Lauren Celenza is a designer, writer, and educator. Through design consulting and team training, she partners with organizations worldwide to develop tech products and industry practices that thoughtfully consider the relationships to our environments, our communities, and ourselves.

As an independent UX designer, I partner with product, UX, and engineering teams worldwide–connecting the dots across their teams, research, and design systems to catalyze their growth in a time of uncertainty and information fatigue. I do this through design consulting, product strategy, team training, and community building. Recent organizations I’ve worked with include: World Resources Institute (climate), Coursera (online learning), PlatformAbuse.org (trust & safety), Swiggy (urban mobility), and Hmnty Cntrd (future of work, wellbeing). 

Formerly, I was a design lead at Google Maps, working with a global team and implementing changes to Google’s process to dismantle silos and develop relationships with local communities, startups, and activists. This process resulted in millions of previously excluded addresses, routes, businesses, and several languages and transportation modes becoming visible for the first time in Google Maps history, and thousands of new people joining the Google Maps Local Guides community worldwide. Before Google, I designed projects for The Gates Foundation, P&G, Viacom, Citizen Schools, Gates Ventures, Wikipedia, and more. 

I was also an early member of the Alphabet Workers Union, where I advocated for a healthier workplace for data centers across the US and protested the discrimination of ethical AI researchers. In 2022, I petitioned for the Silenced No More Act in Washington state, prohibiting employers from using non-disclosure agreements to silence workers on issues of discrimination, retaliation, and wage violations. 

I teach Design in a World of Chaos & Uncertainty at Harbour.Space University in Barcelona. Through interactive games and activities, design and research exercises, and vulnerable storytelling, I teach methods for building equitable and inclusive design systems, how to alleviate fear, harm, and uncertainty in tech products today, and how to advocate for ourselves in the workplace. In June 2022, there were 20 countries represented in one hybrid classroom. 

Through personal storytelling, cultural analysis, and reportage, I write essays on tech, humanity, and the workplace. My essays and commentaries have appeared in Forbes, In These Times, The Economic Times, UX Collective, People Nerds, among others. 

I'm the author of Tech Without Losing Your Soul, a newsletter that examines the tech industry, its motivations and processes, who gains–and loses–agency as technology advances, and the pressures, moral dilemmas, and burnout facing tech workers today. I grew up in rural Ohio during the decline of manufacturing and the rise of tech, witnessing industry disruption and work-life imbalance from a young age. My work has been selected for writing workshops at Tin House, Barrelhouse, and Catapult, and I’ve learned from award-winning authors like Nadia Owusu, Lilly Dancyger, Cinelle Barnes, Meredith Talusan, and Lidia Yuknavitch.