Care navigation, without the maze
Reframed a fragmented patient journey into a single planning workspace, aligning service design, content and interaction patterns across three product teams.
Product designer · Systems thinker
Mara
Ellison
I make complex digital products feel calm, legible and ready for real life.
01 / Profile
Clarity is a
design material.
For the last eight years, I have worked across research, interaction design and product direction. My best work sits where a messy operational reality meets a person who just needs the next step to be obvious.
02 / Selected work
A few useful
things made.
A toolkit for decisions in motion
Created a modular research-to-roadmap system for a distributed team. The work helped product leads turn qualitative signals into shared priorities.
Making the invisible visible
Partnered with a civic data group to redesign a public-facing reporting flow, using plain language and progressive disclosure to build confidence.
03 / Experience
Useful in the
middle of it.
Lead Product Designer
Northstar Health · Remote
- Set product direction for a cross-functional care coordination team.
- Built shared patterns that connected service moments, interface and content.
- Mentored four designers through critique, discovery and delivery.
Product Designer
Fieldnote Studio · Portland / Remote
- Led discovery and interaction design for tools used by operations teams.
- Translated complex workflows into prototypes, principles and shippable systems.
- Facilitated workshops that moved teams from opinions to decisions.
04 / Capabilities
The shape of
my practice.
Frame
Product strategy
Research planning
Service blueprints
Facilitation
Make
Interaction design
Prototyping
Content systems
Design systems
Carry
Team alignment
Design critique
Storytelling
Mentorship
05 / Education
BFA, Communication Design
California College of the Arts · 2017
Continued practice in service design, accessible systems and writing for interfaces.
06 / Contact
Have a hard thing
worth making clear?
I am currently open to senior product design and design leadership conversations with teams working on consequential tools.