Michael Arestad's face

Michael Arestad

I'm a product designer and front-end engineer with proven ability to design and develop products used by millions globally.

Skills

  • UI & UX design
    [100%]
  • Systems Design
    [90%]
  • User research
    [80%]
  • t Y p O g R a P h Y
    [100%]
  • HTML/CSS
    [100%]
  • Javascript
    [85%]

Education

  • Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design
    B.F.A. Communications Design
  • University of Northern Colorado
    B.A. Graphic Design

Speaking

  • WordCamps Europe, US, NYC, SF, & more
  • Develop Denver

Contact

Experience

Chromatic: Senior Product Designer – 2021-NOW

Improve the UX of the web.


Automattic: Product Designer – 2013-2020

Collaborate with a team to design and build improved WordPress experiences with powerful features growing the user base and increasing annual recurring revenue.

  • Designed popular products serving millions of people worldwide.
  • Worked in concert with engineers, researchers, and designers to redesign and rebuild entire interfaces including WordPress.com, Jetpack, and WordPress’s new block-based editor, Gutenberg.
  • Designed, engineered, and maintained design system components for WordPress.com and Jetpack reducing design debt, speeding up prototyping, and resulting in a cohesive product experience.
  • Transformed Jetpack from a free product into a highly profitable plugin for Automattic and its partners bringing in millions in annual recurring revenue.
  • Conducted qualitative research and gathered quantitative data resulting in clear understanding of customer needs and informed design decisions.

WordPress: Core Committer – 2012-Present

Volunteer design and code to aid the WordPress community and advance the goal of democratizing publishing.

  • Led the design of product releases and product features delivering improvements to WordPress (powering 40% of the web).
  • Organized and conducted online and in-person WordPress events.
  • Designed identity systems and collateral for WordCamps across the US.

State of Colorado: Graphic Designer – 2012-2013

Work with a small team to make major design improvements to the interactive and print products produced by the state.

  • Designed and produced websites, printed collateral, and identity systems for internal and external clients.
  • Audited hundreds of pages on the website removing redundant/outdated content resulting in an improved user experience.