JOHN GRAY: UX/UI/VISUAL DESIGN
Work
Goji Smartlock
UX design, interaction design, visual design
The Goji Smartlock is a unique take on the traditional deadbolt. It couples many of the great hardware advancements seen in smartphones into a lock. Incorporating a screen, camera, gyro sensors, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth this product was wide open to innovate around. A user centered approach was followed while keeping in mind practical limitations like battery life.
My role on this product involved working with mobile app, server, and firmware teams to make a complex product work effortlessly. Continue reading more about the process involved bringing this product to life.
AwardEx App
Interaction design and visual design
AwardEx is an app that consolidates various flight and credit card reward programs to find free flights for users in one place. Simply search for your desired trip and get results from all the major reward programs. Even if a user isn't enrolled in one of the reward programs for a flight, the app can guide users on how to book the itinerary by converting or buying rewards.
This project involved several design iterations based on changing business goals and leveraged rapid prototyping to evaluate and test before coming to a final design for development. Some of the biggest challenges were the complexities of information needed for flight travel and fitting the many choices onto users' phone screens.
Biba
Senior Product Designer
Biba is about improving communications in the modern workplace. The Biba apps for iPhone, Android, and desktop were designed to solve real pain points at work, like getting meetings started on time.
The design process set out to create a minimum viable product approach around voice communication during meetings with an app-first approach. We quickly incorporated new features like text and room chats to empower our users with instant communication and idea sharing. In addition to the apps, a large component involved designing the web based admin UI for managers and business owners. Click to see more about this project.
Hotwire
Senior Product Designer
Hotwire has succeeded by offering discount travel with an opaque business model. Their process evolved to include user research, A/B testing on the live web site, and prototype testing. These techniques allowed us to ensure more conversions on both traditional web site and across mobile platforms. My time at Hotwire was spent as a hybrid UI and Visual Designer on both site and mobile products. I worked across all products from hotel, car rentals, and air travel as well as for sub-companies such as Travel Ticker.
Smartbotics
UX/UI/VD Branding, Marketing
The Robosmart LED Smart Lights were designed to be controlled from Bluetooth devices directly, without the need for hubs or other proprietary technologies that predominate the industry. Each bulb can be directly controlled or controlled in groups using an app for iOS or Android. My responsibilities for this project included design of iOS and Android apps to control smart lights and smart outlets, company branding, and marketing materials for the products. Click to see more about this project.
If you'd like to see much older examples of work you can still visit my Flash based site at http://grayareasf.com/
SWYP Smart Card
UX app and device, interaction design, visual design, graphic design
SWYP takes many of the cards in your wallet and consolidates them into one smart card. The Bluetooth enabled card is managed by a phone app. The card itslef sports a flexible eInk display, three buttons, and a reprogramable magnetic stripe. Simply use the buttons to select the desired card and the relevant information updates on the card's display.
For this product, I focused first on the app user experience and design, then followed with the UX for the card itself. In the process of bringing this to market, I ended up designing the graphics on the front and back of the product, the packaging, manuals, marketing assets, 3D renderings, the app design (iOS and Android), functional prototypes, and the card UX.