Throughout my career, I've pursued a depth and breadth of knowledge and skills as a design practitioner to support my teams and, most importantly, the people for whom we design. I began my career in the advertising / branding space but quickly realized that I was most interested in and passionate about the intersection of design and technology and wanted to focus on this space.
I was fortunate to begin that focused journey at Colab as a Designer + Developer, where I designed, built, and tested responsive (mostly Wordpress-based) websites for various companies and organizations. I experienced the translation of the PSDs and Sketch templates I designed into living, breathing, responsive websites. I tried my hand at PHP and JavaScript, got the hang of version control with Git via CLI, and refined my HTML and CSS skills (BEM! SCSS!). I also discovered that I have a knack for QA and served as the QA lead, performing cross-browser testing for most of our sites, developing the appropriate systems and processes to support effective QA.
After spending years laser-focused on understanding everything that powers the experience on the screen, it was through the data in Google Analytics that I became deeply interested in understanding the experiences of the real people on the other side of the screen. I realized that the work I was doing was pointless if the people for whom I was designing could not use the experience, and in mid-2016, I joined CapTech's Customer Experience department to pursue growth in the human-centered design practice.
Shortly after joining, I had a conversation with a former Associate UX Director and Accessibility Lead, Chris Lacroix, that profoundly impacted my life and trajectory as a designer. I had just lost my Grandma to breast cancer, and our casual conversation meandered through some of the details of her life with Multiple Sclerosis. I shared how it impacted her physical ability over time. Chris encouraged me to explore the accessibility space, so I signed up to fly out to Utah with my accessibility partner-in-crime, Virginia Booth, and participate in WebAIM's two-day intensive training that changed my career.
While I am very proud of the work I supported there in my day-to-day role as a Creative Director, what is most meaningful to me is the impact I had as Accessibility Lead — growing the accessibility practice of the individuals, teams, and company as a whole, working with my teammates, clients, and in the design community writ large to share my knowledge and skills to help everyone build more inclusive digital experiences.
My work as an accessibility practitioner and advocate is the perfect intersection of the skills I've cultivated throughout my career, and I believe it is precisely the work I was meant to do. I feel an incredible sense of gratitude whenever I learn something new in this space, leverage my skills, and share my knowledge to help others make accessible decisions and support more inclusive work.
After a decade working in agencies and consulting, I transitioned to in-house product design and joined the Tradesy team in 2021 as a Senior Product Designer, where I fell in love with design systems and Figma. Tradesy was acquired by Vestiaire Collective in 2022 and, sadly, decided to eliminate most of the Tradesy team a year after the acquisition. I was at the beginning of parental leave at that time and was saddened that I would not be returning to work with the team. We had some very fun and exciting work to do together. Naturally, I took time to finish my parental leave and figure out my next move. Fortunately, I found my way to the Grammarly Design Systems team, where I now do both accessibility and design systems work.
Enough of the serious stuff — let's talk non-work things.
When I’m not working hard for the money, I explore new places and restaurants with my husband and daughter. I fell behind on life after tiny human, so now I'm finally catching up on my books, podcasts, TV, and movies in between keeping the household plates spinning. When I can cook a slow meal, I post it using #thekitchenatcypresshill.
I’m lucky enough to have married the kind and generous spirit that is Andrew, an iOS Engineer at Block. Our toddler is also a part of our crew, and we live a geeked-out life together, mostly talking about the latest tech thing that has happened between chasing said screaming toddler around the house. I crank some tunes on Spotify, listening to good music on occasion. If you’re so inclined, you can follow me on the socials (@caitlynmayers) or check out the Contact page for other ways to get in touch.
Extra Credit
I love Call of Duty and Mario Kart. My drinks of choice are a neat bourbon or juicy DIPA. I’ll eat anything twice, but I would eat Mexican food all day long if I could.
Whew! That was a lot of words — thanks for stopping by and making it this far. You deserve a treat.