{"id":488,"date":"2026-11-04T17:21:17","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T00:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/?p=488"},"modified":"2026-11-04T17:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T00:22:15","slug":"hello-my-name-is-claire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/hello-my-name-is-claire\/","title":{"rendered":"Hello, my name is Claire."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Multitasking:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I am an instructor<\/span>, a designer<\/span>, a developer<\/span>, a human problem-solver!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s how I wrote the main heading on my portfolio website two years ago, and it still works well enough. But with so few words, a lot is left unsaid. So here\u2019s a fuller picture of who I am today and how I think about learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t arrive at instructional design through the front door. I came in through a side door marked product design, then web and graphic design, then front-end development, and only later teaching. For more than twenty years I\u2019ve designed brands, websites, publications, digital products and, more recently, museum experiences. Somewhere along the way I realized that most of that work was about learning. A well-structured website teaches you where to look next. A museum exhibit teaches you how to wonder. A meaningful brand teaches you to trust it.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I teach design and web development at North Island College, where I\u2019m also faculty and department coordinator for our Digital Design + Development programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empathy has always been my north star<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I learned design thinking at university almost 30 years ago, and it shapes how I approach just about everything in life. Say my daughter is having a bad day. I\u2019ll empathize, define the problem, and try a solution, maybe a cup of tea or a hug. If that doesn\u2019t work, I iterate. Whatever I\u2019m doing, I start by imagining what it feels like to be on the other side of it and I problem-solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Note: Design Thinking 101 (n.d.). [Illustration]. In Nielsen Norman Group<\/em>. https:\/\/www.nngroup.com\/articles\/design-thinking\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The same process shows up in my teaching. My classroom works more like a design studio than a lecture hall. Students work on real projects, sometimes for real clients. I flip the content delivery so class time can go to team-based learning and critiquing, which is where the learning actually happens. Empathy starts with recognizing that students are complete human beings, so I let them guide the process, and I try to design for accessibility from the outset. I don\u2019t use textbooks; I design every course from scratch. In a way, each one is a prototype: I watch how students experience it, listen to what\u2019s not working, and redesign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two lies I\u2019ve been telling myself<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cI\u2019m not creative.\u201d<\/strong> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Although I\u2019ve always been labelled \u201cthe artist\u201d, I never believed I was creative, because I arrive at ideas through logical sequences of thought. I never understood people whose ideas seem to come from nowhere. This might be the biggest lie I\u2019ve told myself. Even though I love logic, clarity and purpose, I am creative, deeply creative. I have a need to produce, make and build, and the medium barely matters: a mural, a website, a theatre set, a brand, a workshop. Lately even an academic paper gives me the creator satisfaction I crave.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cI\u2019m a jack of all trades and master of none<\/strong>.\u201d<\/strong> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s my imposter syndrome talking. But I know I\u2019m an excellent worker and thinker, and I bring a rich multidisciplinary lens to every problem. Having moved between design, development, teaching and leadership means I can see connections that might be invisible to others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Going forward<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Writing this, I realized how much of my story is about unlearning things I believed about myself. I\u2019m not a jack of all trades; I think I\u2019m now ready to call myself an expert at designing for people, in whatever form that takes. And as AI shifts the value from polished output to judgement, I believe my messy, cross-disciplinary path has prepared me well. As I work through the MALAT, I\u2019m curious to see where that expertise takes me next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am an instructor, a designer, a developer, a human problem-solver!
\nThat\u2019s how I wrote the main heading on my portfolio website two years ago, and it still works well enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":330,"featured_media":494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lrnt524"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/330"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions\/499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru314\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}