Hi, I’m Courtney Lai, a Product and UX Designer with over 9 years of experience and living in Seattle, Washington.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana surrounded by cornfields. While there, I received my BFA in Graphic Design, and met my husband. In college, I split my time between the art studios and business campus. The art buildings were cool, but the business campus was newer. While at the business campus, I joined multiple business clubs which peaked my interest for consulting.
Professionally, I started my career by joining an IT Consulting firm as a UI/UX Designer. I’ve worked in industries ranging from transportation, healthcare, computer hardware and software, consumer electronics and more. My favorite part of consulting was the travel, and I’ve enjoyed being able to work in cities all over the US (Seattle, Chicago, New York, Houston, and Philadelphia) and world (Singapore and Mumbai). I am currently employed at a Staffing company where my focus is helping clients find candidates for their open jobs. In this difficulty economy, its great being able to work on a product that not only helps businesses grow, but helps individual people with their careers and livelihoods.
On my time off, I enjoy being creative and active. To get away from my electronics, I enjoy working with my hands to draw, paint, cook, or bake. To stay active, I spend time outside and picked up mushroom foraging and backpacking, but I love playing indoor sports such as volleyball and badminton. I’ve competed in multiple tournaments around the US as a semi-professional player, and coached the badminton team at my high school in Illinois.