# Chip J. Alexander

> User Experience Design Consultant - Previously at Fisker, Drive.ai, Harman, and Bosch in automotive, as well as software companies large and small

Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/chip

***Full resumé and portfolio at chipalexander.com. Please do NOT contact me about deveIoper (coding) positions.***

Dual citizenship with US and German passports

I have a passion for creating compelling user experiences, especially in automotive but also other fields. I love talking directly to and observing customers, existing or prospective, especially when that sparks a new idea. Design work I led has been featured at Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, and my ideas appear in multiple patents.

I consistently apply user-centered design processes combined with creativity to yield strong solutions, and empower my teams to do the same. My expertise encompasses all aspects of UX research and design, from first conception to demonstrating the final product. I champion a culture of open communication and the collaborative sharing of ideas.

Some examples:

♦    At Fisker, I led the user experience design for the small car PEAR, including identifying many innovative ideas and coordinating with departments around the company to work them through, as well as presenting them to the CEO for approval. 

♦    Also at Fisker, when the company later decided to create a pickup truck, they asked me to take a similar role, then leading UX for both vehicles.

♦    At Drive.ai, I led design for panels on the car exterior to communicate with other drivers and pedestrians. Our design was featured at both the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum and London Science Museum.

♦    Also at Drive.ai, I was the inventor or co-inventor on 7 granted Drive.ai patents related to self-driving car experience innovations.
 
♦    At Bosch, I led the UX, including ideation, design, execution, and presentation, of a futuristic automotive experience for the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show -- a visual demonstration which received wondefully positive reviews.

♦    Also at Bosch, I directed a UX research project that became a fundamental support element in a $100M European OEM purchase.


I have many references you can talk to about my work, both from a design point of view and how well I bring out the best in others I work with. You can also read their comments about me in their recommendations here. 

i'd love to talk to you about how I can add innovation and user-centered processes at your company!

## Work Experience
### User Experience Design Consultant @ Chip Alexander UX
Jan 2020 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area
April 2020 - June 2022 and May 2024 - present 
(Customers have included JSR Micro and Crown Bio)

I provide high-level design and strategy on new initiatives, create novel ideas, review existing designs and products to provide improvements and feedback, and set high-level design direction including wireframes and flows.

### Lead Product Designer (User Experience) @ Fisker
Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | California, United States
(An innovative and eco-oriented electric vehicle company) 

Lead user experience designer, creating, reviewing, and presenting to executives UX innovations and designs for our upcoming vehicles PEAR and Alaska, as well as leading and mentoring less-experienced designers.

♦ Led UX design (digital, interior, exterior) for planned car PEAR, coordinating with Partnerships, Homologation, User Research, Product Mgmt, Interior, and Exterior. Led innovation, design, and review. Present to VPs and CEO.

♦ Led UX physical design innovations and design of exterior switches and controls for planned pickup truck Alaska. 

♦ Led / coordinated patent applications for all Fisker UX innovations, including several for which I was an inventor.

### Senior Principal Designer @ Bluescape Software
Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area
(Startup creating wall-sized virtual workspaces that unify content and collaboration across locations)

Provide design leadership to the UX team. Champion best practices including regular team design reviews. Bring creative ideas, design oversight, and attention to detail to the product line. Helped with marketing video as key actor.

♦	Designed the user experience for an innovative new space and paradigm, identifying intuitive gestures for basic manipulation, while making secondary actions discoverable and easy to perform -- despite the limitations of having only finger/hand touch on a wall screen which requires many types of activities and interactions.

### Principal Designer (manager role) @ drive.ai
Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | Mountain View
(Self-driving AI startup, one of FastCompany’s 2019 Most Innovative Companies, acquired by Apple)

Principal Designer and head of experience design for Drive.ai's self-driving vehicle AI platform -- designing, leading, user-testing and championing a great experience for those in the vehicle and those encountering it on the road, reporting directly to the CEO. Drive.ai ran a public self-driving car service in Texas with these designs. Also helped with marketing video and marketing photography as a key actor.

♦	Led design for panels on the car exterior to communicate with other drivers and pedestrians. Our design was featured at both the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum and London Science Museum.

♦	Led design for in-vehicle passenger display showing what the car sees in different view choices to ease safety concerns, as well as providing location/route information, time estimates, and key rider controls.

♦	Designed mobile (iOS/Android) and walk-up kiosk applications for easily scheduling self-driving car rides, resulting in very high customer satisfaction scores for how easy it was to book a ride.

♦	Inventor or co-inventor on 11 self-driving car design innovations leading to granted patents for Communicating a machine intent, Interfacing with an occupant, Identifying a user entering an autonomous vehicle, and Monitoring an interior state of an autonomous vehicle, as well as pending patents for Customizing motion characteristics of an autonomous vehicle for a user and Executing autonomous rideshare requests.

### Lead Designer @ HARMAN International
Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Mountain View, CA
(High-end audio and automotive company, acquired by Samsung)

UX Design Lead (highest individual-contributor role) for the Litehouse Internal and External Design Group. Oversee designs for Automotive, Mobile, and Web-based projects from conception to delivery.

♦	Designed UX for and directed creation of ‘Vehicle Health and Diagnostics’ and ‘Car-as-a-Service’ apps first shown at the 2017 Consumer Electronics (CES) show.  Oversaw the projects from the requirements analysis stage to final reviews.

