Meet our Skills for Hire Students of the Month for September 2021! – Digital Nova Scotia – Leading Digital Industry
Meet our Skills for Hire Students of the Month for September 2021!

September 10, 2021

New to the tech scene, Carly Cormier has a love of design and a degree in Fine Arts, so stepping into a career in UX Design felt like the right fit. With a teaching background, Carly has traveled the world, living in countries like South Korea and Indonesia, and exploring others like New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, and Thailand. She’s also a parent, so as you can imagine, things are never dull for Carly!

“I like that the program is for people with various career backgrounds. It shows that people can “bridge the gap” between their current career and a new one.”

Skills for Hire allows our students to participate at their own pace, offering flexibility and small classes, along with weekly interactive sessions with peers and instructors. The hands-on lessons and learning checks assist students as they develop the principles of design fundamentals, visual design, and learn how to hone their researching skills.

“I have a few favourite courses that include: Billy Hollis’ course in Fundamental Design Principles; Krispian Emert’s course in UX Fundamentals; Anthony Alampi’s course in Visual Design; and Chris Davis’ course in Colour Theory. I enjoyed all of these courses for different reasons. Billy Hollis brought hands-on activities that made you grasp the importance of design, for example, “Why is the usability of the elevator not working?”. He spoke about the importance of Gestalt Principle, resources like Ken Robinson’s, ‘Out of Our Minds’, and the human preference for natural surroundings like for the environment in the Savannah Principle. Krispian Emert helped you better understand the fundamentals and process of the role of a UX Designer. I really enjoyed building a pizza app, setting goals, knowing customers, conducting research and using problem-solving skills to find out the best user experience. Anthony Alampi spoke about the importance of visual design through its history, roles of design like Graphic Designers, UX & Web Design, Colour Theory, Typography and Design resources in Adobe like XD. He stressed the significance of composition on a webpage and how that reflects on the user experience. Chris Davis helped you understand Colour Theory Fundamentals such as additive and subtractive modes. In particular RGB Mode is additive, it’s only used on digital devices due to the increase of the amount of white light. There are various harmonious palettes, looking at how and why colours work together through complementary palettes on the colour wheel.”

With her background in Fine Arts and her love of research, this career made sense. Taking a deeper look at the finer things, and understanding why something doesn’t work is something Carly loves to do  – add on some research and you’ve found her dream job.

“My dream job would be to work with a startup or an established company that works in the areas of technology, education, fine arts, or a local business. I’m interested in UX Design, UX Writing and UX Research.”

As a high achiever and one to look at the fine detail of things, Carly’s design approach is simple and clean, knowing that it’s all about the user experience. With her educational background and experience, she’d be a great addition to any team!

“I think it’s been a great experience so far and I can’t wait to see where this career takes me.”

Interested in meeting Carly? Connect with her on LinkedIn!