ZAK FERRIS[ WORKING FROM OCEAN BEACH, SF · ··· ]

My Story

01Origin

I went to art school in San Francisco thinking I'd head back to SoCal and design websites for the surf and skate industry. SF had other plans.

Luck and timing played a part, I won't pretend otherwise. But designing mobile apps on iOS 3 in Photoshop and layer comps, when nobody had a job title for what we were doing yet, took something more than being in the right place. It took caring deeply about the work before the work had a name.

Two decades later I'm still here, still learning, and still loving it.

02Work

From doctors to surfers. One Medical, Google, World Surf League, Salesforce. The problems were different every time. The standard was not.

Currently I'm Director of UX for Commerce Cloud at Salesforce, designing AI-powered shopper experiences for some of the world's largest retailers.

03Why I Design

Shipping a great experience is what matters. Craft, usability, the copy, the micro interactions, the animations, the edge cases — it's all these parts together that make a killer experience. The only real rule is that you have to care about what you're putting out into the world.

Remarkable means something worth taking note of. When wit, craft, and usability come together, you get design that makes people feel something while making their day a little easier. That's what I'm striving for.

04Leadership

There's a moment in every design leader's career where the reward shifts. Making things that impress people stops mattering. What starts to matter is the work your team ships, and whether it's something they're proud of.

AI changed how I show up for my team. It's easier to get into the work alongside them, to show instead of tell. When that happens, ideas flow more freely and everyone gets to be more creative. That's what I'm after.