Austin Soares

Austin Soares

Product Designer Developer in Massachusetts, he/him/his

Strategic. Intentional. Adaptable.

I'm a design developer based in MA. I'm currently a partner and lead product designer at Full Nelsen, an independent product design firm with clientele including GameStop, Noom, Hopper, and SimpliSafe.

I specialize in mobile and native app design with a background in front-end web development and continual research and practice of iOS development.

Apart from design, I am also a professional photographer, and a historian of post-revolutionary war in a newly formed United States.

Projects

2019
Measuring for success, and pet products at Chewy.com

To celebrate the launch of a new iPhone and Apple's enthusiasm for augmented-reality (AR) experiences, the native mobile apps team added an item to our backlog to explore this further.

2019

Over 2.5 years, I built three design systems. Chewy was also one of the first eCommerce apps to launch an updated app for iOS 13 and the system-wide dark mode. As part of this project, I had a chance to work very closely with our developers to plan and execute this update so when our customers used our app, it just worked.

2018
Vets App at Chewy.com

I informed and helped build Chewy's second native app which was non-customer facing. Originally described as a prescription inventory manager and approval system for vets, the project was released for iOS as Practice Hub by Chewy Health following my departure.

2018

Part design overall, part complete re-write. The universal app project touched every part of the app to improve user experience, accessibility, and speed across both iPhone and for the first time, iPad.

2018

Bundled with our app, little animated stickers are available in Messages and FaceTime to stick onto conversations or react with. Dogs and Cats at multiple angles were designed with the help of one of our brand designers.

Work Experience

2022 — Now
Boston, MA

I am building a studio with my business partner, Adam Nelsen. As his first hire, I am leading a few of our most important accounts as the lead product designer. I have also been working in the background on our web site and portfolio of past work. We’re a great fit for well-funded startups & challenger brands and on projects like native or progressive web apps, marketing sites, design systems, and more.

2020 — 2022
Boston, MA

At Seniorlink, I conducted research, tested, and designed accessible web and native interfaces for family caregivers and care professionals. As the lead designer, I explored new opportunities we had to update our existing experience across all channels by planning a complete design system overhaul, progressive web app, and scaling operations for our caregiver collaboration app, Vela and the professional interface that powered it.

2018 — 2020
Boston, MA

At Chewy, I designed and maintained the end-to-end native customer experience of the iOS and iPadOS apps. I built extensive design systems from scratch, a developer-handoff framework through Zeplin, over 150 prototypes (for iPhone and iPad) and even committed some of my own code.

2014 — 2017
Boston, MA

At iFactory, I worked on 80+ projects across higher education, publishing, healthcare and non-profits as an interactive designer from art direction to implementation. I loved having an opportunity to explore new technologies, operations, and chances to meet with our client partners to present work and lead discussions.

Contact

Agency
Website
LinkedIn
Glass
Bluesky

Side Projects

2021

For a few months, I collaborated with a design collegue to provide user experience best practices, mobile optimizations, and wholly new experiences for GameStop.com

Awards

2017

In 2017, iFactory won the Education Marketing award at the 21st annual MITX Awards in Boston for work done for Bennington College. As a lead designer of this project, I accepted this award alongside others on my team.

Volunteering

2020 — 2023
Boston, MA

I volunteered for the 124th, 125th and soon 126th B.A.A Boston Marathon. In 2020, I provided some much needed encouragement, photography, and fundraising help to runners.

Ever since, I have volunteered on Patriots day to hand out energy gels ahead of Heartbreak Hill at Mile 17 with the Wicked Running club.

Exhibitions

2019
Boston, MA

A photo I captured at the 123rd Running of the Boston Marathon was selected and proudly displayed as part of this exhibition. Presented in partnership with the Photographic Resource Center, Rally Point served as Old North’s first foray into photography.

Features

2020

Photographs I took of Steve Hewitt were printed in the Boston Herald ahead of the 124th Boston Marathon (Virtual Marathon).