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Case studies

A case study is a summarized presentation of a design project that typically includes:

1 | Project goal and objectives

2 | Your role in the project

3 | Process your team followed

4 | Outcome of the project

Case study 1 | payroll product application

Case study 2 | retail sales application

Case study 3 | retail sales application

Case study 4 | client project

UX Design Certificate. ‘Design a User Experience for Social Good & Prepare for Jobs!’  course, Instructor, Google. (2024, September).

UX Design Certificate. ‘Build Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototypes‘ course, Instructor, Google. (2024, July | August).

UX Design Certificate.’ Create High-Fidelity Designs and Prototypes in Figma‘ course, Instructor, Google. (2024, July | August).

UX Design Certificate. ‘Conduct UX Research and Test Early Concepts‘ course, Instructor, Google. (2024, July | August).

Featured

Product Locating Application for Grocery Stores | UIUX Design Case Study

My role in the uiux design case study was to create an application for a grocery store. The main goal of the application is to help customers locate products efficiently before, during and after shopping at the store. The application will assist whether the customer is shopping in store or online.  

One of the first steps was to compare portfolios from designers at google. I chose three designers and then answered questions about their portfolios, such as, ” Was the navigation simple and intuitive,” “Did the portfolio include a diversity of projects,” and ” Is the site responsive?”

The personas were created to learn about how the applications you are designing and developing will impact consumers. Personas represent the demographic in the same way statistics average a population. The three personas I created varied in age, income and socioeconomic status. I formulated the challenges (pain points) each persona faces when shopping. https://valmediablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/personasusers-1.pdf

The target audience of the consumer demographic varies based on age and economic status. All personas faced the same challenge of finding products in store when having a lot to balance.

” Whether they were man, woman, single, married with a family, or in a relationship, rich or poor, they all had the same challenge (paint point). That grocery store shopping can be a long process of available budget, organization, proximity and product demand. “

Valmedia | Sole proprietor

The research was conducted in person as I was working as an assistant produce manager at a grocery store. I observed consumer behavior daily and learned about preferences. For an actual client or corporate project I would formulate a focus group or research with surveys. — Valerie Blackburn

The userflow I created helped organize the actions for the sketches and prototypes. This step was necessary and led to the creation of a storyboard. The storyboard is a series of images that make up a scenario the consumer is faced with. In the storyboard, Sally Bunkeeper struggles to find the groceries she needs while balancing care of children at home and client work. The scenario shows how the application helps Sally search for a product on the shopping app while phoning her client on speaker. 

The user flow and storyboard led to the creation of a prototype. 

The prototype includes each phase of the user experience with placeholder graphics and copy. 

UX Design Certificate. Conduct UX Research and Test Early Concepts course, Instructor, Google. (2024, July | August).

UX Design Certificate. Build Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototypes course, Instructor, Google. (2024, July | August).

UX Design Certificate. Create High-Fidelity Designs and Prototypes in Figma course, Instructor, Google. (2024, July | August).

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Graceful Arts Gallery

 

Graceful Arts Gallery artwork display
Graceful Arts Gallery artwork display

A reception was held April 7, 2023 at the Graceful Arts Gallery (https://www.gracefulartsgallery.com) in Alva, Oklahoma. Artwork is on display and for sale during the month of April and May. This artwork can also be ordered on my website at https://www.valmedia.net/illustrations-for-sale and https://www.valmedia.net/paintings-for-sale. 

You can view newspaper articles about each artist here, https://www.alvareviewcourier.com/story/2023/04/09/local/a-change-in-career-path-brings-blackburn-to-the-art-world/82353.html and https://www.alvareviewcourier.com/story/2023/04/09/local/from-skin-to-canvas-seigart-has-spent-her-life-creating-art/82354.html

You can view a video of the artist interviews here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G-o34MYId0&t=7s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5qlRfLBq8c.

