Design systems

Building Times Product Language: A global design system for The New York Times

2023

Password Protected

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The Times had a variety of localized, disorganized, and disconnected design systems. We built a global system to connect them all.

Navigating multiple design systems

2022

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Maker Week Award

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Teams were struggling to find, understand, and use the multiple New York Times design systems. My team demonstrated how we could solve that problem.

Product Design

Helping subscribers manage their subscriptions with ease

2020-21

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Publisher Award x2

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Growth

Previously, subscribers had two options: stay subscribed or cancel by calling customer support. My team enabled subscribers to cancel, pause, or switch their subscriptions online anytime.

Universal authentication across the New York Times bundle

2019

Publisher Award

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Growth

We created a unified login and registration experience across the entire New York Times ecosystem, including News, Cooking, Games, Wirecutter, and beyond.

Coming soon

Envisioning the next New York Times bundle app: Times Reads

2024

Maker Week

iOS

My team prototyped a delightfully easy way for New York Times readers to discover, manage, and enjoy all the New York Times’ books, lists, and reviews.

Coming soon

Improving accessibility with Assistive Access

2023

Maker Week

iOS

We created a better reading experience by distilling our apps to their essential features and reducing cognitive load, particularly for readers with cognitive impairments.

Speaking

Build User-Centered Design Systems to Maximize Impact

2024

Panel

Loft Design

I joined design leaders from Cisco and Pure Storage to discuss best practices, key tools, case studies, and tangible examples of the impact of design systems at scale in 2024.

Watch ↗

The World Needs More Growth Designers

2020

Talk

Friends of Figma

In a world where digital products capitalize on human psychology, we find ourselves being used as tools instead of the other way around. Historically, designers have contributed to these problems, knowingly or otherwise. Now, designers have an essential role in deciding where we go next.

Watch ↗

Slides ↗

More about me

I was born in Melbourne, Australia, moved to California as a baby, and grew up mostly in the North Bay Area. I graduated from RISD with a BFA in Industrial Design, moved to NYC, and joined The New York Times.

I like solving problems that others overlook. I don’t stop until every moment, large or small, feels so intuitive that you forget someone ever designed it in the first place.

I thrive working with people who are passionate about their field, care about others and the future, and are excessively eager to share with and learn from each other.

When I’m not designing, you’ll find me at the community woodshop, a drag show, or somewhere chronically online.

Riley Sykes