Leonard is available for hire
Hire LeonardLeonard Latescu
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Bucharest, Romania
Toptal member since January 26, 2016
Bio
Leonard is a senior UI/UX and product designer specializing in SaaS, AI, and complex B2B platforms. With 15+ years of experience, he combines strategic product thinking, clean interface design, and rapid execution, leveraging modern AI tools to accelerate workflows and create intuitive experiences that help teams ship with confidence.
Experience
- User Interface (UI) - 12 years
- UI Design - 12 years
- User Experience (UX) - 11 years
- Web Design - 11 years
- Figma - 10 years
- UX Design - 10 years
- iOS UI Design - 7 years
- iOS UX Design - 7 years
Portfolio
Work Experience
Founder | Product Designer | Builder
2024 - PRESENT
Travalera
- Founded and designed Travalera, a travel-tech platform focused on helping users discover destinations through smarter and more intuitive digital experiences.
- Led the full product creation process from research and UX strategy to interface design, prototyping, visual systems, and final product execution.
- Created and launched products within the ecosystem, including Slopecaster and Beachcaster, shaping their product vision, user experience, branding, and overall direction.
- Designed data-rich travel experiences that translate weather, conditions, pricing, and location insights into clear, engaging, and easy-to-use interfaces.
- Built scalable design systems, reusable UI foundations, and product structures to support consistency and faster iteration across the platform.
- Combined product thinking, branding, UI/UX, and hands-on execution to bring original digital products from concept to launch.
Technologies: Figma, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Web Design, UI Design, Visual Design, Landing Page Design, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Dashboard Design, AI Chatbots, n8n, Supabase, Google API, Cloudflare, VPS, Cursor AI
Senior UI/UX Designer
2025 - 2025
PRIVITAS
- Led the end-to-end design of Privitas, a SaaS analytics platform delivering private equity insights through benchmarking across 8,000+ data points.
- Designed a data-driven experience tailored to the workflows of investment professionals and analysts, making complex financial information easier to explore and act on.
- Conducted user and market research to understand stakeholder needs, inform product structure, and shape data visualization strategies.
- Designed responsive web experiences across desktop and mobile, ensuring seamless access to analytics, benchmarking tools, and performance insights.
- Built a modular design system with scalable components, dynamic tables, and visualization patterns to support consistency and product growth.
- Collaborated closely with product, data, and engineering teams to improve clarity, usability, and confidence in complex decision-making workflows.
- Prototyped and refined interaction models that helped users discover insights faster and navigate financial data more intuitively.
Technologies: Agile, Figma, User Flows, Wireframing, User Psychology, Interaction Design (IxD), Visual Design, Web, Landing Page Design, SaaS, Data Visualization, Web App Design, Dashboard Design, SaaS Design, Web App UX, Web App UI, Responsive Web Design (RWD)
Senior Product Designer
2023 - 2023
Social Gaines, Inc.
- Led the design of a SaaS marketing platform that helped businesses manage, analyze, and optimize multi-channel campaigns through a centralized dashboard.
- Designed intuitive experiences for multiple user roles, including marketers, analysts, and administrators, balancing usability with campaign performance needs.
- Conducted user research and stakeholder discovery to understand business goals, pain points, and workflow requirements, shaping product priorities and feature direction.
- Built a scalable design system with reusable components, layout patterns, and a clear visual hierarchy to support consistency across the platform.
- Designed responsive web experiences for desktop and mobile, ensuring accessibility, clarity, and ease of use across campaign management workflows.
- Collaborated closely with product, engineering, and stakeholders to align design decisions with technical requirements and marketing objectives.
- Prototyped new features and interaction ideas to improve engagement, campaign performance, and overall product usability.
Technologies: UX Wireframes, Layout Design, Style Guides, UI Components, Web Design, Web App Design, Dashboards, B2B, Product Design, Social Media Apps, User Psychology, Interaction Design (IxD), Visual Design, Web, Landing Page Design, SaaS, Data Visualization, Dashboard Design, SaaS Design, Web App UX, Web App UI, AI Chatbots
Senior UX/UI Product Designer
2020 - 2023
Global Freelancing Platform
- Contributed to the design of a global talent marketplace, shaping product experiences across growth, collaboration, messaging, and enterprise-focused initiatives.
- Conducted UX research, analyzed user behavior, and translated insights into new features and product improvements that increased engagement and customer satisfaction.
- Designed marketplace experiences and growth features that improved usability, strengthened user activation, and supported measurable gains in engagement.
- Helped define the UX for team setup and collaboration workflows, improving how distributed teams communicate, organize, and work together on the platform.