Oklahoma State Publishing Museum painting, Train Depot painting
Oklahoma State Publishing Museum painting, Train Depot painting

Modern print Illustrations, Acrylic painting, Ink Stippling and Eiffel Tower Photograph

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martin, Marione. (2023, April 9). A change in career path brings Blackburn to the art world | APA. Alva Review Courier. Retrieved April 19, 2023, from https://www.alvareviewcourier.com/story/2023/04/09/local/a-change-in-career-path-brings-blackburn-to-the-art-world/82353.html

Martin, M. (2023, April 7). Valerie Blackburn, Artist at Graceful Arts Gallery, Alva April 7, 2023. Alva Review Courier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G-o34MYId0

Martin, Marione. (2023, April 9). From skin to canvas, Seigart has spent her life creating art | APA. Alva Review Courier. Retrieved April 19, 2023, from https://www.alvareviewcourier.com/story/2023/04/09/local/from-skin-to-canvas-seigart-has-spent-her-life-creating-art/82354.html

Martin, M. (2023, April 7). Jo Seigart, Artist at Graceful Arts Gallery, Alva, April 7, 2023. Alva Review Courier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5qlRfLBq8c&t=44s

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Build a portfolio or project to get you hired

This event held on January 22nd, was a repeat for me. The event was again held at Clevyr, https://clevyr.com, a company I do admire and have applied to before. The event had a Chinese New Year theme and I brought the usual green tea to share.

A panel of advisors was available to answer questions related to the topic of ‘Build a portfolio or project to get you hired.’ Questions such as ‘ What are the key considerations for building a portfolio or project that will stand out to potential employers? ‘ and ‘ How can you effectively showcase the skills you have gained with your portfolio or project to demonstrate your particular role at a company? ‘ Answers were given with audience participation. What an informative panel of web design development enthusiasts!

That’s when I realized I have already coded projects such as these. Look at the coding I did with this GitHub spring integration!

https://github.com/valzya/spring-framework

I had an original idea of building a health application to track and organize food choices and nutrition. This was part of an online application development course. The spring development was integrated with this project to show coding ability.

Later on, I decided to add a code version of my résume to GitHub.

https://www.github.com/valzya/Code-Resume

This allowed for faster updates and again proves coding ability.

After a certain number of interviews to development positions with no final offer, I decided the missing component was a javascript framework. I signed up for an OKC Coders course, React-GraphQL-Redwood.js.

https://github.com/valzya/react.graphql.redwood

I had worked and studied javascript frameworks before, such as twitter bootstrap. Yet, thought having a formal education and certificate would further prove my capabilities to the development community. In addition, I completed the ‘ Front End Web UI Frameworks and Tools: Bootstrap 4,’ course on Coursera.

The event helped me realize I had much earlier examples of application and front end web development in my portfolio as well. Such as, a social application with a large database that was built to sell monthly memberships to OKC consumers, and a large corporate application redesign project. Certifications such as these have been completed.

  1. Google Analytics for Power Users
  2. Google Foundations in User Experience (UX) Design
  3. Front End Web UI Frameworks and Tools: Bootstrap 4
  4. SEO for Beginners’ with Yoast Academy for WordPress
  5. Fit to Learn: IT Design Thinking,’ MyInnerGenius, IBM SkillsBuild
  6. API Design and Fundamentals on Apigee, Google Cloud Skills Boost

AI Builders conference

Val Marketing | Sole Proprietor created an application in lovable to store passwords on a device securely with one login. https://www.valmarketing.net/web?lightbox=dataItem-mt0vmpge

Here are the instructions for the process of creating the App.

  1. Define & Set Up

Define your target audience, problem or opportunity, desired outcome and AI approach, and prepare the tools and environment you need to build.

Target audience is 36% of U.S. adults (about 94 million people) currently use a password manager or secure vault, while the rest rely on memorization, browser saving, or notes.

The goal is to convince the 64% of US adults who don’t rely on this product to buy in.

