Jessica Courtney was studying health sciences in Vancouver when the pandemic struck. Until that time, she’d been contemplating becoming a nurse. She was also serving tables part-time to support her studies.

She took a few months to reset, accepting a job managing a brewery in her hometown of Quesnel, BC, before deciding she was ready for a new direction.

The direction she chose was user-experience (UX) design. Jessica turned to the eight-month UX Design Certificate Program at Emily Carr University to help her get started.

Nearly two years later, she is the sole UX designer with Vancouver-based international tech e-commerce firm Satel Creative. With Jessica’s design contributions, the Satel team recently launched a website and an app, and is currently at work on a new theme for Shopify app users. Earlier this year, she helped launch the new platform for Vancouver-based sustainable restaurant resource EcoMeter.

“It’s been pretty exciting,” Jessica tells me via video-chat from her home in the Okanagan.

It’s also been non-stop. Jessica started her position with Satel within a week of graduating from the UX program, in November, 2021.

“It seemed like a really exciting opportunity, which it has been. I feel very fortunate because it is a bit of a dream to jump into, for sure.”

Jessica’s volunteer position with EcoMeter began almost at the same time, she continues. EcoMeter was initially looking for a UX audit and “I was pretty terrified,” she recalls with a laugh. That audit turned into a months-long design project and product launch. And on a recent trip to Vancouver, she spotted EcoMeter stickers on businesses all over the city.

“I was like, Wow, this is real. This is very cool. This product is functioning now, and it’s being used.”

The primary goal of a UX designer is to create user-friendly digital products, whether apps, websites or other digital platforms. That means designing products that are as intuitive as possible, for as many people as possible.

For Jessica, the decision to study the discipline was somewhat intuitive.

“I went into the program fully open-minded,” she tells me. “I didn’t really know what any of this was like. It was a completely new industry for me. I knew the gist of it, but I wasn’t sure where I would really fit into it. I was fully prepared to let things happen.”

The program was tough and stressful at times, she says. But in the end, it was deeply rewarding. Everything she learned has proven to be “super helpful” to her career in the industry. And all her instructors were “so devoted to making sure we succeeded.”

ECU instructor Priscilla Ho, in particular, went “above and beyond” to support Jessica during her studies and even post-graduation. “She was right there with me,” Jessica says of Priscilla, who made herself available for mentoring and advice throughout the early days of Jessica’s professional career.

Jessica’s job with Satel Creative first began as one of a series of chats with industry professionals sparked during her time at ECU. Having connected with the company’s CEO, she kept in touch during her studies and was eventually hired on.

Because Jessica learned development languages like HTML and CSS at ECU, she quickly found she could act as something like a bridge between the design world and Satel’s development and product-management teams.

“It’s been a huge learning curve. But we launched a website and an app already this summer, and have an app theme in testing that should be ready to go for September. It’s been pretty awesome to see.”

Jessica’s experience has also turned her into an evangelist for the UX program, she continues

“I feel like I’ve told the world about it,” she says of her time in the certificate program. “I’ve spoken to quite a few people looking to get into the industry and also people who have graduated and are seeking advice and asking me about my experience. I couldn’t say enough good things about that program.”

You can find Jessica on LinkedIn, and visit ECU online to read our previous story about Jessica’s role on a team of ECU students who earned recognition for the mental-wellness app they built during a 2021 hackathon.

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Visit ECU online today to learn more about studying in the UX Design Certificate program.