Rafaela is available for hire
Hire RafaelaRafaela Sinopoli
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Biarritz, France
Toptal member since June 16, 2016
Bio
Raf is a senior product designer with 16 years of experience designing web and mobile products. She works end-to-end, from problem definition, research, and UX strategy through UI design, prototyping, design systems, developer handoff, and implementation support. With extensive startup experience, she also designs, builds, and ships her own products, combining strong UI/UX craft with hands-on product, business, and AI-assisted development experience.
Portfolio
Vox City App Redesign
Product DesignSystem DesignUX DesigniOSUI Design
Work Experience
Co-founder | Product Designer
2023 - PRESENT
Self-employed
- Designed, launched, and iterated on 20+ iOS and macOS apps across AI, utilities, weather, productivity, and creative tools.
- Built reusable UI/UX patterns for AI image-recognition products, applied across apps including FishPic, RockPic, BugPic, DogPic, and ShroomPic.
- Designed and refined monetization experiences, including onboarding, paywalls, promotions, and subscription flows, using product performance and user behavior to guide iteration.
- Took product ideas from early concept through UI/UX, prototyping, branding, App Store launch, and ongoing product improvements.
- Designed and built LockerLog, a database-backed web app with user authentication, using AI-assisted development from concept through production.
- Developed visual identities, reusable components, and design systems across multiple products to maintain consistency while supporting rapid iteration.
Technologies: Figma, Procreate, Codex, Figma Make, UX Design, iOS, User Flows, Mobile App Design, UI Design, Design Systems, Design Leadership, Product Strategy, User Research, Information Architecture (IA), Early-stage Startups, UX Strategy, AI-powered Product Design, ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Product Designer
2010 - PRESENT
Freelance Work
- Led end-to-end product design for startups and technology companies, from early research and product definition through UI/UX, prototyping, developer handoff, and implementation support.
- Designed web, iOS, and Android products across early-stage startups, SaaS, consumer apps, and established organizations, adapting the design process to each team and product stage.
- Collaborated directly with founders, product teams, and developers to translate business requirements and complex product problems into clear, implementable user experiences.
- Created and evolved design systems, reusable components, information architectures, user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and production-ready interfaces across client engagements.
- Supported products from early MVPs through redesigns and mature production environments, balancing user needs, business requirements, technical constraints, and existing product architecture.
Technologies: Figma, UI Design, System Design, Product Design, UX Design, Prototyping, iOS, User Flows, Mobile App Design, Design Systems, Design Leadership, Figma Make, Product Strategy, User Research, Information Architecture (IA), Early-stage Startups, Responsive Design, UX Strategy, AI-powered Product Design, ChatGPT
UI/UX Designer
2026 - 2026
LSAT Demon
- Managed UI/UX design across LSAT Demon’s web and iOS products, supporting the ongoing evolution of a live education platform.
- Designed and iterated within a structured Figma workflow and evolving design system, maintaining consistency across web and native iOS experiences.
- Collaborated closely with the product design team through frequent reviews and iterative feedback to support continuous feature development.
Technologies: Figma, Figma Make, FigJam, UX Design, iOS, User Flows, Mobile App Design, Prototyping, UI Design, Design Systems, Design Leadership, Information Architecture (IA), Responsive Design, UX Strategy, AI-powered Product Design, ChatGPT
UI/UX Designer
2024 - 2026
Up2Rent
- Acted as Up2Rent’s product designer, collaborating directly with the founder to improve and evolve an existing property management platform already in production.
- Redesigned key areas of the Up2Rent platform, including contact and property management, simplifying complex workflows across owners, tenants, suppliers, and properties.
- Designed advanced filtering and information hierarchies to help property managers navigate complex property and contact data more efficiently.
- Designed and prototyped multi-role experiences and expanded contact structures, supporting multiple addresses, emails, bank accounts, and user types.
Technologies: Figma, Figma Make, UX Design, User Flows, Mobile App Design, Prototyping, UI Design, Design Systems, SaaS Design, Design Leadership, FigJam, Information Architecture (IA), Responsive Design, UX Strategy, AI-powered Product Design
Lead UI/UX Designer
2024 - 2024
iCompare LLC
- Led the UI/UX design of a mobile MVP for comparing grocery prices across supermarkets, translating an early-stage product concept into a complete consumer experience.
- Designed the end-to-end shopping journey, including onboarding, product discovery, search and filtering, shopping lists, product selection, and price comparison.
