JOHN AKERS

john@john-akers.com
858-774-2932
San Diego, CA

QUALIFICATIONS

20+ years of experience in product design and design strategy. I apply systems-level design thinking to develop elegant user experiences in complex problem spaces.

EXPERIENCE

Staff Product Designer, Intuit, Workforce Technology, 2023-present

Note: This was not a demotion, in 2024 Intuit recalibrated all Principal designers to Staff level.

• Intuit Corporate Performance Dashboard
• QuickBooks ProAdvisor online learning platform

Principal Interaction Designer - Intuit - Workforce Technology - 2015-present

• TurboTax Live and QuickBooks Live Expert Hiring applicant tracking system
• Intuit Academy online learning platform for tax and accounting
• True North and other corporate dashboards for CEO and senior leaders
• Enterprise group management
• Designed an audience builder application for the TurboTax marketing team
• Redesigned A4A application for interviewing and assessing job candidates

Principal Interaction Designer - Intuit - Accountants Group - 2011-2015

• Product design lead for multiple QuickBooks for Accountant features including roles and permissions, wholesale billing, client management, and user management
• Led mobile app whitespace project that became the Intuit TaxLink mobile app

Senior Interaction Designer - Intuit - Accountants Group - 2008-2011

• Product design lead for Online Office product suite for professional tax preparers, including client management, employee management, and document exchange

Human Factors Team Lead - Eastman Kodak - 2005-2008

• Design team lead on firmware and hardware of two generations of all-in-one printers

Senior Human Factors Engineer - HP - 2001-2005

• Lead product designer for multiple award-winning photo printers

PATENTS

• U.S. Utility Patent No. 8,914,741 B1: Leveraging navigation tab placement for in-product discovery
  Awarded December 16, 2014

EDUCATION

• B.A. Behavioral Sciences, Rice University
• M.S. Engineering Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology

SKILLS

• Product design, design strategy, task analysis, information architecture, rapid prototyping, user research, usability testing, content design, visual design

TOOLS

• Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator, Lucidchart, Lovable, Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Midjourney

INTERESTS

• Watching TV with my kids
• Reading, watching, and writing science fiction
• Hiking, camping, body surfing
• Premier League soccer, NBA