Blake Hicks is a multidisciplinary designer with a passion for excellence and efficiency.
Successful products prioritize the end user's needs, preferences, and experiences throughout the entire design process. This requires understanding and involving users at every stage, from initial research to prototyping. I've had the honor of seeing this process result in products and systems that are intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable. Great design ensures that the final experience aligns closely with user expectations and requirements.
The best part of being a designer is that it's a trade in service of all trades. As a designer, my mission is to render gifted service to every aspect of the product experience, to discover the excellence in it, and put in plain sight the most brilliant result possible. It's my ambition to deliver high-caliber, bar-raising work that gives the user a quality experience and the business success and confidence.
“Human-centered design (HCD) is the process of ensuring that people’s needs are met, that the resulting product is understandable and usable, that it accomplishes the desired tasks, and that the experience of use is positive and enjoyable. Effective design needs to satisfy a large number of constraints and concerns, including shape and form, cost and efficiency, reliability and effectiveness, understandability and usability, the pleasure of the appearance, the pride of ownership, and the joy of actual use.”
--Excerpt From The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman.
Why do we make products? We make them for people to use.
Blake served as founder of a mobile-ticketing platform that offered content-rich event tickets for local live events. As founder, Blake's special focus was on product innovation, brand and user experience.
As Staff Product Designer on the mobile team, Blake worked closely with cross-functional teams at Procore to design and shape the user experience of mobile products.
As Lead Product Designer, Blake's focus was on guiding users through the experience and making interactions more intuitive and enjoyable. He incorporated thoughtful and well-designed motion into the user interface, and contributed significantly to a positive user experience.
Users are actively engaged and participate in the design process. By involving users from the beginning, designers gain valuable insights into user needs, behaviors, and expectations.
Gathering feedback early and continuously allows designers to identify issues, make improvements, and refine the design based on user insights.
Iterative design enables designers to make adjustments based on user feedback, ensuring that the final product is continuously improved and optimized.
A holistic approach ensures that the design addresses not only individual interactions but also the overall user experience.