Founder and Principal User Experience Designer
Sara Lorien Smith

A user experience specialist with skill in both design and research, Sara believes that technology should be a tool to enhance and simplify our lives so that we can focus on the people and interests that make life truly rewarding. Sara has a knack for organizing and streamlining processes, tools, and information. This is combined with an insatiable thirst for understanding how humans think and act, a love of creative arts and design, and a high comfort level with technology.

Sara has worked in the Information Technology field since 1995, with 11 years focused on supporting end users challenges. During this time she developed an intuitive sense for user needs and learned to look for and implement technology solutions in such a way as to minimize frustration and increase user satisfaction. Her experience spans large corporations, small tech startups, a social-services non-profit, and a private high school. Her IT experience has included web design and production since 2002, both in a professional and volunteer capacity.

In the past few years, Sara has chosen to refocus her career towards design and usability, where she can be on the proactive side of creating awesome user interfaces, using skills already possessed. These skills represent the core services offered by Sapient Design, including interaction design, visual design, web development, research, and project management. Sara completed an internship for a large technology corporation in 2006/2007 where she focused on planning, conducting, and analyzing usability studies of communication oriented products. Since then, she has completed an M.S. in Human Computer Interaction from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and branched out as a freelance user experience specialist. Sara also holds a B.S in Information Technology with a minor in Digital Communications from Franklin University.

Sara's strengths stem from her years as an IT generalist. She has repeatedly demonstrated creative problem solving, resourcefulness, and an ability to quickly learn and apply new technologies. This is combined with excellent design, research, writing, and interpersonal skills.

Sara is a native of Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties, currently residing in Felton/Mount Hermon. Hobbies include genealogy, scrapbooking, cooking, reading, blogging, web design, singing for musical theater, and learning and playing with new technologies.

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