About

Half the work is saying the problem out loud.

I'm Anas Raza — a product designer in Toronto. I came to design from code, which means shipping was never the scary part. The scary part — the interesting part — is making sure we're building the right thing at all.

Anas Raza

I started as a frontend developer, then trained to master's level in design at OCAD University — my thesis was an AR retail product, using play to change how people buy. Working across web, AR, and VR products taught me one durable lesson: a design is only real when it survives contact with actual code, actual users, and actual constraints.

The AI-equipped workflow

RESEARCHWatch real users, name the problem
DESIGN SYSTEMTokens, components — in Figma
BUILD SPECThe system is the spec
AI-ASSISTED CODEClaude Code builds; I direct
SHIPPEDReal users, real learning

Proof: Pebblr — observed problem → live pilot, one designer. (This website ships the same way.)

How my thinking is formed — explore the map →

How I work

Articulate first

If the problem isn't said out loud, the design is decoration.

Systems, not screens

The design system that articulates the problem best is the better design system.

Ship to learn

AI has collapsed the distance between design and deployment — my workflow is built on that.

Before product — explorations

VR development, physical computing, and client web work for Small World Music and Mlily Mattress. These live here as history: the origin of a workflow that treats space, body, and code as design materials.

Play to Pay — AR coins over a retail display MDes thesis · AR

Play to Pay — AR retail game

A location-based multiplayer AR game for retail: roam the store, collect coins, redeem at checkout. Published as an academic paper at OCAD.

 VR classroom — a low-poly learning environment VR · Unity

VR Classroom

A test study: is learning enhanced when you subtract the classroom's visual noise but keep the play? UI placement designed for spatial computing.

 Interference — a generative particle field Installation · Kinect

Interference

A Kinect-driven installation visualizing electromagnetic interference: body movement disturbs a living particle field.

 AI-process experiment

Commuter — rideshare concept

Developed during a double-diamond workshop as an early experiment in AI-assisted design process. Openly unshipped; kept here as process history.

Off duty: philosophy rabbit holes, thought experiments, and cooking that occasionally obeys the recipe.