WHAT'S IN THE BOX

Multidisciplinary designer with expertise in immersive computing.

Portrait of Mike Alger
  • SERIAL
    MikeAlger
  • OPERATIONAL
    36 Years
  • MANUFACTURED
    Las Vegas
  • ASSEMBLY
    Utah
  • UNIT LOCATION
    Silicon Valley

FOR USE WITH

  • XR Design
  • Prototyping
  • Vision Work
  • Interaction Design
  • Motion Design
  • Video Production
  • Visual Effects
  • Photography
  • Editing
  • Graphic Design
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FIELD TESTING

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DESIGN PROTOTYPING

  • Apple
  • Since October 2022

I make designs, images, videos, animations, and prototypes with a team of engineers to demonstrate use cases for future products.

YouTube

SENIOR INTERACTION DESIGNER

  • YouTube
  • 3 years

Lead designer for the XR team comprising efforts that involve 3D and real-time graphics like YouTube VR, avatars (aka VTubers), the "metaverse," and such. Introduced features like hand tracking, movies, and comments to YouTube VR, which consistently ranks near the top of Oculus' "Most Popular" experiences.

Google logo

INTERACTION DESIGNER

  • Google
  • 4 years

User experience for XR and future headset displays. I was working on visual and interaction design by making physical and digital prototypes, giving guidance on inputs and form factors, helping discover the most valuable use cases, and suggesting product and strategy directions.

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OPERATION

While it's true that I can't show most of my work, these are things that only use public knowledge products and technologies.

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

Confidential project, product, and team names redacted.

Mike is the most proficient interactive VR designer on the ████████ team. He has combined a traditional UX background with rapid prototyping very high fidelity interactions, visuals, and animations. Where other designers rely on hand gestures, sketches, and verbal descriptions, Mike can come up with a creative idea and then show you exactly how it will look and feel. This is extremely useful for making discoveries on what actually works and what doesn't as the team explores an entirely brand new territory for design.

  • Design Lead
  • Google
  • 2017

I can't speak enough to Mike's impact on this project - from fleshing out the biggest concepts to the smallest details of ████████. He has used his wide range of skillsets to create mocks, high-fidelity visuals, motion examples, and fully-functioning prototypes. Additionally, he has endured an abnormally long crunch period, dutifully filing bugs and working closely with ENG to improve the implementation.

  • Senior Interaction Designer
  • Google
  • 2018

I have been very impressed with Mike's work on ████████ and I believe that many of the techniques that are being explored here are going to be as important to VR as physics based scrolling was to mobile. This is one of the fundamental things that the system absolutely has to get perfectly right.

  • Design Lead
  • Google
  • 2017

Mike does an excellent job of showing instead of simply telling his ideas. He does so through the most appropriate medium, whether that be a simple sketch, 2d motion graphic, or a fully interactive prototype.

  • Software Engineer
  • Google
  • 2017

Mike is a consistent contributor of design proposals - and is able to wear many hats, from video production, to detailed design spec creation. He is always willing to help the team, and is a pleasure to work with. I hope to collaborate more with Mike in the future, as he has many good insights.

  • Google
  • 2019

Mike joined the YouTube VR team mid-cycle and has already been fundamental to our team's progress. He's been helping define the vision for our projects where he's very thoughtful and communicative. Mike is extremely independent, solves ambiguous problems, and has influence well beyond himself in all our team projects. He's proven to produce high quality work, and have very deep and broad IC skills, including unique expertise needed to get the job done: creating videos, interactive mocks, unity explorations, etc. This has been especially important for a team like ours with such a diverse set of projects and design needs.

  • YouTube
  • 2020

Mike is highly effective at articulating design visions that address user needs and feedback. He employs paper sketches, storyboards, videos, digital mocks, and functional prototypes to articulate his vision and get feedback. His process ensures greater confidence in his designs' ability to satisfy user needs of the product.

  • Product Manager
  • Google
  • 2019
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PERFORMANCE

Ongoing Download Progress...

  • BEGINNER
  • INTERMEDIATE
  • EXPERT
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Professional

  • User Experience Design

  • XR

  • Video Editing

  • Photo Editing

  • Compositing

  • Stereoscopy

  • Graphic Design

  • Photography

  • Storyboarding

  • Interface Design

  • Web Design

  • Mobile Design

  • Environment Design

  • User Research

  • Motion Graphics

  • Branding

  • Project Management

  • Camera Operation

  • Lighting

  • Color Correction

  • Audio Recording

  • Audio Editing

  • Video Compression

Software

  • Photoshop

  • Illustrator

  • Figma

  • Sketch

  • Unity

  • Godot

  • Unreal

  • Premiere

  • After Effects

  • Cinema 4D

  • Maya

  • Blender

  • HTML & CSS

  • Indesign

  • C#

  • Javascript

  • Shaders

  • AI Image Generation

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DOCUMENTATION

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  • XR DESIGN THEORY AND PRACTICE FOR DIGITAL EYEWEAR
  • 2019
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  • VR INTERFACE DESIGN PRE-VIZUALIZATION METHODS
  • 2015
  • Ravensbourne
  • London, United Kingdom
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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Ravensbourne Master of Arts

MASTER OF ARTS - MOVING IMAGE

  • Distinction
  • Virtual Reality
  • Ravensbourne University via University of Arts London
  • 2015
Utah Valley University Bachelor of Science Diploma

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE - DIGITAL MEDIA

  • Cum Laude
  • Film & Video
  • Utah Valley University
  • 2013
Utah Valley University Associate Degree

ASSOCIATE OF APPLIED SCIENCE - DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY

  • Utah Valley University
  • 2008
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AWARDS

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ORDERING INFORMATION

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As a free gift, enjoy exclusive access to download the whitepaper.

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