Hello, I am Joi!
An aspiring UX Generalist geared with ideas, creativity and a readiness to learn!
Twin Cities, Minnesota
About Joi Hargrove
My tech journey started with me training in HTML and CSS basics during the pandemic. I think many people can collectively say they worked from home or remote during this time. I eventually decided I didn’t enjoy the work wholeheartedly like I hoped I would, and that was important to me in my career search, to enjoy what I do. So earning the opportunity to participate in a UX design boot camp was nerve wracking and exciting all at the same time. I was immediately interested as it aligned with computer technology, but the User Experience is what intrigued me. I want to learn and connect with what people need in this world today. I want to contribute to the impact social media and tech in general has on society. How can we make things better? More useful? It starts with empathizing with our users in ways we don’t always think to, or ways they didn’t know they could appreciate.
Background
Duluth ALC High School Graduate
Digital Literacy Foundation
Hack The Gap UX Design
Hackathon Participant and Winner
Coding Basics Course
September - December 2020
Cohort Training/Internship
January - August 2024
3rd Place team winner in 2024 annual Hack The Gap Hackathon.
Design Focuses
Generalist
My overall title as I journey into job searching.
Designer
My primary skill in UX Design with more room to learn/grow.
Visual Animations
More of a future focus, my next skill I plan to learn.
PROJECT GALLERY
DFND - A Neighborhood Safety App
DFND (an abbreviation for Defend) is a neighborhood safety app and my first UX design project. My mission was going to be creating an app that allowed people to stay up to date with crime related incidents in areas that were important to them, but it also came with a self defense aspect that would teach lesser knowing individuals how to protect themselves in certain situations. You would eventually be able to access many different categories of self defense organized by difficulty, explore and attend community events that align with your work schedule, and have direct communication with law enforcement. This is a project I continue iterating on.
SnackSphere- Snack Company Startup
SnackSphere is a Group Project done during my hack the gap boot camp, and my role was UX generalist. It’s a responsive website with a mission to bring back convenience and variety to everyday snacking for young professionals. After our user research, we kept in mind quality of ingredients, growth in variety with flavors and new options, And tackling lacking areas we seen in our competitors like deceptive advertisement and accessibility concerns.
Hackathon Project- TXTL - A Silent Trigger Application
TXTL Is a fast paced, group project concept I collaborated on with my team during Hack The Gap’s annual Hackathon, which earned us third place. It’s a silent ‘trigger’ application, essentially meaning it would need to be triggered to be activated. We wanted to create the idea that by using a particular icon or emoji, it would connect whichever messaging thread your in at the time with police dispatchers in a concealed way. The two developers on my team created a visual of this interpretation that showed the usage of the icon and the coded format of the actual conversation between the person in need and the 911 operator. It was an amazing experience getting to create on this idea, which was also something I came up with.
