Oh, hey friends!

So, you want to get to know me a little better...

Native Texan

Born and raised in San Antonio and lived in the Austin area for 5 years (from 1980 to 2011). Been living in Utah since December 2011.

Basketball enthusiast

My first love in life was basketball. Most of my time growing up was spent around all things basketball. Basketball was my life. I grew up as a fierce Michael Jordan fan and thought I was a Bulls fan. Since his retirement I've realized I'm more a fan of players. My favorite players since Michael Jordan have been Tim Hardaway, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, and Steve Nash.

Today I'm a HUGE fan of Steph Curry. I am as excited to watch Steph Curry as I ever was with Michael Jordan. Other players I enjoy watching are Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokić, Damian Lillard, Ja Morant, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson.

Critical movie watcher

I'm a huge fan of all movies by Wes Anderson, Joel and Ethan Coen, and Taika Waititi. Some of my other favorite movies are The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Donnie Darko, Fight Club, Snatch, Dune (new one), Blade Runner 2049, Garden State, Drive, Napoleon Dynamite, and of course Star Wars.

TV series binge watcher

Some of my favorites are Patriot, West World, Severance, Succession, Mandalorian, Pushing Daisies, Stranger Things, Devs, The Good Place, Black Mirror, The Leftovers, New Girl, Arrested Development, The Office, Friday Night Lights, Scrubs, and Last Man on Earth

Amatuer musicologist

Some of my favorites are, Tame Impala, Kendrick Lamar, Glass Animals, The Avett Brothers, Run the Jewels, Ben Folds, Vampire Weekend, The New Pornographers, The Killers, Outkast, Coldplay, Awolnation, Coldplay, The Weepies, The Shins, and Band of Horses.

Casual hiker

Some of my favorite hikes have been Hidden Falls at Jenny Lake, Donut Falls, Desolation Lake, Lake Quinault Rainforest Trail, Emerald Pools in Zion, Gloria Falls, Pippiwai Trail (in Maui, Hawaii), and Queens Garden to Navajo Trail (in Bryce Canyon).

Leisurely bike rider

Mostly around the biking/walking trails through my nieghborhood.

Father of four (with four step children)

Being a dad is the best thing I've done with my life.

Coca-Cola snob

I love an ice cold Coke and average about 24oz a day, but it can’t just be any Coke.

Here’s my rankings from best to worst… Glass bottle (Mexican Coke made with cane sugar), aluminum can, McDonald’s fountain drink in a styrofoam cup, plastic bottle. The end. I’m not drinking any other Coke, and I’m definitely not drinking whatever disgusting liquid is pouring out from a Coke Freestyle machine. And no! Pepsi is not ok.

What I'm passionate about

Human-centered design

I've helped lead Human-centered Design workshops to groups of 30+ students in a masters program at the University of Utah with my good friend Albert Candari since 2017

I've utlized design thinking research methodologies to gain empathy through discovery interviews to learn from people, professionals, as well as analagous inspiration, and immersing myself in context. I've also participated in customer journey mapping, affinity mapping, and card sorting tests.

Psychology

I'm continuously researching, reading, and studying to better understand the psychology behind habits, human behavior, and how cognitive bias affects us all.

Some of my favorites are, Fogg's Behavior Model, Dunning-Kruger Effect, Aesthetic Usability Effect, Miller's Law, and Hick's Law.

What people are saying about me

"Shane has the ability to think about problems deeply and rationally. He is able to connect pieces of a puzzle that you wouldn't normally connect creating a more substantial solution. Shane is void of ego and isn't afraid to share an enlightened, thought provoking opinion. He is able to understand a problem on a foundational level and work his way up to successful solution. Also sports. He REALLY likes to talk about sports." — Jacob Russel

"I have worked with Shane at Instructure for several years, and have come to trust him as both a friend and colleague. Shane is exceptionally loyal, kind, and steady. He is the type of person that you rely on, both in and out of work, and it shows. He has a reputation of being sought out for feedback. One of the things I most admire about Shane is his ability to look at problems with a kind of "ah-ha" clarity. His design work is visually crisp and focused. He is a top-notch designer and teammate all the way around." - Cory Crouch

"While we worked together as designers at Instructure, Shane was priceless as a source of feedback. He has a great ease for getting to the bottom of a problem, and communicating it in a clear way that doesn't trigger defensiveness. I knew if a UI I was working on could make it past Shane, it was good work. Accordingly, I always found his own work filled with thoughtful concepts and careful attention to detail. He possesses tons of maturity as a designer and team member, and is delightful to work with as a peer." — David Lindes

My path to becoming a product designer

I received an associates degree from San Antonio College in print graphic design. In 2006 I got a job for a small dental marketing company in Austin, TX. I started out designing direct mailers and logos for dentists across the country. In 2007, I recognized that they were missing out on a significant amount of business by not providing website services to their dentist customers. I had a desire to learn web design, and I pitched the owners of the dental marketing company on the idea that if they purchased a book called CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions, that I would teach myself how to create a website and my first project would be to redesign the company website, then I would be able to start creating websites for dentists.

