Hi, I'm Derek — UX designer, researcher, and strategist. Trained in anthropology and driven to create transformative experiences.

Derek Whitaker

I'm a designer with roots in the social sciences—an anthropologist by training who found a natural home in UX and product strategy. I believe good work requires understanding people deeply: their contexts, motivations, and unspoken needs. My practice moves fluidly between research, design, and business thinking, seeking after what's both meaningful and well-made.

About

Recent Work

Streamlining Defense Funding Requests

Transformed a struggling email-based funding process into a unified digital tool now used by 20+ Department of Defense agencies.

Building an Immersive Decision-Making Environment

Designed an intentionally analog space that helped senior Navy leadership make sense of complexity and act decisively.

Surfacing Insights and Recommendations for Wartime Readiness

Directed discovery and design for an MVP knowledge management platform unifying siloed information across 30+ Navy acquisition organizations.

Dwelling in Monastic Space

Dwelling in Monastic Space

Conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Colombian and French monasteries, exploring how inhabiting silence shapes identity and experience.

See all work