Nate Girard

I’m a Creative Technologist

With a background in UX Design, 3D, and Web Development

"I’m effective at bringing product vision to reality with cross-functional teams of experts by communicating efficiently at every level of engagement and following through to achieve outstanding results."

"I’m passionate about creating innovative tools to democratize 3D skills and knowledge, and I’m always looking for new ways to leverage technology to improve the human experience."

Case Studies

Hydrogen

Factory

Aufero

Challenge:

Hypothetic needed a tool for managing hundreds of thousands of 3D assets, finding specific assets efficiently, automatically grouping and organizing those assets, and reviewing the quality of those assets with their team so that they could build training data for 3D ML algorithms.

Objectives:

Hypothetic desired to run training on data it had acquired after it organized the data into suitable collections designed for specific training purposes.
Hypothetic desired to leverage this tool for managing assets for a large third party contract involving 20K assets being generated.
Hypothetic desired to leverage this tool as a basis for a web-based asset management and reviewing platform.

Approach:

Hypothetic conducted competitive analysis against multiple 3D Digital Asset Managment Systems (DAMs) on the market, and dissected ML research papers looking for innovative solutions to our problem areas.
Team planned to apply innovative ML search algorithms to solve the search problem, automated labeling, automated organization, and use an AI agent connected to a powerful API and chat interface to put the power in the hands of the user.
Team planned to leverage multiple Web3 technologies like React, BablylonJS, ThreeJS, and web friendly formats like GLB and GLTF to visualize 3D assets on a web interface and allow teams to comment on their quality.

Solution:

UX team went through several iterations on the design using Figma focusing on simplicity and clarity and then built prototypes and vetted them with industry professional prospects and customers as well prior to committing to a final design on any one feature as the design evolved along the way throughout the build process.
Dev team started with Bootstrap but quickly started building a custom component library to replace it due to design demands.
Dev team also started with BabylonJS but shifted to ThreeJS due to better capabilities, maintenance, and support for more formats.
Dev team built the entire infrastructure on top of AWS docker containers for easy scaling and deployment.

Results:

Hypothetic was able to curate collections of several thousand 3D assets in days and trained several ML algorithms from them. They were also able to auto-organize assets, automatically detect duplicates, auto-rotate them, auto-tag them, and search for similar in addition to regular search with less than 300 ms latency.
Hypothetic's client managed their project with over 20K+ assets, curating them at a 5x efficiently gain in a team that spanned the globe, and saved 6+ months on their project timeline.
Hypothetic deployed the tool for a limited beta release to a select few customers to get feedback prior to deploying to a wider audience their 3D DAM solution.

Challenge:

Hypothetic needed a tool for procedurally generating thousands of 3D assets based on dynamically assembling interchangable parts to accommodate a rule set and rarity for creating a 3D NFT collection.

Objectives:

Hypothetic desired to generate thousands of 3D assets with a high degree of artistic control for professionals for their own clients.
Hypothetic desired to leverage this tool to offset the workload of one of their clients who was working on an extensive NFT collectables project.
Hypothetic desired to speed up the production pipeline by automating the generation process while giving the artists direct control over the details of their collections.

Approach:

Hypothetic conducted competitive analysis against multiple 2D NFT generators on the market looking for innovative solutions to our problem areas.
Team planned to apply innovative procedural generation algorithms that accommodated a strict rule set and guided additionally by rarity settings to provide complete control over the number of assets generated and the quality and rarity of the parts in those assets.
Team planned to leverage multiple Web3 technologies like React, ThreeJS, and web friendly formats like GLB to visualize 3D assets on a web interface and export them to their other product, Hydrogen.

Solution:

UX team went through several iterations on the design using Figma focusing on simplicity and clarity and then built prototypes and vetted them with industry professional prospects and customers as well prior to committing to a final design on any one feature as the design evolved along the way throughout the build process.
Dev team started building a custom component library due to highly-detailed design demands.
Dev team also started with React, Rust, and ThreeJS due to performance capabilities, maintenance, and quality control.
Dev team built the entire infrastructure on top of AWS docker containers for easy scaling and deployment.

Results:

Hypothetic's client was able to generate collections of several thousand 3D assets in days and exported them to Hydrogen for curation.
Hypothetic's client managed their project with over 20K+ assets, curating them at a 5x efficiently gain in a team that spanned the globe, and saved 6+ months on their project timeline.
Hypothetic deployed the tool for a limited beta release to a select few customers to get feedback prior to deploying to a wider audience.

Challenge:

Aufero needed to find a solution for lowering the risk on monolithic codebase deployments for Fintech, Healthcare, and other high-risk deployment environments.

Objectives:

Aufero desired to build a deployment solution that was controlled by Product Managers rather than IT or DevOps.
Aufero desired to lower the risk of deployments by deploying to the same shared environment rather than different staging and production environments.
Aufero desired to build a solution that would circumvent IT roadblocks and integrate automatically with the CI/CD build process.

