SENIOR INTERACTIVE DESIGNER
GOOGLE
SEATTLE WA
Since the first time he got his first computer and opened Photoshop at the age of 14, Prakarn Nisarat (Prak) knew he wanted to be a designer. Four years later, he moved to the US to pursue that dream. After working as a graphic designer in Chicago for six years and winning multiple awards in between, he knew he could do more. The pivotal point came when he moved to Seattle and worked at the Office of Head Start designing tools to help millions of families — especially children with autism and down syndrome. He realized the power of design and began exploring ways technologies and design can improve people’s lives.
Since that day, he’s been incorporating design visions with new technologies such as augmented reality, smart devices, and voice interfaces. In the past years, he helped fortune 100 companies and universities such as Google, Facebook (now Meta), Microsoft, lululemon, Novo Nordisk, University of Washington, and Stanford launch multiple cutting-edge products. The recent notable project was when Prak led the design work of the Facebook Voice Assistant developer platform from scratch. This platform enables developers to build the voice assistant on Ray-Ban Stories Smart Glasses, Oculus, Portal, and, recently announced, metaverse. Prak is currently working on Google Assistant developer experience. And in his free time, aside from improving his coffee brewing skill, he’s mentoring new generations of designers at Designlab and ADPList. He also serves as Digital Marketing for Executives Advisory Council at the California State University, Chico.
Looking forward, are you optimistic about the role of graphic design in business and society?
Absolutely! New technologies such as VR, AR, Voice, and machine learning have opened up more ways for us to connect and communicate than ever before. Designers have an ever more critical role in assisting that and making sure inclusivity and accessibility experience be the core when solving any users’ problems.
Have the challenges of the past two years changed the way you approach your work?
While working remotely in the past years, I’ve found myself seeking understanding and empathizing more in my communication and asking a lot more “why” questions. Without being face-to-face, it’s much harder to understand someone’s intentions and reasoning. And not just peers but also users. Surprisingly, by doing that, I feel a lot more connected to people sometimes.
