SmartGift Inc.
Lead Product & UX/UI Designer
SmartGift pioneered "address-less shipping," letting recipients choose delivery details instead of senders. As Lead Product Designer, I shaped the core product vision and helped scale the platform to 500+ enterprise retail integrations across 14 countries, culminating in acquisition by 1-800-Flowers in May 2023.
- The Idea
- At its core, SmartGift was built around a simple human insight: gifting often breaks at the moment of choice. Senders worry about picking the wrong item, while recipients receive gifts that don't quite fit.
SmartGift separated intent from selection. The sender gives the gesture, thoughtful and branded, while the recipient chooses the outcome. This reframing removed friction, reduced returns and waste, and made gifting scalable without losing its emotional value. - Design Challenge
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- Felt native inside each partner's brand ecosystem
- Preserved surprise and thoughtfulness despite flexibility
- Scaled across millions of users and enterprise programs
- Balanced strict brand controls with recipient freedom
- Solution
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- We designed a brand-agnostic platform that could visually and behaviorally adapt to each partner. Users entered SmartGift directly from partner PDPs or campaign flows, so the experience had to feel like a natural extension of the brand, not a third-party interruption.
- Outcomes
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- Scaled to 500+ enterprise retail integrations across 14 countries, serving 1M+ users annually
- Co-invented and designed SmartGift's patented gifting flow (US10679268B1)
- Pioneered "address-less shipping" where recipients choose delivery details, not senders. The pattern became an industry standard.
- Reduced enterprise partner onboarding from months to weeks
- Built UX patterns that supported partners including Nike, Under Armour, Pandora, Estée Lauder, Brilliant Earth, and VF Corporation
- Contributed to product strategy that led to acquisition by 1-800-Flowers (May 2023)
More in Depth
When I joined SmartGift, the company had a compelling vision but needed someone to translate it into a cohesive product experience. The challenge wasn't just designing screens. It was reimagining how people give and receive gifts digitally.
Gifting isn't shopping. It's an emotional transaction. Every design decision had to honor that distinction.
Traditional gift cards felt impersonal. You're essentially saying "I didn't know what to get you, here's some money." SmartGift's premise was different: what if the gift itself could be a conversation? The sender could express their intention, and the recipient could respond by choosing something meaningful.
I led the design of the core gifting flow, working closely with engineering to build a system that was both flexible for enterprise clients and delightful for end users. The white-label architecture needed to feel native to each brand while maintaining consistent UX patterns.
The most challenging aspect was designing for two distinct users with different goals. Senders wanted to feel generous and thoughtful. Recipients wanted choice without awkwardness. Balancing these needs required extensive user research and iteration.
Over four years, I grew from the sole designer to leading a small team, establishing design systems, processes, and a culture of user-centered thinking that supported the company's rapid growth.
