Netflix

2020 -2024

As the lead designer, I spearheaded the redesign of Netflix's platform, focusing on creating a more intuitive and engaging user experience. This comprehensive project involved the introduction of advanced search functionalities, a streamlined product catalog, price comparison features, and integrated user reviews, among other enhancements.

Key Contributions:

  • Enhanced Search Functionality: Developed an advanced search system that allows users to easily find content aligned with their preferences.
  • Product Catalog Redesign: Revamped the browsing interface to showcase Netflix's extensive library in a more organized and visually appealing manner.
  • Price Comparison Integration: Implemented a feature enabling users to compare subscription plans, ensuring transparency and informed decision-making.
  • User Reviews System: Introduced a platform for user-generated reviews, fostering a community-driven approach to content discovery.

This project aimed to not only improve the aesthetics of the Netflix platform but also to significantly enhance usability, making content discovery a seamless and personalized experience for its vast user base.

Event & notifications.
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Key Contributions:

  • Enhanced Search Functionality: Developed an advanced search system that allows users to easily find content aligned with their preferences.
  • Product Catalog Redesign: Revamped the browsing interface to showcase Netflix's extensive library in a more organized and visually appealing manner.
  • Price Comparison Integration: Implemented a feature enabling users to compare subscription plans, ensuring transparency and informed decision-making.
  • User Reviews System: Introduced a platform for user-generated reviews, fostering a community-driven approach to content discovery.

This project aimed to not only improve the aesthetics of the Netflix platform but also to significantly enhance usability, making content discovery a seamless and personalized experience for its vast user base.

ALLISON GILLOTT / SELECTED WORK 01 / 06   SCIENCE

Experimental materials research · Undergraduate researcher · MBE / AFM · UC Santa Cruz

Lederman Lab

Thin-film growth & nanoscale surface characterization.

Project overview. At UC Santa Cruz’s Lederman Lab, I contributed to experimental thin-film research through sample preparation, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth work, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). My role connected the practical demands of deposition with quantitative measurements of nanoscale surface morphology.

Conceptual colored topography map with layered contour lines, created to illustrate surface-height variation; not laboratory AFM data
FIG. 01 / CONCEPTUAL SURFACE TOPOGRAPHY — original illustration, not an experimental scan
Discipline
Experimental condensed matter / materials
My role
Undergraduate researcher
Methods & tools
MBE / AFM / sample preparation
Institution
UC Santa Cruz · Lederman Lab

Understanding what thin-film growth leaves behind.

Thin-film experiments depend on controlled preparation and careful characterization. The surface that forms after deposition can contain meaningful growth features alongside contamination, defects, or imaging artifacts. Our work involved preparing samples and examining their topography to help evaluate film morphology within a broader materials-research effort.

From the growth chamber to the height map.

I worked primarily with fellow undergraduate researchers, with guidance from graduate mentor Becker and review by the wider lab group.

  1. 01
    Preparation & growth

    Cleaned and thermally prepared substrates, loaded samples for MBE, and participated in growth work that involved chamber-condition adjustments.

  2. 02
    Surface characterization

    Acquired AFM scans and measured nanoscale feature heights and surface roughness.

  3. 03
    Collaborative interpretation

    Reviewed height maps and possible anomalies with researchers; also assisted with PLD equipment setup as a separate, secondary activity.

Prepare. Grow. Measure. Question.

MBE work began with substrate preparation and loading. After growth, AFM translated the resulting surface into a height map—useful for comparing morphological features, but not a complete description of the material’s structure.

STAGE / 01

Prepare & deposit

Cleaning, pre-growth annealing, sample loading, and hands-on MBE work.

STAGE / 02

Scan & quantify

AFM imaging, feature-height measurement, and surface-roughness assessment.

STAGE / 03

Review & interpret

Compare observed hills or islands with possible defects, contamination, and scan artifacts.

What the surface reveals—and what it cannot.

My work contributed to the lab’s preparation and characterization workflow, producing AFM surface-height images and quantitative observations used in group discussions. The central lesson was one of measurement: a height map describes topography, while claims about composition, lattice strain, or electrical behavior require other evidence.

Documented work

Substrate preparation, MBE involvement, AFM scanning, feature-height and roughness measurement, and collaborative review.

Evidence boundaries

Original scans are not included in this V1. All visuals below are explanatory reconstructions—not measurements or findings attributed to me.

The method, visualized.

Original diagrams reconstruct the work’s sequence and the type of information AFM provides. They are not substitutes for the lab’s experimental data.

Schematic workflow showing substrate cleaning and pre-annealing, MBE growth, AFM surface scanning, and interpretation of morphology
FIG. 02Laboratory workflow — a conceptual map of preparation, growth, characterization, and discussion.
Schematic false-color surface topography alongside an illustrative height-profile curve; explicitly synthetic rather than experimental
FIG. 03AFM reading — synthetic illustration of how a height map and corresponding profile can describe surface variation. Not UCSC data.

Lab context & references.

InstitutionLederman Lab · Physics · UC Santa Cruz
Research participationUndergraduate materials research; lab teamwork and AFM review
Related lab researchJoshi, Borisov & Lederman (2018) · Joshi et al. (2019)These publications provide wider NbO₂ / PLD research context; they are not works I co-authored and do not document my specific MBE samples.
What this project demonstrates

Hands-on experimental preparation and nanoscale characterization, with attention to the boundary between an observation and the interpretation it can support.

ALLISON GILLOTT / PORTFOLIO V1APPLIED PHYSICS / RESEARCH / DESIGN