Matthew Mandravelis
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
New York, NY, United States
Toptal member since April 26, 2016
Matthew is a 30-time award-winning lead product UX/UI designer, advisor, and creative director with more than 12 years of hands-on experience. He's worked with leading Fortune 500 brands and startups, including Disney, Samsung, Sony, Adidas, BMW, and Lufthansa, to bring impact via innovation. Matthew's mission is to deliver the most efficient, engaging, innovative, and high-quality experience with an emphasis on user experience.
Portfolio
Cryptocurrency iOS App and Web
JetBlue Airlines | New App Design C.S.
Travel Booking Engine
Work Experience
Design Account Manager - Enterprise Design Director
Toptal
- Worked with some of the most influential companies and clients ranging from Fortune 500 Enterprise Clients to early-stage start-ups to help them solve business challenges and build strong teams with on demand talent.
- Recognized as one of the Top performing team members.
- Recognized and nominated Culture Ambassador and acted as culture advocate during the final stages of the interview process, ensuring that all candidates hired for the core team demonstrated the organization's cultural attributes.
- Built a large portfolio of clients, actively managing 15-30 projects in any given month.
- Handled a high volume of communication, coordinated with multiple teams, and refined goals and client needs into tangible next steps aligned with business objectives and customer strategies.
- Focused on strengthening the end-to-end strategic relationship with partners, creating trust and loyalty, and developing lasting business relationships.
Freelance Lead-Product UX/UI Designer, Advisor, and Creative Director
Self-employed
- Helped design dozens of new digital products for Fortune 500 executive brands and global startups. Provided services include UX research, product strategy, design thinking, ideation, product design, and implementation.
- Designed specific outputs for different industries, included mockups, interactive products, heuristic evaluations, user personas, empathy maps, multi-variant testing, interactive prototypes, animations, and videos.
- Implemented UX research practices include multiple variant testing, A/B testing, usability testing, observation, system usability scale, user flows, user journeys, and storyboarding.
- Worked as a sole product designer for top-tier European VC firm and collaborated closely with PMs and engineers with an agile process, funding of $164 million.
- Led the product design (UX/UI for a web platform and mobile app; both Android and iOS) of JOBSbnb, an innovative premium talent-human resources Marketplace that addresses the tourism and catering industry needs for permanent or urgent hiring of personnel at all specialties. It won two silver awards during the Mobile Excellence Awards 2019 for digital innovation through the mobile & innovative mobile application/startup company 2019.
Senior Web & App Designer (UX & UI Expert)
Toptal
- Part of the 3% of best senior UX & UI designers acting in worldwide technology and design projects with an astonishing 93% rehiring rate and 100% client satisfaction.
- Designed cutting-edge web and app interfaces for startups, universities, and some of the world’s largest companies, prioritizing user-centric solutions.
- Led 21 successful design projects, including B2B/B2C, SaaS, fintech, Healthcare, Medicare, Retail, and Enterprise Products.
- Delivered high-impact design projects that enhanced user engagement and conversion.
- Collaborated with development teams to ensure design integrity through all project phases.
UX/UI Team Lead & Creative Director
Generation Y
- Created, led, and managed an award-winning Design Team at a fast-growing eCommerce-oriented creative & development agency in Eastern Europe with 2500+ active projects and over $10 billion in client revenue.
- Tasked to revamp and staff the design team and re-establish the agency's design strategy to improve quality and spread awareness in the market.
- Recruited, interviewed, and trained, led, and mentored the design team, setting clear expectations, encouraging innovation, and implementing new technologies to stay ahead of industry trends.
- Oversaw team operations and resource allocation, ensuring tailored processes and optimal coordination to meet specific client and market needs.
- Provided creative direction, set the strategy, and led hundreds of projects for Europe's biggest brands and innovative Small and medium Businesses in different B2B/B2C industries, including pharmaceutical, financial, travel, and primarily e-commerce.
- Contributed to pitches and creative business development, co-owned design workshops, and guided and mentored designers.
- Managed cross-team relationships and collaboration with marketing, sales, legal, and client services departments.
