Hi! I'm Duncan

I worked at CommentSold as Design Manager & Principle Product Designer. I led product design at CommentSold and managed an international team (India, China, USA) of five designers and contractors reporting to the Director of Product.

• As Design Manager I was responsible for managing designer assignments and resourcing for all development and product teams (India, China, USA). I also hired all product/UX designers, planned and ran design meetings & continued education/mentoring, weekly 1:1’s, and all review cycles.
• As Design Manager, I collaborated with senior and JR designers to ensure that their work aligned with CommentSold business goals while retaining a high UI/UX standard
• As Design Manager I was responsible for creating reports and status updates around team productivity, accuracy, and the overall performance and impact of the design team for review by executive leadership.
• As Principle Product Designer I worked with leadership to define, conceptualize, and design the next generation of CommentSold products including: AI integration (clip & caption creation), Short-form video clips, next-gen comment selling, virtual dressing rooms, internationalization, fulfillment and inventory management 2.0, and experimental video/streaming technologies.
• As Principle Product Designer I managed the CommentSold design language and design system (CRISP). This included iterative updates and feedback cycles, accessibility, and design system management across the company. including - Figma templates/guidelines, design documentation, product branding, and asset management.
• As Principle Product Designer I led designer for the integration of PopShopLive into the CommentSold ecosystem. This included the merging of UX/UI patterns and assets, payment, shipping, fulfillment, and live video and streaming technologies into the unified CS platform.
• As Principle Product Designer I led UX research and worked with stakeholders and well as our support and customer growth teams to collect, manage, and validate design requests and user feedback to create iterative improvements to our products. This included, but is not limited to: Surveys, A/B testing, heuristic analysis, and all forms of quantitive and qualitative.

Skykick is an innovator in the IT space - automating and streamlining legacy system and competitor migration to the MS Cloud, as well re-defining IT with their Cloud Manager product and backup solutions. As Senior Product Designer, I worked with stakeholders and customers expand our suite of industry leading cloud migration and IT tools. 


• As a Senior Product Designer I led the design of an extensible and platform wide integrated notification system. The notification was modular and allowed for all Skykick products to communicate and leverage a series templates and scripting tools to execute actions, automations, and commands directly from the notification itself or automatically via API integration.
• As a Senior Product Designer I led the design of our next-gen billing and subscription service and management portal. This allowed clients to build out customized plans for their customers to suit their unique businesses needs. The system was flexible enough to work for smb all the way up to multi-nationals.
• As a Senior Product Designer I worked with technical leads to design the next generation email cloud migration service. This was a unique task that required extensive research and understanding of not only cloud infrastructure, but hardware servers and how users manage and connect the two.
• As a Senior Product Designer I led the design of our next-gen backup service. Much like the migration work, this project was very technically complex while requiring very simple flows and a simple user experience. I designed extensive flows, personas and technical design documentation (error/success states, server interface UI, etc.)

I worked at Xinova as a Senior Product Designer. Xinova is a leading innovation network that leverages 16k innovators to solve some of the hardest R&D problems for big companies including: PepsiCO, The Gates Foundation, and the World Wildlife Fund.
As a senior member of the product team, I worked with executives and other stakeholders to transform the legacy NOVA app (running on SalesForce, it functioned as a complex file dropbox) into a modern React and GO driven platform. As a Senior Designer, I:


• Led the push for user-authored content in the platform - Previously, all content was authored offline as a PDF, which was then published to the site as an Opportunity. I led the initial push and created the designs used to implement a content authoring tool that let internal staff draft, review, edit, and publish Opportunities as html. This led to a 500% increase in opportunities published and took the draft-to-live time down from 3 weeks to 3 days
• Modular workflow engine - Led a push to revise a complex and arduous idea review process as part of modularizing the platform. I was able to redesign the process from twenty-plus stages down to a single modular element called DSRA - Define, Submit, Review, Approve - that could be applied to any review needs within any workflow on the platform
• As part of the modularization of the workflow, I designed a contract system that allowed project owners to control payment dates, draft work orders, negotiate terms, and sign contracts via Docusign based on the requirements of the workflow. Previously, these were drafted offline and wet signed. We were able to reduce complexity (10+pages down to a paragraph addendum per stage) and reduce the roundtrip time from weeks to hours.
• Designed and drove the push for an advanced search and filtering system - The previous platform had a massive database of thousands of patents and associated solutions. I designed a filtering system that functioned as a wrapper around a user need. This allowed us to build everything from single-select dropdown to complex multi-select tools with built in search, locations with making functionality, and calendars. These could used anywhere within the product as needed, and the wrapper allowed devs to quickly modify or build new filters. The UI was designed to be very human-readable at both web and mobile fidelities.
• User research - Due to the size of our user base, I worked with the design team to create a research plan that focused on initial qualitative work with our hardcore users to build limited betas based on feature needs that then allowed us to collect quantitative data after release. Conceived, executed, and moderated user studies focused on innovator, reviewer, and business needs to test the impact and results of the platform redesign. These findings directly impacted product design and direction of future work.

• Drove accessibility and modernization in collaboration with lead front end engineers - This included a responsive redesign of the web platform that included a ground up asset redesign, style guides and complete specs as well as mobile versions of all views. All updated designs now meet modern web standards for accessibility (colors, contrast, fonts & sizing, etc.)