After I created my first couple of websites for dentist, a family member wanted to see a website I’d created for a dentist. This was the first time I had ever watched someone try to use a website that I created… And it blew my mind! Nothing that they were doing on the website was what I expected them to do. They struggled to find any important information like, how do I contact this dentist to make an appointment? Do they accept my insurance? What procedures do they do? Where are they located? Although I felt the website looked amazing, it failed to actually help people do the things they wanted to do. This experience opened my mind and the doorway into discovering interaction design and user experience.

I began to dive into understanding how people use website. One very influential blog I discovered was 52 weeks of UX that introduced me to several UX design principles. My company was kind enough to pay for me to attend the SXSW Interactive Conference for multiple years, where I was introduced to thought leaders in the industry. I started following people on Twitter and reading their blogs. I read more books and watched hundreds of presentations and talks online. I was introduced to IDEO and their Design Thinking methodology. As I learned new things I started to find ways to apply what I was learning to the websites I was creating for dentists. Within two years I was coding 50 websites a year for dentists across the country. I learned how to optimize websites for conversion as well as search engine optimization to get websites to show up the most relevant local searches for dentist. I started tracking the analytics of all of the websites that I was creating and I set up feedback loops to start tracking how well each website I created. I was able to start making small changes between two customers to track which were performing better and then using learnings over months to inform future design decisions. By 2011 I had created well over 200 websites using HTML and CSS with a dash of Jquery and php.

In September of 2011 I was contacted by a friend that I met at the SXSW Interactive conference and they offered to fly me to Utah to interview me for a UX design position at FamilySearch. By October I had accepted a position and was moving my family of 3 kids from Round Rock, TX to Lehi, UT.

What personality tests are saying about me

CliftonStrengths/StandOut: Adaptability / Relator / Connectedness / Individualizations / Strategic

"You put ideas in the service of people. Others may obsess over the bottom line, but you have more important things to concern you: the effects of systems and theories on people. Whether you are at the top of the org chart or on the front lines, you approach every task by figuring out whom it can help. Taking care of people is what matters to you, but your method of doing so is intellectual: you will excel when you are paid to analyze systems or data, see the patterns, and design a better solution. You will always be at your best as an insider, someone who becomes extremely familiar with the "raw material" you are studying, someone whose power comes from picking up on the subtleties. You are a designer of better ways of doing things. Not because the system itself matters; because the users of the system do."

Predictive Index: Individualists

"They march to the beat of their own drum and are always up for a challenge. They're confident, analytical, and persistent—strong-minded people who quickly turn ideas into reality. Hungry to solve problems and move forward, they dislike being bogged down with the details."

DISC Type: Stabilizer (SC)

"They tend to prioritize stability and consistency in their environment. They are likely to be even-tempered, attentive to details, and structured in their approach. Even if a task may appear tedious, they can likely work through it patiently and correctly."

Ennegram: Type 9 (The Peacemaker)

"Nines are easygoing, emotionally stable people. They are open and unself-consciously serene, trusting and patient with themselves and others. Their openness allows them to be at ease with life and with the natural world. As a result, others generally find it easy to be in their company. They are genuinely good-natured and refreshingly unpretentious. Because of their peaceful demeanor, Nines have a talent for comforting and reassuring others and are able to exert a calming, healing influence in difficult or tense situations. They make steady, supportive friends who can listen uncritically to others' problems as well as share their good times. In work settings, they can be excellent mediators, able to harmonize groups and bring people together by really healing conflicts."

"Nines can also be quite imaginative and creative, and they enjoy expressing themselves in symbolic ways—through music, dance, images, or mythic stories, for instance. They tend to look at things holistically, focusing on the ways in which seemingly unrelated ideas or events are connected and part of a greater whole. Indeed, Nines are drawn to anything that affirms the fundamental oneness of the world. Whether they are working with concepts, diverse groups of people, art forms, or feuding family members, Nines want to bring everything and everyone back to a harmonious unity."

"Average Nines focus on keeping their lives pleasant and uncomplicated. They idealize others and live through a handful of primary identifications—usually with their family and close friends. Out of fear of creating conflicts with these people, average Nines hold back their own reactions and opinions and suppress themselves in many other ways. Oddly, Nines can be quite assertive on behalf of others and will work hard for others' benefit, but they can have great difficulty taking actions on their own behalf, or even voicing their own real feelings."

A brief history

I was born in San Antonio, Texas and grew up in the small suburb city of Live Oak in a humble three bedroom home, to a family of eight from 1980 to 2000. Growing up in such humble living conditions made it to where my family became very close. My childhood was spent playing basketball, riding bikes, and pretending I was Zorro, a ninja turtle, Heeman, a transformer, the Lone Ranger, or a specially trained ninja killer (by watching movies like the Last Dragon, Blood Sport, Big Trouble in Little China, and Only the Strong). If I was not outside using my imagination to its fullest extent, I could be found inside of my house playing with legos, trying to build a pillow fort, building a car out of scraps of wood and other odd things I found around the house and neighborhood.

In August of 1998, at the very beginning of my senior year of high school my father passed away. Losing my father at the age of 17 has been a hugely impactful experience and has forever changed who I am.

I lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil from March 2000 to December 2001. While there I learned a great deal of life lessons that have greatly impacted my life. I was able to learn how to speak fluent Portuguese. I still have a great love for the Brazilian people and the entire country.

Enjoy™