I’m a Design Director at Brava, Inc. I design creatively-efficient and immersive products for startups and small companies.
Read more >>
 

Scroll for More

 

UX Design

Research, user interviews, user stories, journey-mapping, and low-fidelity mockups.

UI Design

Wireframes, graphic design, and style guides.

Rapid Prototyping

Animated, interactive, and high-fidelity prototypes.

Front-End Development

Development and implementation of user interfaces.

 

Optimizing User Engagement on Device

I researched and designed a brand-new user interface to accommodate changes in the product business model. Key metrics such as content discoverability, quality ratings, and the product’s net promoter score were all improved due to this effort.

Role
  • Product Research
  • Information Architecture
  • Visual Design
  • Rapid Prototyping
 
Challenges

Meal kits, a vital component of Brava’s product offerings, were considered too expensive by most users, despite rating their experience favorably. Because of the way Brava cooks with varying temperatures and multiple zones, this presented numerous challenges to the setup process. For one, the meal kits included fully prepared and measured ingredients, full-color instructions with photos, and bespoke “programs” which cook the food automatically. As a result, we received numerous calls about burnt or underdone food, primarily from users unaware they were doing anything wrong. Some recipe instructions were on the website, some were on the app, and others were only on the Brava’s screen. Navigating these multiple, inoperable formats added to customer confusion; however, it provided a unique perspective into what media resonated with users in the short term.

Process

Food cooks much differently in the Brava compared to other appliances. After release, I researched the most commonly cooked foods and common preparation issues. If food was too large, it might be too close to the heating elements, which could cause burning. We quickly devised several methods to instruct users on the “maximum height” of foods. Additionally, the culinary team took photos of the final tray arrangements before cooking.

Behind the scenes, I also quickly revised our database structure around a single format. I aimed to reduce the number of variables and provide a consistent, understandable foundation for scalability. The revised database allowed us to leverage features on all platforms, then hide or show only applicable information in context.

Brava on countertop
Favorites

On-Device Recipe Instructions

Protein Preparation Flow

Time-Lapsed Cooking

"I love that Brava loves us so much that they keep making it better and better. I don't feel like a beta tester anymore. I feel like an owner of a magic machine."

-Product Review

Results

These changes made a quick, noticeable impact on early product reception. The product’s net promoter score improved, and we saw more positive press on the news and social media.

Brava reviews on social media
 

User-Generated Content System

As users became more familiar with the product, I found several helpful anecdotes from the community and Brava’s culinary team. In short, users wanted a way to sequence or pre-program commonly used functions on the device, like a macro. They wanted more personalization options. Using this information, I quickly iterated on a minimum viable product called Custom Cooks that could fulfill several use cases while touching the fewest components.

Role
  • Product Research
  • Visual Design
  • Rapid Prototyping
  • Platform Architecture
 
Challenges

The project was limited to on-device interaction only. Experientially, the initial release was only accessible to more patient users, as the touchscreen was not an ideal method for typing instructions or any form of text input. On the plus side, these constraints meant we focused on only the most essential features: creating, modifying, and sequencing recipe programs to share with other users via a nine-character key.

Process

I utilized as much of the existing design system as possible for this feature, maintaining the lower tab structure for setup purposes. We extrapolated the core functions of the Brava into modular components, then sequenced them in a JSON script. Users could customize any preset of the Brava to their liking, then add instructions. The Brava would run this program in order, stopping if the user needs to stir or flip foods.

Results

We have improved the system to add many new features, such as app and web support. Over 20,000 such recipes have been created, shared, and cooked by our users since launch. A small percentage of highly-motivated users helped guide new customers along the way. Sharing user-made content was vital to the feature's success because it allowed users to see how the programs worked, almost like viewing source code.

 

Procedurally-Generated Content System

I researched and designed a procedural generation method utilizing a new database architecture to produce content at a rapid pace. We knew we could reuse some programs for a multitude of ingredients with minimal changes to the code. The culinary team grouped like ingredients which we then added to swappable lists called Cookable Sets.

Role
  • Product Research
  • User Interface Design
  • Platform Architecture
  • Rapid Prototyping
 
Challenges

The hierarchy of the existing database proved challenging to build upon. Features initially suited to serve turnkey solutions, like the meal kits, needed rethinking. I also worked on a live product, which meant additional considerations for legacy content and deprecated features. Like with Custom Cooks, I aimed to reuse our existing design paradigms as much as possible.

Process

Working with culinary, QA, and engineering teams, I created a theoretical model of how this new format could work. I then iterated on wireframes, mockups, and prototypes using actual data from the product CMS.

