Experience

Principal Product Designer (Emerging Technologies)

Salesforce   |   Jan 2022  —  Mar 2023

• 80+ Pilot organizations sold 500k+ digital assets, extending marketing, sales, support, and loyalty programs
• Masterminded design and strategic vision for the Emerging Technologies product team working on Web3 and AI
• Delivered design system components for the Web3 CRM platform, providing a unified Web2/Web3 360° user view
• Armed brands with strategies to manage virtual goods empowering connection, engagement, & community-building

Principal Product Designer (Slack & Core Platform Low-Code Tools)

Salesforce   |   Mar 2021  —  Jan 2022

• Transformed the low-code business process automation tools for 1.4M+ Salesforce and Slack users and admins
• Directed design vision for Slack and CRM projects presented at Dreamforce 2021 on a keynote stage
• Launched low-code dev tool design system updates for enterprise users to integrate CRM data into Slack messaging
• Augmented Core Platform Lists & Records features based on user research and input

Principal Product Designer (Find a Doctor)

Blue Shield of CA   |   Dec 2019  —  Feb 2021

• Led and mentored a 6-person consumer design team in 16+ projects, reworking the “Find a Doctor” search tool
• Spearheaded an interactive vision prototype with AI personalization, transforming digital health product strategy
• Drove design team processes, including UX best practices and design system evolution and adoption efforts

Product Design Lead (Display AR)

Ubiquity6   |   Dec 2018  —  Jul 2019

• 500k+ Pilot signups in five months for our augmented reality mobile app and platform
• Reimagined Ubiquity6's consumer mobile app with executive leaders providing shared augmented reality experiences
• Crafted the design system and utilized user flow analysis, personas, wireframes, and prototypes to rework our app

Principal Product Designer (BIM 360 Design Collaboration)

Autodesk   |   Mar 2016  —  Nov 2018

• Added 50k+ new subscribers and $500M revenue growth with the launch of this entirely new BIM 360 module
• Architected the UX strategy, principles, guidelines, and design system for this BIM 360 Design Collaboration module
• Led and mentored a distributed design team of 8 to create a collaborative multi-team architectural design solution

Principal Product Designer (Infraworks)

Autodesk   |   Nov 2013  —  Feb 2016

• Modernized Infraworks' visually rich terraforming tools for conceptual design
• Launched new features for site planning, terrain-shaping & grading, and parking lot design based on research data

Product Design Lead & Manager (zSpace)

zSpace 3d   |   Jun 2010  —  Sep 2013

• Directed UX strategy for our virtual reality platform, generating $60M+ VC investment
• Executed quantitative and qualitative research to drive product and business strategy
• Masterminded UX strategy and design for zSpace's virtual reality (VR) hardware/software platform
• Built, managed, and mentored an 8-person team (FTE and contract) of 2D and 3D designers and researchers

Experience Designer (Second Life's Virtual Land)

Linden Research   |   Dec 2007  —  Dec 2009

• Spearheaded design for virtual land, accounting for 80% of Linden Lab's revenue
• Revamped and enhanced virtual land features for Second Life's landowners, merchants, and consumers
• Overhauled and optimized the notifications system based on quantitative and qualitative user research
• Masterminded the "Find and Discover" strategic growth initiative to increase consumer MAU and user retention

Senior Experience Designer (QuickBooks)

Intuit   |   Sep 2006  —  Nov 2007

• Pioneered UX patterns and standards for QuickBooks, including multiple currency support UX design patterns
• Drove the design system and UX guidelines for next-gen QuickBooks targeting SMBs

Certifications

Design System Bootcamp

Maven Learning (Molly Hellmuth / UI Prep)   |   Feb 2024

• 5-week bootcamp building a design system from scratch utilizing Figma's advanced features and expert workflows

AI-Powered UX Design

The Interaction Design Foundation   |   Sep 2023

• Amplify design workflows with AI to automate repetitive tasks, enrich data analysis, and improve user engagement

Introduction to Generative AI

Google Cloud   |   Aug 2023

• Introduction to LLMs, Generative AI, Generative AI fundamentals, and Responsible AI concepts and governance

How to Design With and For Artificial Intelligence

The Interaction Design Foundation   |   Jul 2023

• Approaches to leveraging AI as a product design material or building block & using AI to design your product

Salesforce Certified User Experience Designer

Salesforce   |   Aug 2022 & renewed Aug 2023

• Certified UX Designers build and deploy UX design concepts on the Salesforce Platform

Education

M.S. ABD (Industrial and Systems Engineering)

Georgia Institute of Technology   |   Atlanta, GA

• Prototyped the use of auditory cues for monitoring & fault detection in NASA's next-gen satellite control system

B.S. (Cognitive Science & Cognitive Psychology)

University of California, San Diego   |   La Jolla, CA

• Member of Dr. Don Norman's Cognitive Engineering Lab collecting Ph.D. candidate's research data

Selected Publications

Albers, M. C. (2019). "Sketch Best Practices for Professional Design Teams". Medium (Design + Sketch).

Albers, M. C. (2018). "Simple Low-Fidelity VR Prototyping: Practical How-To Advice". Medium (Prototypr.io).

Kamba, T., Bharat, K., & Albers, M. C. (1995). "The Krakatoa Chronicle: An Interactive, Personalized Newspaper on the Web". World Wide Web Journal, 1(1) Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & W3C.

Albers, M. C. & Bergman, E. (1995). "The Audible Web: Auditory Enhancements for Mosaic". In Proceedings of CHI'95 - The ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Conference Companion (pp. 318-319). Denver, CO: ACM.

Albers, M. C. (1994). "Auditory Cues for Complex, Supervisory Control Systems: Aiding Fault Detection and Isolation in Satellite-Ground Control". For CHI'94 Workshop on The Future of Audio and Speech in the Interface. Boston, MA: ACM.

Albers, M. C. (1993). "Sonification and Auditory Icons in a Complex, Supervisory Control Environment". For SIGGRAPH/Multimedia `93 Workshop on Sound-Related Computation. Los Angeles, CA: ACM.

Patents

"Three button stylus", US D719,162, December 2014

"Cross-platform audio feedback for GUI components", US 6,853,868, February 2005

"Graphical user interface layout customizer", US 6,738,079, May 2004

"Keyboard navigation of non-focusable components", US 6,654,038, November 2003

"Presentation of link information as an aid to hypermedia navigation", US 6,560,605, May 2003

"Method and apparatus maintaining a to-be-visited site bookmark file", US 6,411,996, June 2002

"Auditory cues for notification of device activity", US 6,400,275, June 2002

"Presentation of link information as an aid to hypermedia navigation", US 6,223,188, April 2001