Hey, I’m Tim. 👋
I’m currently the founding designer for Avantis, a decentralized crypto exchange.
Previously
Vela, Coinbase, IBM
Guiding principle
It is the responsibility of designers to shape the future of tech by designing with intention.
Background
Studied Cognitive Science, Human-Computer Interaction from UC San Diego.
Past experiences
Helped teach Adv. Design Thinking at UT Austin.
Coached design interns at IBM.
Worked bizdev for a toy distributor.
Endurance test driver for Hyundai-Kia.
EMT for Los Angeles County.
Corporal in Marines.
Things I’ve made
Bloom Trading (2024)
Role: Founding Designer
Bloom was a 0-1 project with Avantis where I got to test and push design boundaries in the web3 space.
Trading perpetuals has always been overly complicated and confusing (quite the norm in DeFi), and only seemed appropriate for advanced traders. My mission here was to make perpetuals trading on a decentralized exchange simple and approachable.
Outcome
Bloom was designed, developed, and launched on the Blast L2 blockchain, within three months.
At its peak, Bloom accrued more than $16 million in total value locked, with trading volume surpassing $670 million within two months.
This project was one of 47 winners of Blast’s Big Bang Dapp Competition, where over 3000 projects competed.
Vela Exchange (2023-2024)
Role: Design Lead, in a team of 4 designers
Vela was a crypto exchange focused on providing advanced tooling for traders. I was responsible for overseeing the work of 3 talented visual and product designers and contributing to the design direction of Vela, such as crafting scalable design systems for our core products, brand and marketing that appeals to our users, and product features not yet seen in the web3 space, among many others. Many hats were worn at this time.
The biggest challenge was learning how to prioritize speed while doing my best to make sure our deliveries weren't compromised in quality. We learned how to test quickly, balance risk with assumptions, and innovate in a way that helps us scale and not rack up design debt.
Outcome
Scaled to over $5 billion in trading volume from from beta to launch. Built design systems and added unique trading tools and features like 1CT/onchart trading and social events like competitions, which increased average trades per user per day from 1.4 to 14.3. This increased our fees/revenue by 10x. We adapted the process to create sister exchanges/staking platforms on different blockchains.
Coinbase (2021-2023)
Role: Product Designer
I was part of Coinbase Cloud, now called the Coinbase Developer Platform. Our goal was to offer web3 development tools and services for developers and make it easy for everyone to build a web3 dapp.
I worked on a few emerging projects regarding onchain data and infrastructure, and collaborated cross-functionally to redesign the Cloud platform so all developer products cohesively live under one roof.
Outcome
Created a one-stop shop for web3 developers under a project architecture. The Cloud platform was a standalone platform at the time, with many developer products dispersed among different teams. Although not all projects I worked on is currently live, node and data offerings now exist.
IBM Quantum (2020-2021)
Role: Product Designer
IBM Quantum offers a platform for quantum experimentalists and scientists to execute programs with the unique physics of quantum computing. We abstract away the complexities that come along with this into a visual composer.
The Quantum team was where I learned to navigate a complicated domain and realized how it is necessary to simplify by understanding.
Outcome
Made editor tools for the visual composer and made it easier for users to understand how to choose the right logic gates to build a circuit (algorithm).
Random
I made an art piece called Quantum Tofu generated by the true randomness you’d get with quantum computers. 🐈 🐈⬛
IBM Accessibility (2019-2020)
Role: Product Designer
IBM Accessibility provides a toolkit for anyone in product development to use to make sure their products are accessible. We aim to change product teams’ practices, cultures, and mindset.
This was where I learned that empowering others contributed to the best designs. The team was comprised of SMEs – folks who sit on governing bodies of accessibility – and engineers who built plug-ins and browser extensions. Deep collaboration was critical.
Outcome
Instead of referring to a complicated WCAG document for accessibility guidelines, users can now easily discover what’s needed in their workflow. There is often talk about needing inclusive design, but this gave me the opportunity to truly make it actionable.