- Participated in board and C-level meetings and worked closely with the CMO, CTO, and the CEO (a brilliant business mind and co-founder of the company, Mr. Spanidis).
- Improved company awareness (+71%), racked up 31 national and international awards and nominations as a top service company, including 16 design-related awards and nominations due to the design work.
- The company has been expanded to 9 offices across four different continents.
Senior Web & App Designer (UX & UI Expert)
Online Freelance Agency
- Successfully completed over 20 projects with diverse global clients to design intuitive, user-friendly web and app experiences.
- Recognized as a Top Rated Designer, with 90% client satisfaction and repeat business.
- Successfully delivered complex design solutions, driving user engagement and product success.
Head of Design - UX/UI Team Lead
AirFastTickets
- Created, led, and managed an award-winning Design Team to support B2B & B2C SAAS booking systems, positioning it as the highest-performing team in the organization.
- helped to grow an eCommerce website to 375+ million monthly visits with $48.3 billion in gross bookings, optimized core funnels such as booking flows, increased sign-ups, and growing month-over-month retention.
- Built and refined hiring & onboarding frameworks that accelerated the integration of new team members, improving both the speed and quality of onboarding.
- Recruited, interviewed, & trained dozens of designers, ensuring the team consistently supported a fast-growing product.
- Mentored team members, focusing on long-term development and retention.
- Established a capacity planning system to manage team workload effectively & ensure the team could meet demand without compromising quality.
- Implemented continuous improvement initiatives, providing training & mentoring to maintain best practices and operational excellence across the team.
- Managed cross-team relationships and collaboration with marketing, sales ops, finance, and customer services departments to align strategies and drive business success.
- Led the Design of a unique technology solution that Fortune Magazine called "A Travel Deals Phenomenon," which led to an exclusive collaboration with GROUPON, serving dozens of countries and changing the way the travel industry does business forever.
- Crafted world-class designs for web & mobile that led to 12 awards, including the "Tourism Award" in the category Best Website & Booking Interface & Best E-commerce Design at EBGE Awards 2014 hosted by the International Association of Designers.
UX/UI & Creative Marketing Designer
AirFastTickets
- Served as the only designer and contributed from day one to the proven success of what was about to become Europe's fastest-growing online travel company, with a presence in more than 10 strategic locations, including headquarters in New York City.
- Redesigned the main booking website, delivering a 15% decrease in homepage drop-off rates.
- Collaborated with an SEO team to improve site visibility, resulting in increased organic traffic.
- Collaborated with the marketing team to build a strong visual and social media presence and produced marketing collateral such as newsletters and content for Google and Facebook campaigns, resulting in an astonishing 72% increase in website traffic.
- Led design for localized eCommerce SaaS websites, a brand new B2C mobile app (iOS & Android), an Enterprise CRM Dashboard, and the Organization's first B2B platform to be used by offline travel agents.
- Championed continuous improvements to the user experience while presenting products and services to the broader business stakeholders.
- Promoted to the Head of Design - UX/UI Team Lead in October 2011 and created the Organization's first-ever Design and Front-end Development Team.
