About

A quick summary of what I’ve been up to.

Timeline & highlights

I grew up in Champaign, Illinois—a cool midwestern college town and the home of the modern web browser.

In 1996, I made my first website using Netscape and a dial-up modem, and I was hooked. I’ve been building stuff on the web ever since.

In 2001, I earned a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Illinois.

In 2005, I was one of the first students in the New Media MFA program at the School of Art+Design, where I explored existential questions of truth, language, and relationships in the early Information Age.

From 2006-2011, I led web development for the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. I also designed a complete overhaul of the main Argonne website, which remained in production from 2011-2018.

In 2011, I joined Basecamp as a product designer. I worked on all of Basecamp’s products over the next decade, including Basecamp 2 & 3, Know Your Company, and HEY.

In 2014 I started Hello Weather with my friend Trevor, as a way to learn about iOS design and programming on the side. It grew into a real mini-business and is regularly featured as one of the top weather apps in the App Store.

From 2018-2021 I helped drive the concept, design, and development for HEY, shepherding it from zero to launch.

From 2021-2022, I led a team of designers working on evolving timelines and tweets at Twitter.

In late 2022, I joined Figma as a manager on the Editor team, focused on design systems, prototyping, and developer tools.

I live near Chicago with my family, three weird cats, and a lot of plants.

Podcasts, Interviews, Talks, etc.

About this site

This site is built on 11ty, hosted on Netlify, created in fits and starts, with considerable delays and indecision, while being locked inside the house for very long periods of time.

Fonts are Baton Turbo from Fatype, and Compadre & Vulf Mono from OH no Type Company. Support independent foundries!

Hat tip to Adam Stoddard for inspiration on making 11ty sites.