It’s been 20 years since Bill Gates predicted that passwords would disappear. With biometric authentication the replacement has already began.

Age and Memorization| Memorization is reported by 64% of adults under 30 compared to 35% of those over 60.

Password Reuse| Younger generations (such as Gen Z / ages 18–24) show higher rates of password reuse—with up to 76% reusing passwords—though they also show higher adoption of multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Older Adults| Older demographics frequently avoid standalone vault apps due to incomplete mental models of how local and cloud-encrypted storage works.

Cost Preference| Roughly 70% of password manager users opt for free tiers or free software.

Prevent cyber attacks by securing and encrypting every password.

Secure Vault Pw Keeper supports passkey creation, secure storage and autofill, offering faster, phishing-resistant logins.

Autofill credentials, securely share passwords and remove login friction.

Enforce access control, Role-based permissions and zero-trust security keep your pws safe.

Accessible on any device. Web vault and native apps across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android.

Build the Core

  1. Create the Vault| The user sets up the application and establishes a highly secure master password, which acts as the unique key to derive the vault’s encryption layers.
  2. Encrypt Credentials Locally| When a user saves a password, the application encrypts the plain-text credentials on the user’s local device before transmitting data anywhere else.
  3. Generate Complex Passwords| The built-in generator creates completely random, long, strings for new account sign-ups or credential updates.
  4. Synchronize Safely| The scrambled data is synced across authorized devices (such as smartphones, laptops, and browser extensions) via secure, encrypted channels.
  5. Auto-Fill Login Forms| When a user visits a recognized login page, the manager identifies the matching URL, decrypts the credentials locally, and safely auto-fills the username and password fields.

3 Integrate & Develop

Customize AI with unique code changes.

4 Test, Evaluate & Deploy

Test sthe code for consistency, browser compatability and functionality. Compile user groups to test for UIUX design development case studies.

5 Finalize | The process of implementing the code involves finalizing the App to deploy as an actual product for sale.

Password Manager Industry Report and Statistics 2024. Security.org

2024 Password Manager Industry Report and Statistics

ValMarketing | Sole Proprietor. (2026, Oct. 16). AI Builders conference 2026. AI Builders conference

Wordcamp Day 3 

A recap of Day 3 with the link below. In “Building The World’s Most Trusted Driver AI,” presented a spotlight on the future of tech on driving.

Day 3  https://us.wordcamp.org/2026/schedule/#day-three

You are showing people what AI and

autonomous vehicles are fully capable of.

— Amanda Ventura, Public Affairs &

Community Engagement

When asked how Amanda selects a city, she answered, “Phoenix was our first choice. The city’s regulatory environment has an executive order issued.”

Wordcamp Day 2. Building The World’s Most Trusted Driver AI. Amanda Ventura, Public Affairs & Community Engagement. David Levine, Director of Engineering. Waymo. (2026, August).

Wordcamp Day 2.  Valerie Blackburn, Sole Proprietor, Val Marketing. (2026, August).

Wordcamp Day 2 

Day 2  https://us.wordcamp.org/2026/schedule/#day-two

A recap of Day 2 with the link above. The highlight for me was “Dreaming with AI: Innovation Lessons from the Front Lines of Disney & Meta,” that presented a futuristic vision.

A pioneer in tech that blurs the line between imagination and reality. — Loyal Pyczynski | VP R&D

  1. Autonomous drones
  2. Robots
  3. Generative AI
  4. Virtual reality

With years of work at large companies, he is a pioneer in tech that blurs the line between imagination and reality.

Wordcamp Day 2. Loyal Pyczynski, Vice President of R&D at Walt Disney Imagineering. (2026, August).

Wordcamp Day 2.  Valerie Blackburn, Sole Proprietor, Val Marketing. (2026, August).

