ALEXANDRIA
HESTON
Designer, Future Platforms
Apple · Vision Products Group
ABOUT
I believe technology should absorb the complexity of emerging hardware and software. As a systems designer, I architect products for people that scale and survive their edge cases. I integrate AI in ways that stay intuitive and human, not automated. I've spent the past decade shipping these beliefs into projects, turning these ideas into patents, and publishing a book chapter about design's responsibility in innovation.
01
contextual notifications
Apple · Vision Products Group · 2022–Present
On a device you can't look away from, attention is the scarcest resource. This system holds each message until your real-world focus can afford it, and handed it off to other devices if it wasn't relevant. This shifted how our team approached information density and intent on always-present displays.
02
environmental automations
Apple · Vision Products Group · 2022–Present
Object interfaces often assume one-off interactions in isolation, not homes full of things. My approach takes into account a user's day to day experience, where the room speaks up only when something changes. Objects stay silent and idle, surfacing a status only when they deviate from an inferred baseline.
03
pokémon go ignite
Niantic · 2020–2022
Moving a familiar mobile game into a new medium risks losing what players already know. As design lead on the first spatial project of its kind with The Pokémon Company, I adapted GO's platform to work outdoors. Opening with a raise of the hand, this interface respects whether a user's real location is a building, an empty lot, or a sculpture.
04
pancake pals
Magic Leap · 2019–2020
A shared party game for people in one room, connecting them across headsets with a companion app for spectators. I designed every layer around the same idea: the system should absorb its own failures so that connectivity, device, and spatial issues are easily recoverable.
05
undersea
Magic Leap · 2019–2020
Onboarding usually leans on text and prompts. This experience needed players to scan enough of their room while maintaining artistic direction. I designed an end-to-end system with a five-state particle sequence that guided wearers from searching to done without relying on written instructions.
06
spatiate
Across Realities · 2018–2019
As cofounder and lead designer, I owned one product across touch (mobile) and spatial (headset), keeping consistency across radically different interaction models. It shipped as a premiere Magic Leap app, the first to combine co-located, cross-platform multiplayer.