aloha. i'm chris.

Staff Product Designer crafting accessible B2B web products—while shaping design culture and mentoring emerging talent

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My Work

Professional

LinkedIn

Currently focused on expanding and optimizing the Premium membership ecosystem.

Please contact me for further information.

Design

Lyft

Over the course of nearly 8 years, I led the redesign of our business suite and Concierge dispatching tool for healthcare riders, standardized web components for compliance across products, contributed to interview and hiring committees, and co-chaired an internal design mentorship program.

Please contact me for further information.

Design, Research

Apple

Designed and built an internal dashboard reporting system for the Apple Maps Engineering team to display data from other tools used in the organization. Other team contributions included an internal design system, which assisted engineers with the styling of their applications.

User Experience Documentation, Design, HTML/CSS

Mall Redesign

A large mall was looking for a redesign to improve the online browsing experience for local and international visitors.

I was involved with creating user-experience documents (touchpoints, site audit, competitor analysis, sitemaps, responsive wireframes, user personas, customer and stakeholder interviews) and a mobile-first design approach.

View Case Study

User Experience Documentation, Design, HTML/CSS, WordPress Integration

School Kine Cookies

School Kine Cookies was looking for a custom, backend dashboard system to help teachers manage local cookie sales in Hawaii. After launching, there was a 98% adoption rate with a steady increase of sales.

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Wireframes, Design, HTML/CSS, Ruby on Rails, Shopify Integration

Clearstream.tv

Headquartered in Chicago, Clearstream came to us looking for a custom dashboard reporting system. Built from the ground up, I worked closely with engineers and stakeholders during many different steps of the process.

View Case Study

Design, HTML/CSS, Ruby on Rails

Personal

Helping through experience

Whether it’s speaking to a room full of eager students or flying to Japan to share perspectives on working at a design-centric company, I love teaching and sharing my experiences to help others on their own journeys.

CodePen Thumbnail
Hayao Miyazaki illustration
Ota Designs OD monogram
Things around San Francisco - plant illustration
Things around San Francisco - La Boulangerie

About

17 years ago...

I graduated from Kapiʻolani Community Collegewith a degree in Interface Design and began my career working for different agencies in Hawaii.

In 2015, I packed my bags and decided to move to San Francisco for a fresh start and to immerse myself in the world of design.

View my professional journey on LinkedIn.

Chris Ota Product Designer

Two truths
and a lie

  • I got Netflix to add a photosensitive warning to an episode of Squid Game

  • Steve Jobs signed an Apple product of mine

  • I once ranked first on Google for “Hawaii web designer”

Experience

  1. Staff Product Designer

    LinkedIn

    2025 - Present

  2. Staff Product Design Lead

    Lyft

    2017 – 2025

  3. User Interface Designer

    Apple

    2015 - 2017

  4. Senior User Interface Design

    Ikayzo

    2012 - 2015

  5. Lecturer

    Kapiolani Community College

    2012 - 2014

  6. Senior Web Designer

    Digital Mediums

    2008 - 2011

  7. Intern

    Various

    2007 - 2008

Volunteer

  1. Advisor

    UXHI

    2023 - Present

  2. Mentor

    AIGA San Francisco

    2020

  3. Web & Communications Chair

    AIGA Honolulu

    2012-2015

Design pet peeves

  • Neglecting Figma layer and page names

    You never know who will be looking at your work

  • Standardize the Oxford comma

    "I love my parents, Lady Gaga and Humpty Dumpty." No, I'm not part egg.

  • Using an apostrophe as an ʻokina

    ❌ Hawai'i

    ✅ Hawaiʻi

Created with only handwritten HTML and CSS. Source

“

Good design is long-lasting.

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