AI product · Design · Research

I make complicated systems feel human.

I’m Nicole Brennan, Senior AI Product Manager and Designer at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center. I design AI systems, government platforms, and identity infrastructure meant to work for everyone.

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At workOff the clock Me, on the 7-point scale I built for measuring AI personas. Where the two overlap is who I am.

Explore the work

Archive

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Civic platforms

Public front doors used by more than 100 million people a year.

  • USA.govLed the redesign. 91.6% accessibility score in the first week.
  • Vote.govMobile design and a toolkit shared with every federal agency to encourage voter registration.
  • Search.govProduct and UX strategy for the search engine behind federal websites, projected to save about $600K a year.
  • Insights & HighlightsA reusable infographic system that became USAGov’s official quarterly report.
  • Behavioral energy productsHome energy reports and an energy portal that lifted email open rates 35%.

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Identity

Who gets to prove who they are, and on whose terms.

  • KeyringA decentralized identity wallet. I led UI, interaction, and content design.

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Accessibility

Accessibility and ambition aren’t in tension.

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AI character

AI that feels like someone, not something.

  • The Personality LabBuilding, calibrating, and measuring distinct AI personas for deliberative research.
  • Council of EldersSix AI research personas searching a 6,900-item archive.
  • Designing BerkieThe visual identity and presence of NextSpace’s AI facilitator, from the big screen to Zoom.

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Experiences

AI you can meet in a room, not just a chat window.

  • NextSpaceAn AI-facilitated platform for live and hybrid events at the Berkman Klein Center.
  • Berkie at NavigateTaking Berkie live at a policy summit, with 71 of 80 participants active.
  • All Too HumanA year-long series on AI and meaning, with a live concept sky I designed.
  • Pepper’s GhostWitness v4.5, a holographic installation for the Keyring Digital Identity Symposium.

Selected work

See the archive
Off the clock: watercolor, gardens, and photographs. Meet the rest of me

Things with good light

More on Instagram
  • Lilac and orchid dahlias in late sun
  • Pink echinacea with a fiery orange cone
  • Lemons in a cobalt bowl beside a yellow dahlia
  • A faded turquoise Chevrolet Apache pickup by a barn
  • A red and yellow bicolor dahlia
  • Nested stone arches with carved lettering
  • An orchid dahlia among zinnias
  • A watercolor sketchbook and paint box on a garden table