About Me

Headshot of Alissa Bodden. She has short curly hair and is wearing a blazer, smiling and standing outside.

The Highlights

  • I earned a degree in digital design and spent about two years working as an in-house graphic designer. Going into that position, I was a textbook perfectionist and proud of it. While I still have perfectionistic tendencies, I know better than to embrace them. Now I take pride in my ability to focus on details that matter, meet deadlines, and put aside my idea of "perfect" in favor of solutions that work.
  • My most recent work experience was teaching aerial/circus fitness. The most valuable thing I took away from this was learning how to adapt to help people with various personalities, learning styles, and limitations reach their goals.
  • I received my certification in UI Design through CareerFoundry and did my specialization in Frontend Development. I built this site using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
  • Accessibility is important to me. My thinking is: design inclusively or don't design at all! Why bother creating something if you don't care about the people who are going to use it?
  • If you're looking to learn more about me, feel free to read over my story and take a look at my resume.

My Story

I worked as a graphic designer for a product development start-up for about two years. I collaborated with other designers on various projects, from branding to packaging. I also designed presentations that helped the firm land meetings with some of the biggest brands in their industry. When I started the job, I took pride in being a perfectionist; I now consider myself to be in recovery. But, jokes aside, I don't take pride in my perfectionism anymore. Instead, I take pride in my ability to focus on details that matter, meet deadlines, and put aside my idea of "perfect" in favor of solutions that work for all stakeholders involved... read more

I took a detour from design work to do something completely different: teach aerial (circus) fitness. One of the most valuable things about this experience has been training so many different people. I've taught lifelong athletes alongside people who've never stepped foot in a gym. I've worked with kids as young as 5, adults in their 50s, and the whole range in between. I've also coached people who were anxious, even a few that were afraid of heights, and people who jumped in the hoop and got upside down like they'd been doing it forever. This massive variety in personalities, learning styles, and limitations forced me to think about my students (or users!), what they need, and how I could adapt my approach to help them reach their goals.

When the pandemic hit, I couldn't teach or even practice; I was stuck at home trying to figure out what to do next. I'd been missing design for a while, and this felt like the perfect time to jump back in. I decided to pursue a whole new career by getting certified in UI Design.

When my course material mentioned accessibility, I was intrigued. So I did some research to learn more, and I was shocked and outraged by the state of things (if you haven't heard, about 97% of the top one million websites fail to meet the accessibility standards published by WCAG).

I can't fix the whole internet by myself, but I am committed to doing my part to make the web accessible to all. My journey with inclusive design is a work in progress, and one of my goals is to get certified as an accessibility professional. For now, I try to be mindful of color contrast, input field labels, alternate text for photos, and other essentials from the WCAG guidelines.

In my free time, I love to go indoor rock climbing, practice aerial hoop, and make bagels with my wife at our home in Raleigh, NC.

Whether you read all of that or not, you know one thing about me: I'm long-winded! I love information, and I have a lot to say about the things I'm passionate about. I'd love to chat about inclusive design, aerial arts, or bagel making, so get in touch! read less

Skills & Tools

Relevant Skills

  • Research
  • Critical thinking
  • User flows
  • Wireframing
  • Prototyping
  • Collaboration
  • Accessibility
  • Visual design
  • Typography
  • Style guides
  • Layout design

Tools I Use

  • Adobe XD
  • Stark
  • InVision
  • Illustrator
  • Photoshop