# Joshua Vaughn > UX Design Leader • 20+ Years Experience • DesignOps • Platform Design • Design Systems Location: San Jose, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/joshuavaughn I am a User Experience Design Leader with over 20 years of experience simplifying software applications for companies including IBM, Informatica, Intuit, SAP, and Cisco. My focus is on eliminating unnecessary complexity, establishing design systems, and improving review processes to deliver higher quality products. Throughout my career, I’ve successfully led design initiatives by influencing and collaborating with cross-functional teams to drive change. I’m known for asking difficult questions and my passion for enhancing the user experience and improving product quality. I managed IBM’s formal Design & User Experience (D&UX) assessment program which became a key success metric for software business units and their product teams. I recruited and trained over 350 specialized reviewers, simplified the assessment process for reviewers and product teams, and helped drive a measurable 10% year-over-year improvement in product quality. D&UX assessments promoted the responsible use of Watson AI by ensuring that all AI-enabled features were aligned with IBM’s user-centered best practices. I led the design of Informatica’s Cloud platform for several years, transforming it from a basic Salesforce data loader app into the industry-leading enterprise integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS). I also developed the Archipelago design system which became essential to all Cloud platform features, including those developed by startup companies acquired by Informatica. I hold a Master of Arts in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Illinois where I studied AI, human factors, and knowledge representation. Outside of work, I’m an amateur guitarist who performs in Bay Area tribute bands. This experience has honed my collaboration skills, enabling me to work more effectively with diverse and globally distributed software product teams. After 15 years in enterprise Cloud data management, I am seeking a design leadership role at a small-to-medium company where I can continue simplifying complex systems and driving user-centered design strategies. I am open to fully remote roles, hybrid roles within the San Francisco Bay Area, or fully on-site roles within the South Bay. I am particularly interested in opportunities that would merge my design expertise with my background in the music industry, though I am open to other industries in which I can lead impactful projects and foster innovation. ## Work Experience ### Senior UX Design Lead, Design & User Experience Program @ IBM Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 | San Jose, California, United States In this DesignOps role, I was part of a two-person team managing the formal quality assessment program for the entire IBM Software business unit. For each major release, all products and features were required to have a formal review meeting with the product team, a design executive, and a review panel who assessed quality using the IBM Experience Standards, resulting in a score from 0 to 100. • Recruited and trained 300+ reviewers to assess products on design focus areas (Accessibility, Content, Usability, Visual design, and Watson AI) and universal experiences (Discover, Learn, Try, Buy, Get started, and Use) using the IBM Experience Standards • Revamped assessment process by creating Airtable web forms for each reviewer role, automating the calculation of scores, facilitating publication of assessment reports on the IBM intranet, and creating dashboards to track quality scores over time • Ensured all issues identified by reviewers were tracked in GitHub or Jira, driving a 10% annual improvement in quality scores • Promoted the use of quality scores as a success metric by writing intranet blog posts and presenting to product teams ### Senior UX Design Lead, Cloud Pak for Data @ IBM Jan 2019 – Jan 2021 | San Jose, California, United States Led a 20-person team designing the core features of IBM Cloud Pak for Data, an integrated data and AI platform enabling enterprises to modernize how they collect, organize, and analyze data and infuse Watson artificial intelligence throughout their businesses. • Established regular design team critiques and "four-in-a-box" meetings with the product marketing, development, design, and content teams to facilitate knowledge sharing and develop a shared vision of the IBM Cloud Pak for Data platform • Collaborated with teams who designed the previously standalone products contributing concepts to the Cloud Pak for Data platform, including IBM Knowledge Catalog and IBM Watson Studio, to ensure a consistent and unified platform experience • Participated in cross-product teams defining the services shared across multiple IBM Cloud Paks and their corresponding Carbon design patterns including the homepage framework, global search, onboarding, notifications, and user management ### Principal UX Designer, Archipelago Design System @ Informatica Jan 2015 – Jan 2019 | Redwood City, California, United States Led design and documentation of Archipelago design system for the next generation Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services platform • Pitched new design system concept to improve UX integration of business process modeling tools from an acquired startup • Established design patterns for asset management, forms, tables, messaging, validation, navigation, and responsive layouts • Collaborated with a team of front-end developers to implement Archipelago design patterns as reusable React components • Coordinated with marketing and product visual designers to embrace the new company brand introduced late in the project ### Principal UX Designer, Informatica Cloud @ Informatica Jan 2010 – Jan 2014 | Redwood City, California, United States Originally a startup business unit focused on simple data integration use cases for Salesforce customers, Informatica Cloud evolved into the leading integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) with a mapping designer, replacing legacy PowerCenter development tools. • Led design and user research for the Informatica Cloud mapping designer, which enabled