- Led UX improvements for cross-platform messaging experiences through research, prototyping, and interaction design, contributing to stronger engagement and clearer communication flows.
- Enhanced enterprise product areas by improving navigation, feature consistency, and overall usability across complex workflows and multi-team environments.
- Collaborated closely with product managers, researchers, and engineers to refine experiences through usability testing, iteration, and data-informed design decisions.
Technologies: Figma, UX Design, UI Design, Design Systems, User Psychology, Interaction Design (IxD), Visual Design, Web, Product Design, SaaS, Web App Design, Dashboard Design, SaaS Design, Web App UX, Web App UI, AI Chatbots, Responsive Web Design (RWD)
Senior Product Designer
2021 - 2022
Atos
- Led the design of the IT Entry/Exit System (EES), a large-scale European platform supporting border control workflows as part of the EU’s ETIAS ecosystem.
- Designed user experiences for complex, high-stakes operational scenarios, balancing the needs of border authorities, system stakeholders, and end users.
- Conducted user research and testing to identify workflow challenges, usability issues, and opportunities for improving speed, clarity, and accuracy.
- Built a comprehensive design system with reusable components, interaction patterns, and guidelines to ensure consistency across the platform.
- Created wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes to validate concepts, align stakeholders, and support the evolution of a complex cross-functional system.
- Collaborated closely with engineering and project stakeholders to ensure accurate implementation and alignment with operational requirements.
- Ensured the platform met accessibility and compliance expectations, including usability, WCAG considerations, and privacy-related standards.
Technologies: Figma, Agile, User Flows, Responsive Design, UX Design, UI Design, Mobile UX, User Psychology, Visual Design, B2B, Product Design, Dashboard Design, Web App UX, Web App UI, Responsive Web Design (RWD)
Senior Product Designer
2021 - 2021
tinyEmail
- Led the end-to-end design of tinyEmail, an email marketing platform created to stand out in a highly competitive SaaS space.
- Shaped the product through competitor analysis, user research, stakeholder discovery, and UX strategy.
- Defined personas, platform architecture, and key workflows to create a clearer and more effective product foundation.
- Designed wireframes, prototypes, and polished interfaces that improved usability and supported rapid iteration.
- Built a scalable design system and reusable UI patterns to ensure consistency across the platform.
- Collaborated closely with product stakeholders and engineers to turn vision and requirements into a cohesive, user-centered experience.
Technologies: Figma, UX Design, Product Design, Web UX, Web UI, Web App UX, Web App UI, Responsive Web Apps, Responsive Web Design (RWD), UI Design, Prototyping, Annotated Wireframes, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, User Research, UX Flows, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Wireframing, Marketing Technology (MarTech), Email Marketing, Russian-English Translation, B2B, Landing Page Design, Data Visualization, Education Technology (Edtech)
Senior UI/UX Designer
2020 - 2020
TalkInArabic
- Led the entire design process for a complex language-learning platform. Collaborated with cross-functional teams, conducted research, defined a design vision, and ensured the final product aligned with business goals and user needs.
- Built a comprehensive style guide for the platform, defining colors, typography, and iconography and aligning it with the brand's values to ensure a consistent user experience across multiple touchpoints.
- Developed a design system in Figma by creating reusable components and design patterns that increased efficiency and consistency throughout the design process and saved time.
- Built a responsive and accessible interface for a complex language learning platform, ensuring the design works seamlessly across multiple devices and platforms, and met WCAG accessibility guidelines that ensure inclusivity for all users.
- Created an interactive prototype for a language learning platform to gather feedback from stakeholders and users, ensure alignment with business goals and user needs, and save time and resources.
- Conducted user testing of the platform and used analytics data and user feedback to optimize the design and improve user experience, ensuring the target audience's needs were met and engagement promoted.
Technologies: Web App Design, UI Design, Figma, UX Design, Responsive UI, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Edtech Design, Education Technology (Edtech)
UI/UX Designer
2016 - 2018
Beag.ly (via Bravo Group)
- Created a complex data-survey web application with a team, using industry UX best practices to optimize user flow for both web and mobile environments, which resulted in increased user engagement and satisfaction.
- Led the development and implementation of a UI style guide and branding assets, ensuring a consistent and visually appealing user experience across all touchpoints.
- Designed the visual interface of a web application based on the branding and UI style guide, resulting in an intuitive and aesthetically pleasing user interface.
- Developed an interactive demo using InVision, showcasing the flow of screens and pages and allowing for easy collaboration and feedback with stakeholders.
