Ilya M Polyakov | Design Engineer

Ilya Polyakov, in round glasses, floating above a collar and a long black tie

Hello there!

I'm a design engineer with over ten years of experience designing and building web applications. I've always enjoyed both sides of the process, from figuring out how something should work to actually making it work.

I'm particularly interested in design systems, reusable components, and finding ways to make interfaces more consistent and easier to maintain. Accessibility is also a big part of my work. I'm a Section 508 Trusted Tester, and I enjoy figuring out how to make complicated interfaces work for everyone.

Outside of work, I play a lot of board games and occasionally make things inspired by them. I've also made video games, including I'm Positive, which was used by the CDC in a research study.

The imp in my logo is a play on my initials and a reference to one of my favorite games, Blood on the Clocktower. As for the spaceman, I thought it'd be fun to have something you could throw around the page.

I'm currently looking for my next design engineering role, ideally working on a design system, but I'm interested in anything that lets me combine design and development.

Projects

Case study · Accessibility · Design engineering

All at the Clocktower

A companion app that lets blind and visually impaired players play Blood on the Clocktower with more independence. Designed, built and tested with screen readers and blind players.

Read the case study

Case study · Design engineering · Responsive design

Queen's Dilemma

An ornate, art-heavy web app that holds up at every screen width and text size, built with container queries, a small design system and layout tests that measure instead of eyeball. I designed and built it so six friends could hand out a board game's characters fairly.