At Tlon, I've designed:

* Two distinct versions of an operating system's core interface language
* A group communications product, in the vein of Discord or Slack
* A cross-platform direct messaging app
* A long-form writing app
* A block-based media aggregator app
* A social e-book reader
* A cryptocurrency wallet and social send mechanism
* Many iterations of Tlon's company website
* 3 iterations of a system UI / design language
* Significant elements of Tlon's brand identity
* A print edition of the Hoon programming language's source code

In addition to my product design work, I've:

* Hired/staffed the design and marketing-communications teams
* Organized a variety of user research initiatives of varying scales for products in different stages of maturity
* Established + evangelized a high-level design culture recognized by people building on Urbit, and in the greater ecosystem
* Collaborated closely with product management and executive staff to establish product roadmapping
* Worked with executive staff to pitch/fundraise our work through a combination of storytelling, product strategy, deck-building, and prototyping
* Worn a wild variety of hats and taken on many responsibilities. Ask me about them.

Tlon Co.

Product Design/Research

Learning Gardens: One Thousand Aesthetics Blooming

On Building Knowledge Networks

"Conceptual wandering as a way to find and make meaning"

Infrastructural

A reflection–meditation on OS 1’s initial form development, and the attitude we brought to bear in designing it.

A simple p2p messaging app, built on Urbit. An actually-owned answer to Signal.

Talk

Futuristic "group chat app" featuring arbitrary channel types and customization that actually matters. Intended for assembling local internets.

Groups

I worked with Samara's engineers and real estate research team to prototype a system and interfaces for configuring modular Backyard units, situating them in real map-space, and calculating costs/price/revenue according to municipal + state real estate markets.

Backyard Configurator

Pilot was a mobile application designed to facilitate self-reflection, personal growth, and forming a story of your life through a simple prompt/question-oriented interface. 

Pilot preceded the development of chat interfaces for LLMs, but was prescient in acknowledging how people would come to interact with these systems.

In a collaboration with Samara's writer's room, hardware engineers, an iOS dev, and Joe Gebbia, I designed new interfaces and input mechanisms between people and artificial intelligence, and strategies for how to incorporate data gleaned from people's lives into recommendation systems for Airbnb and Backyard.

Pilot

An OS-like client interface for Urbit computers. Our current thesis and "vessel" for what constitutes a next-generation operating system.

Read more about the process of designing Landscape here: https://www.urcad.es/writing/230727

Landscape

A surface with various layers that provide wireless charging may include at least one of a top surface layer, a second layer, comprising a plurality of lights and a power grid, disposed under the top surface layer, a charging pad disposed on a portion of the power grid, and a third layer, comprising a power supply which provides power to the plurality of lights and the power grid, disposed under the second layer.

US10985583B2

“Being a Body”

Artists, Designers, Writers, and Makers are invited to share their ideas on what it means to push culture forward today with values of community, curiosity, care, and partnership at the forefront. 

Those invited are imagining new ways of shaping brand and design, pushing the boundaries within their profession, and leading practices that resist rigid definition and reflect the sentiment of our time.

I spoke about designing interfaces for a new conception of an internet, and the human body in digital space.

Recent Works

Design, strategy, and research consulting group.

Founder

Experimental self care software, proto-LLM interfaces, and Backyard.

Airbnb (Samara)

UX Designer

Cross-app product design for Discovery, Messaging, Safety, Groups, and Identity on Tumblr.

Senior Product Designer

Adjunct Faculty

A para-R&D organization collecting fees for good work.

Co-founder

Designing a new networking protocol, operating system, app suite, software ecosystem, and corporate design approach from 0 to 1. Contributed directly to 10x-ing the size of the Urbit network from 2022 to 2023.

Principal Designer

Internal design education, design consulting, and various B2B products.

É. Urcades

2024