Hello!
I’m Shona, a UX Architect & Design Manager at Google.
I’m Shona, a UX Architect & Design Manager at Google.
My work has deep roots in visual design. I spent my first 4 years at Google designing products like Keep, Fit, and many of the apps that ship pre-installed on Android devices such as the Clock, Calculator, etc.
Now, I shape how Google’s product teams (like Gmail, Maps, and Search) adopt Material Design and the rest of Google’s design standards, as I have been doing for the past 7 years.
Basically, I ensure product team alignment with the company’s business goals, through UX. All of this requires really excellent communication and negotiation skills and a healthy dose of charm empathy.
Prior to Google I learned to design for Android and iOS by freelancing for companies like Evernote and Meebo, and then spent 2.5 years as a visual designer at Bump Technologies. You might remember Bump: it's the app that let you to bump phones to send contact information. Bump was acquired by Google in 2013.
Even before that, I did my absolute best to avoid the tech industry because I grew up in Palo Alto I had some opinions about how tech had changed my hometown. So I did what I could to stay away: worked as an art director at Live Nation, a layout artist for PC Gamer magazine, a gallery manager for South Asian fine arts gallery Aicon, and a medical illustrator for Stanford and Prous Science.
And at the start of it all, I built my foundation by earning my BFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design – some of the toughest (and of course most rewarding) work of my life.
Unfortunately much of my coursework drawings fell out of a delivery truck on their way back to California, so I don't have a lot to show for my efforts. But at least I retained the skills I learned!
Want to know how to get a company with hundreds of products to move as a whole, design apps for billions of users, or just sell South Asian contemporary art during a recession? Find me via email or on LinkedIn.