Grace is available for hire
Hire GraceGrace Duenas
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Dripping Springs, TX, United States
Toptal member since June 15, 2026
Bio
Grace is a design leader with over 10 years of experience delivering scalable, enterprise-class UX across cloud platforms and ML-integrated systems. Her expertise spans design systems and cross-functional collaboration, with notable work for Daikin North America and creative agencies. Grace achieved an over 20% traffic growth post-launch by leading the end-to-end redesign of Daikin's corporate website.
Experience
- Design Systems - 10 years
- Systems Design - 10 years
- UX Research - 10 years
- Product Design - 8 years
- Figma - 8 years
- Branding - 8 years
- Framer - 5 years
- Conversational Interfaces - 4 years
Portfolio
Daikin North America
Adobe CCArt HistoryChatGPTConversational InterfacesCross-functional Team LeadershipFigma
DEFCON AI
BrandingDesign Systems
SailPoint Armada
Design SystemsFigma SlidesCross-functional
SailPoint IDN Sources
Design SystemsCross-functional Team Leadership
Resideo Home
Systems DesignCross-functional Team Leadership
Hertz Alexa Skill
VoiceConversational DesignUX ResearchInnovationNatural Language Processing (NLP)
Work Experience
Web & Digital Strategy Consultant
2025 - PRESENT
Ignite Studio
- Partnered with a woman-owned New York brand studio to deliver tailored digital platforms for small and mid-sized businesses across medical wellness, legal, childcare, and real estate development sectors.
- Audited and optimized client tech stacks, streamlining back-end systems and eliminating redundant tools, often reducing annual software spend by thousands.
- Designed scalable, simplified platforms that empower clients to maintain and evolve their sites independently or hire us to keep up the good work.
- Aligned web strategy with branding, marketing, and social initiatives to ensure cohesive cross-channel performance.
- Led website strategy, UX architecture, and execution, positioning websites as functional business tools rather than static marketing pages.
- Contributed to projects achieving conversion rates as high as 40%, supported by improved user flows and system integrations.
Technologies: Web Strategy
Freelance Designer, Daikin North America
2025 - PRESENT
Hot Paper Lantern
- Led the end-to-end redesign of the Daikin North America corporate website in partnership with a New York-based full-stack agency.
- Re-architected site information hierarchy and navigation, transforming a fragmented legacy experience into a clear, scalable enterprise structure tailored to regulators and investor audiences.
- Adapted global Japanese brand guidelines into a North America-focused digital expression that increased accessibility and regional relevance.
- Led discovery, UX strategy, IA restructuring, visual design, and engineering handoff.
- Modernized a performance-compromised platform, significantly improving stability, load performance, and usability.
- Achieved over 20% traffic growth post-launch (October 2025).
- Achieved an additional 10% engagement lift through rapid post-launch refinements.
Technologies: ChatGPT, Design Research, Design Systems, Design Thinking, Figma
Head of Design
2023 - 2024
The DEFCON AI
- Led product strategy for ARTIV, a new military logistics tool, bringing consumer and enterprise best practices to the defense sector.
- Transformed an engineering proof of concept into a fully functional prototype. Led the team to the successful initial release within 6 months, on time and under budget.
- Developed interactive prototypes to secure a $10 million contract, making the company revenue-positive within 2 years.
- Created fundraising demos and feature walkthroughs, leading to a $40 million raise with only around 14% shareholder dilution.
- Built a scalable brand identity, including logos, animations, and usage guidelines for the company and product.
- Led the creation of a 0-to-2 product design system, increasing team efficiency and directly contributing to the 1.0 launch.
Technologies: Adobe CC, ChatGPT, Design Research, Design Systems, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Figma, Jira, Design Thinking, Microsoft Office
Senior Product Designer
2020 - 2022
SailPoint Technologies
- Led strategy and execution of the cloud access management integration into IdentityNow (IDN), creating a unified platform for cloud governance.
- Designed a 4-stage transition plan converting the integration system from Ext JS to Angular, improving system performance and visibility across 150+ integrations.
- Partnered with engineering to scale the Armada design system across all 8 SailPoint products. Led the migration from Adobe XD to Figma as a single source of truth.
Technologies: Adobe CC, Design Research, Design Systems, Design Thinking, Figma
Product Designer, Honeywell Home
2019 - 2020
Resideo
- Designed IA, interaction patterns, wireframes, and UI for the Resideo Home consumer mobile platform, delivered in 6 weeks by a team of 4.
- Redesigned and integrated the newly acquired Smart Water Management app, increasing user engagement and improving ML accuracy for leak detection.
- Supported the offshore team on the Indoor Air Quality monitor product. Conducted long-term in-home testing to improve app reporting accuracy.
Technologies: Adobe CC, Design Research, Design Systems, Design Thinking
UX/UI Deigner
2016 - 2019
Hertz Car Rental
- Designed Hertz Fast Lane end-to-end self-serve application, resulting in a 78% reduction in wait times at US airports and $73 million in value creation.
- Researched and designed an Alexa voice skill (VUI), improving booking speeds by 300% (under 60 seconds).
- Delivered redesign of full Hertz web and native app suite, unifying UX across products and driving approximately $3.5 billion in revenue.
- Designed 12 production updates, generating an estimated $16 million in additional revenue.
Technologies: Adobe CC, Conversational Interfaces, Design Research, Design Systems, Design Thinking
Education
2013 - 2017
Bachelor's Degree in Communication Design
Texas State University - San Marcos, TX, USA
Skills
Tools
Adobe CC, Jira, Miro, Slack, Microsoft Office, Figma Slides
Platforms
Figma
Languages
CSS
Other
Web Strategy, Design Thinking, Design Systems, Branding, Systems Design, UX Research, Product Design, UI Design, Interaction Design (IxD), Visual Design, Art History, Conversational Interfaces, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Project Management, Stakeholder Communication, Design Research, Wireframing, Rapid Prototyping, Journey Mapping, Heuristic Evaluation, Framer, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Cross-functional, Voice, Conversational Design, Innovation, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Information Architecture (IA), Usability Testing, A/B Testing, Personas, Competitive Analysis
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