PRODUCT DESIGNER / HEAD OF DESIGN

Patrice Calligaris
Design of Apps Websites Brands

Info

I’m French, permanent resident living in Sunnyvale, California.

I like to share my design expertise which is my passion. I have more than 15 years of experience. It's why I'm only interested to talk about lead or director positions.

Since 2016, I have the opportunity to work for many startups in the Silicon Valley. I design high quality apps and websites, aiming to help people solve problems through creating an amazing user experience with strong consistency and deep simplicity at the core. I also love to work on branding. I always define myself as an advocate of end users, often misunderstood by geeks/engineers.

I know how to lead a team with the right design tools and management skills. I have experience hiring people. You will find an example of my design process at the bottom of this web but this Silicon Valley trend for hiring is mostly a problem of trust (Steve Jobs will say B------t :-). Every case is unique and what matters the most are the results. Of course, how you do it too but when someone have more than 5 years experience, recruiters should look at the work done first and the results. User satisfaction is really the most important.

My new website is inspired by macOS Mojave

RESUME (PDF)

My Skills

UI/UX FOR APPS

90%

UI/UX FOR WEB

70%

Branding

90%

Visual Design

70%

Apps

I designed these Applications for consumers or small business markets. Most of my experience is on Apple platforms as I care about quality and user experience but I'm open minded about other platforms
(click on the icon of each app to see a sample of my work)

JackSpot *
(social network)

I have done everything for this app as the main designer. Research, wireframes, user flow, prototyping, branding, visual design and user experience. This is my most recent work.

xPlan *
(project management)

This product now sold by a new company was one of the first app on the Mac App Store. I designed the UI/UX and all visual elements related to the product.

CoffeeNow
(meet people)

I have done everything for this app as the main designer. Research, wireframes, user flow, prototyping, branding, visual design and user experience. This is a work in progress that I do on my spare time.

CheckUp
(computer monitoring)

I designed 4 different versions of this product (UI/UX/Branding). It was a best seller for Mac users during years.

xList *
(tasks manager)

I designed a standalone version and a client/server of this product for Apple users. It was my first work on a mobile application for all screen sizes (iPhone and iPad).

xLine *
(mind mapping)

I designed a unique user interface for this innovative product built for Apple plaforms. I made it contextual and interactive depending on the object selected by users.

Imagerie
(drawing)

I updated the user interface of a product bought by a company. I made it more up to date of design trends and more consistent.

Twin
(backup)

I updated the user interface of a product bought by a company. I made it more up to date of design trends and more consistent.

Tectonic
(earthquakes)

I created this product for fun. I wanted to see live earthquakes on a 3D globe. It was very popular on the App Store during a time.

* available on the App Store

Websites

I can build any website using templates or high quality open source frameworks
(bootstrap, Elements-UI, Semantic-UI, Ant Design).
I'm an expert of Expression Engine CMS

JackSpot.app
(App for local communities)
I built a website for this innovative app. I provided the design direction and coded the full website.

MacWeb.com
(Cloud service)
I built a website for this innovative service. I provided the design direction and coded the full website

CoffeeNow.us
(App to connect people from a map)
I built a website for this innovative app. I provided the design direction and coded the full website

ADNX.COM
(Native Apps)
I built a website for this software company. I provided the design direction and coded the full website

xWorld
(social network)
I provided the design direction

TechProcess
(consulting services)
I provided the design direction

Branding

I designed the logo for these companies and worked on the consistency of the brand for many support and products. I love to empower a brand and work on the identity of a product. It tells a story and create emotions that are both essential to connect with users.

JackSpot

HeadVox

CoffeeNow

TinyBinary

ADNX Software

Metixi

Arques

Noblic

Experience

I started my career in France in 1987 with a Mac, Photoshop, Illustrator 1.0. I learned about typography and desktop publishing. I have a strong background but on this section, I'm just describing my most recent work experiences.
Check my LinkedIn profile for more information.

November 2018 <-> Present

MacWeb.com - Palo Alto, CA

Head of Design (UI/UX/Branding)

I'm working on a cool project around Apple servers and cloud services. I cannot say more right now but stay stunned for more news.

