# James Carleton

> 🎨 Design Systems & Accessibility

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

UX designer + family man

Writing and portfolio: www.carletondesign.com

I love creating engaging user experiences that simplify powerful technologies for humans. When done well, the customer enjoys a seamless experience, without realizing all the work we put into it.

I thrive on the challenge of leading interaction and visual design efforts with product and development staff toward results that meet business and UX goals. I take every opportunity to grow through experience, taking risks, and learning from those around me.

I continually test emerging tools and methods to find the most effective workflow. My days are lived in UI patterns, flows, mockups, documentation, and sprint stories. I avoid vague meetings, hasty reactions and deadly scope creep.

## Work Experience
### Staff Product Designer, Design Systems @ JPMorganChase
Jan 2025 – Present | Palo Alto, California, United States
Supporting commercial banking product design system.

### Staff Product Designer, Design Systems @ eBay
Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 | San Jose, California, United States
Staff Designer on our One Experience, Design system team
- Collaborating with product teams to evolve our system to fit feature team's needs
- Documenting foundations, components, and patterns on our public playbook
- Supporting our DS community through internal support channels and office hours
- Improving engineering coordination for stronger system adoption across eBay products
- Advocating for accessibility in our design system and end products
- New doc site: playbook.ebay.com

### Sr. User Experience Designer 2 - Design Systems @ PayPal
Jan 2019 – Jan 2024 | San Jose, California, United States
- Lead designer for new visual language update (Sep 2023-Jan 2024) to consumer products, our small team delivered in just 3 weeks to meet deadlines by new Chief Design Officer and consumer app team leaders. App launched to public 1/20/24.
- Contributed to the foundations of design and engineering libraries built over previous years enabled rapid iteration of the DS to support new initiatives from executives
- Lead support for various downstream teams to grow system and adoption across product and brand silos (Consumer, Merchant, Credit, Checkout, Marketing)
- Built and lead DS support efforts for our customers (internal design+eng) in cross time zone office hours, slack channels, share-outs
- Established and iterated DS team processes to improve design collaboration across the range of product design groups at PayPal
- Supported UX Ops staff in tooling upgrades, pilots, and training efforts
- Initiated efforts to raise the bar on accessibility in design and engineering, partnering with A11y staff to integrate standards into the design system, employee onboarding and learning platforms.
- Helped kickstart internal accessibility champions network to spread influence across org lines
- Internal mentoring, hiring support, frequent presentations and speaking, driving UX team culture of learning and support through remote work transition
- External outreach: publishing on corporate blog and personal channels, speaking engagements at industry events, and design mentoring programs

### Sr. User Experience Designer 1, Design Systems @ PayPal
Jan 2016 – Jan 2019 | San Jose, California, United States
- Started a brand new design system from scratch with 2 other designers, reporting to VP of Design
- Nurtured our design system startup from concept into a functional product team with dedicated triad (design, engineering, product) delivering libraries for design and multiple code libraries on native (iOs/Android) and web platforms. This structure unlocked adoption of the DS by downstream product teams
- Established and evolved initial team process: agile scrum ceremonies, design reviews, design QA process, office hours, slack channels, stakeholder reports
- Built foundational design component libraries in Sketch, then later Figma, setup token and asset delivery tracks with engineers. Quickly adapted strategies as tooling developed greater support for DS management
- Taught product teams how to use library features and how to contribute to the DS

### Principal, Designer @ E&J Design
Jan 2007 – Jan 2016 | Campbell, CA
- Freelance design/build team providing consulting services to a variety of businesses and organizations, large and small
- UX/UI/Web/Branding design coupled with Web/App/Rails development services in collaboration with business partner Eric Ritchey
- I enjoy using side work as a playground to sharpen my skills and explore new approaches and tech

### Sr. User Experience Designer @ Realtor.com
Jan 2014 – Jan 2016 | Santa Clara, CA
Senior User Experience Designer, Consumer UX group

Projects:
  • Lead designer for Realtor.com responsive search results experience project
  • Lead designer for Realtor.com map search redesign
  • Lead designer for Realtor.com pattern library
  • Lead designer for Realtor.com Mortgage iOS/Android mobile app
  • Samples available upon request

Process:
  • Frequent contributor to UX team design reviews, forums, and design documentation
  • Agile scrum trained, worked closely with developers in agile sprints
  • Recently added interaction/animation/motion design prototping skills
  • Familiarity with HTML/CSS has increased my capability to collaborate with developers
  • Collaborating with user researcher staff to design and execute in-lab and remote usability testing - Integrating findings back into project work 
  • Advocate for utilizing modern front end frameworks, responsive design, living style guides and pattern libraries
  • Advocate for utilizing modern prototyping tools in the team’s process (Sketch, InVision, Principle, etc)
  • Continually seeking knowledge from industry events, lectures, conferences, books, blogs, etc.

### User Experience Designer @ Realtor.com
Jan 2011 – Jan 2014 | San Jose, CA
User Experience Designer, Consumer UX group

Projects: 
-Designer for a variety of consumer facing improvements to Realtor.com, including detail pages, maps, and lead forms 
-Designer for a variety of consumer facing improvements to SeniorHousingNet.com, including responsive design/mobile web
-Designer for Realtor.com mobile web app

Process: 
-Sought knowledge from industry events, lectures, conferences, books, blogs, etc.
-Frequent contributor to peer reviews, forums, design documentation, and process improvement
-Integrated user research and analytics into design process

### Designer (Web/Print/Product) @ James Carleton Design
Jan 1997 – Jan 2012 | Campbell, CA
- Freelance designer providing a range of web/print/product design and development services to a variety of businesses and organizations, large and small.
- Sold, managed, and delivered a range of consulting services. Later formed E&J Design with expanded staff and service capacity
- I enjoy using side work as a playground to sharpen my skills and explore new approaches and tech

### Front-End Web Developer (Temp) @ Tiny Prints (a Shutterfly Co.)
Jan 2010 – Jan 2011 | Sunnyvale, CA
Provided front-end development support for the booming e-commerce business Tiny Prints (and its brand Wedding Paper Divas). Helped the team keep internal clients happy with daily site developments, a complete rebrand, epic holiday season, and innovative marketing efforts.

### Architectural Designer/Project Mangager @ Thomas J. Carleton Architecture
Jan 2005 – Jan 2011 | Salinas, CA
Management and development of projects including: 2D construction drawings/documents, 3D concept models and detailed renderings. Also designs firm's graphic identity, website and marketing materials.

### Industrial Designer @ exodesign
Jan 2002 – Jan 2005 | Pleasanton, CA
Industrial Designer (Contractor)
Managed team projects throughout the product development process.
Contributed to projects in various areas: corporate branding, product strategy, market research, ideation, conceptualization, 3D CAD, modelmaking, marketing, and production administration.


## Education
### BS in Industrial Design
San José State University

### Associates in Art
Hartnell College


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jamescarleton
- Portfolio: http://carletondesign.com/

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Source: https://flows.cv/jamescarleton
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/jamescarleton/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-13