<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Portfolio Design]]></title><description><![CDATA[Crafting Tomorrow’s User Experiences]]></description><link>https://www.stelladubrava.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2026 11:25:54 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.stelladubrava.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[A New Chapter: Building a Career I Actually Chose]]></title><description><![CDATA[There is something both terrifying and exciting about starting over when you already know who you are. I did not come to UX design as a blank slate. I came with eighteen years of industry experience, twelve of them as the owner of Stella &#38; June Salon, calluses on my hands, a deep understanding of what it means to build something from nothing, and a client base that trusted me with something as personal as how they looked and felt in the world. Leaving that, or more accurately, expanding...]]></description><link>https://www.stelladubrava.com/post/a-new-chapter-building-a-career-i-actually-chose</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69f6a7e4c17e2854db0a0af5</guid><pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 12:45:06 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>stelladubrava</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What I Know Now]]></title><description><![CDATA[When I enrolled at UW-Milwaukee in 2024, I had eighteen years of hair industry experience and zero formal design credentials. I knew I had skills that translated, I just didn't have the language for them yet. A year and a half later, I have a portfolio, two completed UX projects, a capstone, and a much clearer sense of what kind of designer I want to be. Here is what I know now that I didn't know then. Design is listening. The best thing I brought into this program wasn't technical skill, it...]]></description><link>https://www.stelladubrava.com/post/what-i-know-now</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69f6a71cedf5696920d5e129</guid><pubDate>Mon, 04 May 2026 14:00:24 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>stelladubrava</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Final Stretch]]></title><description><![CDATA[As I write this, Good Neighbor is in its final weeks. The prototype is built, the report is being finalized, and the presentation is on the horizon. It is a strange feeling to be this close to the finish line on something that has taken an entire semester to build. The working prototype ended up being more complete than I expected when we first mapped out our scope. It includes user registration, a fully functional dashboard, the two-step ad posting flow, a browsable and searchable volunteer...]]></description><link>https://www.stelladubrava.com/post/the-final-stretch</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69f6a6d590b4365cb8642c24</guid><pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 16:00:15 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>stelladubrava</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Putting a Face to the User]]></title><description><![CDATA[One of the most valuable things we did early in the Good Neighbor project was slow down before we started designing. It would have been easy to jump straight into wireframes, but we knew that the best interfaces come from understanding people first, not screens. So we built two user personas. Margaret Delvin is a help-seeker: someone who needs support with everyday tasks but may feel uncomfortable asking, or simply doesn't know where to turn. Noelle Wilson is a volunteer: motivated,...]]></description><link>https://www.stelladubrava.com/post/putting-a-face-to-the-user</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69f6a5bb90b4365cb86429c6</guid><pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 01:32:45 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>stelladubrava</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Senior Capstone Project: From Idea to Blueprint]]></title><description><![CDATA[Every project starts with a question. For Good Neighbor, ours was: why is it so hard to ask for help, and why is it equally hard to find a way to give it? As a team of four students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, we set out this spring to answer that question by building something that didn't exist yet: a simple, centralized platform that connects people who need everyday help with volunteers who are ready to provide it. Not a nonprofit with a hotline. Not a corporate gig platform....]]></description><link>https://www.stelladubrava.com/post/senior-capstone-project-from-idea-to-blueprint</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69f6a559edf5696920d5dd8a</guid><pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 01:31:21 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>stelladubrava</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>