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 a hybrid physical-digital space used by senior Navy leadership to make mission-critical decisions.

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