I worked at Level 11 as a UX Designer. By leveraging our Experience Design Engineering platform, we worked with some of the biggest names in the IoT (Internet of Things) space including Disney, Carnival, Philips, and Starbucks. Some of the things I did were: 


• I worked with the University of Washington to design and iterate on the GIX network wall - a matrix of eighteen 4k interactive monitors for showcasing innovative content and designs at the Global Information Campus in Bellevue. I joined the project and worked with our developers to create a clean CMS system and improve the usability of a display technology with it’s unique interaction and experience challenges

• Created user centric design assets, including: user personas, scenarios, stories, journeys, use cases, and flows

• Rapid prototyping - I used industry standard technologies (Principle, JustinMind, Marvel) to conceptualize and create prototypes to sell concepts and pitches to internal and external stakeholders.
• User Experience Researcher - Conceived, executed, and moderated user studies. Generated follow up reports and action plans for clients and internal stakeholders


I worked at Sportsrocket as a Senior Designer. Some of the things I did there:

• Worked with our partners, executives, and business development team to conceptualize new features and solutions to meet client and internal needs through human-centered, data driven designs
• I worked with our Technical PMs to define and implement a consistent design language across our disparate suite of applications. My goal was to improve the user experience and the consistency of our visual design.
• To help our development team implement the new design language with minimal confusion, all visual elements such as buttons, forms, fonts, etc. were consolidated into a streamlined style guide available internally as a webpage. Designers and Developers can now copy elements as code blocks to build out consistent interfaces quickly and accurately.
• The new design model focused on user experience first, and is driven by user research and feedback. As a whole, the design team was more empowered to make educated decisions that help guide the dev team and win over management with results.
• I worked with the National Lacrosse League to design and develop iOS (iPhone and iPad), Apple TV, Roku, and Android apps. Working on a strict two month schedule, the design team and development teams built a feature rich OTT video application from the ground up. 

  The design requirements were very strict: NLL (the publisher) needed all the functionality we offer through our client sites - video and live feed management, advertisements, subscriptions, as well as fully programmable content which includes the navigation system.
• I was responsible for designing the UI and UX as well as the information flow. Work produced included: spec documentation, wireframes, interactive comps, visual and assets design.

I worked at Tyemill as a Senior Designer. Tyemill is a boutique development firm that builds specialized software for their clients. Types of products include: Economics and Investing, Heathcare, and Insurance Dispute software. I started as a junior designer and worked my way up to team lead and senior designer. 


• Worked with our partners to conceptualize new features and prototype projects as well as devise the development plan. This included putting together partner requirements and technical spec documents, development team requirements, load planning and scheduling timelines, and accurately controlling expectations on both sides
• Prototype Lead: Responsible for pitching new projects to the Development and Design teams, including Pitch Decks & Presentations, Wireframes and User Stories, UI and UX designs, etc.
• Designed wonderful user experiences for all levels of technical confidence, including story-driven scenarios, user personas, flows, use patterns, and interactive design.
• Comprehensive understanding of modern application design and how to create a coherent and engaging application that is accessible, intuitive, and exciting to use, all while remaining aware of technical requirements and impact that design has upon the development process.
• Responsible for prototyping applications and new features to various levels of fidelity including: white papers and design proposals, wireframes (interactive and static), design comps, and html/CSS demos.
• As the Lead Visual Artist, I conceptualized, designed and created beautiful and unique UI assets for our applications, as well and other company needs such as promotional/marketing assets.
• Team Management: Played an integral part in the planning, execution, and management of our Internship Program, which doubled the staff every summer.

On a whim I started taking class through Seattle Community College for Professional Game Design. I finished the certification program and was able to get an internship followed by contract work at ArenaNet. Some of the work I did was:

• Created 3D environment and prop art assets for Guild Wars 2 from concept references and photo research.
• Created low and high poly models in Maya, 3DS Max, and ZBrush.
• Created all types of textures: Diffuse (both photo-referenced and hand-painted), Normal, Spec, Shadow, and proprietary engine maps.
• Built and edited shaders and materials for our proprietary game engine.
• Worked with the effects team to develop particle effects and combat animations.
• Designed and edited motion graphic cut scenes and player selection screens.
• Recorded and edited creature and ambient sounds for use in Guild Wars 2 and unreleased projects.

Overall it was a great experience - I met a lot of amazing artists and designers, and I realized that I loved building games more than playing them. Working with the cinamatics and UI teams was my introduction to professional visual and UX design.

Coming out of college having studied History and Experimental Media, I didn't have the luxary of a clearly defined career path. So, like a lot of other young designers, I worked a variety of art and media jobs to gain some direction. What I learned was the type of companies I wanted to work for, and the type of work I didn't enjoy or wasn't great at.

Some of the stuff I did included (but was not limited to)

• Working as a lifeguard and managaging summer beaches in Seattle
• Working for KJR FM classic rock as a promotions and event team member
• Taking product photos of things like shoes at a studio that developed a early AR technology
• Video game tester
• Remixing and editing music for a muzak company
• Web designer building daily promotional mails at a shady home automation company
• Creating content for a hippy art collective that I still don't really know what was for or how they planned to make money
• TONS of freelance work around graphic and visual design

A lot of my thinking around what product design is and how it fits within the ecosystem of a company (at it's core - the bridge between business goals and users acomplishing those goals) was shaped by working for some companies that A) missed the mark and failed and B) approached business and design in a amoral or indifferent attitde when it came to how they treated their users.

I originally intended on majoring in Architecture, but after a year I decided that the program was not a good fit and changed my major to History, with a focus on Late Antiquity. Since I transfered, I was able to double major, and as accepted into DXARTS, a technology focused art and music programthat can be seen as a precursor to the UX program that exists at UW now.

I am a graduate of the Professional Music Program, with a focus on recording studios technologies.

It was a great program, and over the two years I attended, I watch the transition from analog to affordable digital recording. I might be the last generation of audio engineers that was trained on how to calibrate a tape machine!