Nicola Rushton
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Toptal member since June 14, 2019
Nicola is a lead end-to-end product designer specializing in UI/UX, user research, and graphic design. During her 12-year career, she was the head of design at a property management startup founded by the ex-head of product at Uber and designed for software and startups, including real estate, fintech, enterprise SaaS, and NFTs. Nicola is an expert in design sprints, workshops, SaaS, prototyping, web, and Android and iOS apps.
Portfolio
Landlord App for Different Property Management
Work Experience
Product Designer, UI/UX Designer, and User Researcher
Freelance
- Worked as a UI/UX designer in Agile teams with enterprise and startup clients.
- Led UI/UX design on mobile apps and web products with various clients, including startups.
- Consulted with enterprise design teams advising on Agile design and research.
- Spearheaded design and user research by running design sprints and workshops and driving product decisions.
- Collaborated with non-researchers to teach product research.
- Designed for all stages of a product's development, from early validation to shipping post MVP.
- Created MVPs and proof of concept designs for early-stage startups and new products.
- Made prototypes and early designs for testing using Figma, Invision, Zeplin, and Sketch.
Senior Product Designer
GameChanger
- Designed the UX and UI for a video streaming app for a youth sports platform.
- Created management features for a web platform used mainly by coaches and parents involved in youth sports.
- Redesigned elements of an outdated web UI, which had received negative feedback from users, resulting in improved user experiences.
Lead Designer
Patron of Art by Veritic
- Designed the MVP version of an NFT marketplace, including dozens of screens and flows.
- Built a high-end "Art world" brand and brand identity for the entire product, from scratch, based on feedback and competitor research.
- Designed landing pages for the site's early release.
- Created styling and brand identity for the NFTs used on the platform.
Lead Product Designer | Product Owner
RCRDSHP
- Built a startup NFTs for RCRDSHP in the electronic music industry and led design and product for their internal employee tool and their creator suite for DJs.
- Managed the engineering backlog in Pivotal Tracker.
- Ran roadmap workshops and "next two years" vision workshops to identify product features and priorities.
- Designed a greenfield platform for electronic musicians to create their own NFTs.
- Led lean user research with electronic musicians and DJs.
- Managed iterative design on a platform built on Tailwind CSS.
Senior UX Designer
Backbase
- Worked with banks across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and Australia.
- Helped clients to implement a white-label product, producing visual designs aligned to their style guides.
- Collaborated extensively with design systems, implementing components and styles to match the client's brand.
- Managed difficult consulting situations, ensuring client satisfaction and managing the needs of the business alongside the needs of the users.
Senior Product Designer
- Introduced a "feature kickoff" process to the team, designed a kickoff workshop adopted by the team, and enormously improved our process.
- Designed UX for guest management features for a complex events management tool.
- Created visual designs aligning with Google design standards.
- Ran user research and user testing with internal, sales, and marketing users.
- Designed the UX and UI for an online events platform.
Product Designer (Freelance)
Aboriginal Legal Service NSW
- Designed a web app from scratch used by solicitors to record important time-sensitive data gathered during phone calls.
- Designed an MVP design that would be built within three months—minimizing design effort to allow engineering to happen as fast as possible and get the final product in the hands of users quickly.
- Performed extensive desktop research into the issues faced by solicitors and clients of the Aboriginal Legal Service and designed features aiming to improve their legal outcomes.
Head of Design
:Different
- :Different is a property management startup founded by the first Head of Product at Uber. I was hired as the first designer.
- Designed the MVP of our mobile app shipped in three months.
- Created a design hiring process and hired a design team of three across Australia and Sri Lanka.
- Planned and kicked off a functioning design system in collaboration with the head of engineering.
- Started a redesign of our complex internal enterprise system and shipped the first steps.
- Worked with the head of product and head of engineering to restructure the organization into product teams.
- Introduced user research to the entire company's process.
