Hello, I'm Sonal

A product designer who enjoys autonomy and working closely with PMs and developers.

Product Designer III at ISN

I'm the lead product designer at an early-stage mobile app, leading end-to-end design for many 0-to-1 AI features, biometric authentication, account recovery, and more. Got promoted in Dec 2024.

Previously Product Design at the New York Times
I designed a 0-to-1 feature to reinforce trust among readers, redesigned a NYT homepage section with 5 million daily views, and created a design system for the Articles team.

MS HCI/d grad

from Indiana University Bloomington

Architect in previous life
with 3 years of work experience at multiple design startups in Tokyo and India.

Case studies

Toolbox Talks - An AI feature
ISN's first AI feature to help construction workers easily find and share safety guidelines sourced from regulatory sources.
Product Design. Mobile. Shipped Project.
Attendee List for Toolbox Talks
Version 2.0 of Toolbox Talks that enables construction workers to create and share a list of talk attendees.
Product Design. Mobile. Developed Project.
Designing for Trust at the New York Times
Improving readers’ understanding of processes and policies that underpin Times’ journalism. Supporting the company's mission.
Interaction and Visual Design. Mobile and Web. Shipped Project.
Expertise Tags and Filter
Helping recruiters to attract and recruit relevant candidates. Promoting platform's growth and success.
Product Design. Mobile. LinkedIn Design Challenge.
Phishing Simulation Software
Improving phishing awareness among employees through Phishing Simulation. Enterprise Solution.
Product Design. Web. Academic Project.
News Literacy Toolkit for Apple News
Educating people to perceive news critically to avoid the spread of misinformation. Solving a social problem.
Product Design. Mobile. Passion Project.
Improving Sleep Monitoring in Fitbit
Making the complex sleep data, personalized, easy to understand, and engaging. Increasing user engagement.
Product Design. Mobile. Academic Project.
Improving Shopping Experience for Best Buy
Resolving long payment queues and employee findability for Best Buy stores. Increasing customer satisfaction.
UX Research and Design. Physical Product. Sponsored Project.

What it's like to work with me

Mark Gerlach
Product Design Manager at ISN

Sonal consistently pushes herself and her team to deliver top-notch work that directly address our users’ need. Her proactive nature has helped foster process improvement, strong relationships and collaboration within the team, leading to a great work environment. Her work is instrumental in ensuring Empower remains a high-quality app for our users. I truly appreciate her holistic approach to improving her skills and the dedication she has to positively impact the team. Her commitment to quality is evident in her approach, process and output.

Tulio Jarocki
Senior Product Designer at The New York Times

I had the pleasure of working with Sonal during her internship at The New York Times, and I can confidently say she's an exceptional designer. She has a natural talent for understanding user and business problems, and designing grounded and executable solutions. From day one, she consistently produced impactful design solutions grounded in evidence-based research. She was always open to feedback and collaborated effectively with designers and cross-functional partners. She has a go-getter attitude and will be a fantastic addition to any design team.

Clara Cordeiro Mariano
Development Lead at ISN

Sonal is a designer who pays attention to the smallest details, delivers quickly, remains flexible to developers’ suggestions and queries, and carefully evaluates the development effort needed for proposed ideas. She excels at prioritizing communication with both me and my team of developers.

Albert Schilthui
Product Manager at ISN

Sonal owned the Toolbox Talks feature from its early concept to a fully developed product. Her attention to detail and ability to explain the reasoning behind design decisions stand out. She asks sharp questions and isn’t afraid to voice concerns when something doesn’t add up.

Helping the team grow

I give bi-monthly presentations at ISN, sharing my learnings to contribute to the team's growth.

Let's connect.

For work or a ramble on anything design, technology and people.
Email
Linkedin
Medium