Aaron ButlerCreative Design
I help clients figure out which problems are worth solving, then design the solution and partner with the engineers building it. My background runs across product, UX, AR/VR, and 12 years of AAA game design: game design taught me to think in systems, and UX taught me to keep the person using them at the center. I spend a lot of time on what's coming next, prototyping against emerging tools and platforms early enough to know what they'll actually be good for. I approach each project as a creatively technical designer, and when a project calls for it, AI coding tools have closed the gap between designing a solution and shipping one.
ABCD (Aaron Butler Creative Design) is my independent practice. I help clients figure out which problems are worth solving for their product and their users, then build the solution: apps, tools, and websites. I approach each project as a creatively technical designer. I've shipped work both alongside engineering teams and end to end on my own, using AI coding tools to close the gap between designing a solution and shipping one.
Owned simulation UI/UX for Project STORMBREAKER, a next-generation warfighting planning tool, after SMX brought the program in house. Relocated from Seattle to Oahu to sit closer to the planners using it. Most discovery ran as working sessions rather than interviews: taking apart their paper-based planning process under JP 5-0, pulling out the data sets and nuances that mattered, then building prototypes at whatever fidelity the conversation needed and iterating with planners, engineers, and leadership until a feature was ready to hand off. The program was rebuilt on a new foundation partway through, moving from Unreal Engine to a browser stack, which cost the simulation its third dimension and meant reworking carried-over designs for top-down interaction.
NeighborNET, our first project, is a mobile app enabling location-based resource sharing to build resilience in communities before and after disasters. Brilliant By Nature brings together creatives, change-makers, designers, artists, educators, and activists around biomimicry and our connection to nature.
Owned UI/UX design for the simulation half of Project STORMBREAKER after SMX moved the contract from Studio Alpha to Microsoft Federal. Brought the SmartCard and the Fluent-based design system with me, and rebuilt the card as the basis for the unit planning interface: a modular, data-driven card that let planners build unit hierarchies on a live map, alongside the map interactions for placing, grouping, and embedding objects at scale. Worked directly with military planners at Technical Exchange Meetings, sketching in the room and returning with prototypes.
Sr. Creative Technologist on a 60-person Microsoft org building a general-purpose simulation engine, where any customer could load their own data and interact with it in real time. Designed for use cases as varied as urban air mobility, weather effects on experimental aircraft, and logistics planning, which meant a UI that had to work out of the box for a space agency or a defense agency alike. Created the SmartCard concept, a customizable entity card with attachable subcomponents, plus the real-time visual language for reading speed, direction, altitude, and destination at a glance, and modeled a custom 3D asset library to shared scale. Built on Microsoft's Fluent design system, extended for a domain it wasn't designed for.
Took a client's early concept through research, ideation, and user testing to a tested high-fidelity prototype. Assisted two Smashing Ideas leads running a two-day design-thinking session with the client, then drafted the high-level solutions we took into a day-long user research group. Ran the IDI sessions remotely, updating the prototype between participants so each session built on the last. Also produced an internal marketing video for the client.
Worked across disciplines on feature and UI development for the Vreal desktop app, a platform for streaming and watching VR gameplay. Designed in-VR interactions alongside the desktop experience, exploring wrist-mounted menus, quick-access controls, and notification systems for users who couldn't see their own hands. Created feature specs, wireframes, user flows, interactive prototypes, and motion studies, and gathered feedback through user testing.
Reworked the UI and UX of Cats In Mechs, a mobile game already in development, covering mission select, combat, upgrade, and level-complete flows. Brought a game designer's eye to the gameplay itself alongside the interface work.
Designed key features for HoloLens and Dynamics 365 Layout, which let people place 3D models as holograms in physical space to bring designs to completion at real-world scale. Created design docs and artifacts, worked across disciplines on feature development, and drove product decisions through research, customer demos, and interviews.
Spent six weeks with a team of Innovators conducting user interviews, brainstorming, and creating prototypes to help Autodesk find new use cases for their photogrammetry software, ReMake, and experience creation software, Project Play.
Design levels, mechanics, quests, and enemies from concept to completion. Solved difficult design and non-design-related issues; worked across disciplines to bring tasks to fruition. Utilized 3D art and animation skills to mock up WIP designs for rapid iteration. Provided constructive feedback on projects, fellow colleagues' designs, levels, animations, and art. Conducted playtests for feedback on level, system, and mechanic design.