Rochelle Pennington
Rochelle is a Digital Product Designer currently modernizing the unemployment insurance experience at U.S. Digital Response.

About

Leading with authenticity, empathy, and a mission to uplift and be of service to others.

 

I'm passionate about using design to create a positive impact on our planet and the people that live in it. When I'm not working, you can find me searching for the matcha-iest of matcha lattes or the perfect bowl of spicy miso ramen. Want to work together? I'd love to hear from you!

I am a Digital Product Designer helping government, nonprofits, and startups create human-centered digital experiences. I was a Senior Digital Product Designer solving user experience and service design problems caused by COVID-19 at U.S. Digital Response. Prior to that, I was a Visual Design Lead & UX Designer at Fjord where I worked on mission-critical web apps for the federal government.

From 2012 to 2019, I co-organized Refresh DC, a community of designers, developers, strategists, and other professionals within the digital space. We gathered monthly to share ideas, improve our craft, and advance the design industry.

I have worked with the U.S. Office of Federal Student Aid, federal law enforcement agencies, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Yamaha WaterCraft Group, Ronald McDonald House Charities, and Boulder Crest Foundation.

 
 
 

Work Experience

Staff Product Designer
Lime
Aug 2022–Present

Digital Product Designer & Owner
Noonchi
May 2021–Present

Senior Digital Product Designer
U.S. Digital Response
Jul 2020–May 2021
Remote

Visual Design Lead & User Experience Designer
Fjord/Accenture Federal Services
Jun 2019–Oct 2019
Washington, DC

Visual Design Associate Manager & User Experience Designer
Fjord/Accenture Federal Services
Dec 2016–Jun 2019
Washington, DC

Creative Director, Web
Whereoware
Mar 2016–Dec 2016
Chantilly, VA

Design Lead & Front-End Lead
Whereoware
Sep 2011–Mar 2016
Chantilly, VA

Design Lead & Front-End Developer
Whereoware
Sep 2010–Sep 2011
Herndon, VA

Front-End Developer & Designer
Whereoware
Jun 2009–Sep 2010
Herndon, VA

Junior Front-End Developer
TEKsystems
Sep 2008–Jun 2009
Herndon, VA


Volunteer

Senior Digital Product Designer
U.S. Digital Response
Jul 2020–May 2021
Remote

Community Organizer
Refresh DC
2012–2019
Washington, DC


Education

B.S. Information Science & Systems (Web Development); Media Studies Minor
Radford University, 2004–2008


Skills

Leadership Coaching, mentorship, and training; Running design critiques; Teaching and enforcing best practices; Scoping and estimating projects; Identifying staffing needs; Building strong team and client relationships; Workshop planning and facilitation

Research Generative research; Writing discussion guides and test scripts; Conducting stakeholder interviews; Running usability tests; Analyzing, synthesizing, and presenting findings as actionable recommendations

Design Journey mapping and user flows; Ideation and concepting; Wireframing and prototyping; Presenting designs and justifying design decisions; Design thinking; Service design; Creating high-fidelity, branded user interfaces; Building design systems, pattern libraries, and style guides; Designing for accessibility (including Section 508); Responsive design; Collaborating across design, product, and engineering teams


Tools

Figma, Sketch, Principle, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, InVision, Zeplin, UXPin, Slack, Notion, Jira, Confluence, Trello, Google Analytics, Google Workplace, Microsoft Office, WordPress, Drupal, Squarespace, Episerver, AspDotNetStorefront


Awards

2016 Capital One Banking with Humanity Hackathon, Second Place
2015 IBM Beacon Award for Outstanding Smarter Commerce Solution
2015 Episerver North America Best E-Commerce Site
2014 Episerver Best Digital Marketing Site
2014 Best Integration with a Silverpop Partner
2014 MobileWebAwards Best B2B Mobile Application
2014 Best Social Media/Digital/Web Agency on the Ace Awards Agency A-List