[Intro]
I'm Chad Nicol, a Utah (USA) based designer, working as the founding designer at Contextual, a Bay Area start‑up quietly fixing e‑commerce’s data woes.
Occasional time set aside for the right side project.
/26
Scroll Down
Selected Work
Contextual
Making a highly technical product understandable to e-commerce merchants
Contextual is a VC backed Silicon Valley startup that created a first‑party data and server‑side tracking platform for mid-size Shopify merchants - technology previously only available to large enterprise businesses with custom built in-house engineering teams.
The brief was straightforward enough: take Contextual from 0 to 1, setting the core interaction patterns and visual system while making a decidedly technical server‑side data product feel clear and approachable for non‑technical e‑commerce marketers.
[ROLE]
Product Designer (Founding)
[TEAM]
Founding CEO, 1 Technical Founder, 1 Engineer, Self
[Service]
Product Design, Brand Identity
[Year]
2025
Making a highly technical product understandable to e-commerce merchants
Contextual is a VC backed Silicon Valley startup that created a first‑party data and server‑side tracking platform for Shopify merchants.
The brief was straightforward enough: take Contextual from 0 to 1, setting the core interaction patterns and visual system while making a decidedly technical server‑side data product feel clear and approachable for non‑technical e‑commerce marketers.
Toothy.ai
Building AI into complex dental workflows
Toothy is a YC W25 venture-backed startup building AI-powered tools that automate dental insurance verification, billing, and revenue workflows.
I helped Toothy.ai bring their product from 0 to 1, defining the core user experience for automating dental insurance verification, claims, and back-office workflows. I partnered closely with the founders to translate complex revenue cycle operations into clear, approachable flows for front-office staff, designed the initial product architecture and dashboards, and created a design system that could scale with rapid experimentation.
[ROLE]
Product Designer [Contract]
[TEAM]
3 Founding Partners (2 Technical), Subject Matter Expert, Self
[Service]
Product Design, Design Systems, UI Design
[Year]
2025
Building AI into complex dental workflows
Toothy is a YC W25 venture-backed startup building AI-powered tools that automate dental insurance verification, billing, and revenue workflows.
I helped Toothy.ai bring their product from 0 to 1, defining the core user experience for automating dental insurance verification, claims, and back-office workflows. I partnered closely with the founders to translate complex revenue cycle operations into clear, approachable flows for front-office staff, designed the initial product architecture and dashboards, and created a design system that could scale with rapid experimentation.
[ROLE]
Product Designer [Contract]
[TEAM]
3 Founding Partners (2 Technical), Subject Matter Expert, Self
[Service]
Product Design, Design Systems, UI Design
[Year]
2025
Building AI into complex dental workflows
Toothy is a YC W25 venture-backed startup building AI-powered tools that automate dental insurance verification, billing, and revenue workflows.
I helped Toothy.ai bring their product from 0 to 1, defining the core user experience for automating dental insurance verification, claims, and back-office workflows. I partnered closely with the founders to translate complex revenue cycle operations into clear, approachable flows for front-office staff, designed the initial product architecture and dashboards, and created a design system that could scale with rapid experimentation.
Andavo
A New Flight Path for Business Travel Design
Andavo is a contemporary platform rethinking how companies approach travel management. Built with both corporate teams and frequent travellers in mind, it combines a thoughtfully designed desktop experience with a seamless mobile app that keeps journeys organised and on track.
Collaborating with a UX director and a team of engineers, I led the creation of a new design system that redefined the brand’s visual language and bridged the gap between design and development. The result is a cohesive, elegant interface that delivers consistency and quiet sophistication at every touchpoint.
[ROLE]
Senior Product Designer
[TEAM]
UX Director, 2 Senior Product Designers, 3 Senior Engineers, Self
[Service]
Product Design, Design Systems, UI Design
[Year]
2024
A New Flight Path for Business Travel Design
Andavo is a contemporary platform rethinking how companies approach travel management. Built with both corporate teams and frequent travellers in mind, it combines a thoughtfully designed desktop experience with a seamless mobile app that keeps journeys organised and on track.
Collaborating with a UX director and a team of engineers, I led the creation of a new design system that redefined the brand’s visual language and bridged the gap between design and development. The result is a cohesive, elegant interface that delivers consistency and quiet sophistication at every touchpoint.
1-800 Contacts
A tenacious focus on the customer experience
1-800 Contacts is a leading online contact lens retailer recognized for its customer-first approach and innovations in telemedicine.
As the sole product designer on a mobile-focused team, I led the iterative redesign and optimization of various aspects of the app, including their innovative in-app vision exam, insurance benefit verification feature, and the app's checkout flow. Through user testing sessions and data-informed UX improvements, I helped increase mobile conversion rates by 7%, boost telemedicine vision exam completions by 11%, and develop a scalable design system that streamlined handoffs with engineering—all while supporting the app’s consistent 5‑star App Store rating.
[ROLE]
Product Designer
[TEAM]
Product Manager, iOS Engineer, Android Engineer, Self
[Service]
UX, UI, User Testing, User Interviews, Mobile Design
[Year]
2020
A tenacious focus on the customer experience
1-800 Contacts is a leading online contact lens retailer recognized for its customer-first approach and innovations in telemedicine.
As the sole product designer on a mobile-focused team, I led the iterative redesign and optimization of various aspects of the app, including their innovative in-app vision exam, insurance benefit verification tool, and the app's checkout flow. Through user testing sessions and data-informed UX improvements, I helped increase mobile conversion rates by 7%, boost telemedicine vision exam completions by 11%, and develop a scalable design system that streamlined handoffs with engineering—all while supporting the app’s consistent 5‑star App Store rating.
[ROLE]
Product Designer [Contract]
[TEAM]
3 Founding Partners (2 Technical), Subject Matter Expert, Self
[Service]
Product Design, Design Systems, UI Design
[Year]
2025