Inkbrook Design: The Portfolio of Mackenzie Cameron
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An "inkbrook" is the little river that forms at that first moment when you pull paint across a canvas with a brush. It represents the first spark of intention, and it reminds me that every step of a process is deliberate.
Inkbrook is a philosophy of intentionality that I like to apply to everything I do. In the same way that a painting is every brushstroke: a story is every word, a game is every piece, and an app is every pixel.
Every step is a choice, made for a reason.
I come to UX with a background in board game design and an intense love of games. The design of games runs deep into a player's pysche, and no medium can be as impactful as games.
The principles of Game Design are User Experience Design. For a medium with so much sway over it's users, intentionallity is absolutely paramount.
I cringe when people say that UX is about solving problems. I've been married long enough to know that "solving someone's problem" is very different from improving their experience.
If you want to improve a user's experience, you need to know them, understand what they need, and work towards delivering on that need.
Empathy is at the heart of our disicpline and our path to a better world.
I studied creative writing in school, and the lessons that stuck with me weren't about when and where to use a comma. The core of my education was about communicating clearly with an audience you understand.
The key is to know that the human brain is wired for stories.
Whether you're writing fiction or laying out a visual design, the fundamentals of storytelling hold true. A subject has a verb, a character has an action, and a user has a workflow. We painstakingly lay out a path for our protagonists, one step at a time.
A painting is every brushstroke, a story is every word, a game is every piece, and an app is every pixel.