I bring a founder's mentality to designing products, experiences, brands, and teams.
I've spent over a decade working with teams to ship products that delight users and advance organizations' goals. Learn More
Staff UX Design Lead @Verily. Previously Head of Design @Admithub, Chief Design Officer @BevSpot, Lecturer @Northeastern
Leading product design and user research of the SaaS platform helping educators use behavioral science to nudge students toward success
Designing the cross-device software for an industrial IoT platform to help make food and beverage production more sustainable
Leading the UX evolution of an industry-favorite app by working closely with customers and “taking over” their jobs for the day
Designer, developer, and product strategist trying to move the needle.
I’ve been called a ‘pragmatic’ designer.
I take that as a compliment.
My professional work slants towards product design that can make a measurable impact. Usability over style. Stylish when called for.
Learning from your customers and shipping delightful, yet useful tools for them is both rewarding and challenging, which is why I've been drawn to working with early products, especially those where you can get to know your users personally.
I’ve had the privilege of working with some great teams on some truly impactful products, and have learned a thing or two along the way. I bring that experience to new ventures and try to share it with folks through mentoring and writing.
I tend to think about design like a founder, because I’ve been one. Balancing process and instinct, the goal is to find harmony between user delight and business strategy, as fast as you can deliver quality.
If this seems like your cup of tea, I'd be pleased to chat about your project needs. My availability is below.
-Alex-
alex@turnwall.com
linkedin /alexturnwall
Modus Operandi
I’m not particularly picky about my role or title, but I am selective about the teams I work with. My approach is informed by these beliefs, and I try to work with teams that share them:
Good design can contribute directly to an organization's bottom line. According to multiple studies, organizations that value design consistently perform stronger on virtually all financial measures.
From life-saving procedural instructions, to an easier-to-read ballot, to a more ergonomic product: design that we interact with everyday has the potential to make people's lives better (or worse). It is not simply an aesthetic treatment.
Our audiences are global. We live in an interconnected world where no one person has all of the skills to make most of the products we use everyday. We need to work with partners who are diverse in background and discipline to create better products, services and organizations for the future.
Every user is different and one size should not fit all. The goal of interaction design is to create products or interfaces that will work best for an intended user. That means it might have to work equally well for many users with many different technologies—today's tech has to be flexible and adaptable.
Understanding consumer behavior and knowing how to learn what a customer wants can work towards the promotion of a social campaign just as effectively as it can promote a product. Harnessing that power for the right reasons is a worthwhile endeavor.
You can’t throw a new logo and website up and call it a brand refresh (that is, in fact, an identity). Branding touches every facet of an organization and is reflected in everything an organization does, meaning corporate ethos and responsibility are more important than the design.
You trust me, I trust you; enough so that we both give honest opinions. This is how iteration produces better results, faster. Without this trust, it's hard to produce meaningful results. Trust takes effort, but it's worth it.
Expertise
Make a product or service more compelling by implementing best practices, user research, and usability testing.
Polished interaction design for software experiences on any screen size.
Graphic design of identity and collateral that move organizations’ brand strategy forward.
Custom data visualizations and infographics to tell the story of your data. Possibly interactive, always engaging.
Systematized design tools to enable your team to move faster with greater consistency. Can include front-end code assets.
Implementing interfaces and component systems for production. (Currently liking TypeScript, React, JSS, Sass.)
Extensive experience designing and developing marketing websites, blogs, and microsites. (Sometimes JAMstack, still appreciating WordPress.)
Growing internal design and product teams that make an impact (and engineers love working with).
Helping product teams find their organizational stride to ship faster.
Designer, developer, and product strategist trying to move the needle.
Design
I was recently invited to speak at an event called Rapha 5×5: Intervals on Design at Fresh Tilled Soil, a local design consultancy. It’s a traveling series of design talks that Rapha runs in different cities, and here’s the schtick: “5×5: Intervals on Design, a rapid-fire design talk where five creatives will talk for five minutes…
It’s kayaking season here in New England, and as I was returning to the water this year I realized I needed to reacquaint myself with VHF radio usage. So I’m going to share this story from last summer in hopes that it helps some other kayakers in a similar situation, as I haven’t found a ton…
Design
I had an idea for the new version of my site: I was going to illustrate objects using only HTML and CSS ( to show that I know how to do stuff with code), and make them look like they were neatly organized in a physical space* (which seems vaguely trendy) according to the underlying grid…
Designer, developer, and product strategist trying to move the needle.
Consulting
Teams may find me a good fit when they need an experienced contributor who can hit the ground running, tackle complex technical designs, help scope open-ended product challenges, and build design teams and culture.
Helping organizations bring products to market, or "fail faster" to understand what their market really wants.
Work on a process to hone the authentic brand that’ll help you reach the right audience.
Guide organizations though intensive design sprints to explore new product offerings in one week or less.
Working with organizations (especially startups) to figure out how to structure their product and design teams for operational success and scaling.
Every project is different—I adapt to your team and situation. This can mean delivering a specific project from end-to-end, working on retainer for a specific period, or being embedded on the team full-time to meet a milestone.
Best to start with a chat to explore options.
