Claudia Miranda — Image by Michelle Lanier

A designer’s career path from animation to UX design.

Claudia Miranda is a UX designer who has been living and working in Phoenix, Arizona for the past 10 years. Ms. Miranda moved to Phoenix to attend school at the Art Institute of Phoenix back in 2001. Ms. Miranda is known in some circles by her artist pen name, Ghostmeat.

Since graduating, Ms. Miranda expanded her work to include video installations, graphic design, motion graphics and web design. The path was a natural progression that evolved into her current job as a user experience designer with a software company.

When asked to explain UX design, she said; “User experience design, to me is, looking at any type of experience where there is a user in a holistic way. It is more then just designing a website, it means thinking about what lead the person up to the point where they interacted with your product and beyond to how they feel when they are done using it.

As a child, Ms. Miranda loved the movies “The Little Mermaid” and Tim Burton’s “Bettlejuice”, and that love of animation and storytelling lead her to pursue her Bachelors in Media Arts and Animation. “I really love animation still, I think for me it was about having a dialog with the people sitting on the other side of the screen, communicating things by interactions and a visual design that works to serve that.”

Design is at its essence a means of expression. More subtle then words, design speaks in symbols and gestures. Interactive design takes it a step further and tracks they way you view, navigate, read and engage the design at every level.

Claudia sits, relaxed in her floral embossed chair. Her Chihuahua Pichu, sits shivering below her waiting for a chance to snuggle up in her open lap. On the surface, she seems calm and subdued, but her work suggests a depth and intelligence far beyond her youth.

I asked her when she knew that art and design is what she wanted to do for a career, Ms. Miranda replies; “I think that since, the type of work I’ve done has evolved from what I thought I set out to do to what I do now. In some weird way, I have to reaffirm with myself and check in every day that I am doing something that still feels meaningful and contributes. What day did I know that I wanted to do this? Today, yesterday, everyday, I feel like I have to connect with that.”