Portfolio
Sometimes the work just needs to speak for itself, so here are some choice selections from previous projects. Be sure to read the case studies to get a deep understanding of my workflow, what I do, and how I do it.
Amazon AWS, Developer Experience
The AWS Developer Experience org is responsible for building AWS's no-code & low-code application solutions, including the evolution of AWS Honeycode to AWS App Studio.
Dates:
November 2021 – March 2023
Title:
Manager of UX Design & Research
Responsibilities:
As the Manager of UX Design & Research at AWS Developer Experience, I was responsible for building and managing a large team of creative individuals who built solutions in the low-code/no-code space across 3 different AWS products and a Design System team. This work lead to the release of the AWS App Studio, AWS's first generative AI application solution—much of which I personally designed from its conceptualization to its early release. I led a team of 30+ UX Designers, UX Researchers, Design Technologists, Visual Designers, Creative Directors, UX Program Managers, and other UX Managers.
Tech Used:
Figma, Illustrator, UX Design, UX Research, Design Systems, Low code / No code
I lead the Design & Research team tasked with evolving the AWS Honeycode no-code/low-code offering. What started under the code name "Sequoia" became AWS App Studio — AWS's first generative AI application building tool. The product has evolved quite a lot since I left the project, but the following are the early concepts that I oversaw and helped design.
Initial dashboard screen showing overall aesthetics and calls to action. I designed the initial low-fi and mid-fi screens to which the Design Systems team applied the final aesthetics.
This screen shows the workflow and automation building tool. I designed the initial low-fi and mid-fi screens to which the Design Systems team applied the final aesthetics.
This screen shows the drag-n-drop form building tool that allowed users to build custom forms powered by a logic engine underneath the hood. I designed the design patterns and initial low-fi and mid-fi screens to which the Design Systems team applied the final aesthetics.
The table editor tool allowed users to visualize tabular data based on SQL queries and simple data filters.
Every app built in this tool required a lifecycle management experience that included testing and promotions to higher environments.
In order to build 3 different applications within the Developer Experience organization we needed to design and build a common design system from which the Designers across all products could pull common patterns. The Design System, called "Hexagon", was built in Figma, managed by a Designs Systems team that reported to me, and comprised of a team of Design System engineers, UX designers, and visual designers. Hexagon is still used with AWS App Studio to this day.
Another of the UX Design & Research teams I led at AWS as codenamed "Yellowstone". I led this product from its earliest conception through to the PRFAQ stage. Yellowstone was a table-based productivity tool for building web-based applications.
Part of the PRFAQ process at Amazon includes the creation of potential marketing pages, like this one, that capture the core concepts and general aesthetic of the planned product. I drove the requirements process for this page and oversaw the final aesthetics and branding efforts.
A simple account creation screen carried the fun and playful aesthetic into the account creation process and set the tone for the onboarding experience.
This concept captures the core concept of Yellowstone: A smart-table based application that facilitated easy data and workflow management.
Yellowstone included multiple views on top of the underlying data, like this Kanban view. The Kanban view also hints at the underlying workflow logic and includes a success message.
Amazon
Amazon is, quite simply, changing the world. Their mission is to be "earth's most customer-centric company." What better place to be for a customer-obsessed user experience builder like yours truly?
Dates:
July 2020 – November 2021
Title:
Manager/Lead User Experience Designer
Responsibilities:
As the Manager/Lead User Experience Designer for the Tax team at Amazon, I built and led the team of talented UX Designers and UX Researchers charged with designing the tools and experiences used to keep Amazon in compliance with all the tax codes and laws across all of the countries of the world in which Amazon does business. That's a lot of countries and a lot of codes! Extreme complexity and an extremely high (no mistakes!) bar for accuracy doesn't require an equally complex set of user experiences, however. My job was to create elegant, intuitive, simple, and efficient applications powered by good processes and even better design. My innovations in this role lead to being listed as Lead Inventor on this org's first patent (US 11,435,871 B1).
Tech Used:
Sketch, Illustrator, Usability Testing, User Task Analysis, Persona Development, Testing, Data Analysis, Finance
The PANDA extract, transform, load (ETL) tool, which I designed from concept to execution, earned a patent for its unique approach to data flow management that provided intuitive, easy-to-use tools to assemble transformation nodes with features like intelligent guidance, grid-snap, forcing functions, and auto-connectors.
This screen shows some of the intuitive patterns I designed for transformation node configuration.