Wordcamp Day 1 

Welcome to Day 1  https://us.wordcamp.org/2026/session/keynote/

The Taste Gap | How AI Is Rewiring Developer Experience

Bo explores how AI is reshaping developers’ daily work. Time saved writing code is shifting toward specifying intent, providing context, supervising agents, verifying changes, and taking responsibility.

One of the challenges encountered with AI is that we usually have to re edit the AI generated content and code. What questions are important? Did AI solve the right problem?

Yes. I agree. One of the challenges encountered with AI is that I usually have to re edit the AI generated content and code. — Valerie Blackburn | Val Marketing Sole Proprietor

Drawing on real WordPress examples, Bo examines the nearly invisible bugs, security debt, and context challenges that accompany AI-assisted development. You’ll gain a practical model for working with AI:

Specify | Delegate | Verify

You’ll gain a practical model for working with AI:

Specify

Delegate

Verify

— Bo English-Wiczling | VP Global Developer Relations

She has 28 years of technology leadership experience from PayPal, Oracle, Amazon, and Best Buy.

Wordcamp Day 1. Bo English-Wiczling, Vice President of Global Developer Relations at PayPal. (2026, August).

Wordcamp Day 1.  Valerie Blackburn, Sole Proprietor, Val Marketing. (2026, August).

Wordcamp Contributor Day 2026

Welcome to Contributor Day https://us.wordcamp.org/2026/welcome-to-contributor-day/

On contributor day I am happy to sign up as a student! https://us.wordcamp.org/2026/tickets/

Contributor Day has traditionally been organized by a team. You’d find the Core table, the Documentation table, the Polyglots table, and join the one matching your skills.


This year, they organized around goals, specific things they want to finish. Having the skills needed (PHP, HTML, CSS), I couldn’t be at the event in-person. Instead, I chose to sign up for the Freelancer track.

When I last volunteered for WordPress Greece, I worked remotely as part of a team to create instructions on how to clone a WordPress theme. — Valerie Blackburn, Val Marketing Sole Proprietor


Today WordCamp US will make the day about improving WordPress. This year they are trying something new. What’s new this year? Goals, not teams.

WordPress works because contributors show up.
— Mary Hubbard, WordPress Executive Director

Wordcamp Contributor Day.  Mary Hubbard, WordPress Executive Director, Plug In Developer, WordPress. (2026, August).

Wordcamp Contributor Day.  Valerie Blackburn, Sole Proprietor, Val Marketing. (2026, August).

State of the Word

Jean Harris release 6.9

Contributors users and creators
AI Progression

  • 2022 ChatGPT launches

    2023 GPT-4

    2023 Claude launches

    2024 Multimodal video generation

    2025 AI everywhere

WordPress 6.9 brings major upgrades to how teams collaborate and create. The new Notes feature introduces block-level commenting when writing posts and pages that streamlines reviews, while the expanded Command Palette makes it faster for power users to navigate and operate across the entire dashboard. The new Abilities API provides a standardized, machine-readable permissions system that opens the door for next generation AI-powered and automated workflows. This release also delivers notable performance improvements for faster page loads and adds several practical new blocks alongside a more visual drag and drop to help creators build richer, more dynamic content.

We are trying to take an approach where we are empowering, not replacing people. 

Benchmarks 

AI in the WordPress ecosystem

Telex creates interesting Gutenberg blocks.

The Abilities API

Unlocking the next generation of site interactions.

MCP allows us to connect to all AI systems. Now it generates AI with plug-in commands. 

WordPress 6.9 lays the groundwork for the future of automation with the unified Abilities API. By creating a standardized registry for site functionality, developers can now register, validate, and execute actions consistently across any context—from PHP and REST endpoints to AI agents—paving the way for smarter, more connected WordPress experiences.

Interface Workflow: Ability<any, any>|Control<any>[]

The HTML API continues to enable new ways of reliably working with and modifying HTML code server side. This effort is cutting down the complexity and cost of modifying HTML within PHP.

