About – Lark Design

Hello! I’m Lucy. I’m a UX researcher, designer, and strategist with a passion for helping mission-driven organizations.

Photo by Amy & Jackson Smith.

About Me

As a UX researcher, I enjoy understanding people’s stories and how they relate to the systems around them. As a designer and strategist, I seek solutions that simplify complexity in ways that feel inclusive and intuitive – while also achieving outcomes that matter.

I choose this work every day because I love witnessing how design can make a chaotic and complicated reality feel more cohesive, workable, and even beautiful.

Outside of work, you’ll find me gardening, cooking dinner with friends, or watching old movies at our local arthouse theater.

How I Can Help

User Experience (UX) Research – Translate user observations into actionable insights that enhance the user experience.

UX Design – Craft a digital experience that delights your users.

UX Strategy – Chart a course of action for moving your organization's goals forward through improving UX.

Accessibility Strategy – Integrate inclusive design principles throughout the design lifecycle, iteratively testing and improving along the way.

Content Strategy – Plan and structure content to support your messaging.

Experience

UX Team Lead,
Center for Society & Health at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)
December 2024 – Present

Guided internal team in developing a business model canvas, defining our Center’s value proposition, and generating a team charter as a North Star that guides our collective work

Project: Opioid Cost Calculator 3.0 (for the Virginia Department of Health)
July 2024 – Present

Evaluated UX strategy, community impact, and future directions for our third release of a CDC-funded tool estimating how much the state’s opioid crisis cost Virginians in 2022
Conceptualized new outcome goals through discussion with the funder
Built research-based personas, journey map, and ecosystem map
Evaluating web analytics and current site’s heuristics to prioritize key areas for improvement
Preparing for Spring 2025 interviews, cognitive walkthroughs, and co-design activities with diverse users
Collaborating with the design/dev team and our principal investigator in our roadmap
Identifying and sketching short-term improvements for our upcoming July 2025 re-launch
Launching informal collaboration with other opioid researchers to enrich our community engagement

UX Designer,
Center for Society & Health at VCU
December 2022 – November 2024

Project: Opioid Cost Calculator 2.0 (for the Virginia Department of Health)
July 2024 – Present

Managed project from design to development, integrating funder input throughout the process
Supervised the teamwork of an epidemiologist, a writer, another designer, and a web developer
Wireframed and prototyped county-specific profiles for our second release of a CDC-funded tool estimating how much the state’s opioid crisis cost Virginians in 2021 alone
Defined the content strategy for plain-language, inclusive narrative content
Crafted accessible interactive data visualizations to show the distribution of opioid costs across the state and their relationship to community levels of poverty and income
Attracted coverage by Axios Richmond and local TV stations, with 4.2K site visits since Jan. 2024 launch

Project: Virginia Wellbeing Dashboard (for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services)
December 2022 – November 2024

Led the project from design to development, launching a tool for exploring how social factors shape mental health and substance use at a population level
Primarily managed our funder relationship, including winning the approval of the Health Secretary – securing the political support needed to launch the site publicly
Supervised the teamwork of epidemiologists, writers, other designers, and a web developer
Rapidly iterated through wireframes and evaluated them with diverse users to improve the site’s information architecture, learnability, trustworthiness, and transparency
Led cross-functional journey-mapping and empathy-mapping workshops to create a shared understanding of both user needs and generate new possibilities for the future
Crafted a content strategy emphasizing readability and community strengths
Designed the site’s visual language (logo, typography, color palette, design system)
Collaboratively designed data visualizations showing wellbeing outcomes and social factors in each community
Wrote our Center’s press release, receiving coverage in Mental Health Weekly

Career Break (Parenting)
January 2022 – November 2022

Freelance UX Designer & Reseearcher
September 2020 – December 2021

Project: UpRoot Colorado Website Redesign (for UpRoot Colorado)
October 2020 – December 2021

