Aaron Shekey

Summary

I help design and create things like startups, websites, apps, songs, and records while sitting right between design and engineering. Nice to meet you!

Experience

ngrok

2023—
Principal Product Designer
Shipping new features like our traffic inspector, and onboarding workflows. Redesigned their documentation while building a new design system.

Boox

2022—2023
Director of UX
Cleaned up all things front-end while building out their end-to-end user experience. Shipped a new marketing website.

Stack Overflow

2017—2022
Principal Product Designer, Design Systems
Shipped a ton of features on Stack Overflow before transitioning to designing, building, and assembling a team to create Stack Overflow’s design system Stacks.

GitHub

2015—2016
Senior Product Designer
Pitched and designed features to help improve GitHub’s product, most notably code review, file uploads, markdown toolbar, and octicons

Hum

2013—
Co-founder
Designed, built, and assembled a team around the world’s best app for songwriting. Featured as a Best New App by Apple.

Adobe

2011—2014
Senior Product Designer

Conceived of Adobe Edge Reflow and designed the entire experience from sketches to final production assets.

Concepted and designed the iPhone version of the Adobe Content Viewer while working directly with publishing clients Condé Nast, Hearst, and Bonnier.

Sevnthsin

2008—2011
Senior Designer

Led a team of designers while planning, concepting, and often developing rich interactive and mobile experiences.

Worked with Target, JCPenney, Scion, AIGA, Rhymesayers, Health Partners, and Minnesota Timberwolves.

Press

The New Yorker, September 7, 2015

Writing by Omission

John McPhee mentions my blog post “It’s What You Leave Out” to my complete dismay.
BuzzFeed News, September 22, 2017

After A Big Bank Bought Simple, Things Got Complicated For Customers

Caroline O'Donovan interviewed me talking shit about my dumb bank, Simple.
The Journal, June 22, 2015

Minneapolis residents open their doors with Airbnb

For a while there I was a pretty active Airbnb host. Eric Best interviewed me about it.
City Pages, June 29, 2017

The Usual Things reveal the details of their ‘Backup Plan’

Youa Vang interviewed my band about our album “Backup Plans” and we touch a bit on Hum.
Cityview, February 4, 2015

Business as usual
Iowa State Daily, February 5, 2015

The Usual Things hits stage for next performance
Isthmus, October 19, 2007

Name that band! Stories behind Madison’s strangest pop monikers
StarTribune, January 28, 2014

Minneapolis musicians build buzz on Hum, a new songwriting app

Chris Riemenschneider came to my house and interviewed me and Joseph about Hum.
City Pages, January 24, 2014

Hum: The ultimate smartphone app for songwriters?

Erik Thompson was kind enough to feature Hum on City Pages.
Forbes, June 30, 2013

Minneapolis-Based Songwriter Music App Company Hum Seeks Funding On Kickstarter
UMN College of Design > Fall 2014

Things that make you go Hum…

I was featured in the University of Minnesota’s alumni magazine.
Flypaper, July 23, 2015

Entrepreneurship in Music: Hum

Jeremy Young interviewed me about Hum as part of a series on entrepreneurship in music.
Forbes, February 14, 2013

Adobe Releases New HTML5 Edge Reflow For Responsive Web Designers

“None of these tools design the site for you… but they sure make the multi-screen design process a lot more accessible to a lot more designers. Someone deserves to be knighted for that!” Hey, they’re talking about me!

Education

2008

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Bachelor of science in Graphic Design

Patents

2012

Responsive document breakpoints systems and methods
2013

Color selection interface

Skills

Product

UI / UX

Tech

Audio