Lisa Hanington — Design Director
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LISA HANINGTON

I make complex systems easy to use.

For the people using the work and the teams building it.

Design Director. Enterprise systems, regulated industries, real people. I turn confusion into confidence.

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ABOUT

I lead by listening.

Listening to users: bankers, patients, students. Listening to the team: engineering, product, compliance. Listening to the constraints: the regulations, timelines, and systems that shape what’s possible. Then I map the direction so everyone works from the same picture, with the human need at the core.

FEATURED WORK

Complex doesn’t have to mean complicated.

Four roles, one thread: making hard things usable.

Design Director, Truist Financial
2021–Present
  • Equipped 14,000+ bankers to navigate a fragmented, highly regulated onboarding process digitally
  • Standardized an omni-channel system architecture across 4 channels and 6 consumer and business products
  • 50%+ reduction in core application screens

Turning legacy enterprise systems into a seamless front door.
My role
Designed an omni-channel digital platform to make life easier for bankers opening new accounts every day.
Outcome
Streamlined the new digital account opening process, cutting steps and improving banker and client trust across the network.
Leadership
Grew the XD design team, established shared design processes, and mentored designers into leadership roles.
Creating trust in a highly regulated experience.
My role
Directed the design strategy of the Truist Privacy Center from 2021 to 2022, presenting complex financial privacy measures clearly to everyday banking customers.
#1 Javelin Privacy Rating
It takes discipline to make complexity effortless.

Independent Experience Research, Second Story
2026
  • Understanding human behavior during friction-heavy home and work scenarios
  • Designing physical environments to ease friction and restore connection

Wellness design for home and work.
My role
Independent research applying experience design and systems thinking to physical spaces — the same lens I bring to digital products.
The Second Story Concept
Understand human friction points, then make environmental adjustments to bring about positive change through connection, agency, rest, and nature.
A well-designed life makes every day better.

Design Consultant, Global Experience Design, Philips
2006–2021
  • Visual-first instructions for CPAP/respiratory devices
  • 50% reduction in patient onboarding time
  • 80% reduction in localization requirements

Lowering cognitive load through visual-first design.
My role
Built a global communication system that turned dense product information into intuitive, language-independent experiences for respiratory care.
Outcome
Decreased new patient onboarding time and reduced global translation costs by replacing dense technical manuals with vector-based instructions, setting a new documentation standard adopted across future product lines.
The best instructions need no words.

Adjunct Instructor, Carnegie Mellon University
1999–2008
  • Shapes how I mentor design teams today
  • Shapes how I align cross-functional stakeholders today

Teaching communication design as a foundational practice.
My role
Built and taught curriculum to students across all disciplines on presenting information clearly.
Outcome
Developed three curriculum frameworks in human-centered communication design — for multi-disciplinary undergraduates, MHCI, and MAPW students — alongside immersive studios in concept generation, prototyping, and visual communication.
Teaching is design.

GET IN TOUCH

Have a hard problem? Let’s talk.

Let’s help people move forward.

Thanks for reaching out — I’ll get back to you soon.
lvhanington@gmail.com LinkedIn