Alumni Profile: The Creative Journey of Nabintta Blé

Laurie Robinson - September 5, 2025

An InfoSci alum profile

Nabintta Blé, InfoSci '18

As a child, Nabintta Blé would spend her weekends immersed in a unique blend of creativity. Like many kids, she tuned into Saturday morning cartoons. But her afternoons were spent with a different focus: her hands steadily working knitting needles while her eyes studied the culinary artistry on cooking shows. It was an early sign of a mind that enjoys the methodical process of creation—a trait she would only later realize was the foundation of her career as a UX/UI designer.

A 2018 graduate of the University of Maryland College of Information (INFO) with a BS in information science, Blé has carved a successful path in tech. But her journey began with those early interests in food and knitting, which she taught herself without the help of YouTube. “I remember just really trying to learn how to transition from that first row [of knitting],” she recalls. “I was really determined to figure out how to get there.”

That determination carried her into a field where she could continue to hone her creative skills in a way she never thought possible. “I never thought of myself as a very creative person. I can’t draw that well,” Blé admits. “But I’ve always wanted to flex my creative muscles. I love fashion. I love watching architecture videos. I love anything that has to do with good design.”

Her professional journey began after graduation when she landed a job at a Washington, DC think tank as a front-end web developer. After a few years, she pivoted to focus specifically on UX/UI design, taking a role as a consultant at Deloitte before moving to her current position at JDSAT Inc., a data science and operations research company.

At JDSAT, Blé is the sole UX designer on a dynamic team. “We have business analysts, project managers, and developers. We have a lot of communication within the team and then we put our heads down to either design some wireframes or mockups for new tools.”

A significant shift in her work, and the industry as a whole, is the integration of artificial intelligence. While initially apprehensive, she now sees its value. “Especially with Vibe coding becoming a new thing, there’s a lot more tools that are developed for UI/UX designers to dive deeper into,” she explains. “It just kind of gets the gist of it of what you’re trying to create. I’m not too afraid of incorporating it into my daily workflow.”

Blé’s interest in this blend of technology and psychology was sparked at INFO. She recalls a course on information architecture that showed her how to organize information within a website efficiently. “Once I learned that and then got introduced into the field of UI/UX, I was like, ‘OK, this is kind of perfect.’” She credits professors like Susan Winter for instilling a real-world problem-solving mindset that has been crucial to her career. “She really believed that being able to solve the problems once you’re out there in the real world is what matters.”

Now, working primarily on government projects, Blé faces a challenge: balancing creativity with clarity. “I can’t add as much fluff and colors and design,” she says. The reward is in clean, minimalistic design that tells a clear story with data. “It’s still a creative muscle to flex because you do have to be clear, concise, and just simplistic.”

Reflecting on her path, she offers advice to students: focus on soft skills. “Being able [to be] that middleman between a developer and the business end of a company” is critical, especially in remote or hybrid environments. Most importantly, she advises patience. “You shouldn’t necessarily feel like there’s a race to getting to your dream job.”

For Blé, the thread connecting her childhood to her career is now clear. The patience and precision required to knit a blanket or perfect a recipe are the same skills that help her design intuitive user experiences. She has found a career that doesn’t feel like work. “I love my job. I love trying to figure out new ways to design things.”