Designing With the Why: Curiosity, Creativity, and Slow Sundays

"My path into a design career was quite linear compared to some. I knew what I wanted to study from the age of sixteen, when I found a book on graphic design on my mum's shelf. She's a sculptor, and our house was full of books on art."

She studied Visual Communication and fell in love with typography — with how humans read the world through visual cues. As the surfaces she designed for shifted from print to screen, so did she. Motion, events, exhibitions, branding, digital, UX… And then, during lockdown in 2021, a master's in user experience design.

"Pursuing a masters wasn't about getting a piece of paper. It was part of my commitment to constant learning and being the kind of designer who digs deep into the why. Once you think that way, you never stop. Which is why Udemy made sense; a company built entirely on that same principle."

Slow Sundays and gratitude lists

Hanah is a morning person, but the morning she loves most is Sunday.

"Sunday is the only day that doesn't expect anything from you."

Her ritual: get back into bed with her coffee, put on her Sundays playlist, and read. With no agenda or productivity expected.

"I think I need that permission to not be 'on' more than I realise."

Alongside the slow mornings, there's a daily practice that's been running for years: gratitude lists. What lands on them varies wildly. Sometimes it's the blueberries she had on her breakfast, sometimes it's having a safe home, or her health. The range makes her laugh.

"After years of this practice, gratitude has become my baseline. It doesn't erase your daily struggles, but it recalibrates your perspective. And perspective is everything."

Explaining design to a six-year-old

Hanah is a Senior Product Designer at Udemy, but the title has never quite captured how she thinks about the work.

"I have always thought of myself, and design as a whole, as problem solving. I'm someone who uses creativity, systems thinking and visual language to solve problems."

She recently had to explain her job to her six-year-old cousin.

"I told her: I use words, pictures, and colours to arrange ideas so that people understand them easier. When you explain things to kids it really forces you to get to the essence of it."