Bio
Brooks Herring joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in February 2024 as Head of User Experience, bringing over two decades of leadership in UX and digital product design. He previously led design organizations at major media brands including HGTV, Food Network, and Warner Bros. Discovery, where he oversaw the creation of award-winning products across web, mobile, voice, and streaming platforms.
At ORNL, Brooks has quickly built a world-class User Experience organization within the Application Development division of IT Services. Under his leadership, the team has embedded user-centered design and research best practices across key areas such as web development, software engineering, enterprise systems, AI, and research engineering—driving a cultural shift that positions UX as a strategic pillar in the lab’s technology ecosystem.
He is leading the development of an enterprise design system that elevates usability, accessibility, and visual consistency across ORNL's wide range of platforms and applications. The system is accelerating software delivery, enhancing cross-functional collaboration, enabling more informed decision-making, and supporting the delivery of higher-value features—critical to increasing user satisfaction and long-term impact.
Serving a diverse user base—from operational staff to world-leading scientists—ORNL’s UX organization plays a vital role in advancing the lab’s mission. By improving the usability and effectiveness of digital tools, the team empowers thousands of researchers, engineers, and technical professionals to accelerate innovation and tackle some of the most complex scientific and technical challenges of our time.
Professional Experience
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Head of User Experience (February 2024 – Present)
Warner Bros. Discovery
Senior Director, UX Design (April 2020 – June 2023)
Led the global UX organization that brought the award-winning Discovery+ streaming service to market, expanded into 13 countries and 11 languages, and grew to 25M paying subscribers in under two years. Responsible for Growth (customer acquisition, retention, partnerships), Core Product (content discovery, watch experience, access & identity), Editorial Tooling, and Design Operations. Managed individual contributors and people managers up to the Director level.
Key Accomplishments:
- Directed an international team of designers and researchers overseeing the user experience for the Discovery+ streaming service across Web, Mobile, and Smart TV platforms. This team drove industry-leading app ratings and recognition with the 2022 Digiday Award for Best Streaming Service.
- Scaled operations and methodologies to support rapid organizational growth and international expansion. This increased consistency in approach and best practices, resulting in improved cross-functional collaboration, faster time to market, higher product quality, greater customer satisfaction, and stronger team morale.
- Rebuilt a siloed, reactive UX service team into a unified, strategically integrated organization—deeply embedded across the product lifecycle. Led R&D to identify new opportunities, drove Product Discovery for roadmapped features, and oversaw QA and testing during Delivery across 8 product groups, supporting up to 1,400 engineers at peak scale.
- Led the mission-critical Design and UX Quality program for the U.S. launch of Discovery+. Identified and resolved over 1,500 customer-facing defects, delivering a best-in-class user experience across more platforms than any other streamer at launch.
Discovery Inc.
Director, Product Design and UX (March 2018 – April 2020)
Directed the Product Design and UX organization for Food Network, HGTV, and Travel Channel websites, apps, and editorial tools. Delivered best-in-class products that generated billions of page views and video streams, driving over $150M in annual revenue.
Key Accomplishments:
- Led the redesign of the FoodNetwork.com recipe experience, significantly improving user satisfaction, engagement, and monetization. Key metrics included a 34% increase in video plays, 10% more page views, 23% higher ad viewability, and a 7% rise in repeat visits.
- Served as hands-on Design Director for the Food Network Kitchen direct-to-consumer service. Led the Growth and Search squads across web, mobile, and voice platforms, helping grow the product to over 2 million paying subscribers and earning multiple Webby Awards in the Food & Beverage and Productivity categories.
- Co-led the conceptual design and prototyping work that played a key role in securing the $1B Magnolia partnership between Chip and Joanna Gaines and Discovery Inc.
Scripps Networks Interactive
Director, Product Design and UX (March 2012 – March 2018)
Directed the Product Design and UX organization responsible for the websites, apps, and editorial tools for Food Network, HGTV, and Travel Channel. Over six years, launched numerous industry-leading digital products that helped grow revenue from $20M to over $100M annually.
Key Accomplishments:
- Led the creation of “Core,” a design system with over 70 responsive components that powered all brand websites. This enabled rapid re-platforming, including content ingestion, theming, programming, testing, and deployment, reducing delivery timelines from 9–12 months to just one month.
- Devised a theming system and partnered with Engineering to implement a code review process. This empowered designers to theme components and fix front-end defects directly, boosting delivery speed, product quality, and team morale.
Additional Roles:
- UX Design Manager (June 2010 – March 2012)
- Principal Product Designer (October 2003 – June 2010)
Awards
- 2022 Digiday Awards, Best Streaming Service: Discovery+:
- 2020 Webby, Food & Beverage: Food Network Kitchen App:
- 2020 Webby, Productivity: Food Network Kitchen App
- Received 10 spot bonuses for Innovation
- Four time "Top 5%" performance bonus
- Three time Hack Day Winner
- Recipient of the President's Innovation Award: HGTVPro.com