Let’s connect!

Email me at cborgendale (at) gmail.com

Hello! I’m Colleen.

As an explorer, lifelong learner, and problem solver, my desire to improve people’s lives has guided me on this life journey and led me to the world of user-centered design. I’m a Minneapolis-based user experience strategist, researcher, and designer.

My path started on my family’s dairy farm in rural Minnesota before studying history at university. Through my studies, I honed my research and analysis skills and gained experience interviewing farmers through directed-storytelling internships. After graduating, my studies continued with two years of graphic design schooling and learning to improve the visual design of print and web pieces to meet the end-user and business goals. A short stint as a project manager demonstrated the user impact of poorly managed projects. For 10+ years, my professional life centered around creating more just and fair agriculture and trade systems to improve the lives of farmers, farmworkers, and the environment. The organization’s target audience and goals were front of mind as I designed print and web pieces, strategized messaging, and managed our team’s projects. Studying user-experience design at Prime Digital Academy was the natural culmination of these experiences. Since 2022, I’ve led the user experience strategy, research, and design for a Wisconsin-based rural health system, improving the digital experiences for their diverse and complex customer base before pivoting my focus to their health insurance plan’s various digital products and platforms that serve the needs of members, providers, brokers, and employers.

Outside of work, I stay busy traveling and hiking, working on my 100+ year old duplex, singing backup in the band, Bev (formerly Niki Becker), baking, running and biking the trails of Minneapolis, teaching myself new skills, reading, gardening, and talking about my cat, Coco.