integration developers to create parameterized mappings and “citizen integrators” to run tasks based on those mappings with easy-to-use wizards • Revamped information architecture of the Informatica Cloud platform to incorporate new development tools including the mapping designer and business process modeling and monitoring tools from an acquired startup • Coordinated with product visual designers to embrace a new company brand and improve the initial platform experience ### Principal UX Designer, Enterprise Web Applications @ Informatica Jan 2007 – Jan 2009 | Redwood City, California, United States During my early years at Informatica, web applications were only used for limited use cases while most integration development work took place within PowerCenter development tools for Windows or new plug-ins for the Eclipse integrated development environment. • Led design and user research for Informatica Analyst, a web application for profiling data sources and creating data quality rules, scorecards, mapping specifications, and reference tables • Also led design and user research for Informatica Administrator, a web application for configuring and monitoring the services necessary to run all Informatica enterprise applications including Informatica Analyst and PowerCenter development tools • Documented design patterns for Informatica's enterprise web applications on an intranet website using Adobe Dreamweaver ### Senior User Interface Designer, Quicken Health @ Intuit, Inc. Jan 2006 – Jan 2007 | Menlo Park, California, United States At the time, Intuit was best known for its Quicken, QuickBooks, and TurboTax finance products and was exploring new opportunities in healthcare. Intuit later spun Quicken off into its own company and acquired Credit Karma and Mailchimp. • Designed and documented features and design patterns for Quicken Health Expense Tracker, a web application enabling consumers to better manage their families' medical expenses and health histories by downloading their benefits and claims from participating medical insurance companies and organizing all of their healthcare information in one place • Analyzed and documented common design patterns across the Quicken family of applications including Quicken Personal Finance, Quicken Rental Property Manager, Quicken Medical Expense Manager, and Quicken Home Inventory Manager ### User Interface Designer, User Experience @ SAP Labs Jan 2005 – Jan 2006 | Palo Alto, California, United States SAP is a global leader in enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications based in Waldorf, Germany. At the time, SAP was preparing to launch its new Business ByDesign web application platform to replace its legacy R/3 client-server platform. • Designed and documented several UI building blocks for the SAP Business ByDesign web application platform including enterprise search, find forms, input and value help, learning and help centers, and message handling • Collaborated with a global team of UI designers, developers, and solution managers to ensure these UI components were both technically feasible and met customer requirements ### Usability Engineer, Supply Chain Management @ PeopleSoft, Inc. Jan 2003 – Jan 2005 | Pleasanton, California, United States PeopleSoft was a leader in human resource management, supply chain management, and other enterprise software based on their PeopleTools web application platform. The company was acquired by Oracle in 2005. • Conducted remote user research with eProcurement and Services Procurement customers to understand their customizations of current product releases, evaluate designs for upcoming releases, and gather requirements for future releases • Redesigned high-profile web application components to be more usable and useful, yet still technically feasible ### Usability Engineer, Design Labs @ eBay, Inc. Jan 2002 – Jan 2003 | San Jose, California, United States eBay is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces featuring both online auctions and “Buy It Now” instant sales. • Designed online surveys and iterative usability tests for projects including checkout, My eBay, navigation, and item listings • Conducted benchmark and iterative usability tests of eBay's Help Center, influencing content and UI designs • Conducted quarterly benchmark usability tests of the entire eBay website ### Usability Engineer, User Experience @ Siebel Systems Jan 2000 – Jan 2002 | San Mateo, California, United States Siebel was a leader in enterprise customer relationship management software that was developing a new web application platform to replace its successful client-server application platform for Windows. Siebel was acquired by Oracle in 2006. • Created style guide for Interactive Selling Suite web applications based on an evaluation of B2B and B2C ecommerce websites • Conducted benchmark usability tests of the Field Service, Interactive Selling Suite, and Marketing applications • Redesigned the Field Service application by creating task flows, a conceptual model, and storyboards ### User-Centered Design Engineer @ Cisco Systems, Inc. Jan 1999 – Jan 2000 | San Jose, California, United States Cisco is a leading manufacturer of networking hardware including routers and switches. It was the most valuable company in the world at the time, developing new products including Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone systems. • Assisted senior staff with usability tests of Windows and web applications for configuring network and VoIP hardware • Conducted usability tests of VoIP telephones and web applications for call center agents and network engineers • Created banner ads, a database, and a web form to recruit potential usability study participants ## Education ### Master of Arts in Cognitive Psychology University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ### Bachelor of Arts in Psychology DePauw University ### Indiana Academic Honors Diploma Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, & Humanities ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jvaughn - Portfolio: https://www.joshuavaughn.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/joshuavaughn JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/joshuavaughn/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13