Jeff Lau is a Principal Product Designer in Sydney.
A former full-stack developer who turns complexity into calm, accessible products that ship.
- 10+
- years designing and building products
- 70+
- enterprise, health, finance and government clients
- WCAG 2.1
- Working Group contributor
Design & development
I bridge design and development, as the technical specialist for designers and the design specialist for engineers.
For design teams
The technical specialist
- Designs that account for states, data and edge cases
- Coded prototypes that answer questions faster
- Design systems that live in Figma and code
For engineering teams
The design specialist
- Specs, tokens and blueprints engineers can build from
- Accessibility resolved in code, not just mockups
- Pull requests and semantic, modular UI in the codebase
Where I make the difference
Four disciplines, each with results to show.
I use AI to make design decisions faster and with better evidence. As a former software engineer, I wire the tools together myself and help other designers do the same.
MCP servers connect my agents to Snowflake, Datadog and the codebase, so questions about real usage get answered while the design is still moving. Coded prototypes then put the real thing in front of users before engineering commits.
- Led AI in the design process, upskilling designers on Cursor, agents and skills
- Built AI skills, an AI brain and DESIGN.md files, including a skill that turns a problem statement into a prototype in minutes
- Built a production-edit-to-pull-request prototype and a 30+ page docs site in Cursor
- Made hundreds of commits to Canva’s main repository
I started as a full-stack developer, so I design with the build in mind. Engineers get specs they can trust, and designers know what is possible.
I prototype in code when it’s faster, so users test the real thing before engineering commits, and I build end to end in React, Ionic, SwiftUI and WordPress.
- Prototyped Canva Business onboarding end to end for review, research and engineering
- Built Canva’s 30+ page Settings docs site and shipped pull requests
- Led Loan Base from design to build: $100M+ settled in month one, NPS of 76
Design systems are how I bridge design and development: one source of truth for designers and engineers, so quality holds as teams grow.
For more than 10 years I have designed, built, product owned and led them, grounded in research on how people use the product.
- Built and owned Macquarie’s OneUI, 90%+ of UI across 7 products
- Led Canva Settings’ visual language, now on 20+ pages and tested with 60+ usability participants
- Leading the design system at Avoca, a radiology platform in 250+ clinics
End to end, from strategy and compliance to technical assessments and remediation alongside product teams.
Accessible products are better products for every user. I make it part of the system, not a checklist, and teach front-end teams to build it, even on legacy systems.
- Contributed to WCAG 2.1 on the WCAG Working Group
- Owned Canva Settings’ European Accessibility Act compliance plan
- Principal accessibility consultant across Macquarie
Selected work
Complex systems made calm, from enterprise admin to design systems.
Working with me
Your organisation gains quality in delivery, with products that are accessible, correct, consistent and sustainable.
Craft the experience
Research and design shaped around customer needs.
Guide the build
Working with developers to build the experience in detail.
Make it last
Accessibility met, with a design system behind it so it scales.
Experience
From full-stack developer to Principal Product Designer.
2022 – 2026
Canva Principal Product Designer
Craft lead for Settings on Canva’s Business and Enterprise launch. Originated the Organizations model, now behind 22.4M users across 2.8K organisations, and led the Settings glow-up.
2026 – PresentContract
Avoca Principal Product Designer
Building one design system for Claude prototypes and production, at an AI platform serving 250+ radiology clinics.
2026Contract
Kinso Staff Product Designer
Calendar, AI assistant and a unified inbox, plus the Kin design system.
2021 – 2022
Macquarie Group Product Designer
Redesigned the banking dashboard, lifting ease of use from 6.3 to 8.9, and built and owned OneUI across 7 products.
2020 – Present
Owlry Founder
A design and development studio with 40+ clients in health, education, retail and B2B.
2016 – 2021
Wax Agency Creative Technologist
Led Loan Base to $100M+ settled in its first month. B&T 30 Under 30 finalist, 2020.
