Matthew Vella
Verified Expert in Design
Digital Designer
Wrocław, Poland
Toptal member since November 4, 2024
With over 12 years of experience, Matthew has worked with various companies and teams across different sectors, consistently delivering high-quality work. His expertise lies in leading cross-functional teams to create seamless user experiences and develop scalable design systems that ensure platform consistency. Matthew thrives in roles that combine strategic vision with hands-on design work while also improving design efficiency.
Portfolio
DrHouse | Accessible Healthcare App
Marriott | An Editorial and Rich Content Site
Scalable Design System for ScienceLogic
Work Experience
Lead Product Designer, Design Systems
Toptal
- Headed the design system for Toptal's three product platforms, developed scalable components and improved design-to-development communication, which enhanced consistency across the board.
- Reduced custom component usage on the talent platform, leading to an 80% decrease in requests and significantly enhancing design system efficiency.
- Oversaw a new project initiative launched in under 2.5 months, achieving 92% component re-usability, significantly cutting tech and design debt.
- Established clear workflows for product teams for reusable vs. snowflake components.
- Supported platform teams to ensure visual alignment with usage guidelines while maintaining progress on long-term strategic initiatives related to the UI Figma library, Storybook, and documentation.
Senior Product Designer, Design Systems
Toptal
- Managed the Figma library and its styles, conducted quarterly surveys, groomed the backlog, project-managed incoming requests, and wrote comprehensive usage guidelines to ensure consistency and clarity.
- Collaborated with the FX team to ensure alignment between Storybook and Figma libraries, delivering a consistent and synchronized system across design and development.
- Developed design tokens in Figma, supporting all style tokens, including color, typography, and spacing, while enabling seamless transitions for dark theme support across the platform.
UX Manager
Modus Create
- Managed and mentored a team of five designers, providing regular check-ins and guidance.
- Conducted bi-monthly syncs focused on team well-being, providing support through regular check-ins and progress reviews.
- Facilitated feedback workshops to enhance design quality, encouraging collaboration and continuous improvement.
- Reviewed client work via screen shares, providing guidance and constructive feedback to ensure alignment with project goals.
Product Design Lead (Part Time)
Producement
- Oversaw startup projects as the sole designer, managing the full end-to-end process from concept to execution.
- Conducted user research, discovery workshops, built clickable prototypes, and performed usability testing to deliver MVPs.
- Launched products such as Yaway, DrHouse, Clean Kitchen, and Deliberate AI, resulting in significant user adoption and securing additional funding.
- Contributed to the long-term success of startups, with products still operating successfully post-launch.
Senior UI/UX Designer
Modus Create
- Built and delivered designs for startups, enterprises, and Fortune 500 companies. Consulted for prominent clients such as Audi Business Innovation, Sprint, Pfizer, ScienceLogic, K12, and Marriott.
- Owned the end-to-end design process on some projects, from concept to implementation, ensuring successful outcomes.
- Designed and delivered feature IOS and Android apps for web and mobile across various sectors, tailored to specific client needs and business goals.
- Delivered over 12,000 hours of client work, consistently producing high-quality designs that enhanced user experience.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to ensure smooth design-to-development handoffs and alignment with project goals.
UI/UX Designer
bonial.com
- Redesigned the entire kaufda.de portal, transitioning from a static to a fully responsive web design, improving user experience across devices.
- Maintained other web products such as Meinprospekt, Retale, and Bonial.
- Launched the Kaufda app, a Bonial product in Germany, on the Apple Watch during its first release in early 2015.
UI Designer
NetRefer
- Worked as a solo designer on the affiliate marketing software web portal, serving some of the biggest online casinos, such as WilliamHill, Bet365, Betfair, Betsafe, and others.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to design a new admin interface for their affiliate software.
- Designed all graphics and marketing collateral for the NetRefer brand.
Education
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Graphic Design
Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) - Paola, Malta
Skills
Tools
Sketch, Jira, Google Docs, Sketch 4, Miro, FigJam, Confluence, Trello, Slack, Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC
Platforms
Figma, Web, WordPress, iOS, Android
Industry Expertise
Automotive
Other
UI Libraries, Design Libraries, UI Design, UX Design, Design Systems, Experience Design, Low-fidelity Mockups, Systems, Web Design, Wireframing, User Interface (UI), Design Leadership, Usability, User Experience (UX), Visual Design, UI Components, Component Libraries, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Web App Design, Product Design, User-centered Design (UCD), Mobile Apps, Google Material Design, Dashboard Design, User Flows, Prototyping, UI Pattern Library, Responsive Design, Landing Page Design, Tailwind UI, Interaction Design (IxD), UI Motion, Responsive Layout, Ideation Workshops, Motion Design, Creative Design, UX Mentoring, Team Mentoring, Mobile Design, High-fidelity Mockups, Branding, UX Audits, B2B, Leadership, User Journeys, User Onboarding, Data Visualization, Graphic Design, Form Design, User Workflows, Questionnaires, Adobe Creative Cloud, Jitter, Google Drive, ChatGPT, Notion, Storybook, Usability Testing, Mobile UI, Ionic, Hybrid Apps, User Journey Maps, Lean UX, Usability Analysis, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Logo Design, Audio, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Agile, Web UX, Feature Roadmaps, Feature Planning, UX Branding, Enterprise Design, Automation Tools, Healthtech, Fintech, UX Consulting, Consulting, DataViz, Big Data, AIOps, IT, Vector Graphics, 3D Art, Information Architecture (IA), Blog Design, Rich Content Media, Stakeholder Engagement, End-to-end Delivery, App UI, MVP Design, Mobile App UI, Lean Startups, Rapid Prototyping
Experience
- UI Design - 12 years
- Responsive Layout - 8 years
- UX Design - 8 years
- Figma - 7 years
- UI Motion - 6 years
- Design Libraries - 5 years
- Design Systems - 5 years
- Ideation Workshops - 5 years
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