Ubiquiti – UniFi Protect
Protect is Ubiquiti's physical security platform – cameras, doorbells, sensors, recorders and the apps that run them. It's used by millions of people every month, from single households to large enterprises. I worked on the Protect team, across the hardware, the apps and the deep integrations between UniFi's security devices.
role
Senior Product Designer
timeframe
2025 – 2026
contribution
Product strategy, User experience, Visual design, Web development, Design system
Automations
Creating alarms was a linear, step-by-step flow. It worked while alarms were simple, but every release added more triggers, conditions and actions, and user feedback showed it breaking down.
So on my own initiative I designed and vibe-coded a prototype for Automations – a node-based engine where you connect triggers, conditions and actions however you need, and complex setups stay readable.
Automations: a node-based engine for building alarms from triggers, conditions and actions
Device Adoption
Adoption is the first thing you see after plugging in a new device – the start of every product's life on the platform. Legacy design had settled in there. It was slow and it looked its age.
I rebuilt both the look and the system behind it. Adopting a device went from 30 seconds to 9.
The tricky part: Ubiquiti has hundreds of devices, and their renders come in all kinds of aspect ratios. So instead of placing each one by hand, I came up with layout rules that work for all of them.
Settings Cleanup
Knowing what to optimise, and how, is the daily work on an established product. This settings view had collected features and additions over the years, so I looked at how we could compact it and reduce the mental load for users.
Just by reorganizing the same information, the view got 52% shorter. Zones & Lines moved to a dedicated tab. It's cleaner, easier to navigate and more aligned with the iOS 26 design language.
Also Shipped
PTZ controls. Moving around your PTZ camera lens was cumbersome and only possible in landscape. I designed a control that works in portrait too. Never forced to landscape view, never lose your thought. Just eyes on the target.
NVR health. The NVR stores all your recordings locally – think of it as a server. The mobile apps showed nothing about its capacity or health, so I designed a way to read both at a glance.
Camera grid. The camera grid is the bread and butter of Protect. Users now have 180°, dual-lens and 360° cameras, and a static grid can't fit them. So out goes the old static grid – users can drag, stretch and arrange it however they want, and even view it on Apple TV.
Integrations. Another project I worked on from scratch. Imagine connecting your security system to a PoS terminal for store owners, or your sensors and cameras to a security company. A lot of it was coordinating with partners on their technical requirements.
Hardware UI. I'm a big fan of hardware design, and I was excited to design GUI for devices that aren't computers or phones. The constraints are real, and they help.
Looking Back
I came in expecting the big wins to come from new features. It turned out a lot of the impact came from less visible work – a faster adoption flow, a shorter settings screen, fewer support tickets. When millions of people use the product, removing one step helps a lot of them. These days I start by asking what we can remove, before what to add.
