United States

Graphic Design

UX Design

UI/ Visual Design

Branding and Identity Design

Content Design

Product Design

Creative writing

Bachelors of Fine Arts, summa cum laude

Cassie McDaniel

Product Design Director

Usability Testing

Typography

Newsletter writing

Public Speaking

Communication

Collaboration

Problem-solving

Time management

Presentation skills

Conflict resolution

Stakeholder management

Leadership

Negotiation

Branding

Content strategy

Data visualisation

Design systems

Email writing

Event organisation

Illustration

Information architecture

User research

Product roadmap

Webflow

Figma

Greenhouse

Adobe Creative Suite

I began as Lattice's first Product Design Director hire, helping to get key projects off the ground: Design Systems, Analytics, and a large Navigation redesign, while also supporting our Engagement and Goals teams during a high growth period for the design team. I now help lead our Insights and Analytics area with my peers in Product Management and Engineering, alongside our cross-functional partners in Sales, CX, PMM, Research, Brand & Data.

I co-led the largest product pillar at Webflow with my cross-functional engineering and product management peers, managing the design team working on some of our newest and most complex foundational creation capabilities including dynamic data, personalization/memberships, logic, and designer experience (or canvas). My core responsibilities included accountability to successful product launches (from design strategy to usability testing and implementation details) along with building out and mentoring the design team that works to enable everyone to create on the web.

As the company's first Design Director I was responsible for both brand and product design during a tumultuous period in the company's history (pandemic, layoffs, etc). I helped to launch a new website with a refined brand strategy, pare down the company's media focus into a stronger product strategy, and build out the company's first product design hires which allowed us to implement more design rigor and product thinking across all teams.

I helped build out and explore directions for a revised Adobe.io and developer strategy. I conducted and synthesized internal research across all Adobe teams, designed visual directions for various concepts including website, interactive guides and a developer playground, and created brand positioning strategy, all working toward updating Adobe.io alongside the Spectrum design systems, brand, and open source teams.

After Mozilla I started a small design studio with my husband that allowed us the unconventional flexibility to share care for our two young babies and still both work. Despite the competing challenges for our time, we managed to build a meaningful design business in the small town where we lived, Paris, Ontario (about 1.5 hours from Toronto). We helped dozens of businesses with graphic and web design, including branding, photography, videography, websites, animations, books – everything under the sun. We worked with the County on their economic and tourism strategy, planning and building campaigns and accompanying collateral. We worked with other talented local designers like Studio50 to tell the stories behind their products.

We were deeply embedded in our local surroundings and frequently volunteered whether to combat a local gravel pit, to slow urban sprawl, or to engage a community to raise money for a new school playground. We ran the frequently sold-out Paris Lectures event series that featured local artisans, a series of 20 events that grew from 13 people in a room to 150+. 

Our business grew steadily until my mother's Parkinson's diagnosis drew us back to Florida. You only get one mom!

As Design Director I oversaw a team doing the Foundation's design work, including the web literacy and advocacy work around Net Neutrality and Mozilla’s large scale annual fundraising campaign. My colleagues were talented and ambitious and I learned a lot about my craft, the industry, modern day issues threatening the openness of the web, about leading a team and establishing design culture within a developer-centric environment.

The work I did and the people I met at this intense, mission-driven organization have become foundational to my belief that my skills are flexible and infinitely applicable to helping lift up the things that I believe in.

I was responsible for the UX, UI and information architecture for several products under the Webmaker umbrella, including Popcorn, Thimble, X-Ray Goggles and webmaker.org, working alongside a strong team of educators and curriculum designers to help spread web literacy around the globe.

My first significant departure from traditional design work was stepping into the world of healthcare where I was the first visual designer embedded in the Human Factors team, a part of the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation at Toronto General Hospital. We designed and tested interfaces for medical devices and I got into the world of mobile app design, specifically for self-care of chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma and heart disease. One of our projects, Bant app, won several awards including the People’s Choice at the mHealth World Congress. Other work is still in clinical trials.

I became a design lead in the Centre and grew an in-house studio with both staff and physical space. I helped bring Hacking Health to Toronto to connect designers with medical professionals. I blogged regularly to attract designers to the industry and spoke at Harvard, HXD Conference, Medicine 2.0 and others. 

It was during this fertile period that I was on the founding team of Creative Mornings Toronto. I also started the Women && Tech project to highlight the stories of women in our industry, one of the first projects to do so.

My design articles have been published in A List Apart, .net Magazine, Offscreen Magazine, The Pastry Box Project, Smashing Magazine, Distance and others. I've also had creative writing published in several small journals. I am occasionally solicited for an article or freelance editing job – send me a message.

While I was there, this boutique web design studio focused primarily on clients in the arts & culture and non-profit sectors. They built websites for the Canadian National Ballet, Munk Debates, and Canadian Red Cross. I was primarily responsible for designing web interfaces for clients including Kids Help Phone, Raising the Roof and Sony Centre. Like Simple Thinking, this small studio (complete with studio dog) became family as I was settling in Canada. They taught me the pleasure of developing a working culture with other interesting, down-to-earth, dedicated artisans.

As a freelancer I worked on apps, websites, and illustrations. Clients included small businesses, large publications, and startups. I also explored personal interests in the fine arts such as painting, art installation, and creative writing. I began publishing creative writing in small literary journals and speaking at open mic nights and readings. This naturally morphed into publishing more design-focused and industry articles as I was eager to share what I'd learned so far in my career. I was also ecstatic to be paid to write! During this period I published with A List Apart, Smashing Magazine, Freelance Switch, Web Designer Depot, among others.

Cassie McDaniel🇺🇸