I’m a design leader who makes complex problems feel simple and intuitive. I’ve built teams, crafted everything from playful games to AI-powered experiences, and love collaborating to bring ideas to life.

Transforming Alexa’s Most Popular Destination

I led the redesign of the Now Playing screen on Echo Show, one of the most visited surfaces on Alexa. Millions of people say “Alexa, play music” every day, but the screen itself was pretty minimal and only showed the track and artist. Research showed customers were often hearing the same songs, didn’t know what to play next, and sometimes simply forgot to play music even though the device was sitting right in front of them. That felt like a missed opportunity, so I focused on turning the screen into something that could help customers discover what to play next.

I partnered with engineering to create a new API that allowed services like Amazon Music and Spotify to send personalized recommendations directly to the device. I explored different design directions and introduced artist imagery, persistent playback controls, and recommendations so customers could easily browse and discover their next listen using touch or voice. The impact was significant. Listening hours grew 25%, customer interactions increased 30%, active listening days rose 8.2%, and CSAT improved from 6.1 to 6.7. Even a small change like keeping playback controls visible increased listening sessions by 8.5%.

When Music Meets LLMs

As part of the Alexa+ initiative, I led the visual customer experience for audio recommendations, one of the key efforts to rethink how people discover and enjoy audio. The goal was to move beyond simple commands and create a more natural, visual experience across Echo Show, Fire TV, and the Alexa mobile app. Instead of Alexa immediately starting playback, customers could browse results with album art, podcast imagery, and helpful context before choosing what to play. This gave them more control and made discovery feel more natural.

I worked closely with engineering to deliver a scalable visual-first experience that worked across music, podcasts, radio, and audiobooks. Customers could ask simple things like “Recommend some happy music,” or more conversational requests like “I’m feeling a bit down, play something to cheer me up, but nothing from the Jonas Brothers.” This marked a clear shift from classic Alexa’s command model to the more conversational Alexa+, helping turn everyday listening into a richer discovery experience.

Helping Kids Fall in Love with Reading

As design lead for Kindle Rapids, a subscription reading app for kids ages 5–12, I led the redesign of the entire experience to help hesitant readers build confidence and enjoy storytelling. The goal was to make reading feel as fun and approachable as a game while still supporting real learning outcomes.

I guided the design across the full journey, from profiles and browsing to the reading experience and parent dashboard. Stories were presented in a playful text message style with narration, sound effects, and illustrations, and kids advanced line by line with a simple tap. We added favorites, recommendations, and celebration moments to keep kids motivated, while parents could track progress and reading habits through a simple dashboard. The result was an experience that kept kids engaged in short sessions and helped them build a lasting habit of reading.

A New Kind of PvZ Game

As lead UX Designer for Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, I helped bring the PvZ universe into the collectible card game space. The challenge was finding the right balance between strategy and the humor and accessibility people already loved about the franchise.

I designed the player journey from onboarding through long term play. I created tutorials that explained mechanics like deck building and hero powers in simple, character driven ways, and designed the collection systems, HUD, and navigation so players could easily understand hundreds of cards during fast paced matches. Through iteration and testing we improved clarity and pacing across the game, helping it reach more than 1 million daily active users at launch and break into the top 50 grossing iOS games worldwide.

My Experience.

AMAZON

Product Design & Research Manager, Alexa

I lead a multimodal UX design and research team for Alexa, delivering cohesive experiences across voice, touch, and visual interfaces on Echo devices, Fire TV, and mobile. My team of designers owns key initiatives including Now Playing, Audio and Video Home, Timers and Alarms, and personalized recommendations, serving more than 90M monthly active users on over 600M devices. I drive UX strategy across modalities, launch LLM powered features that simplify discovery and boost engagement, and evolve design systems for consistency at scale, while mentoring a diverse team and fostering a culture of collaboration, ownership, and excellence.

pattern ui/ux

Principal UX Designer

As founder of Pattern UI/UX, I partnered with startups and global brands to deliver intuitive, scalable product experiences through strategy, design, and collaboration. I led design from research and flows to prototypes and UI, validating concepts with testing to ensure impact. Clients included Disney’s Marvel Snap, where I contributed to gameplay and monetization that helped the title surpass 10M downloads and $20M in early revenue. I also facilitated sprints, mentored teams, and established best practices, always focused on creating human-centered experiences that drive growth.

popcap, an electronic arts studio

Studio UX Director

I led UX design across mobile, console, and PC, building and mentoring a cross-disciplinary team while shaping gameplay, onboarding, live events, and monetization for titles like Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, Bejeweled Blitz (70M+ downloads), and Peggle. Our work drove over 1B global downloads and top-grossing rankings, guided PopCap’s shift to free-to-play, and integrated UX practices into EA while preserving the creative quality and player-first values that made our games beloved.

smashing ideas

Creative Director

I guided concept development, design execution, and client collaboration for brands like Disney, Mattel, and Nickelodeon, creating digital products that reached millions of users and extended properties into interactive ecosystems. My leadership helped launch dozens of e-books, games, and mobile apps, many surpassing a million downloads, while also driving UX in areas such as in-flight entertainment, security, and interactive TV. I mentored designers, fostered collaboration, and shaped the studio’s creative vision and culture of curiosity, creativity, and excellence.

Nice Words.

Jim is a role model design leader. His passion for the products, compassion for the team, and continuous curiosity all come together to deliver creative solutions that raises the bar. Like the best creative leaders, he is able to foster an environment for his team to be successful even in the highest pressure situations. He does so not with platitudes of 'empowerment', but by setting the pace and rolling up his sleeves as needed.

James Liu, head of mb.os at mercedes-benz AG

Jim is a great design leader with strong technical skills and instincts, and he consistently fosters an environment where his team can thrive and do their best work. He has delivered impact on high-stakes product experiences, balancing customer delight through design with business KPIs and the technical innovation required to scale Alexa experiences for hundreds of millions of customers. Jim would be an excellent leader for any design or product organization looking to up-level both design quality and people leadership.

Benson Chan, VP of Product Design at Optum

As Product Lead for Alexa Audio, I had the privilege of working with Jim, an exceptional Design Lead whose creativity, expertise, and customer focus always elevated our work. The speed and quality of our collaboration are a true testament to his design talent. Jim takes on the toughest challenges with agility and skill, and his collaborative spirit and openness to new ideas have been key to the success of Alexa’s audio experiences.

Ryan Burnett, Head of Product for alexa personality at amazon