Lara Chikhani
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Beirut, Lebanon
Toptal member since July 17, 2019
In addition to 12 years of experience in UX design, Lara is an independent consultant who works with startups, agencies, and established businesses—helping them build better customer-centric products. She also mentors and trains university students and professionals how to apply proper UX techniques to the products they are making.
Portfolio
Bank Intranet Revamp
Work Experience
User Experience and Digital Strategy Consultant
Self-employed
- Held workshops and training sessions for startups and accelerators, teaching them how to incorporate UX design into their daily process.
- Designed apps for multiple startups including, education technology, publishing, grocery shopping, eCommerce, smart lighter, and mobile games. In each scope, I supported the client from the idea stage and until the project is running live with customers.
- Conducted expert reviews and usability testing for a 3D builder, education technology, and CRM products.
- Taught web and interactive design to university students.
- Mentored and supported startups in their UX design needs.
- Implemented various client WordPress websites, including an online journal, a training center, a financial institution, and a construction website.
Head of UX | Consultant
Cetera Technologies
- Designed the cross-platform experience for both mobile and web for a content-curation startup.
- Supported the development team and QA with functional-specification documents that detail every interaction and behavior.
- Conducted usability testing to optimize the current experience.
- Performed user research to understand the need of customers and to come up with needed features.
- Designed personas, customer journeys, and customer engagement plan based on different customer milestones.
Marketing Automation and Life Cycle Planning Consultant
Johnson Luke
- Designed and implemented a marketing strategy for a real estate developer that aims at engaging customers through the life cycle process.
- Conducted usability tests for banks to enhance their current experience.
- Designed and launched landing pages for different clients, creating the full funnel from lead reception and until purchase.
- Created a digital strategy for payment solutions for a bank that aims at engaging card users more.
- Conducted expert reviews for different products in fields of real estate, banking, and event management.
Lead User Experience Consultant
Element^n
- Designed a self-care portal for a telecom company.
- Performed expert reviews and usability testing for different mobile device providers.
- Gave an expert review for an insulin monitoring device.
- Designed a platform for social media broadcasting; it was an app and mobile platform.
- Conducted user research and created a user experience design for a real estate community portal.
Managment Consultant
BD Consult
- Reengineered the processes of a cement factory for the purpose of automation.
- Automated the processes of a warehousing company.
- Designed the journey and processes that aimed at automating a university's internal flow.
- Created solution benchmarks for a dairy production company.
Education
Bachelor of Science (BSc) Degree in Computer Science
American University of Beirut - Beirut, Lebanon
Certifications
Bootcamp in Healthcare Innovation
MIT Bootcamps & Harvard Medical School
Techwomen Fellow
Techwomen
UX Management
Nielsen Normal Group
Skills
Tools
UXPin, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Figma, Adobe Photoshop, MockFlow, Adobe Illustrator, InVision App, Sketch, Zeplin, InVision, Microsoft PowerPoint, Visio, Jira
Platforms
Android, WordPress, Zoho CRM, Desktop
Languages
CSS3, HTML5
Industry Expertise
Travel & Leisure, Events
Other
Wireframing, Design Thinking, Human-computer Interaction (HCI), User-centered Design (UCD), Ideation Workshops, Heuristic Review, User Personas, Startup Consulting, Early-stage Startups, Workshop Facilitation, UX Design, Digital Strategy, UX Research, Mobile UX, Personas, Customer Journeys, Usability Testing, Expert Reviews, Heuristic Evaluation, Functional Specifications, Business Process Re-engineering, Product Research, User Experience (UX), UX Strategy, User Journeys, User Interviews, User Experience Strategy, User Experience Design, Lean Startups, HubSpot, Digital Campaigns, Startups, Eye Tracking, Investment Banking, Islamic Banking, Intranets, Customer Interviews, Sitemaps, Content Strategy, Publishing, Mobile Web, Account Management, Curation, User Profiles, Agile UX, Web Applications, Responsive Design, Online Payments, Task Management, User Testing, Ticketing, Website CMS, Devices, Behavioral Design, Computer Graphics, Data Science
Experience
- UX Research - 15 years
- UX Design - 15 years
- Wireframing - 12 years
- Expert Reviews - 11 years
- Usability Testing - 11 years
- Personas - 11 years
- Customer Journeys - 10 years
- Digital Strategy - 6 years
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