DesignerPrototyperEngineer

Junius Gunaratne —
I'm a product designer with a technical background.

I'm currently at Google in Seattle and have extensive industry experience at a number of tech companies. Additionally, I'm well-versed in the theoretical aspects of design and usability thanks to my graduate studies in human-computer interaction and behavioral economics.

I'm open to hearing about new opportunities and connecting with other similar minded people in my field. Below you'll find several projects I've worked on over the past few years.

My experience on LinkedIn

Google Bard I/O Preview

In early 2023, LLMs garnered significant public attention, prompting Google's leadership to respond swiftly to market dynamics. They made the strategic decision to expedite the release of their large language model (LLM) to the public.

As a designer and prototyper, I played a crucial role within a small five-person design team tasked with crafting a mobile prototype. The prototype served as a showcase for Google's LLM technology within the Google App for Google's major annual I/O event. My responsibilities included designing user flows and seamlessly integrating them into the prototype.

Throughout the project, we engaged in regular reviews with senior design directors and leadership at the VP level of product and design teams. Our completed prototype had the honor of being presented to CEO Sundar Pichai, contributing meaningfully to the strategy and direction of Google Bard.

Case Study

Accomplishments

  • Improved speed of design iteration — Use of agile prototyping in design helped address internal and external criticism that Google was not moving fast enough in the LLM space.
  • Influenced senior leadership — Prototype presented to CEO helped shape and influence leadership decision-making throughout Search and Ads.
  • Received recognition from senior leadership — Product and design leadership praised the high quality deliverables that addressed rapidly changing market conditions.
  • Created positive media attention — Google I/O presentation influenced media portrayal of Google as quickly closing gaps with competition.

Reddit Home and Post Details

I spearheaded the redesign initiative for Reddit's logged-out desktop and mobile web interfaces. Collaborating with product and engineering leaders, including VPs and EVPs, I facilitated design reviews and gathered valuable feedback.

In close partnership with design directors and the Head of Design, I navigated a landscape consisting of several product areas, working seamlessly with various teams' Product Managers and Designers, spanning Ads, Search, Growth, and more. As part of this multifaceted effort, I also took on the role of a mentor, guiding less experienced designers on effective structure and presentation techniques tailored for executive audiences.

Our efforts materialized with the launch of the new design in 2023. Notably, this redesign proved instrumental in not only attracting additional traffic but also in significantly boosting engagement levels on Reddit.com.

Case Study

Accomplishments

  • Improved engagement and traffic — The redesign played a key role in attracting additional traffic to Reddit.com as well as significantly boosting engagement levels on the platform.
  • Influenced senior leadership — Presented to and collaborated with product and engineering leaders, including VPs and EVPs, facilitating design reviews and gathering valuable feedback.
  • Led and mentored designers — Took on the role of a mentor, guiding less experienced designers on effective structure and presentation techniques tailored for executive audiences.
  • Aligned and generated consensus with opinionated stakeholders — I navigated multiple product areas and worked with various teams' leadership in product management, engineering and designer in Ads, Community, Search, and Growth, to align teams on the new design.

Google Ads + ML

I collaborated with machine learning engineers to develop an interface aimed at proposing innovative ad categories to advertising agencies. The resulting product marked a pivotal shift, transforming a once-command-line interface into a user-friendly tool accessible to non-technical professionals within advertising agencies. This breakthrough empowered advertisers to leverage advanced machine learning capabilities, uncovering ideas that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Through a rapid prototyping cycle, our team successfully launched a preview product to our customers, showcasing powerful machine learning capabilities. This not only allowed the product team to refine requirements but also illuminated the tangible value of integrating machine learning into ad category suggestions.

Case Study

Accomplishments

  • Strengthened partnership with engineering — Helped the engineering team gain a better understanding of how to apply machine learning to a practical problem.
  • Challenged and overcame organizational conventions — By using agile prototyping and addressing data and privacy concerns, the team overcame organizational inertia and launched a new product in record time.
  • Received recognition from senior leadership — An Ads Senior VP lauded the product as "the most innovative Ads product in recent years."
  • Influenced leadership by spearheading external user research — Research obtained from the prototype helped the team understand the value of ML ad category suggestions and influenced leadership to invest in the product.

Material Design

Material Design is Google's company wide design system. I led exploration of animation and interaction within Material Design through design and prototyping. Grounded in platform constraints and user research insights, my work contributed to the successful launch of versions M1 and M2, integrated across many products.

My role involved identifying opportunities to elevate platform capabilities, implementing motion design enhancements for authentic user interaction, and addressing performance challenges on mobile devices. Navigating the diverse needs of various product design and engineering teams, I made sure that the components were not only universally applicable, but also adaptable to the unique requirements of different products. My work also extended into writing production code for iOS components used in many apps across the company.

Additional work included communicating the use of design systems to other teams throughout the company and serving as an advocate sharing the design system ideas company-wide. Collaborating with cross-functional design teams, I played a key role in aligning and integrating these innovative concepts into Google's design landscape.

Case Study

Accomplishments

  • Authored widely used components — Material Design components I designed and wrote are used in most Google products both internally and externally. This includes both consumer and enterprise products.
  • Established strong cross product relationships — Being part of the core Material Design team I worked closely with many Google product teams to advise and influence component use.
  • Influenced design systems across industry — My work not only influenced work at Google, but its open source nature allowed it to influence design systems across the industry.