About Jeff

Hi. I'm Jeff. I am interested in how humans use computers, and the interfaces between them.

I have been working in this area for about 30 years, prior to the general availability of the World Wide Web. Since those early days, I have worked as an interface designer, graphic artist, illustrator, web developer, software engineer, and user experience designer.

Much of this work has revolved around the Web, though this is not by any means my sole interest. For the last several years I have been working in the machine learning / AI space.

One question I have been asking since I become involved with AI is, “What is the user interface for AI?”. With the advent of Large Language Models, this question has become even more critical.

In a world of Generative AI, how will humans interact with systems that become more and more inscrutable? How do we design systems that produce good outcomes when the underlying system is largely non-deterministic? These are the questions on my mind lately.

I am a product designer, software developer, user experience designer, and visual designer with more than 30 years of experience. I combine technical and creative ability with strategic vision, and possess the ability to lead both creative and technical teams, as well as deliver high quality work as an individual contributor in both the design and engineering realms.

I have been involved in the artificial intelligence space for the last decade, and I am interested in how this rapidly advancing technology can be used by creatives and professionals to enhance rather than replace their work.

Download this as a PDF ↓

Timeline

Principal at Infinite Tape

Infinite Tape builds AI-powered tools for professionals and creatives, in a variety of industries from law to music.

2024

Manager, User Experience Engineering and Design at H2O.ai

H2O.ai is a leading AI cloud company, on a mission to democratize AI. At H2O.ai, I filled multiple roles as a manager, lead UI Engineer, UX Designer, and UI Designer.

Highlights

  • Managed teams developing multiple products ranging from H2O AI Cloud, AI Engine Manager, App Store, Document AI, Feature Store, H2O.ai marketing website, and others.
  • Managed teams spanning many time zones, skill sets, and projects to establish principles of engineering and design excellence.
  • Led development of component libraries for internal development to reduce redundancy, and speed UI development across projects.
  • Led development of internal design system to create coherent, usable interface designs across multiple products.
  • Mentored UI Engineers and Designers to develop a collaborative approach to designing and developing software products.
  • Worked with Product and Engineering teams to develop pathways for ideating and defining product visions, defined by clearly designed artifacts that can be easily understood by all stakeholders, from Sales, to Product, to Design, to Engineering.
  • Increased collaboration and communication across all product stakeholder teams.
  • Contributed code and design to many projects and products including H2O AI Cloud, AI Engine Manager, App Store, Feature Store, Document AI, h2oGPT, Enterprise h2oGPTe, and UI Kit.
2022

UI Engineer / UX Designer at H2O.ai

  • Led a team of UI Engineers developing and refining the user interface of the H2O AI Cloud platform.
  • Developed multiple AI-powered auditing applications for PwC. Lead UI Engineer and Designer for Journals.ai, GL.ai, Fit.ai, Controller.ai, Cash.ai, and Audit.ai.
  • Designed and built interactive data visualizations for PwC products.
  • Designed and built interactive labeling applications for labeling large data sets for supervised learning models.
2016

Principal at fohldesign

Contract design and software development.

Highlights

  • Primary focus was Web application design and development.
  • Designed and built front end of Virgo retention and privacy compliance software for Information Governance Solutions.
  • Jurist for Numenta’s 2015 HTM Challenge.
2013

Creative Director at GTxcel

GTxcel offers a suite of products and services to help magazine publishers diversify their revenue streams.

As Creative Director, I was involved in both developing the core product offerings, and the professional services tied to the products.

Highlights

  • First employee. Helped to build the company from the ground up to a head count of over 100.
  • Technical, creative, and team lead of Rivista product. Rivista allowed magazine publishers to create a single website that will work beautifully on any device, from a mobile phone to a desktop computer, through the use of responsive design techniques.
  • Oversaw the design of over 50 custom websites, as well as standardized themes used in the implementation of over 200 magazine websites, managed by our own content management system product.
  • Key contributor on the development team forRivista.
  • Earned PHP 5 Zend Certified Engineer certification.
  • Drafted technical specifications, product road maps, and quality assurance regimes forRivista.
  • Supervised and implemented online advertising creative campaigns.
  • Designed and developed all company branding, website, and printed promotional materials.
  • Participated in business development, investor relations, marketing, and sales.
2005

Principal at fohldesign

Contract design and illustration.

  • Clients included Rainfinity, Envive, Taos Mountain, Mondo Media, Meyer Cookware, Intuit, Verio, Sun Microsystems, Seagram, Meyer Cookware, Envive, PlasmaSeal, and Hanuman Medical, Fast Company Magazine, Red Herring Magazine, PC Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Games Business Magazine.
  • President of Graphic Artists Guild Northern California Chapter.
  • Board President at Intersection for the Arts.

Education

  • Rhode Island School of Design
    BFA Illustration
  • Sea Education Association
    Oceanography coursework
  • Connecticut College
    Physics coursework