Industry Designers: Christian Robertson, Jason Tusman, Andrew Salituri & Brady Voss, Keenan Cummings
Google, Pandora, Facebook, Airbnb
Interaction for the Real World: To the Design of Effective Human Interfaces

It's all but impossible to ignore the role of good design in the current zeitgeist around the valley. The "designer" tag has hit peak trendiness over the course of the last decade or so, and it's managed to acquire an air of mystery on its rise.

What do designers out there among the corporate ranks actually do? What drives them to make something new, and how do they determine whether or not what they’ve made actually works? In this lecture, we’ve invited designers from several Bay Area companies to speak about their encounters with HCI in their own work, as well as the considerations, approaches, and lessons learned that drive the interaction behind the excellent products they create.

Our guests will each give a brief presentation before convening for a panel-style Q&A session.

Robertson Abstract: Since its debut last June, material design has been adopted by Google platforms and products along with many third party apps and services. Christian Robertson of Google will talk about the design process behind material design and how it is being implemented inside and outside of Google.

Tusman Abstract:Pandora's design ethos: Do what's best for the listener and all else will follow. Designing Pandora’s effortless listening experience (for my mom)
Capturing our commitment to designing experiences that are effortless and endless. Rather than starting with device or platform, which can introduce constraints in design thinking, we first determine what core functions, controls and experience will facilitate the best Pandora experience. It’s about designing for the most effortless listening experience possible.

Salituri and Voss Abstract: Facebook cares about making the world more open and connected—for our friends and family, as well the people who live on the opposite side of the globe. Product Designers Brady Voss and Andrew Salituri will provide perspectives from both consumer and enterprise products, illustrating how Facebook works on a diverse range of interesting problems.

Cummings Abstract: Airbnb is a complex marketplace that relies on trust and intimacy to function. We build for that intimate experience with a strong mix of vision, gut, data, and qualitative research. I’ll be presenting on how we build for a mostly offline experience (the digital booking experience is only the door into a more meaningful trip experience). And I will be sharing a peek at a longer term vision for Airbnb where we don’t just provide accommodations and facilitate transaction, but instead play a meaningful role in the trip experience.

Christian Robertson: As a designer at Google, Christian Robertson has worked as the creative director for Android and was a founding member of the material design project. Before joining Google, he worked on mobile interfaces and operating systems for clients such as Adobe, Qualcomm, HP, Sun, Nokia, T-Mobile and Samsung. Along with his work as an interface designer, Christian has designed typefaces for three mobile operating systems including the Roboto type family. Christian has a BFA in Graphic Design from Brigham Young University where he took exactly one computer science class, writing assembly for MIPS processors. Jason Tusman: Jason Tusman is a design explorer, an interaction builder and a user experience professional with over 10 years of experience in the industry of design, UX, graphics, animation, product planning and strategy. Currently, Jason is a Senior Product Designer of User Experience / Interaction / Visual / Design at Pandora Media Inc. Over the years, he has primarily focused on mobile UX / interaction design. He has also worked at Shazam, TechCrunch, Katalyst Media, and David and Goliath Inc. You can find his work on design, photography, and more at tusman.me. Andrew Salituri: Andrew Salituri is a thinker, designer, and communicator. He holds a Master of Design degree from the University of Washington, and is currently working for Facebook as a Product Designer. He has a diverse design background, having served as both Art Director and Adjunct Faculty in his career. Most recently, Andrew was a UX Designer at Microsoft before joining the design team at Facebook. Brady Voss: As the Product Design Lead on the Videos team at Facebook, Brady Voss creates engaging experiences for billions of people every day. He has designed many different products at Facebook, including: the recently announced Hello app, Messenger, Login, the Like button, App Links, countless hack-a-thon ideas and many more. With extensive experience in motion and design, Brady has always worked closely to video on products like TiVo, Windows Phone and XBOX. His secret plan is to quietly take over the world. Keenan Cummings: After years of working as a brand strategist and designer I decided to move into product design. I cofounded a company called Wander in NYC that was later acquired by Yahoo. I now lead the Experience Architecture design team at Airbnb. We build design systems to support the quality and consistency of product work at Airbnb and we develop new platforms for our users. We recently launched our Tablet app and have several new platform project coming this year.