John Milly

A practice in

John Milly

Hi. I’m John Milly, a principal product designer at Ancestry. I’ve learned by doing, from websites to apps and now AI. The tools change. My focus stays on what people need and what helps the business succeed.

Selected work

Ancestry / DNA Origins

Give discovery room to grow.

I led a redesign that gave DNA results and the map equal space, kept a larger pie chart, and moved regions and journeys onto dedicated pages. A crowded side rail became room for more personal discovery.

Nearly nine in ten people who opened their results went on to a region page. The split-view pattern continued in Storyline, extending the work beyond Origins.

Case study coming in late 2026

Ancestry / AI Toolkit

A shared foundation for how we build.

A product partner and I developed Ancestry’s AI playbook and design assets. Customer research challenged an emphasis on automation: people wanted help without losing their part in the discovery. We shaped the guidance around investigating, understanding evidence, and choosing what to do next.

Design and product leadership accepted the playbook. The design system team is building the assets into core components for teams to use.

Case study coming in late 2026

Pillot / iOS app

Less setup. More peace of mind.

My family found a pillbox easier than entering medications into an app. I built Pillot around the label they already have: photograph it, review the details, and confirm a schedule. Seeing a label become a schedule amazed my wife.

No account is required, and medication data stays on the device. Less manual entry, with the person still in control.

Rēcoup / iOS app

See what’s yours to use.

I built Rēcoup for a narrower job than other credit card apps: choose your cards and enrolled benefits, then see what’s available before it expires. No connected accounts. Everything stays on your device.

To bring warmth to the numbers, I paired each card with a woodcut-style botanical. Platinum’s layered peony feels opulent; Sapphire Reserve’s cornflower echoes its blue.

More output isn’t the outcome.

Producing more isn’t the same as making something useful. Entering a prescription by hand is work an app can take away. Reviewing the schedule is a decision it should support. AI should help people get better at what they’re trying to do, while keeping them in control.

Experience informs those choices. I don’t treat it as the final answer. I look at what happens in use and adapt.

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John skateboarding above a ramp