Jeff Lau is a principal product designer in Sydney.
A former full-stack developer who turns admin, permissions, identity and AI 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
Five disciplines practised for over a decade, each with results to show.
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, from guidelines and component libraries to built-in accessibility.
- Built and owned Macquarie’s OneUI, 90%+ of UI across 7 products
- Led Canva Settings’ visual language, now on 20+ pages
- 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. I make it part of the system, not a checklist.
- Contributed to WCAG 2.1 on the WCAG Working Group
- Owned Canva Settings’ European Accessibility Act compliance plan
- Principal accessibility consultant across Macquarie
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, and teach front-end teams to build accessible UI, even on legacy systems.
- Coded prototypes shown to Canva’s CEO and VP Product
- Built Canva’s 30+ page Settings docs site and shipped pull requests
- Built apps end to end in React, Ionic, SwiftUI and WordPress
At Canva I helped bring Business and Enterprise to market: organisations, SSO, permissions, AI controls and settings for schools and the world’s largest companies.
I turn high-stakes systems into calm, accessible products that IT teams trust.
- Behind 2.8K organisations and 22.4M users, including HSBC, Netflix and Atlassian
- Admin controls switched on by 8,300+ teams
- Placed 20+ clients in the Flip the Switch pilot
From discovery through delivery, following the double diamond, I bring product, engineering, research, sales and legal in early.
My designs are grounded in what users do, and that evidence carries decisions to launch.
- 60+ usability participants for the Settings glow-up
- Loan Base: $100M+ settled in month one, NPS of 76
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.
Quality in delivery
What ships matches the design, because design stays until it’s built.
Highly accessible
Accessibility built in from the first component, not retrofitted.
Visually correct and consistent
Every screen, team and platform using the same patterns.
Sustainable
A design system your next initiative builds on.
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.
2025 – 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.