Results

The initial release added more than 7,000 new recipe programs. This feature also led to additional updates simplifying the core recipe format while leveraging procedurally- and user-generated content.

 

Development Tools and Optimization

At Disney, Kiwi, and Jam City, I helped establish more efficient development pipelines through documentation, in-house tools, and automation. These efforts allowed us to dramatically scale our number of concurrent games, allowing live games to run with only a few developers.

Role
  • UI/UX Director
  • Tools Developer
  • Art Production
  • Visual Design
 
Challenges

Early smartphones came in various screen sizes, making broad distribution difficult. In particular, at Kiwi, we often had small teams working to resize assets and animations to fit a range of devices. Further complicating matters were development pipelines – when can designers and artists successfully hand off their work to engineers? Assets required extensive technical prep work to ensure compatibility with the code. Artists would spend hours painstakingly detailing animation properties without guarantees their expectations would translate into the game engine. Human error was also prevalent, given the time investment involved.

Process

I researched every requisite task in the development paths for game sprites, effects animations, and UI layout. I started with the quickest fixes yielding the most significant impact. I learned about Photoshop tools development and scripted a few different automation utilities. Next, I researched our engine’s UI system and determined how we could be more efficient there, too, as designers followed the same treacherous handoff with engineers for their work. I reverse-engineered the games’ UI format and then scripted a utility that converted Photoshop files into this format. The utility evaluated layers individually and extrapolated properties to XML during export.

Results

Artists no longer spent hours manually scaling and renaming files to game- and platform-specific specifications. Engineers now had a consistent and reliable pool of instantly repurposable game assets. The company could launch more, higher-quality games faster. More importantly, our development team, as a whole, could focus on higher-priority tasks.

 

Pitch Project Rapid Prototyping

While at Kiwi, I worked on a pitch project with six other developers. The plan was to make an online-focused strategy game for mobile in Unity. I worked extensively on front-end coding for this project, mainly for the controls, HUD, and UI effects.

Role
  • UI Engineering
  • Visual Design
  • Interaction Design
  • Rapid Prototyping
 
Challenges

The game had a hastened development cycle of only a few months. For many of us on the team, this was our first time using Unity professionally. Being a mobile game, Ballistics was very UI-dependent, which Unity struggled with in earlier versions. Fortunately, we built from the 4.6 version of the engine, which included a beta version of the current Unity UI tools.

Process

We quickly assembled a working multiplayer prototype, which allowed us to hold nightly playtest sessions with the rest of the company. We would interview participants at the end of each session to get feedback on gameplay, controls, visuals, level design, etc. The following morning, the team would discuss the playtest feedback and how to incorporate some of the most common remarks. This process continued day after day for a few weeks, eventually culminating in a public release on Android. We continued playtesting sessions and used the game's built-in chat to interview players directly!

Because we were primarily working with scratch assets, we could make many pivotal game balance and interface changes before devoting too much time to visuals. An initial focus on gameplay also allowed the artists to spend more time in the concept phase of their work.

Results

This project was a great introduction to Unity and led to our eventual acquisition by a larger studio. It was also a quality exercise in building a game from start to finish in a few months.

 

Case Study

Before starting this project, I had observed that fellow instructors inevitably hit a point of writer’s block when preparing their routines. I sought to build a simple app to assist with routine creation.

Role
  • Interaction Design
  • Rapid Prototyping
 
Challenges

Unfortunately, the official site, while filled with information, is a bit of a mess. It’s also not friendly on mobile browsers as it uses (gasp) frames and many other mobile-unfriendly features. Other instructors I had spoken with indicated that whatever methods they used to create and organize their routines were a mess. Word documents scattered around their desktop and various folders, numerous Google docs with confusing names, etc.

Process

Other fitness programs, such as Schwinn Indoor Cycling, have had handy teacher resources, and I wondered how Lagree could benefit from something similar.

Results

The prototypes gave users something tangible, which led to vital feedback I applied to future revisions of this app.

 

Mörkal Komborg Kickstarter Project

From page 5 of the zine:

"Welcome to the longest-running deathmatch in the known universe. Fighters from every corner of every dimension engage one another in combat on these accursed battlegrounds. Mörkal Komborg takes place in the Mörkvärld, a floating castle-island surrounded by the shards of countless realms that it has absorbed."

Role
  • Creative Direction
  • Writing
  • Illustration
 
 

 

Brava t-shirt design
Another Brava t-shirt design
"Cook Complete" Branding
Bravakun
Another Brava t-shirt design
Another Brava t-shirt design