Carrie Haworth

Job:

Senior UX Designer

Company:

On the Beach

I work on our internal tools at On the Beach that colleagues use on a day-to-day basis to fulfil holiday bookings for our customers. We understand problems they're having with the tools and I work with my team to come up with solutions. We then test those solutions with our users and iterate on them if we need to make any changes. We go through this iterative cycle until we're happy to implement something... and even then, we continue to iterate on it over time - nothing is ever complete!

I am...

Curious

Creative

Empathetic

The skills I use most in my job...

User research

Facilitating workshops

Problem solving

Communication

Collaboration

The most interesting thing I've worked on in my career so far...

In my previous team, we were working on re-designing the customer experience on our website. We ran Design Sprints for multiple areas of the website, tested tons of ideas and learned a lot. I never thought I'd have the opportunity to shape the future of our website - so it was really exciting to be a part of it. It was my first UX role too, so I felt like I learned SO much in a short period of time.

What inspired me into digital and tech...

It's what I've always gravitated towards! I find it exciting and love that there are so many different skills you can learn. Now that I work in tech, I'm amazed by the range of industries I could work in. Currently, I work in travel - but there are opportunities to work for basically any company that has a digital presence!

My educational background is...

I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was at school, I just knew that I enjoyed Media Studies and I loved being on the computer. I stuck with this through my GCSEs, A-Levels and also did a Foundation course at college as I wasn't keen on the idea of going to university. I changed my mind about this, as I found the Design for Digital Media at the University of Salford. I decided to give it a go, as the course sounded so exciting - it allowed you to learn about all the different areas of designing for digital media. I absolutely loved the course and certainly learned a lot!

What advice I'd give to girls thinking about a career in digital and tech...

You can't be an expert at everything, and no one expects you to be. By learning new skills and trying new things out, you'll figure out what you're the most passionate about and have a clearer focus for your career.