Gathered requirements through stakeholder interviews and competitive analysis
Heuristically evaluated the site to prioritize usability and accessibility concerns
Created personas and journey maps based on user interviews
Conducted cognitive walkthroughs of new wireframes and iterated through three rounds of testing with users

Project: Nibble Online Market Tour Redesign (for the Somerville Arts Council)
September 2020 – June 2021

Led strategy meetings and design workshops with stakeholders and users
Researched community needs through user interviews, cognitive walkthroughs, persona development, and current-state and future-state journey-mapping
Rapidly tested and iterated through wireframes, integrating user feedback
Translated wireframes into mockups with a cohesive visual language
Recruited and trained community guides to co-create new content

Program Lead – Intercambio,
Somerville Arts Council
February – April 2020

Volunteered as a Board member, appointed by the Mayor of Somerville
Organized and led Intercambio, a free community program connecting 20+ residents across cultures to practice language together
Presented the Nibble Program's Union Square International Market Tours, educating residents and visitors about local groceries with global flavor and inspiring their support for the businesses

Marketing Assistant,
Mikyoung Kim Design
September 2018 – January 2020

Crafted short promotional blog posts on featured projects for the internationally-renowned landscape architect’s website
Prepared marketing proposals, award submissions, and qualifications packages
Contributed writing to the design narrative for a finalist proposal for the Detroit Institute of the Arts Plaza/Midtown Cultural Connections Design Competition

Career Break (Education) January 2018 – August 2018

Design Researcher,
Tufts Technology Services
September 2017 – January 2018

Led the development of a new data services strategy that won top university executives’ support
Guided our service design team across multiple project teams simultaneously
Coordinated ideation sessions on new ways of delivering data services
Organized site visits to evaluate existing models and effective practices at other institutions
Facilitated a workshop to synthesize insights on competitive analysis to contextualize Tufts’ unique strengths
Helped to develop use scenarios and user journey maps as part of a broader service strategy
Integrated the service design team’s concepts into a single strategy narrative, working closely with visual designer colleagues and incorporating stakeholder feedback throughout the process

Executive Assistant to the CIO,
Tufts Technology Services, Tufts University
September 2013 – August 2017

Crafted communications for the CIO, including supporting him in writing a vision and roadmap document for evolving the organization’s priorities and capabilities
Played a key role in planning and implementing change management communications for unifying Tufts’ 17 separate IT service organizations into a single 270-person department
Worked closely with the CIO to oversee projects, enable stakeholder alignment, and support effective collaboration across multiple units
Piloted and launched a multi-year internship partner program with Bunker Hill Community College

Freelance Contributor, ecoMass/ecoRI News July 2013 – August 2013

Researched and wrote stories on urban development and environmental sustainability for the non-profit news site
Conducted in-depth contextual background research for each article
Interviewed story subjects on-site and by phone and took accompanying photos

Career Break (U.S. Relocation from Costa Rica)

Communications Assistant,
EARTH University / Universidad EARTH
January 2012 – February 2013

Assisted the USAID-funded Costa Rican university of 400 students in publicizing a $19.5M partnership with The MasterCard Foundation
Interviewed students, alumni, professors, donors, and media visitors in both English and Spanish
Wrote, edited, and translated digital content celebrating 40 Global Scholars, featuring agronomic engineering students from Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean
Created marketing materials (online and print) on University programs for multiple target audiences and helped ensure design reflected EARTH’s messaging and values
Helped plan content for English-language Facebook and Twitter pages, consulted on U.S. target market interests, created and proofread postings and tweets, and monitored social media mentions
Published stories through WordPress and coordinated press release publication
Supported the Director of Communications in coordinating and hosting international media visits to campus

Education

Certificate in Interactive Design,
Rhode Island School of Design
February 2018 – June 2020

B.A. in English, Summa Cum Laude
Tufts University
2011

Contact

Interested in working with me? Get in touch!
hello@larkdesign.co