Hi! I’m Chris. I make software for startups, nonprofits, science and the humanities.

Chris Blow France

Designer-builder

My practice is based in digital product design, qualitative user experience research and software engineering. I build software that seeks to improve human communication and sensing, often starting with conceptualization, positioning and prototyping.

I have often focused on crowdsourcing and civic tech. Lately I have a particular interest in human health and climate.

I like working on design systems and developer experience. In general I love to have ideas and to help others think bigger, while also zooming in to reason about systems at multiple scales.

Big questions I often return to

How can we expand human capacity to help us deal with critical social and environmental problems?

How can we manage complexity with ethical responsibility? How can we make our approach more inclusive, accountable and humane?

How can we visualize our landscape to make better decisions within it? What are the missing pieces and overlooked opportunity in emerging system?

Let's work together?

⟶ I work with individuals, startups and nonprofits.
⟶ I often design native, cross-platform apps.
⟶ I typically lead early stage frontend UI & UX.

EXPERIENCE

WeaveGrid — Software and UX at climate tech startup
LightField — Co-founder at data startup for climate
The Data Guild — Designer at startup studio for energy and health
Contain — Tech lead at contained agriculture startup
Litterati — Data visualizations at environmental startup
Meedan — Design lead and co-founder at social tech organization
Healthmade — Health data & visualizations healthcare design studio
Bolt | Peters — Designer and UI researcher at UX consultancy
Ethnio — Rails developer and designer for usability research product
Ushahidi — iOS designer and design advisor for civic media platform
Blast Internet — Linux systems administrator for web services firm
Nonprofit Design — Founder of design services company

Talks

I’m super grateful to have been invited to speak at venues such as RightsCon, Global Fact, the Online News Association, DrupalCon, the International CrisisMappers Conference, the AIGA, SXSW, the African News Innovation Challenge, the Nonprofit Technology Conference, the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program and Stanford University.

I am sometimes available for talks, please get in touch.

Contact

For more details please reach out via my LinkedIn page or contact form. My resume is available as HTML or as a PDF.