Alex Karavai. Product designer in Los Angeles. I ship consumer photo and gift apps used by millions, working day to day with iOS and web engineers, product managers and QA. I write the prototypes we decide with, and build the tools that do parts of my job for me. Before design, I ran a studio. On weekends, I make techno.
The frustration. Every Suno generation on my phone hands me a finished three minute song. I want a 32 bar loop at 132 in D minor, and I want to keep the kick I like while the rest changes. Today the only move is roll the whole thing again.
The workaround. Cutting loops out of full songs, warping them to tempo, keeping notes on which generation had the good bass. Half the session went to bookkeeping.
The realization. The model cannot flip stems on and off, but it can take a reference. So lock becomes keep this as reference and refuse becomes replace this one. Suno Studio on the web already does tempo and stems, for $30 a month in a browser. The phone, where most generations start, never asks. Keep and refuse is the feature.
Motion. Lock 160ms ring, refuse 200ms crossfade to a stub, regenerate 600ms shimmer then names fade in, transport at 132 on requestAnimationFrame, reduced motion honored. The spec table ships inside the prototype.
What I would test first. Whether "keep as reference" reads as lock or as favorite, with five producers and five first-time users, before any of this touches the Create form.
One interaction per entry, looping. Shipped where it says shipped. Each one started as a prototype you could click.
Layout rules for the iPhone Duo written before any screens, agreed with engineering first so they could be built as size classes: hierarchy that survives folding mid-task, and a standing rule that any two-pane layout puts its gutter on the crease. 4 screens by 3 states, one container-query prototype.
Apple's own recommendations over a custom look, argued through with brand owners who wanted their tint everywhere. The rule we landed on: brand tint on one prominent action per screen, everything else system glass. One QA checklist across every app, so ten engineering teams migrated against the same bar.
Drag, corner resize, a rotate handle and a toolbar that follows the selection, ported from our sticker maker onto the card designer. Specced as microinteractions with durations and easings so engineering and I were arguing about the same 160ms.
Multi-photo covers filled the wrong slot with no selected state. Started as a customer complaint relayed by the PM, rebuilt pixel for pixel against the live app: an explicit target, long-press to enter, shipped with the iOS team in one release.
One-page checkout, a sizes-test rescue with a toast and a timed offer, payment methods for the UK, Sweden and Poland. Each one started from the analytics with the data team, then Figma, then a test readout we read together.
One designer serving fifteen apps. The only way that works is building things that do parts of the job without me.
A design system generator for Figma: a plugin that writes an entire SaaS dashboard UI kit with real variables, light and dark modes, every component state, a states matrix, eight screens and a changelog. Published on Figma Community.
Figma Plugin API, Sep 2026
An AI design department I run from my desk and my phone. A director agent scopes a job, routes it to a specialist, runs deterministic gates, hands the result to an independent critic, and parks on a decision card I can answer while walking the dog.
Claude agents, skills, a decision inbox
Every project ships as a self-contained HTML prototype with live chrome, real motion and a spec panel, then gets pushed into Figma as the source of truth. The demo above came out of it. So did this page.
HTML, CSS, JS, WebAudio, Figma as source of truthTechno in Ableton Live. Groove first: a 32 bar loop, then one sound at a time, each kept, parked or refused before the next. I wrote that method down as a skill so an agent can drive Ableton with me. Making music is why I care how a creation tool feels in the hand.
I came to design from the other side of the table. Running a studio taught me that stakeholders are users too, and that a beautiful screen nobody can ship is just a picture.
Grew contracts from $300K to $8M. Learned to sell an idea, scope it, and deliver it on a deadline with someone else's money.
Switched chairs. Started doing the work instead of selling it.
Designed and built a product for people who make music. It did not become a company. It did become the reason I keep building my own things.
Four months of e-commerce under pressure. Moved countries mid-career around the same time.
FreePrints, Photobooks, Simply to Impress, Personal Creations, CafePress and ten more. Order flows, editors, platform migrations, A/B tests, and the tooling that keeps one designer ahead of fifteen roadmaps.
I am looking for a senior product design role in Los Angeles where craft and code sit on the same desk. Prototypes and walkthroughs available on request.
alskaravay@gmail.com