February 2018 <-> November 2018

BiguBigu - Santa Clara, CA

Senior Product Designer (UI/UX/Branding)

I was the lead designer and project manager for a great startup. We built an innovative product named JackSpot. It's a new social network based on locations and a map. You can learn more about JackSpot and see some results of my work at https://jackspot.app

September 2017 <-> February 2018

CoffeeNow.us - Palo Alto, CA

Head of Design (UI/UX/Branding)

I was helping a very nice startup. I believe in the concept and the people. Both are very important for the success of a product. I was leading the design direction for the company and the product. I designed the logo, the website and the UI/UX of the app. CoffeeNow is about connecting people sharing the same interests when they have nothing to do. Visit CoffeeNow.us for more information.

March 2017 <-> January 2018

digicali - Silicon Valley

Consultant - Senior Product Designer (UI/UX/Branding)

During almost a year, I was helping few startups to raise the bar for the branding and the design of their products (UI/UX).

February 2001 <-> May 2016

app4mac Software - Lyon, France

Founder, Lead UI/UX Designer

I was building Apps for Apple platforms during 15 years. Some products were top sellers at the App Store. I managed a team of designers and developers.

My Story

I got my first computer when I was 12 years old. A commodore 64.  I switched after to Atari ST 520 and then the Macintosh II fx. I studied arts and letters and got my first job after school. I was very lucky to experience the evolution of design from the beginning of the digital revolution. I learned about typography and worked on publishing and advertising for many years.

I created my first company when I was 21 years old. I was building multimedia, interactive content when nobody knew about this word yet. I was using Macromedia Director. For a customer, we created the first CD-Rom to promote the Euro currency.

My second business was about internet kiosks with touch screens in public spaces. The company became number two in the French market. We were making everything: the design of kiosks and the content inside. We sold hundred of units to big corporations.

My third company was about building native apps for Apple platforms (iOS, macOS, tvOS). I worked on it for the last 15 years. The company was in the top 10 of French software companies for this market. We built an innovative project management application named xPlan and the first secure web browser for internet kiosks: xStand.

In my career, I had the chance to meet Steve Jobs multiple times at NeXT Computer Inc.

Technically, I'm an hybrid and open minded person. I have design skills and I know many technologies. It’s because I like to understand how things works. It's why I learned coding for websites. I can build almost any dynamic websites with e-commerce features and a database for the back-end but I prefer to focus on the design that is my true passion :-)

Design Process

This is how I work on most projects. There are always exceptions. For Apps, I prefer to build a prototype after step three in order to test the user flow.

STEP 1 - Goal identification

I work with the team to determine what goals the project needs to fulfill. I.e., what its purpose is. It's not always a simple task but it's necessary as most people tend to complicate things. This step is usually in close collaboration with the CEO or other stakeholders. If questions aren’t all clearly answered in the brief, a whole project can set off in the wrong direction.

STEP 2 - Scope

Once we know the project's goals, we can define the scope. I.e., what features the project requires to fulfill the goal and the timeline for building those out. It's often a question of budget or related to the size of a team. it can often lead to more work. At this stage, if the expectations aren’t matched by an increase in budget or timeline, a project can rapidly become utterly unrealistic.

STEP 3 - Wireframes

The team can start digging into the user flow, defining how the content and features we defined in scope definition will interrelate. It's very important at this stage to explains the relationships between the various pages and content elements. Although a wireframe doesn’t contain any final design elements, it does act as a guide for how the project will ultimately look.

STEP 4 - Content Creation

With the project architecture and some content in place, a team can start working on the visual brand, the identity of the product. It’s time to create the visual style for the product. This part of the design process will often be shaped by existing branding elements, colour choices, and logos, as stipulated by the company. But it’s also the stage of the design process where a good designer can really shine.

STEP 5 - Testing

At this step, a team have all content and defined how they display to the user, so it's time to make sure it all works. It's important to identify user experience issues before to launch a product. Errors may be the result of small coding mistakes, and while it is often a pain to find and fix them, it’s better to do it at this stage than present a broken product to the public. Launching too early is a common mistake.

Quotes

I like these sentences from famous people. It's all about simplicity.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

LEONARDO DA VINCI

"In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity."

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLO

"If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself."

ALBERT EINSTEIN

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."

CONFUCIUS

"Simplicity is the glory of expression."

WALT WHITMAN

"Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity"

PLATO

"It is vain to do with more what can be done with less."

WILLIAM OF OCCAM

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

Patrice Calligaris
Design of Apps Websites Brands

Info

My Skills

Apps

Websites