Approach:

Aufero conducted multiple user test interviews to verify the pain point we were addressing.
Team planned to leverage Rust to build a zero latency traffic router which would direct traffic between deployment instances on the same environment.
Team planned to build a web interface that was Product Manager-friendly that integrated into the CI/CD process to allow for management of releases.

Solution:

UX team went through several iterations on the design using Figma focusing on simplicity and clarity and then built prototypes for communicating design requirements to the dev team.
Dev team built the infrastructure and router to direct traffic based on audience metrics being passed in on HTML traffic headers.
Dev team built the web interface using React and Material UI component library that would be easy to navigate with self onboarding and analytics through Pendo.
Dev team built the entire infrastructure on top of AWS docker containers for easy scaling and deployment.

Results:

Aufero was able to build a zero latency traffic routing solution that enabled deployments to coexist on the same production environment.
Aufero was able to build a Product Manager-friendly web interface for managing deployments integrated in the CI/CD pipeline that significantly lowered the risk of deployment issues for monolithic codebases while maintaining service level agreements with existing risk-adverse customers.
Aufero deployed the tool for public release.

Demo Reel

Experience

Years of experience in broad categories

Traditional Art

34 yrs

Digital Art

30 yrs

Graphic Design

29 yrs

Computer Programming

29 yrs

26 yrs

Video Production

25 yrs

Web Design

23 yrs

E-Learning

22 yrs

Visual Effects

21 yrs

UX Design

19 yrs

Spatial Design

8 yrs

3 yrs

Proficiencies

Software, tools, and languages I use

Design

Development

Productivity

AI Tools

Gaming & Spatial Platforms

Messangers & Conferencing

Operating Systems

Skills

Explore the extensive range of skills and expertise I bring to the table, across various domains including UX, Product Management, Development, Management, and 3D Design.

UX

User profiles
User stories
User flows
Journey mapping
User interviews
User testing
User shadowing
User analytics research
UX Design
Wireframing
Mockups
Storyboarding
Prototyping
Component libraries
Design Documentation
Design reviews
Design sprints
Animation & motion design
Interaction design

Product

NPS surveys
Dashboards
Feedback grooming
RICE scoring prioritization
Sprint Planning
Sprint Grooming
Daily Standup
Sprint Reviews
Swarm planning
Release planning
Release announcements
Release tracking
Risk assessments
Product Roadmap
Forecasting timelines
Requirements gathering
Architectural diagrams
Jira management
Competitive analysis
Competitive research
Onboarding guides
Help documentation
Onboarding videos

Development

Frontend web development
React development
CSS Styling
Web3 development
AR development
VR development
Game development
Unit testing
E2E Testing
QA test plan
Regression testing
Blackbox testing
Release certification
Peer Reviews

Management

One-on-ones
Quarterly reviews
Interviews
Disciplinary reviews
Performance reviews
Company announcements
Leadership check-ins
Company retreats
Training
Intern mentorship
Referrals
Celebrating accomplishments
Remote leisure activities and games
Brainstorming sessions
Networking
Client calls
Sales support
Demos
Presentations
Blog posts

3D

Modeling
UV unwrapping
Texturing & Material Shaders
Rigging & weighting
Lighting
Animation & Lipsync
Rendering
Compositing
Rotoscoping & greenscreen
Particles
Cloth Simulations
Physics Simulations
Camera tracking
Object tracking
Motion capture
Scanning
Decimation
Retopology
Projection mapping
Exporting & Importing

Referrals

Jason Prunty

Head of Experience @ SigFig

Nate is a UX hybrid superstar, blending research and interaction design seamlessly. His ability to capture user feedback, distill it into impactful insights, and translate those insights into relatable and easy-to-use interfaces is truly unmatched. His deep sense of empathy drives him to create products that get to the heart of what the user needs.

Andrew Hackman

Lead UX Researcher @ Billtrust

On a day-to-day level, Nate is a great person to work with. He is highly collaborative and enjoys working on projects together. He can give detailed but positive critiques and support work towards an improved solution on issues raised in his own work. He has a great sense of humor and makes even intense work fun.

Demian Kato

Creative Director | Brand Evangelist | Team Mentor

Nate is truly a talented professional who brings a very broad toolset to every project. His multifaceted ability is paralleled with an extraordinary passion for the interactive industry. Nate truly does his homework and then some, constantly researching the latest trends, developments and technologies, all of which he shares regularly with the community on his blog.

John Nyquist

iOS Developer

I found that Nate has a strong passion for visual and interactive technology and has a broad array of creative and technical skills and interests to match, from 3D to visual effects to programming. He has strong organizational skills and is conscientious about documentation. Nate does not hesitate to jump into new technology and then share it with team members. He is a very fast learner of technologies, practices, and methodologies.

Alejandro Baltra

Software Architect @ Billtrust

Whenever I had to work with Nate, I knew it was going to be a great time. His eye for quality is unmatched and his ability to communicate effectively with different stakeholders ensured expectations were set timely and appropriately.

Kim Torres

Product Design @ Justworks

I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Nate Girard. He’s truly a powerhouse designer that can interpret customer feedback and turn them into innovative, out of the box designs. He’s an incredible well rounded team player who inspires others and provides thoughtful feedback and advice. His work speaks for itself and will forever solidify him as a thought-leader.