♦	Received multiple peer recognition awards, for “Innovation” and twice for “Teamwork and Respect”

### Senior Manager, User Experience - Car Multimedia and other U.S. projects @ Bosch North America
Jan 2012 – Jan 2016 | Palo Alto, California
(One of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, with $70 billion in annual revenue)

Led user research, concept, and interaction design of features for the Car Multimedia division's automotive interior innovation projects in Silicon Valley, coordinating with internal teams and partner firms. Also managed the creation of demo storylines for these products. Executed demonstrations for executives and current and prospective customers. Taught user-centered design techniques and processes. Mentored team members.

♦	Drove a user experience research project on side-view cameras that became a key element in a $100 million European OEM purchase.

♦	Led the 2016 CES demo, a vision of the auto interior of late 202X, taking advantage of self-driving to transform the interior of the car into a productive workspace and relaxation area with an intelligent digital personal assistant and integration between home and car. The demo received exceptional customer feedback.

♦	Led the UX portions of the 2014 and 2015 CES demos which, while smaller than 2016’s, demonstrated novel and innovative new design ideas for Car Multimedia, and was the lead presenter of them to OEMs. 

♦	Played an active role in recruiting and building the North America UX team.

### Chief Architect, User Interface and Experience (executive role) @ Revitas
Jan 2010 – Jan 2012 | Newark, CA
(Market leader in contract lifecycle, supply chain and revenue management)

Owned the user experience for all products. Created/reviewed designs for new user interfaces. Collaborated with executive staff on UX processes, plans, and strategies. Met with high-value customers to understand their requirements and communicate design direction.

♦	Accelerated company bookings by 30% year-over-year.

♦	Saved a multimillion-dollar deal by designing a UX prototype that satisfied the client's requirements, demonstrated understanding of their needs, and established confidence in our company.

♦	Created two innovative user interface designs that led to provisional U.S. patent filings.

♦	Managed a $200K/year contracting budget -- choosing, directing, and reviewing the interaction design, graphic design, and prototyping work of all user interface and visual design contractors.

♦	Created a new user-centered design process and implementing a recognition program for those identifying significant user experience problems which might otherwise go unnoticed.

♦	Designed and led the implementation of new common-component “building blocks” to improve the user experiences of the company’s products through the platform widgets within them.

### User Interface Architect (principal level) @ Sun Microsystems
Jan 2001 – Jan 2010 | Menlo Park, CA
Designed user experience for numerous projects. Reviewed products for usability issues and designed appropriate changes. Mentored less experienced designers.  Championed weekly design discussions.

♦	Team awarded "special recognition for an outstanding job," 2009.

♦	Team awarded "technical excellence and leadership," 2008.

♦	Designed common controls for the JavaFX platform, running on desktop, mobile, and televisions.

♦	Led redesign of Sun's Web App suite, creating a unified, well-designed, and usability-tested look and feel.

♦	Evangelized and oversaw UX for Project Woodstock, a toolkit to help deveIopers implement the look and feel of the updated Web Applications suite, ensuring usability, consistency, brand adherence, and accessibility across the product line.

### User Interface Architect @ Bidcom
Jan 1999 – Jan 2000 | San Francisco, CA
(A leading construction-industry web platform)

Managed the user interface design group. Recruited, interviewed, and hired for multiple positions. Ensured all new designs from the team were both intuitive to use and consistent in style. 

♦	Crafted the overall look and feel for Bidcom’s products and built a UI style guide to document and detail the design.

♦	Created a UI process to ensure the developed products matched the overall design.

♦	Oversaw the user interface design of a prototype lending services application that won the business of Fluor Corporation, one of construction's largest organizations.

### Principal User Interface Designer @ Oracle
Jan 1994 – Jan 1999 | Redwood City, CA
Headed up the UI design team for Oracle’s Self-Service Human Resources Web Applications and Self-Service Financials.  Designed the user interface for multiple products. 

♦	Led the redesign of the user interface for Oracle Applications from its previous character-mode roots into an attractive, user friendly graphical user interface which became one of the largest contributors to revenue growth from $209 million in 1994 to $2 billion in 1998 (over 850% growth in 4 years).

♦	Collaborated with a coworker and was awarded a U.S. Patent for developing an HTML button design that combines translatable text with graphic-like visuals.

### User Interface Designer @ Ross Systems
Jan 1992 – Jan 1994 | Redwood City, CA
♦	Designed the GUI for the Renaissance CS product line, to replace a character-mode product, creating the overall look and feel and an internal style guide for use by developers and quality assurance. 

♦	Designed the user interface for all functions and worked with the developers to address any issues arising during implementation.

### Application and Human Interface Designer @ ASK Computer Systems
Jan 1986 – Jan 1992 | Los Altos, CA
♦	Led the user interface design for the ASK Advance product line.  

♦	Worked with a technical writer to create a user interface style guide for the product line and provided user interface design consultation for the rest of the development team.


## Education
### Bachelor's degree in Physics (with additional studies in psychology, psycho-physics, and computer science)
University of California, Berkeley


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/chipalexander
- Website: https://chipalexander.com

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Source: https://flows.cv/chip
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/chip/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-02-23