Tory presenting an introduction to UX and UI design at a Knights Design Interactive workshop

Workshops & talks.

Sharing my love for UX with students and teams across my University.

The first workshop in KDI’s five-part UX curriculum, a semester-long program guiding UCF students through the end-to-end design process to build complete portfolio case studies and prepare for UX roles. I led the opening workshop on identifying and scoping a problem space, then using competitive research to uncover gaps in existing solutions.

I planned and led this workshop as part of Knights Design Interactive’s semester-long UX project program at UCF. Building on their research, students explored ideas through Crazy 8s, chose a direction with their teams, and mapped how someone would complete a task in their app. I also explained the importance of defining information architecture early on.

I originally gave this talk to web developers at UCF’s Center for Distributed Learning, who build digital tools for students and faculty across the university, and was later invited to share it with students at UCF. In both sessions, I explored three foundational UX principles and how they can be applied to everyday product decisions to create more intuitive, human-centered software.

A Figma workshop for UCF’s software engineering club, co-led with (the amazing!!) Workshop Director Thashin Bhuiyan. We opened with the UX process and where Figma sits in building a product, then got everyone signed up for Figma’s free education plan on their school accounts. From there the whole room built along in real time, so every student left with a first mockup of their own.

Tory walking through the Figma overview slide
Students following along on their laptops
A student building their first mockup in Figma
Tory demoing a Chickpea screen in Figma

The first episode of Ananya Thukral’s podcast about getting into UX. We talk through the applications that went nowhere, what I changed in my portfolio and my process, and how the Microsoft design internship finally came together.

Worksheets

I design follow-along templates to make my workshops more interactive. I love seeing people leave with something they made!

The printed Mapping the User Flow worksheet and shapes reference on a deskFollow along templates Figma kits A filled-in Crazy 8s worksheet, pen in handDesign exercises

Community

Tory presenting the What do your users need activity
Students sketching at table seven
Poster for the Portfolio-ready UI/UX Projects program: 5 design phases, 5 workshops, 1 resume-ready case study
A team talking through their ideas
Tory with the KDI workshop group
UI/UX Project Program workshop leads: illustrated portraits of Tory Deutsch and Thashin Bhuiyan
Tory presenting the What do your users need activity
Students sketching at table seven
Poster for the Portfolio-ready UI/UX Projects program: 5 design phases, 5 workshops, 1 resume-ready case study
A team talking through their ideas
Tory with the KDI workshop group
UI/UX Project Program workshop leads: illustrated portraits of Tory Deutsch and Thashin Bhuiyan
Tory presenting the What do your users need activity
Students sketching at table seven
Poster for the Portfolio-ready UI/UX Projects program: 5 design phases, 5 workshops, 1 resume-ready case study
A team talking through their ideas
Tory with the KDI workshop group
UI/UX Project Program workshop leads: illustrated portraits of Tory Deutsch and Thashin Bhuiyan

I’m lucky to work alongside the founding team at Knights Design Interactive, who help bring these workshops at my university to life. Their time and effort have helped build a growing UX community, and it’s with all of them that this has become possible. I’m grateful to be part of it :)