aol.com

My role: Design System Lead

AOL was rebuilding its web experience for a July launch. I joined in March as Design System Lead, with two jobs: ship the redesigned site, and build the design system it would ship on.

The problem wasn't design quality. It was that design, PM, and engineering had no shared language, so every handoff started as a fresh negotiation.

So I scoped the system as an MVP, not a complete architecture — a primitive token layer first, semantic coverage where the launch demanded it, 150+ modules on top, everything else sequenced into a roadmap. That meant trading visual freedom for tokens engineering could enforce.

Component delivery went from over a week to two or three days. The system covered more than 80% of surfaces, and the site launched on time.

As the design lead on the Retail Design System, I’ve worked 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 redefined 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 was 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 rationalized 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.

Carta Design System — Ink

Carta was rebranding, and the constraint wasn't visual. The existing system had no semantic layer to rebrand against — color was applied straight from a palette, so changing the brand meant touching every surface that used it.

I architected Ink's color system in four tiers: primitives (the raw scale), foundation (brand accents and status colors), core (backgrounds, content, lines), and product semantics. The tier that does the work is foundation. It sits between the raw palette and everything downstream, so changing it re-resolves core and product semantics against a new brand without a single component changing.

The product semantics tier is where the domain lives. On an equity platform, status_Tier 1 through 7 encode where a security sits in its lifecycle, and info_Positive / info_Attention carry financial meaning rather than decoration. Getting those names wrong isn't a style problem.

Typography
Role-based, not size-based. Display, heading, paragraph, and legal tiers — each with documented usage rules and link/hover variants. Designers choose the role; the scale resolves the value. That distinction is what keeps a type system stable when the brand moves.

Accessibility
I validated the brand palette under monochromacy, tritanopia, and deuteranopia before locking it. On a product where color signals financial state, a palette that collapses under color blindness is a functional failure, not a cosmetic one.

Sequencing
Nine months, no delivery freeze. I phased the migration deliberately: color semantics first, then type and iconography, then grid and spacing, then page patterns. Color, type, the navigation system, and the redesigned UI shipped during my time on the team. The later phases were sequenced and documented for the teams continuing the rollout.

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