Hi, I’m Darrel.
I design.
I build.
I make things.

Product designer, creative technologist, and sometimes Barry Nervous.

I work across complex software, interactive spaces, and a painting practice. Strategy, interaction design, and production code are all part of how I bring an idea into the world.

Based in Greater Boston.

Darrel smiling by the ocean in a patterned shirt
Away from the screen for a minute.

Complex systems.
A human point of view.

I’ve spent more than a decade connecting design and development: enterprise tools used in around-the-clock operations, immersive exhibits, audio tools, and worlds you can explore in a browser.

Most of what I make starts with something I’m experiencing or trying to understand. Sometimes that becomes software. Sometimes it becomes a painting or a space someone can step into.

See the selected work ↗

The work along the way.

Product teams, creative studios, and the space between them.

SEPT 2022 – PRESENT

Big Room Technologies

Portland, Maine

Lead UX Designer

At a software agency working across products and industries, I’ve focused on enterprise platforms for a large manufacturing client. I led design for three of four shipped core platforms, turning stakeholder interviews into requirements, workflows, prototypes, and implementation-ready designs.

Selected contributions
  • Designed and shipped 3 of 4 core software platforms for a large manufacturing client, covering materials workflows, live production visibility, and long-term operations planning. The platforms support more than 6,500 employees across a 24/7 operation.
  • Replaced a paper, spreadsheet, and phone-call materials process with a unified digital workflow — standardized delivery routes and drop locations enabling precise truck scheduling, streamlined returns of defective raw material, and faster, lower-waste fulfillment for warehouse teams.
  • Designed real-time labor visibility tools tracking ~4,000 crew members across hundreds of daily jobs (the user population for live labor dispatch), enabling managers to catch overruns as they happen, adjust crews and estimates live, and give leadership accurate data for budgeting future work.
  • Built the company's design system from zero: 1,000+ components, ~100 interaction patterns, and ~5,000 production screens across desktop, tablet, and mobile.
  • Grounded design in floor-level research — 25+ interviews with warehouse workers, crew managers, and executive stakeholders across 5 departments; post-launch interviews showed strong adoption and measurably smoother daily work.
Inside the product work ↗

MAY 2022 – MAY 2026

PORTL& Arts & Entertainment

Portland, Maine

Co-Founder / CTO

I co-founded PORTL& and led the creative technology behind its projection-mapped installations, interactive exhibits, and public art. I took projects from early concepts through prototyping, technical planning, installation, and live execution.

Selected contributions
  • Co-founded and led an immersive arts and technology company delivering projection mapping, interactive exhibits, public art, and multimedia events.
  • Directed creative technology from concept through live execution — technical planning, prototyping, installation, and show control — building TouchDesigner and MadMapper pipelines connecting physical space, real-time visuals, and audio/video.
  • Prototyped sensor-aware, hardware-integrated experiences and worked with artists and venues to translate abstract ideas into buildable, audience-facing systems.
See Gardens Aglow ↗

NOV 2019 – SEP 2022

YARN CORPORATION

Portland, Maine

Lead UX Designer, Web & VR Developer

I led UX design and built web interfaces for Driftspace, YARN’s web and immersive product ecosystem. I combined user research, React development, onboarding media, and VR prototyping to shape how people entered and used the product.

Selected contributions
  • Designed and built web dashboards, onboarding flows in React and Styled Components.
  • Conducted interviews, usability studies, created user stories, product roadmap and requirements.
  • Wrote, storyboarded, and produced onboarding tutorial content that increased Drift creation by 35%.
  • Prototyped VR workflows and immersive experiences in Figma, ShapesXR, and Tvori, grounded in user interviews and usability research that shaped product requirements.

SEP 2018 – NOV 2019

Page One Web

Portland, Maine

Senior Developer / Designer

I designed and developed eCommerce sites and marketing platforms for Page One Web’s clients. Alongside the interfaces, I built shared UI patterns and custom integrations to make onboarding, product migration, and everyday workflows easier.

Selected contributions
  • Designed and developed eCommerce websites and marketing platforms using WordPress, React, and custom integrations.
  • Created UI systems that improved communication and consistency across clients, designers, and developers.
  • Developed custom scripts and database integrations that streamlined onboarding, product migration, and operational workflows.

MAR 2014 – SEP 2018

Glacial Multimedia

Portland, Maine

Senior Developer & Media Designer

I designed and developed websites and digital media for Glacial Multimedia’s healthcare and professional services clients. I used heat mapping and A/B testing to refine the experiences, and created documentation to help new developers get started.

Selected contributions
  • Designed and developed websites and digital marketing experiences for healthcare and professional services clients.
  • Implemented heat mapping and A/B testing across approximately 50 client sites to validate conversion and SEO hypotheses, improving conversion rates by 13% year over year.
  • Created onboarding documentation and development processes that reduced ramp-up time for new developers.
  • Produced digital media assets, video content, and branded web experiences across client campaigns.

A foundation in both.

B.A. in Computer Science, minor in Graphic Design.
Farmingdale State College · 2010

There’s usually something
on the workbench.

Audio instruments, little browser worlds, paintings, and experiments that turn into their own thing.

Memory Television’s handheld CRT and channel guide inside the 3D archive
01 / 04

Memory Television. A browser-based world for personal memories, art, and exploration.

Drag the frame. Pass it back.
Asset 1 of 4
SignalOS

AI-assisted financial decision-support system that transforms market data, watchlist changes, and portfolio context into structured, explainable investment decisions. Built around a “rules decide, AI explains” architecture separating deterministic scoring from LLM-generated synthesis.

Explore SignalOS ↗
CueTube

iPad-first React/Vite application that turns YouTube videos into a playable sampling instrument with timestamped cues, performance pads, touch/keyboard playback, local persistence, and reusable cue-sheet import/export.

Explore CueTube ↗
SampleSlicer

Browser-based audio utility that combines multiple one-shot samples into a single sample that can be chopped by modern samplers.

Explore SampleSlicer ↗
Kit Roulette

Randomized drum-kit generator that selects local samples to spark creative exploration and reduce decision fatigue.

Explore Kit Roulette ↗
Memory Television

In-progress CRT-based exploration system blending narrative archives, personal memory, interactive artifacts, and immersive worldbuilding.

Explore Memory Television ↗
Nostalgia Nihilism

Creator of Nostalgia Nihilism, an exhibited and sold mixed-media painting series on memory, media, and cultural repetition; wrote, illustrated, and self-published an independent book end to end. Ongoing practice transforming archives and cultural artifacts into interactive systems, workshops, and multimedia work.

Explore Nostalgia Nihilism ↗

Let’s make something
worth caring about.

Open to staff and lead product design roles, design engineering, and creative technology collaborations in Greater Boston and remotely.