About — Dereck E. Villagrana

Bio

I'm a designer born and raised in San Jose, California but now currently located in Manteca, California.

For almost three years now, I've been working towards designing products people can enjoy, find easy to use, and products that can curate engaging human-product experiences. My journey has not been an easy one, but through every step of the process, I've remained passionate, driven, and even excited to better my understanding of human-product interaction so I can create more intuitive and meaningful designs. There is still so much more to learn and explore.

Growing up, my family didn't have much, but what we did have was ourselves, our friends and our community. I learned the importance of what it means to be a part of a community, a team, a family. We help and care for each other. That is a lesson

Education

University of California, Davis

College of Letters & Science

Bachelor of Arts, Design — Honors

De Anza College

Graphic and Interactive Design

Associate in Arts, Transfer Degree, Graphic Design — Honors

How I got into Design

The road to becoming a designer was a bumpy one. Growing up, I always had a strong interest in computers, specifically in how they work and what you can do with them. One day, mi papá brought home a small Dell laptop, and I remember sitting at the kitchen table night after night, playing around with the settings, updating drivers and BIOS, and even taking it apart and reassembling it repeatedly (about 20 times). From there, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in computer science or something adjacent.

From middle school to community college, I completed computer science courses, learning languages like HTML, CSS, Python, and C++. However, it didn't feel right to me; something was missing. It felt like I was heading in the wrong direction, and I wasn't happy. Over time, I developed a hobby of working with Adobe Photoshop to create digital art. Not to toot my own horn, but I was pretty good at it. So, I continued to follow this hobby and took elective courses in Photography and Graphic Design, where I learned how to properly use Adobe CC to create essentially whatever I wanted.

I continued down the path of computer science, slowly falling out of love with it until I came to terms with myself and realized it was not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I changed majors, took more design classes, and found that I was happy. I got my associate degree in Design and transferred to the design program at UC Davis (my dream school). The final turning point was when I took a class in UI/UX design, and everything clicked. It was the perfect combination of digital art, front-end coding, systematic thinking, advanced level of detail and research, and solving real-world problems. I fell in love, and I've been passionate about it ever since.

My Strengths

As a generalist by nature, I found my way into product design because it enables me to explore my interests in creativity, computers, digital media, and psychology. Along the way I've handled problems in different areas such as , productivity, entertainment and social.

With my background being in Computer Science, I've developed a sort of systematic, logical and computational way of thinking. With a combined 4+ years of Design, Comp Sci, and user needs, I am passionate about creating purposeful designs driven by research and insights rather than personal preferences.

What I do outside of work

When I'm not working or designing you can still find me at my desk playing some video games or watching movies with friends.

I also love going to the park nearby and kicking around the soccer ball, reminiscing about the days where I used to play competitively LOL.

You can also find me over hunched over the cooking stove. I recently have gotten into working meals that are outside my culture, just as a fun challenge! (YouTube and cook books have been a life saver).