data-driven design
is my passion.
Therefore, I stop at nothing in pursuit of achieving it. I strive to make sure that the results I deliver are not just complete high quality products, but also innovative, research-based solutions that can assure return on investment for my partners.
My work
I’m fortunate to have worked as a full-time UX Designer in an enterprise setting, and also as an independent consultant (Forte Mente LLC) with partners who are diverse and sophisticated. I enjoy working with these teams as much as they enjoy the products I’ve designed for them. Here are some samples of the work that I am proud of and most noteworthy.
How I Do It
Above all, your company needs a digital strategy and solution to support its business goals. What exactly will these digital strategies and solutions do for your company? What will they do for your customers? Who will they support? How will they look?
These are just a few of the questions that I will certainly get the answers to through focused research and data-based digital strategies. I’ll then design, build, and test the digital solutions to ensure that they are meeting your business’s needs.
Research
I care about the success of my partners, which depends on their awareness of competitive products, and user needs & desires. That is why I conduct focused product and user research to bring this information to light and build solid strategies around it.
STRATEGY
I establish research-based strategies for implementation into current business operations to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Above all, this translates to increased revenue and greater levels of employee and customer retention.
Design & Dev
There are few things more exciting than seeing a product come to life during design and development. Likewise, I design seamless solutions for my partners and collaborate continuously with development teams to ensure products are being in alignment with user and business needs.
I am the Director of Chicago Standdown, an organization which has been active for 20+ years. We were in need of a redesign and redelivery of our website. Our experience with Forte Mente has been exceptional. They transformed our online presence and website utility far beyond our expectations. From comparator research, to conceptualization, to interaction and visual design, branding, and building the website in WordPress, Forte Mente did it all. Also noteworthy was their response time to emails and phone calls, and their ability to translate our ideas into action. I would highly recommend this company for your digital needs!
I hired Gabe with Forte Mente to give me a hand with conducting a usability evaluation of an eCommerce site. We needed some professional feedback on opportunities for improving our conversion rate. He put together a detailed report identifying areas requiring attention, and provided solid recommendations for improvement. He left us with the exact info we needed to boost our sales. Thanks Forte!
I am the the Founder and President of New Era Veterans of Chicago, an organization that provides support to US military war veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’re a relatively new organization and we needed a website built from the ground up. We were referred to Gabe with Forte Mente LLC. He immediately took ownership of the project and presented website concepts to us, allowing us the opportunity give feedback so that he could begin building our website. Gabe generated nearly all of the text content that is on the website, and graphically treated all of the images to make them just right for our needs. He then built a clean and intuitive website that we use to publish information about our organization and events. He also built us an online donation terminal that has since proven effective at gaining donations from the organization’s supporters. I recommend Forte for your website work!
I am the Founder and CEO of an educational consultancy in Chicago. We had Gabe with Forte Mente conduct summative research related to an initial service offering that we planned on making available to our customers. He conducted interviews with potential users of our service, developed and distributed a nationwide survey, crafted a detailed competitive analysis, and generated an extensive, formal research report outlining findings and making recommendations for next steps. His work was just what we needed for gaining more clear direction on the details of the new service we would render.