- Conducted weekly scrum meetings, identifying and solving design and development problems promptly and efficiently to ensure the project remained on track and within budget.
- Gathered and analyzed user feedback through various methods, such as surveys and usability testing, incorporating insights into the design process to improve the user experience continuously.
Technologies: Wireframing, Prototyping, Adobe Photoshop, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI)
Product Designer
2016 - 2018
LUMINA Medical Solutions
- Developed branding guidelines for a medical application, including color schemes, logo design, and typography, ensuring a professional and trustworthy appearance that resonated with the target audience.
- Designed the user experience of a data-heavy application and conducted user research to ensure an intuitive and user-friendly interface that enabled users to find the information they needed quickly and efficiently.
- Created a visually appealing UI design for a medical web application, using the established branding guidelines to ensure consistency and cohesiveness throughout the product.
- Adapted the user experience for the iOS platform by conducting user testing to ensure that the interface was optimized for mobile devices and provided a seamless experience across all touchpoints.
- Created an interactive InVision prototype that demonstrated the flow and functionality of a medical web application, allowing stakeholders and users to test the product and provide feedback before launch.
- Conducted regular design sprints and scrum meetings to identify and resolve design issues, ensuring the final product met user needs and business goals in the medical field.
Technologies: Adobe Photoshop
Freelance Web UX Designer
2016 - 2016
United Muslim Relief (via Toptal)
- Developed the UX for a web donation platform that allows people from all over the world to contribute to different programs for building water wells, education, food security, and more.
- Designed the visual design (UI) based on the branding guideline.
- Built an interactive demo that shows the pages' flow with InVision.
- Created the concepts, which were dark or bright depending on the different scenarios.
- Built a shopping cart system for donations with a complex UX, but easy for people to use.
Technologies: Adobe Photoshop, Edtech Design
Product and Email Designer
2009 - 2015
Emailwing.ro
- Created the email design completely. Performed the design, coding, and testing for a variety of clients from different industries.
- Helped build the website design using Photoshop and through coding via Drupal.
- Developed email strategies that were customized for each client.
Technologies: Mailchimp, CSS, HTML, Adobe Photoshop
Web Designer
2012 - 2013
Wirestorm Innovations
- Developed concepts and interfaces for new projects.
- Created UI designs and demo presentations for new products.
- Developed full process projects, creating wireframes, UX frames flow, design mockups, and interactions.
Technologies: Basecamp, Citrix Podio, Balsamiq, Adobe Photoshop
Education
1999 - 2003
High School Diploma in Graphic Design
Arts Lyceum Braila “Haricleea Darclee” - Braila, Romania
Certifications
JANUARY 2023 - PRESENT
Mobile User Experience (UX) Design
Interaction Design Foundation
JANUARY 2023 - PRESENT
Agile Methods for UX Design
Interaction Design Foundation
NOVEMBER 2022 - PRESENT
Google UX Design
Coursera
Skills
Tools
Mailchimp, Adobe Photoshop, Balsamiq, Citrix Podio, Basecamp, Adobe Experience Design (XD)
Platforms
Figma, Web
Industry Expertise
Education Technology (Edtech), Events
Languages
HTML, CSS
Other
Prototyping, SaaS, Data Visualization, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Wireframing, iOS UI Design, iOS UX Design, Web UI Design, Web UX Design, Design Systems, Mobile App Design, Web Design, UX Design, UI Design, Web App UX, Product Design, Web App UI, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Web App Design, Dashboard Design, B2B, SaaS Design, User Psychology, Interaction Design (IxD), Visual Design, Landing Page Design, Email Design, Web Search, Branding, Framer, Social Media Apps, Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI Chatbots, Edtech Design, Lovable, Cursor AI, Claude Code, Logo Design, Digital Branding, Flowcharts, Web UX, Web UI, Research Analysis, User Flows, Color Palettes, Responsive Design, Mobile Apps, Mobile UI, eCommerce, Travel Design, User Research, Iconography, Testing, UX Research, Interactive UI, Design, Responsive Web Apps, Annotated Wireframes, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, UX Flows, Marketing Technology (MarTech), Email Marketing, Russian-English Translation, Responsive UI, UX Architecture, Agile UX, Scrum, Kanban, Sprints, User-centered Design (UCD), Lean UX, Communication, Mobile UX, User Personas, Android App Design, Agile, Landing Pages, Illustration, Charts, Typography, UX Wireframes, Layout Design, Style Guides, UI Components, Dashboards, SaaS UX Consulting, User Stories, Software as a Service (SaaS), n8n, Supabase, Google API, Cloudflare, VPS
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