aol.com

As Design System Lead for AOL’s platform rearchitecture, I was brought in to solve a structural problem — design and engineering were moving fast, but not together.

I defined and operationalized a scalable design-to-code infrastructure adopted across 100+ modules, prioritizing enforceable architecture over surface-level consistency. This meant making deliberate trade-offs: reducing visual freedom in favor of tokenized rules that engineering could trust and ship against.

This work reflects system-level thinking — designing not just interfaces, but the infrastructure that enables teams to move faster and ship with confidence.

As the design lead on the Retail Design System, I’ve been working closely with retail stakeholders to identify opportunities for extending the existing Verizon Design System into a retail-specific environment.

Through defining project scope, conducting user research/interviews, ideating & prototyping components/pattern, A/B testing, collaborating with designers and engineerings, I’ve been redefining the design foundation and principles, and creating a guideline for the retail design system elements.

To optimize the existing Verizon Design System for retail, I’m in a process of creating and optimizing components, while considering hardware constraints and specifications. Ensuring accessibility is one of main focus areas during the creative design process, advocating for inclusive experiences across platforms within physical environment.

By fostering open communication with stakeholders and product owners, I’ve been rationalizing design decisions by incorporating valuable insights from UX researchers, A/B testing with selected users, brand guidelines, and accessibility considerations. This approach ensures that every design choice is grounded in data and aligns with the project's objectives and requirements.

As a Senior Design Lead, I oversaw the design system rebrand for Carta, a fintech company providing an ownership and equity management platform. My ultimate goal was to create a visual system that reflected Carta's new brand tone of voice and exterior changes while also identifying the color system, as the company's design system heavily relies on semantic colors to convey their financial products.

Before diving into the design process, I worked with the Director of Design to solidify Carta's design system principles and determine key concepts to implement in the rebrand. From there, I led the design process collaborating closely with marketing and product stakeholders to propose project scope and a visual update plan. This involved an active research and user interview. I also provided design direction for the UI system and new layout design, ensuring that they reflected the new brand tone of voice and enhanced the user experience.

Role: Design Lead

• Rebrand Design Direction/ Design Process Management

• Project Roadmap / Concept Development Direction

• Collaboration with Engineers & Design Technologists

• Figma Operation

• Product Design Template Setup

IBM Works 2017–2019

During this time, I collaborated with various teams on IBM’s business web and mobile products. My responsibilities included developing design solutions, creating a new visual system for a new product, designing components for their CMS system, and revamping existing applications. In order to successfully execute these projects, I needed to have a deep understanding of their new brand system, keep up with ongoing updates, and educate different teams on the right design solutions to align with the new design system.

What I did:

• Senior Designer

• IBM Watson: web visual design system setup

• Application product design

• Digital design directions / UI / web CMS prototype design

• IBM new brand digital design explorations—through web experience, applications, and editorial.

Teams I worked with:

• Brand Center NY

• Design Language

• IBV App

• IBM Watson

• IBM Partners

Project description is included in the screenshot thread.

Courvoisier Website Redesign

courvoisier.com

Overview:
Courvoisier is a brand of cognac owned by Beam Suntory, a subsidiary of Suntory Holdings.

I collaborated with the Havas CX team to meet the client's redesign request for Courvoisier's website. The objective was to establish Courvoisier as a global symbol of luxury and communicate the brand's new world to consumers. This involved refining the content hierarchy and creating page templates using the new global design system and components. My focus was on crafting an effective user experience that delivers the core brand story to users.

My Role:

• Design Lead partnered with account director/ strategy director

• Worked & communicated directly with Courvoisier stakeholders

• Cocktail art direction collaborated with a photographer / CD, photo, and a photo retoucher

• Design process management from concept to final deliverable

• Webpage design / Prototype creation

• Image asset art direction/management collaborating with art buyers

• Design presentation

As part of the Havas creative team appointed by IBM Watson, our mission was to elevate viewer engagement and extend the Grammy's footprint. We achieved this by leveraging IBM Watson to reveal hidden connections between Grammy-nominated artists. Using Watson's analysis of more than 14 million articles and bios on 19,000 Grammy-nominated artists, we discovered interesting and surprising connections.

Our ultimate goal was to help increase fan engagement, which The Recording Academy had been looking to improve in recent years through the use of an IBM Watson-powered solution.

My Role:

• Senior Product Designer

• Collaboration with creative director/UX/content strategists

• User Experience Journey Design / Research

• Product Design:
  - Overall page XD iterations
  - Satellite Module Iterations
  - Personalization Components
  - Onboarding Page Modules
  - UI

• Usability Testing

  
  
  
  

Schmidt Futures Web Redesign

schmidtfutures.com

Context:

I had the opportunity to work on a project for Schmidt Futures, a foundation founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Wendy Schmidt. The foundation aims to bring together talented individuals, support promising ideas through competitions, and equip people with modern tools to scale their impact.

The ask for the project was to fully redesign and launch a new website for Schmidt Futures by December 2021.

The site needs to provide a foundation which can:

• Communicate your mission and related initiatives effectively to your multiple audiences

• Support recruiting exceptional talent

• Provide scalability for the future

My Role:

• Design Lead partnered with ACD UX / Account Director

• Managed a designer during design production

• Design System Creation

• Photography Library Art Direction

• Client Presentation

• Collaboration with Engineering Team

• QA Session