Education
Diploma in Computer Systems and Networking
Public Institution of Vocational Education - Kozani, Greece
Certifications
HIPAA Compliance
Udemy
Enterprise Design Thinking (Ongoing)
IBM
Progress Towards AR and VR Design in Interaction Design
IDF | Interaction Design Foundation
Interaction Design with Honors in Usability
IDF | Interaction Design Foundation
Mobile User Experience with Honors in UX Design
IDF | Interaction Design Foundation
UX Design for Accessibility and WCAG 2.0
Udemy
Artificial Intelligence
Udemy
Agile Project Management & Delivery
Udemy
Gamification & Behavioral Design
Udemy
Service Design: Designing for Experience Over Time
Udemy
Design Thinking
Udemy | Designit Strategic Design | Alan Cooper
Diploma in Modern Applied Psychology
Udemy | Achology Certified
Gamification: Motivation Psychology & The Art of Engagement
Udemy
Fast and Rigorous User Personas
CXL Institute
Master Digital Product Design: UX Research & UI Design
Udemy
Progress Towards Data Science: Visualization
Harvard University | via edX
Skills
Tools
Anima, Trello, Asana, UsabilityHub, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Sketch, InVision, Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro CC, Figma, Zoom, Adobe Premiere Pro, Google Analytics, Google Workspace, Apple Keynote, OptimalSort, Chalkmark, Zeplin, Validately, Miro, Adobe After Effects, Principle, Jira, Adobe Creative Suite, Mailchimp, Slack
Industry Expertise
Retail & Wholesale, Fashion, Banking & Finance, Hotels & Lodging, Consumer Products, Travel & Leisure
Platforms
iOS, Android, WordPress, Webflow, Messenger Bots, UserZoom, Zendesk, Google Ads
Other
Design Thinking, Presentation Design, Pitch Decks, Rapid Prototyping, Wireframing, User Research, User Personas, Dashboards, Dashboard Design, Startups, Social Media Apps, Complex Application User Interfaces (UI), Lean UX, Human-centered Design (HCD), Design Sprints, Design Leadership, User Flows, Online Banking, Private Banking, iOS App Design, Personas, Story Mapping, Interactive Prototypes, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), User Interviews, Tree Testing, Design Documentation, User Journey Maps, Information Architecture (IA), Empathy Mapping, Minimal UI, Onboarding, User Onboarding, Freelancing, App UI, App UX, Mobile Banking, eCommerce Web Design, Social Networks, Live Chat, Video Calling, Booking Systems, Tourism, Landing Page Design, Aviation, Booking, iPhone X, Web App UI, Web App Design, Web Applications, Web App UX, Booking Apps, Ideation, Ideation Workshops, Web UX, Web UI, Web & Mobile Applications, Complex Web Systems, System Design, Design Libraries, Design Workshops, Apple Human Interface, Human-machine Interface (HMI), Human Interface Design, Task Flows, Experiential Design, Graphical User Interface (GUI), Feature Matrix, Journey Mapping, Brainstorming, UX Research, SaaS, Reservation Flow, Responsive Design, Responsive UI, Travel Design, Heuristic Evaluation, MVP Design, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Mobile UX, Mobile UX Design, Mobile Apps, Mobile App Design, Mobile Design, User-centered Design (UCD), Adaptive Design, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Adaptive Web Design (AWD), Service Design, Software as a Service (SaaS), Customer Journeys, User Journeys, Product Design, Motion & Animation Design, Google Material Design, eCommerce, iOS UI Design, Apps, Web Design, Interaction Design (IxD), UI Design, UX Design, App Design, Prototyping, SaaS Design, Fintech, Fintech Design, ADA Compliance, Web Accessibility, Market Research & Analysis, Focus Groups, Videos, Information Design, Infographics, Branding, Agile, Data Visualization, Usability Testing, Design Systems, User Stories, Optimal Workshop, Google, Whiteboarding, Stock Exchange, Brand Guidelines, TV UI, Wearables, Experience Maps, User Behavior, Behavioral Design, Quantitative Research, Quantity Surveying, Analysis, Accessibility, Accessible Design, Usability, Gamification, User Psychology, Computer Science, Networking, IT Networking, Task Analysis, Surveys, Online Surveys, Qualitative Research, Behavioral Testing, Logging, Experience Sampling Method (ESM), Lab, Diary Studies, Observation, Research, Storyboarding, Agile Delivery, Project Management, WCAG 2, Augmented Reality (AR), Concept Modeling, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cryptocurrency, AI Design, Enterprise, Enterprise Design, Remote Work, Financial Design, Mobile Prototypes, Card Sorting, Beauty Products, Archetypes, Cluster Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Virtual Reality (VR), HIPAA Compliance, Google AdSense
Experience
- UI Design - 12 years
- Mobile Design - 10 years
- App Design - 10 years
- UX Design - 10 years
- Prototyping - 10 years
- SaaS Design - 10 years
- Design Thinking - 10 years
- User Research - 10 years
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