UX · UI Designer — San Diego, CA
Robert Garbowski
Hardware · Software · Systems · 14 Years
I design hardware and software—from the first button-less executive desk phone to AI-powered insurance intelligence dashboards. MFA-trained, cross-industry tested, with 14 years of experience delivering UX that works for real people and real jobs.
Explore by skill
Beyond the pixels
Most of what makes a design ship well happens between people. Across a decade building hardware with globally distributed teams, this is how I show up.
Collaborating across a global team
Digium and Sangoma’s engineers were spread across South America, China, and England, many working in English as a second language. I wrote specs and redlines that could stand on their own across time zones and cultures, so the work didn’t depend on me being in the room.
Open to the best idea, wherever it comes from
I don’t think the designer has to invent every solution. When a French-Canadian developer flagged that some UI labels overflowed once translated, I turned his catch into a character budget the whole localization team designed within. Open to the idea, then systematic about the fix.
Designing with business and engineering cost in mind
Before proposing a brand-new component, I weigh what it will cost to build. If something in the library or the demo product already does the job, I design within it rather than asking engineering to start over, so good work ships sooner.
Embedded in the engineering team
I sat in on engineering’s weekly meetings, not just design’s, to hear their pain points and what was coming down their lane. That built real trust, and it meant design solutions could surface fast, right there in the conversation.
Origin: A Gadget Geek becomes a Designer
The Confession
I love gadgets. Turns out that’s simply another way of saying I’m passionate about UX.
It started at age 8 with a Casio electronic keyboard — I was immediately obsessed with every sound it could make, poking at keys until I could recreate the handful of songs I knew by heart. The following year, a VCR arrived in our house. I became the household expert on the recording schedule, feeling genuinely useful helping my mom catch her favorite soap opera. More gadgets followed, and I was the one the family called to set them up.
At 14, my cousin introduced me to the desktop computer. Primitive by any modern measure — floppy drives, monochrome display — but I was hooked.
During my design studies, color laser printing was expensive and specialized. Students took their files to outside service bureaus for final presentations. While having my work printed, I found myself troubleshooting files alongside the operator and showing them a few shortcuts. On my way out, the owner offered me a job. My new boss was a fellow gadget enthusiast — if it could connect to a computer, he had it. I got hands-on with color laser printers, large-format billboard printers, color calibrators, film scanners, and early file transfer systems that moved client files overnight via phone modem.
When I moved to Chicago, I brought that same instinct to my new employer — setting up a file transfer system that cut bike messenger costs and improved turnaround time for a department doing a million dollars in monthly sales.
That curiosity has never slowed down. Laptops, digital cameras, the Palm Pilot, the iPhone, the Apple Watch. If it interfaces with a computer, I want to understand it — not just use it, but dig into every feature, figure out the setup experience, and understand where it delights and where it frustrates.
I brought all of that to Sangoma, where I was tasked with delivering an executive-level device and experience — a completely buttonless office desk phone. The challenge was compounded by the fact that none of our competitors had built anything comparable. There was no reference point, no benchmark to critique. What we delivered wasn't just a sleek piece of hardware — it was a thoughtfully designed experience with unexpected convenience features that genuinely delighted users.
I love gadgets. I love using them myself. And I love helping other people get the most out of them. It turns out that's just another way of saying I love UX.