For startups and product teams
Design leader
for AI products.
Over a decade leading UX and product design on products where trust is the feature. I work across UX strategy, design systems, working prototypes, and motion, and I use AI to take it further than mockups.
Trusted by teams at Pfizer, Verizon, Takeda, and Custom Ink.
What I do
Different surfaces, one job: make complicated things clear enough to trust.
-
Product & UX leadership
Workflow-heavy, regulated products in defense, fintech and healthcare. Research to shipped UI, plus the people around it: mentoring and growing designers, and earning the trust of whoever signs off.
-
Design systems
Systems that keep many products consistent as they scale, and now systems that AI coding agents can build from correctly.
-
Motion & interaction
How a product behaves: states, feedback, and transitions. Specced and built in Rive and code, not described in a meeting and hoped for.
Selected work
High-stakes products, made plain. Then made to move.
-
Design system · Motion · 2026
Sidestep
A design system where everything moves, with the specs and rules that let AI coding agents pick the right component and the right motion.
Concept to a documented, agent-ready design system in under a month.
-
Motion · State-driven character · 2026
Kernel
A product mascot whose five moods are driven by app state, animated in code.
From first sketch to a polished, shipping mascot in under a month.
-
Motion · Interaction states · 2026
Character Select ↗ (opens Contra)
Hover, select, and lock-in states for twelve characters, built as one Rive state machine.
-
Motion · Rive + Blender · 2026
Halloween Hotel
A playable scene: a Blender build running on Rive's GPU canvas, in the browser.
-
Motion · Product UI · Rive
Onboarding Flow ↗ (opens Contra)
A five-screen onboarding flow, from sign-in to a confetti finish, driven by one state machine and view-model data binding.
-
Motion · Character · Rive
Monkey Mascot ↗ (opens Contra)
A character mascot with three trigger-driven behaviors: he waves, eats a banana, or dances.
-
Motion · Micro-interactions · Rive
Icon Grid ↗ (opens Contra)
Nine icons that flip from flat monochrome to full-color illustrations on hover, each with a springy bounce.
-
Case study · Fintech · Agentic AI
The trust layer for an agentic sales system
Interfaces that let sellers see what an AI agent was doing, know which signals to trust, step in where it mattered, and shape the agent over time.
-
Case study · GovTech
ISI Defense: leading v5.0
Led design on v5.0 of a security platform for defense contractors as the sole designer, owning the design system and its clearance-based permissions.
-
Case study · MedTech
Pfizer: a dashboard for medical coverage
Research and UX/UI that made complex insurance information easier to navigate.
-
Case study · LegalTech
Epiq: replacing spreadsheets with a reconciliation platform
Sole UX designer and researcher, turning a spreadsheet-based bankruptcy reconciliation process into a platform for banks and financial institutions.
-
Case study · Fintech
Fora Financial: a leaner template for product pages
Long educational pages turned into a modular, conversion-focused template built to repeat across every funding product.
-
Case study · Design systems
Nursegrid: scaling a design system ↗ (opens Behance)
Reusable patterns and brand consistency for a celebration feature as the product scaled.
-
Case study · PropTech
Tailorbird: unifying a fragmented SaaS platform ↗ (opens Behance)
Led the design of a dashboard that pulled scattered features together for a platform serving 26 of the top 50 real estate owners in the country.
-
Case study · eCommerce
Custom Ink: a shared design language ↗ (opens Behance)
Led a shared design system across product surfaces and a streamlined checkout, driving a 1.5% customer lift.
-
Case study · Healthcare
AccentCare: a website for multiple audiences
Web and mobile redesign for a healthcare organization, built around accessibility and clear navigation.
-
Case study · Risk management
SaltyCloud: design system creation ↗ (opens Behance)
A design system and style guide that standardized UI patterns across a risk-management platform.
-
Case study · Research
Verizon: privacy dashboard research ↗ (opens Behance)
Led user research and interface analysis, turned into UX recommendations for a clearer, more trustworthy privacy dashboard.
In their words
A full build out of a design framework from scratch… From the moment he joined, Jon brought a sharp design eye, a collaborative spirit, and a deep understanding of how to translate our vision into something both functional and visually compelling.
He created clean, intuitive prototype screens that perfectly captured our vision and improved the features and visuals of our product… his work significantly elevated the overall user experience.
His contributions as a UX designer ranged from research to visual design… The degree of initiative, coupled with reliability, made Jon an excellent team member.
About
For over a decade I've led UX and product design on products where getting it wrong is expensive: defense platforms, bank data, medtech, and now AI agents. My job is to make the complicated part feel obvious, to the customer, the team, and whoever has to sign off.
I run design end to end: research, product strategy, the system, the shipped UI, and now, with AI in the loop, how it behaves and moves. I've led teams and I've been the only designer in the room. I've also spent more than 1,000 hours teaching and mentoring designers, and that's a big part of how I lead: I grow the people around the product, not just the product. (I came to design from journalism, and it still shows: find the story, cut whatever doesn't serve it.)
Based in Brooklyn, NY · Working with teams anywhere
More about me →Countless hours
Mentoring and teaching designers
in the classroom, online, and one on one, reaching thousands of students.
- Webinars built and facilitated for Thinkful
- Schools: General Assembly, Thinkful
- Host of Think Like a Designer, a Clubhouse series
10+ years
leading UX and product design in regulated, high-stakes industries.
Top Voice
in User Experience Design, recognized on LinkedIn.
10K+
designers following @uxcalibur on Instagram.
~4 years
as an independent design consultant to product teams.
Who I've worked with
What I believe
The more complex the system, the plainer it has to be.
Getting it wrong isn't a bad review. It's a decision nobody can defend.
Design leadership is a trust problem before it's a craft problem.
The job is earning the trust of people who aren't designers, but decide whether a decision holds up.
Motion is how a product explains itself.
Every state change is a sentence. If it moves well, nobody needs the manual.
AI didn't replace the designer. It removed the handoff.
I go from strategy to a working, moving build without a translation step in between.
Speaking & teaching
Design systems, career pivots, and what it actually takes to lead UX at a growing company.
Podcasts
Talks & panels
Workshops & series
- ThinkfulWebinars I built and facilitated
- Think Like a DesignerClubhouse series, host
Ways to work together
Built for seed to Series B teams that need senior design judgment. Scope and pricing get shaped together on a first call.
-
Fixed scope · Two weeks
Product & UX audit
A screen-by-screen teardown of your product: where people get lost, where trust breaks, and what to fix first.
You get a scored report, a prioritized fix list, and a 90-minute readout with your team.
-
Three-month minimum
Fractional head of design
I run your design function part-time: set the direction, build the system, hire, mentor, and manage your first designers, and own the bar for what ships.
For teams that have outgrown freelancers but aren't ready for a full-time design leader.
-
Ongoing · Light touch
Design advisor
A standing seat: one strategy session a month, async review of what you're shipping, and introductions when they help.
A senior second opinion on call, without a retainer-sized commitment.
What are you building?
Tell me what you're building and where it's stuck. Or skip ahead and book a 20-minute intro call.