Dan Ross

Product Design, Design Systems & Design Tooling

Los Angeles, US.

Work

Apple

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Principal Human Interface Designer

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Summary

Leading a holistic design system for one of Apple's largest organizations, driving strategic initiatives in design tooling and operations.

Highlights

Spearheaded the development and implementation of a comprehensive design system, significantly enhancing product consistency and efficiency across a major Apple organization.

Drove strategic initiatives in design tooling and operations to optimize UX workflows and foster innovation within a complex global environment.

Shopify

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Design Systems Lead (Polaris)

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Summary

Played a pivotal role in evolving Shopify's Polaris design system and internal tooling, significantly impacting the core experience and admin architecture.

Highlights

Led the creation and evolution of Shopify's Polaris design system, including core components, guides, and Figma UI Kits, directly improving product quality and developer efficiency.

Directed the successful migration of over 5,000 employees from Sketch, Abstract, and InvisionApp to Figma, developing comprehensive onboarding programs and establishing new team structures.

Designed and implemented critical analytics dashboards and merchant reports, providing data-driven insights that informed strategic business decisions.

Redesigned the Shopify Payments system and contributed to the early stages of Shopify Capital, enhancing user experience and operational efficiency for key financial products.

Developed and delivered workshops and mentorship programs, fostering a culture of continuous learning and elevating design capabilities across the organization.

Dan Ross (freelance)

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Founder

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Summary

Brand direction, graphic, and website design specializing in lifestyle and fashion industries, and typeface design.

Highlights

Created Flow, a typeface made for wireframing, prototyping, and abstracting typography within design work and websites. Commonly used to abstract code on websites. Used by Stripe, Google, and many more.

Web design and direction for clothing and lifestyle brands such as Dos'Ombre, and other brands.

My work has been featured in Awwwards, The Next Web, Smashing Magazine, Creative Bloq, Behance, Dribbble, Godly.Website, Google Fonts, and products at Stripe, Google, and more.

Part of the advisory board for Adobe products like Photoshop, Illustrator, and future tools and concepts. I’ve also collaborated with teams at InVision and other tooling companies to shape the vision of design tooling, prototyping, and plugins at those companies.

Guvera Music

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Senior Product Designer

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Summary

Led product design for a music streaming network, overseeing iOS, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Android apps.

Highlights

Spearheaded product design for a suite of music streaming applications (iOS, Android, Apple Watch, Apple TV), contributing to a platform with over 20 million users across 20+ regions.

Led the design and development of innovative products like Guvera/Labs (artist/label platform), Fradio (personal radio), and Kwickie (video compositing app), securing a patent for video compositing technology.

Achieved industry recognition, including design awards and a Webby Awards '15 Runner-up for Best Entertainment App, validating exceptional product design and user experience.

D&K Agency

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Co-Founder

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Summary

Graphic design agency turned design tooling company. Our most notable release was Velositey, a Photoshop extension with more than 250,000 downloads.

Highlights

Co-created Velositey extension for Photoshop that empowers designers to create wireframes and base design elements for website design in Photoshop (pre-Sketch/Figma).

Our work and tools have been featured on Awwwards, The Next Web, Smashing Magazine, Creative Bloq, Dribbble, and more.

LocalSearch

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Design Lead & Web Services Coordinator

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Summary

Managed and led web services departments for Australia's largest business directory, overseeing design, development, and customer service.

Highlights

Established and managed multiple web services departments, including customer service, quality control, design, and development, significantly expanding company capabilities.

Built and led high-performing design and development teams, fostering collaboration and driving successful project delivery.

Orchestrated the comprehensive redesign of the company website and brand identity, enhancing market presence and user engagement.

About

Highly accomplished Design Systems and Tooling Leader with a proven track record of driving innovation and efficiency at leading technology companies like Apple and Shopify. Expertise spans design tooling, design operations, and large-scale design systems architecture. Recognized for elevating user experience, streamlining development workflows, and leading critical migrations, impacting millions of users and thousands of internal stakeholders. Work has been featured in prominent industry publications including Awwwards, The Next Web, Smashing Magazine, Creative Bloq, and Behance.

Volunteer

Contributor

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W3C Design Tokens Working Group

Actively contributing to the W3C Design Tokens Community Group, collaborating on establishing industry standards for scalable and consistent design systems.

Highlights

Collaborating with industry experts to define and standardize design token best practices, aimed at improving consistency and scalability across digital products.

Education

Griffith University

Bachelor Visual Media

Awards

Design Awards (Guvera App)

Various Industry Bodies

Received multiple design awards for the Guvera App, recognizing excellence in product design and user experience.

Webby Awards '15 Runner-up

The Webby Awards

Recognized as Runner-up in the 'Best Entertainment App' category at the Webby Awards for the Guvera App.

Languages

English

Native

Projects

Polaris for Admin Web UI Kit

Summary

Developed and maintained the Polaris for Admin Web UI Kit, a comprehensive Figma resource with over 400 components, colors, typography, and icons, enabling consistent and efficient design across Shopify's admin.

Polaris Style Guide

Summary

Contributed to the creation of the Shopify Polaris design system style guide website, providing essential resources, tools, and guides that empowered merchants and internal teams to build exceptional user experiences.

Polaris Icons Explorer

Summary

Designed and implemented the Polaris Icons Explorer, a searchable repository for Shopify's icon library, streamlining icon usage for both internal employees and external developers and ensuring brand consistency.

Figma Migration Lead (Shopify)

Summary

Initiated and led the strategic migration of 5,000+ Shopify employees from Sketch/Abstract/InvisionApp to Figma, involving stakeholder alignment, onboarding documentation, and global office workshops to ensure seamless adoption.

Kwickie App

Summary

Drove the design and development of the Kwickie video compositing app from concept to iOS release, contributing to a patent for innovative video compositing technology.

Guvera App

Summary

Contributed to the design and evolution of the Guvera music streaming apps (iOS, Apple Watch, Apple TV), which garnered design awards and was a Webby Awards '15 Runner-up, serving over 20 million users globally.

Fradio App

Summary

Designed and launched the Fradio app, empowering users to create and broadcast personal radio stations on iOS, Android, Apple Watch, and Windows Phone, fostering unique community engagement.

Flow - A Typeface for Wireframing

Summary

Created and released Flow, a free typeface for wireframing, adopted by leading companies like Stripe, TailwindCSS, and Google for visualizing code and content on marketing and documentation websites.

Velositey Plugin for Photoshop

Summary

Developed and launched Velositey, a Photoshop plugin that enabled rapid wireframing and prototyping (within 45 seconds), achieving over 250,000 downloads and significantly improving design workflow efficiency.