- Collaborated with the product manager and developer to explore product requirements, prototype solutions, and define practical UX patterns for the MVP.
- Designed comparison experiences that helped users evaluate a grocery list by lowest price or individual store, including savings, substitutions, unavailable items, and quantities.
Technologies: UX Design, UI Design, Figma, Product Design, Prototyping, iOS, User Flows, Mobile App Design, Information Architecture (IA), Early-stage Startups, UX Strategy, AI-powered Product Design
Lead Product Designer
2023 - 2024
Covalence LLC
- Led UI/UX direction for GameSafe, a cross-platform parental monitoring product spanning separate parent and child experiences across mobile, web, and desktop.
- Reviewed and guided the in-house designer’s work, providing UI/UX feedback, resolving design decisions, and maintaining consistency across product flows and platforms.
- Defined and refined complex user flows, including onboarding, subscriptions, child and device setup, monitoring dashboards, alerts, and threat reporting.
- Collaborated with the core product team to translate product requirements and technical constraints into clear, implementable UI/UX solutions.
- Oversaw design consistency across the broader GameSafe ecosystem, including parent and child applications, web experiences, and supporting product interfaces.
Technologies: Product Design, UI Design, UX Design, Design Leadership, Figma, iOS, User Flows, Mobile App Design, Prototyping, Product Strategy, User Research, Information Architecture (IA), UX Strategy, AI-powered Product Design
Product Designer
2023 - 2023
MySun BVBA
- Designed a mobile web scorecard experience from scratch for mini-golf venues, working directly with the founders from initial concept through final UI/UX.
- Created a white-label design system that could be customized for different mini-golf venues while maintaining a consistent core product experience.
- Designed the end-to-end mobile flow and delivered production-ready designs for the client to hand off directly to their development team.
Technologies: Figma, UX Design, Product Design, Mobile App Design, UI Design, Prototyping
Product Designer
2023 - 2023
Si Hyun Wei
- Conducted early product discovery for a sustainability app, exploring the concept through competitive research, feature definition, personas, and user flows.
- Developed initial wireframes and product scenarios to test the viability of the concept before committing to full product development.
- Helped surface fundamental product and market concerns during the exploration phase, contributing to the client’s decision not to proceed with development.
Technologies: UX Design, Figma, Product Discovery, User Flows, Wireframing, Competition Research, FigJam
Senior Product Designer
2023 - 2023
MetaEngine
- Worked within a remote product design team on MetaEngine’s digital asset marketplace for game developers, collaborating with senior and junior designers on the broader product experience.
- Owned the UI/UX design of the creator upload flow, supporting a wide range of digital asset types, including 2D and 3D models, audio, plugins, templates, and other game-development resources.
- Designed and prototyped the multi-step submission experience, defining how creators entered asset information and prepared content for publication on the marketplace.
- Presented work to the design team and stakeholders, incorporating feedback through iterative design reviews and refinement.
Technologies: Figma, UX Design, UI Design, Jira, Product Design, Web App Design
UX Designer
2022 - 2023
uptraded GmbH
- Led a UX audit and redesign of uptraded’s iOS clothing-trading app, working directly with the founder while retaining the existing visual design.
- Redesigned the end-to-end user experience, including onboarding, listing clothes for trade, browsing, matching, and the core trading journey.
- Planned and conducted user interviews to identify usability problems, validate assumptions, and better understand how users approached clothing swaps and matches.
- Created the complete research plan and supporting materials, including interview scripts, consent forms, testing guidelines, and documentation.
- Translated research findings and UX audit insights into redesigned user flows and interactive prototypes for the product team.
Technologies: Figma, UX Design, Consulting, Mobile App Design, User Flows, Product Strategy, User Research, UX Strategy, Usability Testing, UX Audits, Prototyping
Character Illustrator
2022 - 2023
Flovatar
- Illustrated a collection of 30 animal characters with interchangeable traits that could be randomized to create new PFP NFTs (personal profile picture non-fungible token).
- Illustrated a second collection of 50 human characters.
- Collaborated with the art director to create and polish characters, eliminating friction when the characters were randomized in the generator.
Technologies: Adobe Illustrator, Procreate, Creative Direction, UI Design
Mobile Product Designer
2022 - 2022
VOX S.P.A.
- Redesigned Vox City’s existing mobile app across UX and UI, creating a modern experience for discovering, purchasing, and accessing self-guided audio tours.