Todd Smith

Customer Success Leader

I have found Nate to be a highly committed and passionate team member with a very high level of interest in learning and developing in evolving technologies such a mobile. He wants to continuously improve and was always very interested in feedback on his projects. His leadership attributes include working through roadblocks creatively, genuinely caring about team cohesiveness and relationships, and long term sustainability of process and product support.

Andrew Gibbons

President @ ThinkLabs Learning

Nate was also very ambitious, a real go-getter, always doing what needed to be done, and then doing more! Nate provided a constant stream of interesting thoughts and research to help our team move forward. He strengthened our group immensely. It was always a pleasure working with Nate, and I would do so again in a heartbeat. I highly recommend Nate to anyone who is looking for a solid team player and skilled developer!

Blog

The Promise of Virtual Assistants

Nate Girard | Aug 29, 2024

Imagine a world where your every need is anticipated and met by a digital companion. How close are we to living that science fiction dream? As AI rapidly evolves, virtual assistants are becoming more integral to our daily lives, reshaping the way we work, live, and interact.

AI as a Collaborator, not a Replacer

Nate Girard | Aug 23, 2024

Many artists, writers, musicians and creators have succumbed to the fears that AI is stealing their jobs. On the surface many of these generative AI tools can do in mere moments what would have taken them hours to do themselves at the same quality.

THE 3D PIPELINE FOR VR ARTISTS

Nate Girard | Feb 22, 2022

3D asset creation traditionally involves a complicated process we call a Pipeline. To create any VR/AR content, artists must use parts or all of this pipeline.

ANYTHING WORLD — NATURAL LANGUAGE GENERATED 3D ENVIRONMENTS

Nate Girard | Feb 25, 2021

The world of 3D asset creation is evolving more quickly than anyone expected. Open your mind to the possibilities of what an audio-only interface can achieve.

RUN AR — AN AUGMENTED REALITY PROTOTYPE EXPLORATION

Nate Girard | Feb 19, 2021

Augmented reality (AR) has a plethora of use cases just waiting to be explored. I think we all have some ideas of how this technology will shape our daily lives in the near future.

3D IS HARD AND IT SHOULDN'T BE

Nate Girard | Feb 16, 2021

There exists a near future where creating content in 3D is so easy everyone can do it. In some ways, it is a reality today! Let’s look at the industry’s current state; figure out what exists and what doesn’t make 3D content creation easy and accessible to everyone.

WORKLIST UX FRICTION - POLISHING THE EXPERIENCE

Nate Girard | Feb 19, 2021

As users and designers, we tend to take for granted a few friction points that we think cannot be changed. Whether deemed too difficult or challenging to solve, or oftentimes the business value doesn’t outweigh the cost to build.

WORKLIST UX FRICTION - WORK ASSIGNMENT

Nate Girard | Dec 22, 2020

Work lists are present in a variety of cloud applications. Let’s do a deep dive and analyze why humans have a difficult time using their work lists as a team and assigning work to team members.

WORKLIST UX FRICTION - LIST MANAGEMENT

Nate Girard | Dec 22, 2020

Work lists are present in a variety of cloud applications. Let’s do a deep dive and analyze why humans have a difficult time using their work lists.

USER EXPERIENCE = EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE + PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIENCE

Nate Girard | Dec 21, 2020

Humans are best at making decisions based on human judgements and managing human relationships with empathy. Humans are emotional creatures with psychological needs that must also be met in order to succeed and not burn out.

Nate Girard

I’m a Creative Technologist

With a background in UX Design, 3D, and Web Development

Case Studies

Hydrogen Case Study

Challenge:

Objectives:

Approach:

Solution:

Results:

Factory Case Study

Challenge:

Objectives:

Approach:

Solution:

Results:

Aufero Case Study

Challenge:

Objectives:

Approach:

Solution:

Results:

Demo Reel

Experience

Years of experience in broad categories

Proficiencies

Software, tools, and languages I use

Design

Development

Productivity

AI Tools

Gaming & Spatial Platforms

Messangers & Conferencing

Operating Systems

Skills

UX

Product

Development

Management

3D

Referrals

Jason Prunty

Andrew Hackman

Demian Kato

John Nyquist

Alejandro Baltra

Kim Torres

Todd Smith

Andrew Gibbons

Blog

The Promise of Virtual Assistants

AI as a Collaborator, not a Replacer

THE 3D PIPELINE FOR VR ARTISTS

ANYTHING WORLD — NATURAL LANGUAGE GENERATED 3D ENVIRONMENTS

RUN AR — AN AUGMENTED REALITY PROTOTYPE EXPLORATION

3D IS HARD AND IT SHOULDN'T BE

WORKLIST UX FRICTION - POLISHING THE EXPERIENCE

WORKLIST UX FRICTION - WORK ASSIGNMENT

WORKLIST UX FRICTION - LIST MANAGEMENT

USER EXPERIENCE = EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE + PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIENCE

Contact Me