A Day in the Life of UX Designer Kevin Lozandier, UX Engineer at Google

Kevin Lozandier is a user experience engineer at Google, supporting the ads and commerce teams. He’s a work-hard, play-hard kind of guy who immerses himself in his design and engineering work by day, and is an active part of the SF Bounce HIIT community by night.

It’s this same work ethic that earned him accolades when he was in high school, including four scholarships at Michigan State University to study computer design and writing. Back then, he was a promising football player with big plans, but his career took a turn when he suffered a near-fatal heart attack on the field at age 18. Doctors discovered a birth defect in his heart, but this hasn’t stopped him from persevering and finding success no matter what life throws his way.

Now based out of San Francisco, Lozandier shares in his own words what it’s like working as a UX designer at one of the largest tech companies in the world. Here’s a typical day in his life as he works alongside engineers, designers, and developers in sunny California.

Kevin Lozandier, UX Engineer at Google

Morning routine

It’s important to me to start my day physically and mentally recharged in addition to learning something new everyday.

I start my day around 6 a.m. working out in the gym, running, or cycling. After that, I pursue learning something new on a variety of learning platforms (Egghead.io, Treehouse, Code School, PluralSight, Udacity, Frontend Masters, and so on), read web and design publications such as A List Apart, Smashing Magazine, net, Graphite magazine and Adobe Create Magazine; or read case studies while commuting to Google Headquarters in Mountain View from San Francisco.

These days I’m studying reactive functional programming and keyboard-first UI design and applying this to my role at work.

Breakfast is essential for me to to start my workday. I eat breakfast before taking (or immediately after) a Google Shuttle and start my workday around 9 a.m.

At the beginning of the week, I review my calendar and prioritize my week. There are a wide variety of responsibilities and expectations that come with being a user experience engineer, which is one of the things I love about working between engineering and design.

Because of the schedule of user studies and the international time zone differences, I almost always interact with researchers and specialists first thing in the morning.

Afternoon: Working with engineers and designers

The majority of my day is spent acting as a liaison between designers and engineers. I make sure the intent of the designers is clear and understood by the engineers as much as possible. It’s my job to ensure designers implement designs with a clear understanding of constraints specific to the project, web platform and engineering team.

I work with designers and engineers one-on-one to help them figure out how to solve technical and user problems. I provide them with a variety of examples, techniques, tools, and resources to help them think for themselves with confidence. All this while also advocating for our users.

I break for lunch around 11:30 a.m. I like to head out with my teammates or take advantage of Google’s internal app that randomly connects me with another Googler in San Francisco or Mountain View.

Evening routine

I usually depart headquarters around 4 p.m. I like to finish up the day’s tasks on the shuttle ride back home.

Occasionally, I switch things up and eat dinner at one of our cafes around 6:30 p.m., take a hot yoga class at a studio near headquarters with friends, and then take a late-evening shuttle back home.

On the way back home, I review what needs to get done the next day, evaluate if I still have the mental capacity to learn something new while on the bus or when I get back home, consider playing games on my Nintendo Switch, read inspirational articles, continue working, or take a nap.

Once home, I hang out or catch up with friends, binge-watch shows, play games, or create things on my personal supercomputer. If I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll take a fitness class to destress from the day.

By 11 p.m. I’m off to bed — but not before a quick stretch, meditation, or exercise.

For more UX insights sent straight to your inbox, sign up for Adobe’s experience design newsletter.