Ryan Higgins
Ryan Higgins
Staff Product Designer · Founder, Unruly Vision
Profile
Staff Product Designer with 18 years in enterprise and FinTech, the last seven where decisions move millions and have to hold up to an audit. In 2026 I founded Unruly Vision and shipped Fathom, an AI vision app for blind and low-vision people, solo to the App Store. I work AI-native — building the agents and workflows that help a team move faster — and I still write the frontend code myself; it's a material I design with, not just a handoff. I bring what a problem needs: product strategy, craft, or the systems that scale both.
Experience
Founder & Product Designer2026 – Present
Unruly Vision
- Founded Unruly Vision and shipped Fathom, an AI vision app for blind and low-vision people, solo to the App Store — concept to launch in four months, with paying Fathom Plus subscribers in week one.
- Designed and built the full product solo: on-device AI computer vision for real-time hazard detection, indoor wayfinding, and step-by-step task guidance, engineered in ~50K lines of production Swift.
- Extended FathomUI, an accessibility-first design system, into sound and haptics, and directed agentic design and engineering workflows across the build — from concept through Apple's App Review.
- Hiring blind and low-vision employees to guide product adoption, maturity, and growth as the company builds beyond its first product.
Staff Product Designer2019 – Present
Chatham Financial — Kennett Square, PA
- Leading platform design for the Investment Management Platform, leveraging LLMs and ML to deliver scalable solutions for portfolio performance and risk monitoring.
- Collaborates with GMs, product managers, and engineering leads to research, prototype, and deliver market-leading solutions through an agile process.
- Manages the design internship program, contributed to the platform design system, and facilitated workshops on UX methods and best practices to drive cross-functional alignment and innovation.
Digital Design & Development Manager2016 – 2019
Wilmington University — Wilmington, DE
- Led team of junior developers in reducing accessibility issues 82% (WCAG 2.0).
- Conducted cross-functional UX design studio workshops for homepage optimization and redesign project.
Lead Web Designer2009 – 2016
Wilmington University — Wilmington, DE
- Responsible for the design, front-end development, and user experience of university websites. Coordinated build-out of CMS and training.
- In 2013, led the responsive website redesign of the second fastest growing private non-profit university in the United States.
- Responsible for social media strategy and governance; led institution-wide user groups and oversaw administration and social media management.
Adjunct Faculty2013 – Present
Wilmington University — Wilmington, DE
- Instruct and design undergraduate 300-level courses in standards-based interface design, UX design, and development.
- Mentored 300+ students; many now working in FinTech and design systems roles.