pro
Dylan Tarre
Selling Buoy, so design drift doesn't ship
New to Contra
Dylan is ready for their next project!
As Design Systems Lead at IXL Learning, I led the creation of a shared design system to unify five-plus products across a decades-old brand. I managed a team of designers, established a biweekly cadence for audits and reviews, and worked directly with product teams to ensure components were built for real production needs. Using atomic design principles and strong foundational tokens for color, spacing, and typography, we created a system that reduced drift, sped up delivery, and made new UI feel cohesive by default. The result was a living design system that teams actually adopted because it worked in practice, not just in theory.
0
15
As Founding Designer at Zeal, I built the product’s UX and UI from zero, designing data tools that helped teachers make sense of student progress across Common Core standards. I spent multiple days per week in classrooms observing real use, during lessons, between classes, and in planning meetings, and redesigned based on what actually worked under time pressure. I led the design of teacher dashboards, proficiency heatmaps, goal-setting tools, and an adaptive classroom game that adjusted difficulty per student while maintaining shared competition. The result was a platform adopted by 100+ schools, where teachers could understand class progress in seconds and make better instructional decisions without wading through raw data.
0
19
I led the end-to-end redesign of the FarmVille marketplace at Zynga, from early hand sketches through implementation. The goal was to modernize the UI while supporting seasonal reskins, flash sales, and an ever-growing set of monetization features without breaking usability. I designed the information architecture, wireframes, visual system, and a flexible skinning framework that allowed the market to be rethemed in days instead of weeks. I also designed the flash sale and promotion system, which drove major revenue spikes and was later adopted across other Zynga titles. The redesigned market ultimately supported a feature responsible for over $1B in revenue at peak scale.
0
19
Aloud started as an experiment in generative pattern design and grew into a fully automated product business. I developed a repeatable art technique, built a Figma-to-Airtable pipeline that turned designs into live Shopify products in minutes, and scaled it through print-on-demand pocket tees. I later integrated NFTs on the Terra blockchain so digital ownership earned real royalties on physical sales, rebuilding the platform in React and working directly with smart-contract engineers. Over three years, I shipped daily designs, automated the entire design-to-commerce workflow, and ran the product end-to-end solo—from art and branding to Web3 architecture and fulfillment.
0
27
We built lg.media (http://lg.media), a self-service ad platform where anyone can create a campaign, upload creatives, preview exactly where their ads will appear, and go live at $2.50-$5.00 CPMs. No sales calls, no minimums, no middlemen. Advertisers see real pricing and reach music fans directly across our whole network.
0
29
Buoy was built so Design Drift doesnt ship. The code control layer Design was always missing. Buoy will Design Review every PR on GitHub without you lifting a finger. It gives smart suggestions, whether you're buiilding or maintaining. You can ask it any questions about your design system by tagging @ahoybuoy. Try it today on GitHub Marketplace.
0
34