Michael Tsirakis

Kathy runs a small business and has less than 20 minutes a day to dedicate to hiring. Like many others, she found LinkedIn’s tools overly complex, expensive, and disconnected from her actual needs. Without a mobile-friendly solution and with features buried in legacy products, recruiters like Kathy were turning to competitors like Indeed. This revealed a major gap and a clear opportunity to redesign the hiring experience for small businesses.

I led the design effort to close that gap. I started by diving into the recruiter’s world, conducting interviews, testing competitors, and analyzing usage data from LinkedIn’s existing tools. I partnered closely with cross-functional teams and defined design principles to keep us aligned on one goal: make hiring simpler, faster, and more human. From swipe gestures and applicant cards to filters and rejection templates, every feature was built with user needs front and center.

Designing for such a wide range of users wasn’t easy. I navigated technical constraints, shifting priorities, and cross-team feedback, all while keeping the experience grounded in real pain points. Not every idea made it to launch, but through constant iteration, we shipped features that truly mattered to recruiters.

The impact was clear. We saw a 60% increase in jobs that led to successful hires, a 185% boost in candidate communication, and a 2.5x increase in applicant visibility. This wasn’t just about hitting metrics. We made it easier for small businesses to find great talent and helped real people feel more confident and in control of their hiring journey.

When you walk into an Apple Store and a Genius instantly helps you fix your iPhone or answer a tough question, there's a hidden engine powering that experience: training. As lead designer on Apple’s Field Service Training team, my job was to rebuild that engine. The challenge? A decade-old learning platform that frustrated employees with outdated UI, poor accessibility, and content that felt irrelevant and overwhelming.

I started by digging deep. Through heuristic evaluations and task-based usability studies, I identified critical friction points in navigation, accessibility, and content delivery. From there, I crafted a new design system and style guide that would lay the groundwork for a more modern, functional, and inclusive platform. Accessibility was non-negotiable, and so was personalization. ATLAS needed to feel like it was built for each user, not just every user.

The result was a fully redesigned learning experience that adapts to each individual’s needs from the very first screen. Personalized content, a responsive layout, gamified elements, and smarter navigation created a platform that felt intuitive, engaging, and empowering. I worked cross-functionally with engineering, content strategists, and leadership to ensure the experience reflected Apple’s commitment to excellence, inside and out.

The impact was massive. ATLAS launched to 200,000 employees globally and scaled to over half a million users in just a week, including major partners like Sprint and Best Buy. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with users highlighting the fresh design, improved usability, and how the platform actually made them want to learn. ATLAS didn’t just train employees - it raised the bar for learning at Apple.

Returning something on eBay used to feel like navigating a maze. The process was confusing, slow, and inconsistent, leaving users frustrated and customer service overwhelmed. It wasn’t just a UX problem, it was a $100 million problem. My goal was to transform this costly pain point into an opportunity to rebuild trust, reduce friction, and create a return experience users could actually feel good about.

To start, I spoke directly with users, mapped emotional highs and lows in the journey, and studied how competitors like Amazon and Walmart handled returns. I uncovered five key pain points: unmet expectations, lack of transparency, cognitive overload, slow resolutions, and inconsistency. With these insights in hand, I defined clear design principles to guide the experience: make it simple, proactive, human, and helpful.

I designed and tested six major prototypes with over 30 users, honing in on what truly mattered. Small changes made a big difference, from adding status indicators and streamlined navigation to replacing long forms with clear, contextual steps. One standout idea was the $5 auto-refund. Instead of requiring users to return low-cost items, eBay would instantly issue a refund, saving time, money, and effort for everyone involved. I also introduced features like USPS at-home pickup and smart notifications to reduce hassle and boost transparency.

The redesigned flow delivered measurable impact. Users completed returns faster, dropped off less frequently, and praised the clarity of the new process. Even after I moved on to my next role, the rollout continued to show positive results across the board. The project proved that user-centered design doesn’t just improve experiences, it drives real business results and builds long-term trust with customers.