WP_HTML_Processor::serialize_token()

Write | Design | Build | Develop

Blueprints.phar

Accessibility Improvements

More than 30 accessibility fixes sharpen the core WordPress experience. These updates improve screen reader announcements, hide unnecessary CSS-generated content from assistive tech, fix cursor placement issues, and make sure typing focus stays put even when users click an autocomplete suggestion.

Performance enhancements

WordPress 6.9 delivers significant frontend performance enhancements, optimizing the site loading experience for visitors. 6.9 boasts an improved LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) through on-demand block styles for classic themes, minifying block theme styles, and increasing the limit for inline styles – removing blockages to page rendering and clearing the rendering path by deprioritizing non-critical scripts. This release comes with many more performance boosts, including optimized database queries, refined caching, improved spawning of WP Cron, and a new template enhancement output buffer that opens the door for more future optimizations.

WordPress and AI: The Path Foreword

WordPress Release Lead. Matt Mullenweg, CEO, Automattic. (2025, December).

WordPress Release Coordinator. Amy Kamala, Web Development Manager, InMotion Hosting. (2025, December).

WordPress Release Coordinator. Akshaya Rane, Team Lead Solution architect, Multidots. (2025, December).

WordPress Release Lead. David Baumwald, CEO, Automattic. (2025, December).

WordPress Release Coordinator.  Ella van Durpe, Plug In Developer, Automattic. (2025, December).

WordPress Release Coordinator.  Héctor Prieto, Core Contributor, Automattic. (2025, December).

WordPress Design Lead. Francisco Vera, Product Developer, Automattic. (2025, December).

WordPress Triage Lead. Aki Hamano, Freelance Developer, WordPress Core Committer. (2025, December).

WordPress Triage Lead. Ryan Welcher, Developer Relations Advocate, Automattic. (2025, December).

WordPress Test Lead. Jonathan Bossenger, Plug In Developer, Automattic. (2025, December).

WordPress Test Lead. Krupa Nanda, QA Engineer. (2025, December).

WordPress Triage Lead. James LePage, Freelance Developer, Automatic. (2025, December).

WordPress Triage Lead. Mary Hubbard, Executive Director, WordPress (2025, December).

WordPress Test Lead. Felix Arntz, Software Engineer, Google. (2025, December).

WordPress Test Lead. Jeff Paul, VP of Open Source Solutions, 10up. (2025, December).

Grocery Store product location application

https://lovable.dev/projects/7e3ac6d7-b9a4-4c7f-bbe9-6dee24c714ff
Product Locating Application for Grocery Stores | UIUX Design Case Study

In reference to the previous blog post ‘Product Locating Application for Grocery Stores | UIUX Design Case Study https://valmedianet.wordpress.com/2024/08/14/case-study/ I created an ap with https://www.lovable.com.

The link to the application main page is http://bit.ly/42K1iVZ

web (Message me if you are a hiring manager or interested party needing the pw).

View the Dairy page here, http://bit.ly/4gKinoD web (Message me if you are a hiring manager or interested party needing the pw).

View the bakery page here,http://bit.ly/3I9tL0D web (Message me if you are a hiring manager or interested party needing the pw).

Building an application this way is efficient and much faster than building via handwritten code. The only drawback I see is in matching it to a customized prototype. If the mockups and prototypes are the first phases of design, they should be equally important to the development phase.

Blog references

Google AI Builders Forum. Google AI Builders Forum Valerie Blackburn, Designer and Developer, Valmedia | Sole Proprietor. (2025, September).

Google AI Builders Forum

Startups | Innovators | Disruptors

Gemini 2.5 

The New Way to Build

Darren Mowry |VP of Global Startups, Google Cloud | Democratization of technology. TenX Thinking | Think about the big problems to solve. Nano banana offers a new way to build with AI. https://nanobanana.ai

Gemini CLI | Open source AI terminal ast. As a developer you can embed Gemini into the workflow. https://gemini.google.com

David Friedberg |CEO, Co Founder of Ohaio Genetics | All In podcast. 

