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    Garrett Grainger

    UX Designer

    Interaction designer shipping AI, XR and enterprise tools at BMW.

    Currently

    Interaction Designer & Project Lead, BMW Group

    Innovation & Emerging Technology, since 2023. Building and shipping AI, AR/VR, and web products across BMW's global operations.

    Index

    Works

    Three bodies of work. Hover a block to see what's inside, or scroll down for everything.

    Garrett Grainger walking through a granite colonnade in a black t-shirt and sunglassesSee my photos
    Garrett Grainger · Greenville, SC

    About Garrett

    I'm an interaction designer at BMW Group in Greenville, SC. I turn complex business needs into products people can actually use, with a focus on spatial computing, AI interfaces, and motion storytelling.

    Recently I helped take BMW's configurator into ChatGPT, from the first pretotype trailer that built support across departments to an app now live in Germany.

    Away from the screen, I've been getting into photography and coffee. It's the same habit of noticing small details, which is why you'll find a few of my favorite landscapes around this site.

    Focus

    • Conversational & AI UXAI
    • AR / VR & spatial interfacesXR
    • Motion & video storytellingMotion
    • Rapid prototyping in design systemsProto

    Currently

    Interaction Designer & Project Lead, BMW Group

    Innovation & Emerging Technology · Oct 2023 – Present

    I build and ship AI, AR/VR, and web products across BMW's global operations, working in the Density design system alongside development, and produce the concept trailers that turn early research into funded projects.

    • Impossible BatteryGlobal deployment, 2024–2025
    • Customer CompanionLive in ChatGPT, 2026
    • Smart Eyes6 departments, 2025

    Education

    BFA, User Experience Design

    Savannah College of Art & Design · 2019–2023

    Minor in Graphic Design. Graduated magna cum laude, Dean's List. Studio work with BMW and Deloitte Digital through SCADpro, plus the case studies below.

    • Eutopia2023
    • BMW × SCADpro2023
    • TIERS2023
    • Hushpup2021
    • American Express Amplify2023

    Resume

    Open PDF ↗

    Interaction designer in BMW's Innovation & Emerging Technology group. Known for rapid prototyping, strong UI craft, and concept trailers that turn early research into funded, cross-departmental projects.

    Experience

    BMW Group · Interaction Designer & Project Lead

    Oct 2023 – Present

    Innovation & Emerging Technology. Additional projects are under NDA and happy to discuss in interview.

    Impossible Battery · AR/VR technician training
    2024–2025
    Sole designer + PMDeployed globallyFeatured by Meta
    • Led stakeholder discovery, including BMW Group University instructors, and turned business requirements into scoped tasks for a cross-functional dev team.
    • Observed live technician training and mapped the full repair flow step by step as the team's source of truth.
    • Designed the hand-tracking interaction system: the PAW, a toolbox on the hand, pinch-to-use tool logic, and color signifiers that show what each part is ready for. Validated tool hand anchoring in technician usability tests.
    • Designed bulk actions, time and cost scoring in FRUs, and wrong-tool penalties, ending in a real end-of-service test.
    • Owned branding, trailers and stakeholder decks. The department's first project industrialized, now used at BMW Group University training centers globally.
    Smart Eyes · AI action detection for plant QA
    2025
    Sole designerTaken on by 6 departments
    • Proved the idea with brew.ai, a hackathon-winning coffee prototype, then pitched it with a pretotype trailer that drew requests from departments across the plant.
    • Shadowed end-of-line inspectors to fit the tool passively into their workflow, which led to a camera on their safety glasses.
    • Designed and built the front end of a checklist that fills itself in with clip evidence, in the Density design system, using a three-in-a-row detection rule to prevent false positives.
    • Designed a self-service data processor, also in Density, that auto-labels training clips from narration, and ran a usability test with coworkers that shaped the next build.
    • Contributed the process diagram and the UX and privacy themes to the team's position paper, Spatial Human Amplification: AI Meets Physical Work.
    • Handed off the proof of concept with documented limits. Six departments in Germany and the US took it on.
    Customer Companion · BMW native app for ChatGPT
    2026
    Pitch, research + conceptsLive in ChatGPT DE
    • Pitched the app to leadership with a pretotype trailer and deck that won funding for the project.
    • Researched the consumer apps already in ChatGPT and OpenAI's design guidelines, and mapped what an app can control in four levels.
    • Built an agent stress test across six categories, with BMW's configurator as the source of truth, and ran it against each new build.
    • Laid out the shipped Phase 1 UI within OpenAI's design system: model cards and a handoff into BMW's configurator.
    • Concepted Phase 2 entry points, visual comparison and drill-down views, in both BMW's NEO and OpenAI's design systems.

    Earlier

    Freelance · UX/UI Designer

    Jan 2023 – Aug 2024

    Visual identities and interactive prototypes for early-stage startups and small businesses, including the launched site for Aladdin Mediterranean Cuisine.

    BMW × SCADpro · Art Director & UX Lead

    Mar – Jun 2023

    Directed visual and UX design for speculative interaction concepts in a multidisciplinary studio team, aligned to BMW's brand and product vision.

    Deloitte Digital × SCADpro · UX Designer

    Jan – Mar 2023

    Built a market-ready digital product concept through user research, persona development, and rapid prototyping.

    Education

    Savannah College of Art & Design

    BFA, User Experience Design
    Minor, Graphic Design
    Magna cum laude · Dean's List · 2019–2023

    Awards

    • European Product Design AwardEuropean Product Design AwardStudent Honor · 2024 · Eutopia
    • IDAInternational Design AwardHonorable Mention · 2023 · Hushpup
    • IndigoIndigo Design Awards16 awards · UX / Interface / Product · 2022 · Hushpup
    • Red DotRed Dot Design AwardNomination · 2022 · Hushpup
    • FLUXathonFLUXathon 24-Hour ChallengeNomination · 2022

    Tools

    FigmaFigma MCPCode ConnectFigma MakeFigma MotionClaude CodeJiraAfter EffectsPhotoshopIllustrator

    Skills

    WireframingPrototypingDesign systemsAI/ML literacyStakeholder mgmtVideo editingProject mgmt

    Contact

    Let's talk design, or coffee.

    [email protected] LinkedIn ↗ Resume ↗
    © 2026 Garrett Grainger
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