Freelance UI/UX Designer
Qualie
- Designed the UI/UX for this user research startup. They came to me with rough sketches, turning them into something ready for development.
- Planned a platform where users create projects for a research-as-a-service product.
- Created the final presentation templates for Google Slides.
- Developed a style guide for the platform developers to work from.
UX Researcher: GDPR (Contract)
Atlassian
- Implemented and designed GDPR features in a way that not only complied with regulations but improved the UX.
- Advocated for the human element of GDPR: Why should we care about data privacy?
- Interviewed European users to understand their online privacy needs.
- Planned and ran custom stakeholder workshops to gather information, plan research, and bring stakeholders along on the journey with the team.
- Led research on the project about the right to be forgotten.
Lead Product Designer (Contract)
Service NSW
- Led a team of myself and two junior designers to redesign the Service NSW app.
- Ran generative research to understand where the greatest value to users is.
- Created the UI/UX design for a React Native mobile app.
- Worked directly with engineers on the visual design.
Senior Product Design Consultant
Pivotal
- Worked directly with client teams in enterprise companies to coach them in Agile design and Lean UX.
- Developed and researched brand new greenfield products while validating the user value and helping their owners be successful.
- Designed new products for the web, mobile, Android, and iOS.
- Created products in an Agile manner for education, real estate, sales enablement, and telecommunications.
- Ran weekly or fortnightly user research sprints focused on generative research, idea validation, and solution validation.
- Managed design sprints with teams of up to 10, generating new feature and product ideas and shipping MVPs within weeks or months.
UI Designer
Valtech
- Worked with Telstra's brand guidelines to implement their small business site.
- Created visual designs across a responsive site for Telstra Business eCommerce.
- Designed a horse racing payments app for the Albert point of sale product.
Visual Designer
Bigcommerce
- Developed a large-scale style guideline for the platform UI.
- Created visual consistency across a legacy product with complex UI.
- Worked closely with engineers, testers, and product managers.
- Contributed as a part of the teams on the integrations with Square, Alibaba, and Endicia.
Lead Digital Designer
RODE Microphones
- Led the redesign of their website—wireframing, designing, and working with engineers to ship it.
- Wrote CSS to make the entire website responsive in 2012/2013.
- Worked on the marketing design, including apparel, posters, logos, microsites, banners, and print ads.
Interactive Designer | Front-end Developer
Internetrix
- Designed and developed websites for clients, including government and local businesses.
- Hand-coded HTML and CSS responsive web pages from scratch.
- Worked with a legacy CMS based on PHP, updating copy and making design tweaks to pages.
Education
Bachelor of Creative Arts Degree in Graphic Design
University of Wollongong - Wollongong, Australia
Skills
Tools
Sketch, Figma, Miro, FigJam, InVision, Qualtrics, Zeplin, Jira, Confluence, Pivotal Tracker, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Lean Testing, Google Slides, Sketch 2, Google Docs, Maze
Platforms
iOS, Android, Web, Shopify, Mobile
Industry Expertise
Real Estate, Government, Telecommunications
Languages
HTML, CSS
Other
