ABOUT ME
hello! my name is layla solatan ☺
she/herI'm currently an Economics (International Markets) & Psychology student pursuing UX/UI Design here in the Bay Area, CA. In my work, I center: design justice and accessibility, economic empowerment, & social entrepreneurship.
I’ve recently taken up UX design in my last year of college after many years of unknowingly self-teaching it. I first learned what a UX designer was when I was 11-years-old and my mom was impressed by my critique of her company’s website: “Your competitor’s website makes me feel like I’m at a candy shop with their inviting color scheme, and your use of only blue and white makes me feel like I’m checking my online grades.” (Today, I realize this is UI. Nonetheness, this tiny moment was quite pivotal). A day later, she came home and told me that she’d relayed the comment back to her manager and he joked, “When can she start?” She then told me that I should consider something called “you ex, you I” and I gave her a confused look. What is she talking about? She told me more about it and I did a bit of research, and I figured it was too good to be true. I decided that it’d be wise to explore other interests, and gently left UX to the side. Little did I know that I was learning UX design, trends, and laws for the next 10 years every time I opened a new app or website and commented on its layout, hard to reach buttons, feel, flow, areas for improvement, and user experience. I thought everyone did that!
Since then, I’ve spent different parts of my life learning about international economics, edtech, social entrepreneurship, and mental health. I’ve been lucky enough to have found my way to over dozen countries and even spent a year living in Ecuador, where I became fluent in Spanish and decided I wanted to study economics.
In college, I rediscovered my love for visual communication and design. I started doodling again, began a mutual aid fundraiser, and designed for projects that I’m proud to support, ranging from books, podcasts, apps, to websites as a UX Designer, UI Designer, and illustrator. I realized that UX designer was at the core of what I really loved, even throughout different projects in various industries. It centered the user, allowed us to make anything pleasant or even joyful, dug into how we think and act, and could be applied anywhere and everywhere. Now, I work at the intersection of cooperative economics and human-centered design, focusing my work on economic empowerment through entrepreneurship and design justice.
more!
ñ ︎ I love traveling and language exchange! I speak spanish, and have also dabbled in French, Mandarin, Hebrew, and Tagalog
︎ escríbame en español
🍜︎ During the pandemic, I’ve taken up cooking, baking, and rollerskating
🍰︎ When I retire I want to own a co-op bakery!
CONTACT
︎ laylasolatan
︎ layla solatan
︎ lsolatan@mills.edu
want to collaborate? let’s chat!