Better Futures InstituteBFI
Designing shared data infrastructure from 0→1. Helping public agencies share and govern data, explore it with AI, and turn it into actionable visualizations, saving San Antonio partners $2M+ to date.
Turning fragmented public data into shared infrastructure
0→1 Product Design
Public institutions had valuable data spread across departments, files, and disconnected systems. The challenge wasn't creating more dashboards—it was creating infrastructure that could bring trusted information together and make it usable across organizations.
As Product Design Partner, I led the design team building Buffi from 0→1, working across the product myself while directing a full-time product designer and Better Futures Scholars across data sources, governance, human review, AI exploration, and visualization.
Designing beyond the prompt
VIA Transit Design Partner
Buffi was AI-first: planners could ask questions and generate visualizations through conversation. But as we worked with VIA, we found that some tasks were simply easier to do directly—adjusting a visualization, changing inputs, or moving between different ways of looking at the data.
I led the team in exploring a model where those approaches worked together. Planners could prompt Buffi to generate an analysis, jump into Transit Studio to work with the underlying tools directly, then move back into AI when it was useful.
Transit Studio
Combining AI exploration with maps, visualizations, forecasting, and direct controls for recurring transit-planning workflows.
Transit Studio: Knowing when not to use AI.
As we worked with planners, we found that asking AI to repeatedly change a visualization could be slower than simply changing it yourself. The problem wasn't making the AI more conversational—it was recognizing when conversation was the wrong interaction.
That shifted the product toward a hybrid model: AI for exploring unfamiliar questions, direct manipulation for precise and repeatable work.
Explore with AI
Using conversation to interrogate unfamiliar data and move quickly from a question to an initial analysis.
Work directly
Giving planners persistent controls for manipulating maps, routes, forecasts, and visualizations without repeatedly prompting.
Bringing Buffi to residents
Intentional Mobile Expansion
BFI operates SA311, the resident-facing app for reporting issues to the city. While Buffi had primarily been designed for institutional desktop workflows, SA311 gave us a path to bring that intelligence directly to residents on mobile.
I led the redesign around a simpler, AI-assisted reporting experience—combining Buffi with SA311 so residents could scan what they see, identify an issue, and move into the right reporting workflow with less manual input.
Before — Reporting a city issue meant navigating government
Residents had to manually choose the right category, issue type, location, photo, and details before submitting a request.
After — AI turns what residents see into a report the city can act on
Capture the issue and AI identifies what’s wrong, gathers the context, and prepares the right report for public works.
Buffi Mobile: Starting with the problem, not the process.
The existing experience asked residents to translate what they saw into the city’s structure choosing the right category and issue before providing the information needed to submit a report.
I flipped that relationship. Residents should only need to show the city what’s wrong. By bringing Buffi’s AI into SA311, the system can interpret the issue, gather the right context, and translate what a resident sees into something public works can act on.
See what's happening across the city
Redesigning the public 311 map to make thousands of service requests easier to understand through photos, AI-generated issue icons, status, time, and geographic filters.
Explore your community with AI
Extending Buffi's conversational experience to mobile so residents can ask questions grounded in trusted local data wherever they are.
Building products and the next generation of designers.
Better Futures Scholars
Better Futures Institute is a nonprofit in my hometown of San Antonio. Alongside my work at Adobe, I serve as a Product Design Partner, helping build public-purpose technology while investing back into the community where I started my career.
I lead a full-time early-career product designer and Better Futures Scholars, who join full-time during the summer and continue part-time during school. I stay hands-on with the product while setting design direction and helping designers take meaningful ownership of the work.
From the team at BFI
Turning an ambitious vision for civic intelligence into a product requires someone who can create clarity across technology, policy, and people. Jon brings that clarity while aligning teams around a compelling view of what is possible.
Founder & CEODr. Alberto Gomez Jon is a natural leader and exceptional mentor. Working with him over the course of 6 months accelerated my growth as a designer more than I could have imagined. He has a rare combination of deep skill, infectious energy, and a genuine drive to see others around him win.
Product DesignerItzie Pulido
