My name is Melina Sandel, and I am a sophomore majoring in Digital Media and Design with a concentration in Web and Interactive Design. I am from Long Island and attended Harborfields High School, where I was the President of my Class. I am the Vice Chair of Design for the Outreach Committee of SUBOG, the largest student-run programming board at UConn. I also competed in Season 6 of Survivor UConn!

This semester marks the first time I’ve worked from the office space in the library. This summer I worked at Greenhouse remotely, and being surrounded by the Greenhouse Studios Team is a great change of pace and I’m looking forward to getting to know all of them! The collaborative nature between different majors is so meaningful to me because it allows me to explore different people’s perspectives and work alongside them so I can implement their feedback.

This year at Greenhouse Studios I hope to become familiar with Figma because I currently use Adobe XD to design apps. I also would like to help with Design Research. In my opinion, this is the most overlooked part of the design process and sometimes people can jump straight into designing without establishing a good base of research. Building a good foundation of research is important for empathizing with the user. I also want to work on projects with websites this year so I can get more hands-on experience with Web Development. Over the summer I taught myself CSS and HTML, so this semester I want to learn to code in JavaScript so I can have a full grasp of Front End Development. Recently I have been working on the Charles VR website, which has given me a lot of experience in all facets of web development. When I graduate from UConn I want to work in either UX Design or Front End Development.

In my free time, I enjoy speedsolving Rubik’s Cubes, rock climbing at the Rec Center, and reading celebrity memoirs.

Check out my Portfolio here!