I make things with pixels

Hey, I'm Tom Johnson. I’m a Nashville based web, interaction, UX, and product designer. Currently I work at Asurion in Nashville, where I design a service to deliver replacement phones the same day of a claim, with a real person there to help set it up. I also work on the Asurion global patterns library team.

Slightly more about me
CONTACT →

I design these

  • Websites

  • Mobile Apps

  • Enterprise Software

  • Ecommerce Sites

  • Prototypes

  • Interactions

I've worked with

But I mostly work with startups, individuals, and local businesses. How much work did I do for the big names I just listed? A few project here and there, but let's just say I don't have Sergie's personal cell number. You wouldn't recognize if I had the logo for Associated Luxury Hotels, Beyond Tells, Bow Bam, or ServeCo International, would you?

Anyhow, I'm currently accepting new clients for app, web, interaction, and digital product design. I'm happy to chat more if you have anything you'd like to have me help with.

Work examples and such

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INTERACTION DESIGN

Shift Start Time

An interaction that was made as part of the Agent Mobile app to allow users to change their shift start and end time easily. This interaction needed to work across Android and iOS was designed to ensure discoverability in leau of complex training.

See the progression
UI DESIGN

Tesla Model 3 UI

I recreated and prototyped the Tesla Model 3 UI before it was fully unveiled to the public. Long story short, I was skeptical that a giant piece of glass would make for a good driving experience, but I wanted to tinker around and see what I could learn from it. Also, I was bored.  Here's an article I wrote about what I found.

the Source File
Try the Protoype
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PRODUCT DESIGN

Split Shift

Another feature of the Agent Mobile app, I was tasked with finding a way to allow users to move portions of their shifts to other days of the week. This feature needed to only allow users to select and move those hours in ways that didn't conflict with their workforce requirements, e.g. too many hours in consecutive or single days, minimum hours on a single day, max/min hours in a specified week. Oh, and it needed to be super easy.

Process shots on Dribbble
Try it yourself
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Web Design

Bespke.com

A fake design agency and website for use in a collaborative article with Webflow to talk about how to build an agency site in Webflow. Read that article here.

Get Bespk'd
WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Intradiem

A website designed on a system built for fast page load times and reusability of developed components.

Read MY process
See the Site
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Product Design

Agent Experience

A desktop app made for workers in contact centers. This app allows the Intradiem Rules Engine to deliver alerts when, for example, call volume is at a lull and it would be a good time for them to take a training course. I wrote about why I designed this in Webflow here.

Open the Prototype
Look at the Specs
Web Design

Serveco.com

Design and development of a furniture warranty and protection company that had the problem of many different brands coming together into one cohesive theme. Built and maintained in Webflow.

Serve up the page
Web Development

ALHworld.com

Developed and aided in the structure of this site for the Associate Luxury Hotels, which is a parent company to some of the most exclusive hotels in the world.

See the site

Things that move

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This was made to emulate the specs found in Material Design. Turns out, though, that the darn thing was just a fun Google concept with no actual reference-able code. It's fun though.

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Made this bad boy in Principle. Yeah. If you don't use Principle, that's just an "ohhhhhhkay?", but if you use Principle, that's more like a "uuuuwhaaaAA???" Amirite?

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This is a REAAAALLY dumbed down demo of a state-based rules engine. No, seriously. Took like 2 years to figure out this idea. Trust me, it was awesome. To bad it'll never be built...

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Just a template of the Material Design bottom navigation.

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A lil interaction for when all of your notifications have been dismissed. Always thought it would go well with a tiny *ding* sound.

Words and thoughts

July 16, 2019 • 11 Min Read

Design tools are holding us back

I'm a bit frustrated with the shortcomings of design tools. Don't get me wrong, I still love them, but I think it's time for us to start pushing for more features that emulate development, and less that are rooted in visual design. Hear my rant.