- Designed a scalable experience for discovering, purchasing, and accessing audio tours across multiple cities, destinations, languages, and types of content.
- Restructured the app’s information architecture and core user journeys to support Vox’s expansion from traditional audio-guide services toward smartphone-based self-guided experiences.
- Collaborated with the product owner to translate Vox’s existing library of tour content and recordings into a consumer-facing mobile experience.
- Delivered the redesigned product through launch, creating an interface that could accommodate the company’s growing catalog of cities and tours.
Technologies: Figma, Prototyping, Design Systems, UX Design, Mobile App Design, MVP Design, UI Design, Startups, iOS, Creative Direction, System Design, User Flows, Product Strategy, Information Architecture (IA), UX Strategy
Lead Designer
2017 - 2022
Witco (ex MonBuilding)
- Led product design across web and mobile, working directly with the CEO, CTO, and developers as the product and team evolved from an early-stage startup.
- Redesigned and evolved an existing product with significant UI/UX limitations, creating clearer and more consistent experiences across the platform.
- Designed a scalable, modular product system that could adapt to different clients, buildings, organizations, user types, and feature requirements.
- Maintained the existing design system while designing its replacement, supporting the transition to a more scalable and consistent product experience.
- Adapted a new visual identity created by an external agency into the product, translating the rebrand into reusable UI patterns across web and mobile.
- Collaborated with product managers and developers as the team expanded, continuously designing and iterating on features throughout five years of product growth.
Technologies: UX Design, UI Design, Product Design, User Flows, Design Systems, SaaS Design, Design Leadership, Product Strategy, Information Architecture (IA), Early-stage Startups, Responsive Design, UX Strategy
UI Designer (Tablet and Mobile App Redesign)
2016 - 2017
VisualBlasters LLC (via Toptal)
- Completed the redesign of a frame-by-frame animation app for iOS and Android. Used Atomic design principles.
- Worked on improving the UX and suggested alternative approaches to issues in the previous versions. To test the different options, I provided quick prototypes, allowing us to decide on the best solution.
- Designed a set of custom icons to be used within the app.
Technologies: UX Design, Figma, Mobile App Design, Startups, MVP Design, UI Design, iOS, System Design, User Flows, Responsive Design, UX Strategy
Lead Designer
2013 - 2016
Messapps
- Designed the Messapps brand and all its assets, including business cards, Keynote presentations, merchandising, and the website.
- Conducted a workshop on mobile UI design to students at the New York University Stern School of Business.
- Created multiple mobile and tablet applications for iOS and Android, from initial wireframes to the delivery of final assets to developers. I also created the brand identity, website, and landing page for most projects.
Technologies: Mobile App Design, Startups, MVP Design, UI Design, iOS, Creative Direction, Design Systems, System Design, UX Design
Project Manager
2010 - 2012
AY Digital
- Managed and was accountable for the Hispanic clientele within the US.
- Hired, trained, and coordinated the South American creative team. We were a fully remote team back in 2010.
- Organized and assigned project schedules to the South American design team.
- Conducted research and content creation for our campaigns and websites in English and Spanish.
- Created pitch presentations for new potential clients together with the design team.
Technologies: Creative Direction
Education
2003 - 2006
Bachelor's Degree with Honors in Advertising
Universidad Argentina de la Empresa - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Certifications
MARCH 2023 - PRESENT
Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design
Skills
Tools
Procreate, Adobe Illustrator, Figma Make, FigJam, Jira
Platforms
iOS, Figma
Other
Mobile App Design, UX Design, Prototyping, Startups, UI Design, Creative Direction, Consulting, Design Systems, SaaS Design, Product Design, System Design, Design Leadership, UX Strategy, Responsive Design, Early-stage Startups, ChatGPT, User Flows, Product Strategy, User Research, Information Architecture (IA), AI-powered Product Design, Artificial Intelligence (AI), MVP Design, Codex, Product Discovery, Wireframing, Competition Research, Web App Design, Usability Testing, UX Audits, UX Research, User Interviews, Marketplaces, eCommerce, iOS UI Design
Experience
- Mobile App Design - 16 years
- Design Systems - 16 years
- UX Design - 16 years
- UI Design - 16 years
- Product Design - 16 years
- Design Leadership - 10 years
- Figma - 6 years
- AI-powered Product Design - 5 years
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