feel more seamless.
I worked on Benchmark, a Chrome extension, with a fantastic team where we developed an MVP to test the waters. This included creating the initial app and website, then showing it to customers for feedback. I collaborated with the founders to identify the core features for the MVP and ensured that the clickable prototypes aligned with their vision and goals.
I had the opportunity to work with two fantastic co-founders to create, Chestr, a consumer mobile iOS app, based on their early MVP Chrome extension. Together, we brought the app to life by fleshing out all the screens and defining how users would interact with adding content. I modified an existing design system, allowing us to quickly get the app off the ground, and crafted a seamless onboarding flow to help users get started with the app.
I worked on a project where we had a tight deadline of two weeks to bring a unique concept to life. Our goal was to test the waters with a mobile consumer app, SmartDreams, that used ChatGPT to generate bedtime stories for children. To complement the AI-generated stories, we also used AI to create accompanying images. Despite the deadline, we were able to launch the app successfully and get it in the hands of curious users.
I had the exciting opportunity to work on a new consumer web app, aimed to create a marketplace for outdoor adventurers and guides. Our main goal was to validate our idea, and I created high-fidelity designs for both mobile and desktop.
In collaboration with the co-founder of Dwell, I led the redesign of a B2B content management system for a mobile consumer app, which aimed to help churches manage user subscriptions. We established a new design language and thought through the the information hierarchy for managers, groups, and payments. We were able to account for different user types, and created a user-friendly experience for managing content.
I collaborated with the cofounders of Kona, an app for employee engagement and mental wellness, to revamp their website. My goal was to create a new brand and visual design language, including custom illustrations and assets for social media and customer presentations. The result was an engaging, modern website that represented Kona’s values.
I had the opportunity to collaborate with the founder of a fintech app to develop their Minimum Viable Product (MVP). I helped create a flow between all the screens and created a new onboarding process and user experience.
Hello there!
I’m Joshua, a designer based in Post Falls, Idaho. I have over 15 years experience in consumer products, e-commerce, mobile, and B2B SaaS.
I’ve gone from trying to make things pretty in my early days to learning how to pull the right levers for user acquisition, activation, and retention. A team can only focus on one at a time, so understanding the business need is crucial to seeing where design and product fit in.
With that said, I still love to create experiences that customers love, often starting with simple sketches to make sure the team can figure out the messy parts early on.
I’ve got a passion for learning, story telling, and understanding why people do things. I’ve worked at companies of all sizes, including running my own company for several years, and can fit in almost anywhere.
One time, a 10 minute sketched saved a company $5,000. I focus on bringing clarity to chaos, am eternally curious, and have a passion for connection and understanding.
Below I’ve put together some things I’ve worked on. I’m happy to share more, including walking through case studies, but I figured this would be a great starting point. Thanks so much!
A few folks I’ve worked with
“Joshua is one of the best designers and all-around teammates I’ve worked with. He brought a valuable sense of optimism and curiosity to every project he worked on, and the whole team appreciated his positive energy. He was crucial in wire-framing new ideas for our app during a period of high-throughput feature building. I loved his questions and desire to learn. His process of taking a product idea, working through rapid iterations, and asking the right questions helped us to move quickly from idea to engineering-ready designs.”
— Alex Ross, Founder @ Greg.app
“Josh was a remarkable asset to our team, bringing both exceptional design skills and extensive experience as a product thinker. From the earliest iterations of Chestr, Josh was invaluable in helping us not only meet our immediate needs, but also envision how our product could evolve in the long term. I highly recommend working with Josh for anyone looking to elevate their product and design work.”
— Besart Çopa, Founder @ Chestr
“Joshua worked with us as a fractional designer for some early-stage concepts at our startup. I can’t say enough good things about him – Joshua is an async magician who managed to deeply understand our customers and business to produce stellar designs with just the right level of back and forth. Joshua spent the right level of effort in early-stage explorations before building fully-fledged designs that our users loved. Would heartily recommend Joshua for work with early stage startups like ours.”
— Stefan Mai, Founder @ Stealth Startup
“I’ve had the pleasure to work with Joshua on many different projects over the years and have always been impressed with his abilities. He understands the wants and needs of users and how to visually express them in a way that brilliantly intersect with the technology to create something truly amazing. I would highly recommend Joshua for UI/UX product work and so much more. He’s a big talent with an even bigger heart.”
— Derek Herman, CTO @ Yoast
“One of Joshua’s greatest strengths is his excellent communication skills. He kept me informed throughout the projects with regular updates via loom videos and Figma files, which made it easy for me to follow his progress and provide feedback.
Overall, I cannot recommend Joshua highly enough. He is an all-around great guy who is easy to get along with and a ton of fun to work with. If you’re looking for a product designer who can deliver high-quality work and excellent communication, Joshua is your guy.”
— Evan King, Founder @ Stealth Startup
Josh was easy to work with, and I recommend him to anyone who is looking for quality and timely mobile design.
— Eric Taylor @ SmartDreams.ai
“Joshua has a keen eye for design and user experience. He is phenomenal at focusing on the big picture, and long term results. His passion for the work he does is apparent in every step, and extremely valued by his peers and clients.
Over my years working with Joshua the word I would use to describe him is crusader. Whether it is crusading to close a gap in a delivery process, crusading for the best approach to a project to derive at a favorable user-focused outcome or crusading for the WordPress community he is successful in each, and every, endeavor.”
— Mackenzie Hartung, Chief Delivery Officer @ XWP.co
Process
Every designer has a process they take, and an approach to moving an idea to something ready for users. For the past 15+ years I’ve honed my process, improving from each mistake, and looking for every chance to help make things clear.
Step 1: Write it down
The first thing I do when taking on a project is figure out, in writing, the job we’re trying to accomplish. As a product manager in a previous life I think about how a user would see the work, and write from that perspective. Sometimes this is done by others, but often I’ll write out the definition of success and capture the goal of the work. This helps clarify my thinking and figure out what they heck we’re all talking about.
Step 2: Sketches and wireframes
I’ve created hundreds, maybe thousands, of sketches over the years. These are really simple scribbles, to figure out the flow of things, and see the holes in what I’ll design. If you work with me you’ll see some form of these. Once, a 10 minute sketch saved a team $5,000 in billable hours.
These sketches don’t have to be right, but they do need to be quick. A wrong idea, shared early, beats the right idea shared too late.
Step 3: Ship it
Anyone who has created knows you don’t go from A > Z in a perfect line. There’s a lot of messy back and forth, and sometimes you have to drop back to sketches or defining the work, and other times you can jump ahead to higher fidelity designs. After the sketches are done I may go wireframes, then high-fidelity prototypes. Or I may not, it all depends on the project and what’s needed to ship the work. If we need a clickable prototype I’ll do that, if a developer just needs to see a sketch to go live, then I won’t waste anyone’s time.
About
Curiosity, creativity, and community, matter so much to me. I’m driven to learn, ask questions, and understand how things work. I love to read, write, and stay active. I’ve written 7.5 novels, and finally decided to self-publish three of them. When I’m not working I love to go on trail runs in the Idaho outdoors, and spend time with my family and friends.
Bonus