Fabian Hedin | Co Founder and CTO of Loveable | He created an application called “Loveable” to teach kids how to build web applications. I (Val Marketing | Sole proprietor ) sampled “Loveable” to build an application that will align job seekers education and skills with the right continuing education program. skill-pathfinder-15.lovable.app

Lin Qiao |CEO & Co Founder Fireworks | AI Build Customize to Scale |

“Vertical Sass may be replaced by AI. This is a concern in the industry. On the positive side these tools will help make the industry more productive.”

Lin Qiao

Product fit doesn’t necessarily mean viable business.

Michele Catasta | President & Head of AI |Replit | The most anonymous agent for full stack developers. This application targets non-technical users. https://replit.com

“These tools are going to allow for autonomy and multiply workflow for developers.”

Michele catasta

Taylor Mullen | Creator of Gemini CLI | View what it’s like to build a prompt in Gemini AI.

Francis DeSouza | COO Google Cloud | The priority for startups is the capability of the models to create a rock solid infrastructure.

David Thacker | VP of Product Deep Mind | The Vertex platform has created a competitive landscape.

Mark Lohmeyer | VP & GM Compute & AI Infrastructure Google Cloud | The challenge is in how efficiently these tools can be delivered to developers.

Paige Bailey | AI Developer Experience Engineer, Google DeepMind | From prompt to production with AI Studio and Google Cloud | Recently incorporated Nano Banana into AI Studio.

Mowry, Darren. VP of Global Startups, Google Cloud. Sept. 19, 2025. https://nanobanana.ai

Friedberg, David. CEO, Co Founder of Chaio Genetics. Sept. 19, 2025.

Qiao, Lin. CEO & Co Founder Fireworks. Sept. 19, 2025.

Catasta, Michele. President & Head of AI, Replit. Sept. 19, 2025. https://replit.com

Mullen, Taylor. Creator of Gemini CLI. Sept. 19, 2025.

DeSouza, Francis. COO Google Cloud. Sept. 19, 2025.

Lohmeyer, Mark. VP & GM Compute & AI Infrastructure Google Cloud. Sept. 19, 2025.

Bailey, Paige. AI Developer Experience Engineer. Google DeepMind. From prompt to production with AI Studio and Google Cloud. Sept. 19, 2025.

Wordcamp USA 2025

A Win for Education

The opening keynote with Matt Mullenwegg introduces WordPress Campus connect. This is where universities are doing an opt in and in some cases requirement to complete a Wordcamp event.

Plugins

Plugin submissions have doubled year after year.

AI

AI versions include Playwright and Perplexity. Import from Chrome, includes a chatbot. An amazing tool for usability testing.

How have contributors changed the world? With Automatic how does the founder see the future in ten years?

  • Being Open source at the core.
  • Gutenberg contributions
  • Multi product
  • Speed of iterations
  • Customer service and tech support

Cultural and product fundamentals are what he is most proud of.

Mullenwegg, Matt. Wordcamp USA 2025. CEO, Automattic. Director, WordPress Foundation. Principal, Audrey Capital. September 3, 2025.

Grand Opening | Guthrie Arts Center’s Unique Art Collection

Artwork is available for sale at the Grand opening of Guthrie Arts Center. The grand opening on July 12th, 6-9 p.m. includes live music, studio tours, a silent art auction, class previews, with snacks and refreshments. The address is 316 S. Division.

Two completed paintings have been added to my collection. These are historical paintings of The Guthrie Territorial Museum and The Pollard Bed & Breakfast | Pollard Theatre. Don’t miss your chance to purchase!

If historical paintings aren’t your style, then consider the modern prints. https://www.valmedia.net/illustrations-for-sale

Boxcar Bakery & Sandwich in Guthrie, Oklahoma continues to show the rest of the historical building paintings. This artwork can also be ordered on my website at https://www.valmedia.net/paintings-for-sale.