Hi, I'm Makenna

I'm motivated by building products that lean into wicked cool moments via stunning (micro) animations, polished design, and deeply thought-through processes. I thrive in autonomous, proactive environments, and am stoked to dive deep into new tech/tools and concepts.

Work Stuff I'm Interested In

My Experience

Navattic logo

Design Engineer @ Navattic

June 2024 - Present

Responsibilities

  • Hired as design engineer #1 to invest more in quality UX and bridge the voice of the customer into engineering.
  • I lead the small design team through sprints of product and design system work as well as code for signature UI elements and interactions.
  • I created and polished our design system, compass-ui built off of primitives and with our brand's interactive flair.
Halite.app logo

Design/Product Engineer @ Halite.app

founder

September 2023 - June 2024

Responsibilities

  • I am the only designer and engineer on the team. I have designed, prototyped, tested and built both the app and marketing website.
  • The app is built with Chakra UI, Saas UI, TypeScript, Next.js, and GraphQL, and the website with Framer
  • This is a data and charts heavy product, so I dove deep into the dense display of data, by utilizing React table, Chart.js and Framer Motion where applicable
Roopairs logo

Design/Product Engineer @ Roopairs

contract

November 2023 - January 2024

Responsibilities

  • I was brought on to help with the design and implementation of the new version of the product. I led the development and advancement of their bespoke design system.
  • I implemented the bespoke design system based on their existing repo and wants using CSS modules, Radix primitives and in React
  • I implemented the many of the components in both Figma and in the codebase, working with the team's designer for the rest. I also worked with the team to refactor them in the product.
  • A significant part of the project was in educating the team on design system principles. I created a documentation site for the design system using Storybook to help with this.
ChartGPT logo

Open source contributor @ ChartGPT

Indefinite

Responsibilities

  • I joined this project as the only designer, and frontend specific engineer.
  • I implemented a redesigned interface and deep customization options for the user.
  • I implemented Tremor.so charts and Chart.js for the chart types unsupported by Tremor.

Projects

Whop logo

Design/Product Engineer @ Whop

February 2023 - August 2023

Responsibilities

  • Created a bespoke design system using Tailwind, Radix ui, and storybook. Created more than 65 components from idea to production package. The design system received incredibly positive reviews and adoption by the entire engineering team. The project expanded from an internal use to open sourcing, which opened a new opportunity for high growth of the product with a developer-app's platform launching on its back.
  • Led the team to polished design and implementation across the product. Added micro-animations with accessible fallbacks
  • Led documentation with Storybook and internal tooling and held demos of releases as well as open critiques for clear understanding of the design system.
  • Mentored the designer and front-end teams on design systems
  • I built custom Figma dev tooling for handoff in the design system component's API directly

Projects

Personal

Spela and EiniMakenna on Via FerrataLjubljana airport
  • Grew up in the Midwest USA
  • I lived with my wife, Špela, and cat, Einštein, in Slovenia for 8 years
  • Earth-day Birth-day (I'm 28)
  • I jump at any chance I get to travel
  • Beverages make me tick! Ask me about Filter Coffee, Maté(!!!) or Croatian White Wine.
  • I'm a massive fan of Women's Soccer, specifically you'll find me rooting for the Liberty WNBA team to make a repeat this year.
  • Friends would describe my hobbies with likeness to ”an old dude“ 😅. I dig Golf, Squash, Padel, Sailing, and Via Ferrata.
Sailboats in the Adriatic SeaMakenna Sailing in Croatia