Prototyping, Platform Design, UX Flows, Freelancing, Wireframing, User Interface (UI), Lean UX, Enterprise SaaS, User Experience (UX), Sprint Retrospectives, Agile, App Design, Web App UI, Web App UX, Lean Research, Co-design, Foundation CSS, Agile UX, Design Workshops, User Flows, Product Design, App UI, Design, Workshop Facilitation, Facilitation, Workshops, User Journeys, UX Design, Writing & Editing, Mobile UX, Mobile UI, Android UI Design, UI Design, Web UI Design, Personas, User Needs, User Research, Web Design, Android Design Guidelines, Non-fungible Tokens (NFT), Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Responsive, Responsive Web Apps, Dashboard Design, Design Sprints, Google Design Sprints, Information Architecture (IA), UX Research, Design Research, Agile Sprints, Agile Delivery, MVP Design, B2B, Web App Design, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Australia, Web App Testing, Residential Real Estate, Property Management, Proptech, Remote User Testing, SaaS, SaaS Design, Software as a Service (SaaS), Atomic Design, Design Thinking, Empathy Mapping, Research Synthesis, Web Applications, Design Consultation, Mockups, Web Portals, Websites, Fintech Design, Desktop App Design, Software Design, Visual Design, Presentation Design, Fintech, App UX, Apps, Roadmaps, Mobile Apps, B2C, User Personas, User Journey Maps, Mobile App Design, Design Systems, Branding, Landing Page Design, Digital Banking, Dashboards, eCommerce, Usability Testing, Brand Guidelines, Brand Identity, Brand Building, Brand Design, Logo Design, Data Visualization, Marketplace Design, Design Leadership, User Stories, Marketplaces, Pitch Deck Consultant, Pitch Decks, Pitch Presentations, Analytical Dashboards, Mobile UX Design, Mobile UI Design, Whiteboarding, React Native, Content Management Systems (CMS), Survey Design, Styled-components, Style Guides, Navigation Design, Research Methods, Presentations, Redesign, Wireframe to Product, Rapid Prototyping, Project Design, Complex Web Systems, Material UI, Business Coaching, Web Platforms, Validation, White Labeling, Big Data, Print Design, Semantic UI, Enterprise System Design, Personal Finance, Research, Startups, Lean Startups, Cross-platform UX, Omnichannel Marketing, iOS App Design, Android App Design, Validated User Research, Web UI, Web UX, iOS Design Guidelines, iOS UX Design, iOS UI Design, Coaching, UX Workshops, Ideation Workshops, Discovery Workshops, User Interviews, Ethical Design, Google, UI Research, Field Research, UX Prototyping, User Paths, User Roles, Consulting, IT Consulting, Startup Consulting, Software Consulting, Business Consulting, Technology Consulting, Agile Coaching, Lean, IA Strategy, User Workshops, UI Prototyping, Paper Prototyping, Remote Prototyping, Interviews, Field Studies, High-tech Startups, Early-stage Startups, Blockchain Platforms, Tailwind CSS, New Products, Product Management, Agile Product Management, POS, Point of Sale, Agency, eCommerce UX, eCommerce UI, Android Design Library, Android Material Design, iOS Design Trends, iOS API, Annotated Wireframes, Responsive UI, Responsive Layout, Mobile App UI, Mobile Applications, B2B2C, Google Design, Google Drive, Google Material Design, Sprints, Retro, High-fidelity Mockups, Mobile Banking, Online Banking, Consumer Banking, Private Banking, Bank Transactions, Commercial Banking, Multinational Banking, Core Banking Solutions (CBS), Investment Banking Technology, Africa, Europe, Asia, Southeast Asia, Commercial Real Estate, Property Listings, Finance, User Testing, User Validation Testing, Mobile First, Mobile Web, Mobile Design, Mobile Web Design, High-fidelity Prototypes, Typography, Human Interface Design, Ideation, SaaS Product Management, React, Iconography, Interaction Design (IxD), Human-centered Design (HCD), Human-computer Interaction (HCI), Usability, Accessibility, Heuristic Analysis, Project Management, Poster Design, Museums & Exhibits, UX Branding, Lifestyle, Graphic Design, Marketing Design, Illustration, A/B Testing, Proof of Concept (POC), Heatmaps, Beauty Products, Skincare, Hair & Skin Care, Women's Health, Landing Pages, Videos, Youth, United States, Web Usability, New Product Development, Law, Legal Technology (Legaltech), Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C)
Experience
- Product Design - 10 years
- UX Design - 10 years
- UI Design - 10 years
- Design - 10 years
- UX Research - 8 years
- Design Research - 7 years
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - 6 years
- User Research - 5 years
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