About Me

My story starts like so many others. I moved to New York City from a small, rural town to pursue acting, arriving in a rental car with all my essential worldly possessions and $2000 in my pocket. I had 2 weeks to find a job and an apartment before the money ran out.

I found an apartment in Queens and a job at an internet start-up that changed everything. What began as a way to pay the bills became a passion for user experience that has shaped my career for over two decades.

UX Solopreneur

On September 10, 2001 (the day before 9/11) I founded Shannon Brown Web Design, LLC, a boutique UX design and development agency. I spent 15 years designing digital experiences for clients ranging from small, independent businesses to recognizable brands like NBCUniversal, Pearson Learning, Bloomberg, Equinox Fitness, AOL, and Edelman.

Running my own business taught me that the most powerful design emerges from deeply listening to what people need, and working to exceed their expectations.

Data & Analytics

In 2014, I pivoted into data and analytics, joining Lancet Data Science (later acquired by Teradata). At Teradata, I worked with Fortune 500 companies including Procter & Gamble, eBay, Prudential, McCain Foods, and Centene, designing business intelligence dashboards that transformed complex data into actionable insights.

Driving UX Strategy at Centene

Currently, I'm a Principal UX Designer at Centene, a Fortune 500 company and one of the nation's largest healthcare corporation.

My work runs the gamut from driving BI strategy, to creating tools that make our employees more efficient, to establishing a design system that scales across hundreds of dashboards. In this role, I have:

  • Designed an in-house app that eliminated a third-party tool, resulting in $80M in savings.

  • Developed a BI Design System that reduces the time to build Centene-branded Power BI dashboards by 60-75%.

  • Created of a UX Community of Practice and coached other team members on UX processes that results in $1M in savings annually by reducing the need for external UX headcount.

  • Led the implementation of customer satisfaction surveys to continuously improve our dashboard inventory.

Life Design

Here's what I've discovered: the same principles that make great user experiences—empathy, iteration, and human-centered design—can transform entire lives.

That's why I'm developing a coaching program that applies UX strategy and design thinking to life itself. Just as I help organizations design better digital experiences, I'm passionate about helping individuals design lives filled with more joy, purpose, and fulfillment.

Whether I'm designing for Fortune 500 companies or helping someone redesign their career, the approach is the same: start with empathy, embrace experimentation, and trust the process.