Hold me back
Nov 13, 2018 • 7 Min Read

Figma tips and tricks

I started this document a while ago for the design team I’m on at Asurion, but I thought it would be helpful for others on the interwebs as well. Nothing here is advanced or anything, but it’s a help repo if nothing else.

Learn the secrets
Sept 11, 2018 • 14 Min Read

Stop handing off concepts and start designing real products with Webflow.

I design products, prototypes, and interactions in Webflow. It’s throw-away code (mostly). It’s clunky for lots of screens. It’s slow to get started. It’s not super collaborative. It’s expensive for teams. The code it generates doesn’t really translate to React, Angular, or Native Apps.

This Article is long, you've been warned
Apr 6, 2018 • 6 Min Read

I failed to build a design-driven culture

This is a tough one to talk about, folks. This is not an aspirational post, or even one that will give advice on how to avoid my mistakes. I don’t think I can show exactly where I went wrong, or how I could have changed anything. There is no happy ending. Abandon hope all ye who scroll here.

But YoU don't have to
Apr 2018 • 4 part series

Design and build your agency website

I built an agency website in Webflow. I used minimal classes, flexbox, the CMS, and the API to create it. In this four-part series, I’ll give you tips about using each, and how to get started.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
May 24, 2017 • 14 Min Read

You are going to switch to Figma

I’ve read a lot of comparison articles about the two, but I don’t think they really do Figma justice. Some of them briefly mention the team features, the browserness, the components, and constraints, but they don’t really focus on how they’re better than versions in Sketch. At best, they make it seem like both are about the same. The reason I’m writing this is because they’re not.

For all of these reasons
Apr 2018 • 8 Min Re

What Tesla’s Model 3 UI reveals about its vision for the future

If you’re a designer/car enthusiast this post is for you. I’ve broken down the details of the dashboard controls and interface of the Tesla Model 3, the first mass-market, touchscreen only electric car. The car’s UI design tells us a great deal about Tesla’s long term strategy, and their eyes toward a driverless future.

Reveal Elon's Secrets
Jan 12, 2017 • 5 Min Read

Designers are full of bad ideas

All of my ideas are bad. Every. Single. One. And yet, I still keep having them. My brain is chalked full of inconsistencies, inaccuracies, & incomprehensible iterations of interactions. I stonewall good decisions and necessary processes, spout nonsensical thoughts while opining about the obscure, and pontificate...

See my bad ideas
Jan 12, 2017 • 5 Min Read

There are no UX best practices

Recently I downloaded Goldstar on my iPad. It’s a ticket buying app, similar to stubhub or ticketmaster. This is the first screen I saw:I looked for a ‘skip’ button or some other way that I could use the app without actually having to create an account. Maybe there was a subtle arrow or a ‘no thanks’, ‘remind me later’, or a ‘show me the tix’ button?

Unlearn your "best practices"
Jul 27, 2016 • 5 Min Read

Nothing is intuitive

“We need to make it more intuitive”“That’s not intuitive”“Our primary goal is that it be intuitive”…stop. Please. Almost every design discussion I’ve had lately has had one of these quotes. I hear it from clients, large corporations, key stakeholders, developers, other designers, managers, interns, and ESPECIALLY entrepreneurs.

THis button sure isn't intuitive
Jul 30, 2015 • 6 Min Read

Grandma is a user too

About a month ago, I was at a Wendy’s while on vacation in Wisconsin. Work could not be further from my mind, as all my attention was on the tower of beef-n-cheese melty goodness that I had just sat down to eat. I was all-consumed in my beefy effort when, planning and debating on the next bite, when, to my great distress, I noticed a little drama going on in the corner of my eye. A little old lady was trying to get a coke.

She wants you to read this and then call her

Want to work on a project with me? Just want to chat?

Don't feel at all pressured to reach out to me just about business-y things and such. I'm happy to chat for hours about design tool minutia on Twitter, grab a cup of joe with your if you're in the Nashville area, or just talk about life, the universe, and why the designated hitter is an abomination to baseball and should be abolished and forgotten forever.

CONTACT form →Tweet @ me

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