About Me

UX Designer & Developer

My Origin Story

I grew up in Toronto, Canada, and always knew I wanted to be creative in some capacity. I gravitated towards art and design because, from a young age, I had the natural ability to draw. I also would figure out how to use any medium put in front of me with relative ease.

In 2010, I enrolled in the Industrial Design Program at Humber College. In school, I developed my skills in concept design, 3D CAD, and building prototypes. I did an internship that made me fall in love with agency environments and client-facing work. In 2014, I was one of the only women who graduated from that program that year.

In my five-year career in Industrial Design, I worked with small businesses and big brands. I helped my clients fulfill their creative visions online and in retail stores. I would discuss design briefs that defined criteria, project scope, and deadlines. I'd then adhere to brand guidelines while also providing innovative solutions. I collaborated with different departments and helped guide projects from concept to production.

An image of Kelly dressed like spider-man. She is wearing a May Parker Spider-girl suit as she sits on the floor on her pink laptop. She is in a neon light lit room, wearing sunglasses and her blonde hair is straight.

UX Design

In 2018, I worked on a project that introduced me to the world of User Experience Design - UX for short. The concept was an app for a design competition within the company I worked at, and it pushed me to go back to school in 2019. I attended George Brown College, where I got my certificate in UX Design, and then the pandemic hit. Finding work was hard at first, but eventually I did a lot of content creation and website design for many local brands that needed help getting their businesses to pivot online. I freelanced for two years before landing a full-time User Experience design role at a large tech company - which is what I am doing now.

Front End Development

Many people interested in UX design ask me if I need to know how to code to be a UX designer. The short answer is no, but I wanted to learn how my designs get built and how developers do what they do. I also wanted to establish better working relationships with other developers when I worked with them. As someone who loves branding, components and user interface design, I found learning code changed the way I design and see website development. I took SheCodes because I am also all for more women's representation in the tech industry, and Matt and the SheCodes team are all great at what they do. I have learned a lot and am comfortable with coding enough that I have fun creating designs and then building them in HTML, CSS, Javascript and Bootstrap. I even started using my knowledge of HTML and CSS at work and participating in side projects coding websites and apps.

An image of Kelly sitting on a leather chair with her pink laptop. She is laughing. She is sitting next to a neon light cross, in a room full of neon lights.

Contact Me

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Email

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Instagram

@kellyxfaria
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Linkedin

Kelly Faria