Product Designer / Builder
Case studies & design philosophy
Here, the solution was simplification and approachability instead of feature-rich complexity.
The professional 3D level design and modelling tool used by millions of Unity developers. Designed and co-built from the ground up, now one of Unity's most beloved editor tools.
The challenge
Unity lacked a capable, integrated 3D modelling tool. Developers had to leave the editor to prototype levels and environments, breaking flow and slowing iteration. The challenge was to build something powerful enough for professionals but accessible to all skill levels - directly inside Unity.
My role
I designed and co-built ProBuilder from concept to production, including the full UX architecture, interaction model, and key feature design. I worked directly with game developers throughout - observing workflows, learning the vocabulary of level design, and building empathy with both novices and veterans.
Impact
What made it work
Rather than designing a 3D tool in the abstract, I learned to actually build levels in Unity - understanding where friction lived, what operators needed at their fingertips, and how to make a complex tool feel intuitive. ProGrids extended this with a snapping system that became muscle memory for thousands of developers.
A first-class spline editing system integrated into Unity 2022.2 - enabling path-based workflows for roads, rails, cameras, and procedural geometry.
The challenge
Unity had no native spline tooling. Developers relied on third-party assets with inconsistent APIs and no platform integration. This was a foundational gap in the editor - paths, curves, and rails are essential for countless game genres and workflows.
My role
I pitched and primarily designed Splines for Unity, working through the full design process from authoring model to in-scene interaction design. The key challenge was making spline manipulation feel natural in 3D space - precise enough for technical users, approachable for beginners.
Impact
Design for 3D
Spline editing is a deeply spatial design problem - control points, tangent handles, and path visualization all compete for clarity in a live 3D scene. I iterated extensively on visual language, handle affordances, and selection models to find a system that felt natural to both artists and engineers.
Here, I recognized deep multi-org problems, and stepped back to solve at a foundational level.
A foundational UI system enabling dockable, contextual tool panels anywhere in the Unity editor. Invisible infrastructure that transformed the developer experience platform-wide.
The challenge
Unity's editor tools lived in rigid, disconnected panels. Developers constantly had to context-switch between views, losing spatial focus. The editor needed a flexible, composable way for tools to surface relevant controls close to where work was happening.
My role
I pitched, drove, and primarily designed the Overlays system at Unity Technologies. This meant defining not just the component, but the underlying pattern - how overlays are anchored, dismissed, composed, and extended by third-party tool developers across the entire editor ecosystem.
Impact
Why foundation design matters
Overlays is a perfect example of invisible design - users don't think about the overlay system, they just use their tools. But every tool that adopts it becomes more discoverable, more contextual, and more composable. The system scales; individual design decisions don't.
Two foundational editor patterns that shape how developers discover tools and complete complex multi-step workflows across the Unity platform.
Contextual Tooling
A system for surfacing tools, actions, and properties in the right context - precisely when a developer needs them, and nowhere else. I designed the principles and component patterns that define how contextual tools appear, anchor, and dismiss across Unity's editing surfaces. Published as a formal NEW pattern in Unity's Foundation Design System.
Authoring Flows
Complex Unity workflows - setting up animation controllers, configuring shaders, building prefab variants - required developers to navigate multiple disconnected panels. I designed the Authoring Flows pattern to give these multi-step processes a coherent, guided structure that reduces cognitive load and completion errors.
Impact
The multiplier effect
Foundation patterns are the highest-leverage design work possible. When a pattern is adopted across a platform of millions of daily users, every good decision compounds, and every bad decision does too. Getting these right required deep research into how Unity developers actually work - not how we imagined they worked.
Domain expertise and genuine user empathy enable fast intuitive leaps - tempered by careful validation, of course.
A growing suite of professional Unity tools - Pins, Scene Blocks, ProBuilder Plus, Snap, Collections, Multiverse and more - built from deep knowledge of where Unity falls short.
What it is
Overdrive is an award-winning toolset built by ex-Unity creators with uniquely deep platform knowledge. Each tool targets a specific friction point in Unity's workflow - the kind of friction only visible after years of watching real developers work.
Key tools
Why we're building this
After a decade inside Unity, I know exactly where the gaps are - the workflows that are frustrating, the tools that almost work, the missing features that cost developers hours. Overdrive is deep domain knowledge applied to every tool we ship, not features built from user surveys.
A VR sketching and 3D concept design tool - bringing the immediacy of freehand drawing into spatial, volumetric space for designers and artists.
The challenge
3D concept design tools existed, but none captured the fluidity and immediacy of traditional sketching. VR offered a unique opportunity - to design in the actual space where a product or environment would exist. The challenge was making that feel natural rather than technical.
My role
I designed and co-built Polysketch, working through the interaction design challenges specific to VR - controller affordances, spatial UI, comfort, and the translation of 2D design intuitions into 3D space. Working directly in VR throughout development was essential to getting the feel right.
Impact
Designing for a new medium
VR interaction design has almost no established conventions to borrow from. Every decision about scale, reach, feedback, and persistence had to be validated in headset, with real users, in real use sessions. This project sharpened my ability to design through direct embodied prototyping.
Design
Build
Lead
Domains