Work portfolio
👋🏻 Hi, I’m Erin White - an information architect and digital strategist based in Providence, RI, USA. I’ve been making web things and building tech communities for 15+ years. I consider myself a UX Swiss Army knife.
My skills
- Design
- I clearly define problems and design solutions.
- I zoom in to the small details and zoom out to the big picture.
- Accessibility
- I enjoy performing accessibility audits.
- I’m working toward an accessibility certification.
- Research
- I have designed, led, synthesized, and acted on insights from remote and in-person user research.
- Code
- I understand the DOM and know HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
- I can read/mend/repair/commit code.
- Content
- I think in content models.
- I write clearly and love creating and maintaining documentation.
- UX leadership
- I deliver critique well and thoughtfully.
- I take joy in mentoring junior UX practitioners.
- I’ve led digital teams and set digital strategy for most of my career.
- Teaching, publishing, presenting
- I speak regularly at local, regional, and national conferences.
- I blog and publish widely about UX, inclusive design, and design system.
- I’ve taught semesterlong UX courses at the graduate level.
- Facilitation/client work
- I can communicate about design with technical and nontechnical folks.
- I enjoy working directly with clients.
- I learn fast and collaborate well. ⚓️
You can find me on GitHub.
Past projects
2025: Malicious compliance gender patterns
The US’s new administration provided some guidance about asking our users about their sex (not gender!). But are they really being specific enough?
I presented some ways that we might ask for our users’ sex/gender on our forms in order to comply with new EOs. (Design, content, and code by me.)
Malicious compliance gender patterns
2023-present: Information architecture at scale
- Incorporating IA into your design system - presentation at 2025 Information Architecture conference.
- Interview: Practicing information architecture
- Observations on working at scale
2024: Design systems for VA.gov
My VA.gov Design System contributions include guidance for breadcrumbs, user flows, content types, page metadata, URL standards, information architecture principles, contributing to documentation, and accessibility testing.
2023-present: Freelance work as Humans Make Tech
Taking on the rewarding, weird, confounding, educational challenge of web maintenance and repair for small businesses and organizations. My bread and butter is working with clients to make their existing websites better, rather than doing wholesale web redesigns (though sometimes that is in fact the best route).
Working with a variety of content management systems from Squarespace to self-hosted Wordpress, Wix to Kinsta, Pantheon to homegrown PHP, I’ve served as web developer, designer, accessibility specialist, UX writer, technology strategist, and more.
2019: Trans-Inclusive Design at A List Apart
I wrote about how we can create a more humane web for trans people at A List Apart, the web magazine for people who make websites. Perhaps the highlight of my career.
- Trans-inclusive design
- Trans-inclusive design for the Prosocial Design Network
- Podcast interview: Names, binaries and trans-affirming systems on Legacy Code Rocks!
2020: Trans-inclusive library systems, services, spaces
I led a Gender-Inclusive Workgroup to explore how VCU Libraries could better serve trans and gender-nonconforming users and staff. The group’s recommendations covered library spaces, staff, computer systems, services, and culture.
Gender-inclusive workgroup report
2009-2022: Design work at VCU Libraries
At VCU, I was hired as a Web applications developer and quickly became UX researcher, UX designer, front-end developer, team lead, digital strategist, and finally, department head.
Some of my design projects from that time:
- Back-to-school mobile snapshot
- Easier access for databases and research guides at VCU Libraries
- A new look for search at VCU Libraries
Some of my other writing from that time:
