Rafael Serrano
Verified Expert in Design
UX Designer
The Hague, Netherlands
Toptal member since February 15, 2016
Craftsman and product designer, Rafael is passionate about every aspect of the digital design process. With a bias toward data-driven actions and how those impact people, it's essential to be objective. He has been collaborating with startups and established product teams on UX management, research, strategy, workflow optimization, and the execution of product decisions to work towards successfully completing a project.
Portfolio
Appetite+ | Mobile App
Work Experience
UX/UI Product Designer Lead
Settly
- Supported the integration of instruction-tuned Generative AI to streamline research efforts, automate workflows, and enhance productivity while effectively.
- Spearheaded the transition from a B2B model to a SaaS product, driving strategic growth and enhancing user engagement, resulting in a 15% boost in retention.
- Led a cross-functional product team through the creative process's discovery, ideation, and design stages. Nurtured talent through mentorship and growth opportunities and fostered a collaborative environment with open communication and teamwork.
- Participated actively in the product design process, ensuring hands-on involvement when needed.
- Mentored the design team and product team on UX methodologies and best practices.
- Developed comprehensive product strategies and translated them into clear, actionable design objectives that aligned with business goals, directly contributing to a 30% increase in overall product usage.
Senior UX/UI Deisgner
Intive
- Led the accessibility efforts for the Macmillan Education labs platform, achieving a user experience that allowed users with visual disabilities to execute tasks successfully.
- Collaborated with TFA (Tech for All's Accessibility Compliance and Universal Design Services) to turn UX concepts into feasible digital solutions.
- Ensured UX best practices across the organization aligned with business values.
- Developed and implemented a robust design system for the client.
Senior UX/UI Designer
WOM Chile
- Planned and conducted user research methodologies to obtain key insights used to improve existing products, create new design strategies, or build new features.
- Optimized payment methods to increase end users' conversation and engagement, achieving an adoption rate of 78%.
- Ideated, designed, prototyped, and tested every user flow before launching the mobile application to a market of 2 million users.
- Worked with Lean-Agile methodologies, ensuring the effectiveness of the deliverables.
- Ensured a user-centric approach based on data-driven decisions and business interests.
UX Designer
Acid Labs
- Conducted user research to provide actionable insights to stakeholders by effectively communicating the results.
- Optimized the user's workflow in the platform, improving performance by over 45%.
- Matched and managed team and business expectations about the project's functions and impact.
- Implemented and promoted design best practices to stakeholders and the user experience team to ensure successful deliverables.
- Drove user engagement by selecting the new platform's main critical features and designing the entire experience around them.
Art Director and Co-founder
Design Heaps
- Managed multidisciplinary teams successfully between Canada, The United States, and Venezuela for clients like Café Mezcal, eBay, DNA Consultants, and Panthers Lodge.
- Led and implemented Agile methodologies in collaboration with key stakeholders to achieve compliance with the projects' objectives set throughout data analysis, which reflected improvements in user task success, retention, and conversion.
- Worked closely with engineer directors, account managers, and talents from different cultural backgrounds and time zones to create successful multidisciplinary teams for our clients.
UX/UI Designer
Appetite+, Inc.
- Worked as the primary user experience and interface designer on rebranding, improving, and creating new features for version 2.0 of the mobile app.
- Structured my design approach based on qualitative and quantitative information obtained during the research process with stakeholders and the development team provided.
- Obtained a new investment from Start-Up Chile and gained recognition from Intel Challenge Latin America and The Media Accelerator Program Latin America in 2013 in Miami, USA.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Graphic Design
University José Maria Vargas - Caracas, Venezuela
Certifications
Applied Generative AI for Digital Transformation
MIT Professional Education Program
How to Design for Augmented and Virtual Reality
The Interaction Design Foundation
UX Management: Strategy & Tactics
The Interaction Design Foundation
UX Research — Methods and Best Practices
The Interaction Design Foundation
Production and Management of Digital Projects
University of Chile
Information Architecture
University of Chile
Design Sprint Foundations
Udacity
Skills
Tools
Adobe Creative Suite, InVision, Sketch, Miro, Trello, Adobe InDesign, Slack, Maze, Confluence
Platforms
MacOS, Figma, iOS, Android, Mixpanel
Languages
HTML
Other
Data Visualization, Web App Design, Web App UX, Web App UI, Responsive, Low-fidelity Prototypes, High-fidelity Prototypes, Web Design, UI Design, UX Design, Graphic Design, Project Management, Prototyping, Information Architecture (IA), User Interface (UI), Product Design, Usability, UX Research, Mobile UX Design, Mobile UI Design, Dashboard Design, SaaS, MVP Design, B2B, Ideation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), UX Strategy, Usability Testing, Qualitative Research, User Interviews, Contextual Inquiry, Interviews, Visual Storytelling, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), iOS UX Design, iOS UI Design, Android UI Design, UX Scenarios, Wireframing, User Flows, Empathy Mapping, Card Sorting, Lean UX, Agile UX, System Design, Sketching, User Journey Maps, Optimal Workshop, Abstracts, User Experience (UX), App Design, Mobile Design, Interactive Prototypes, Web Development, Responsive Web Design (RWD), UI Animation, Web UX, Content Management Systems (CMS), Visual Design, Responsive UX Design, Typography, Data Validation, User Personas, Wireframe to Product, UX Analysis, Benchmarking, Benchmark Analysis, Intranets, User Management, Management, Strategy, Android Design Guidelines, Design Sprints, User Journeys, Branding, Value Proposition, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Social Networks, B2C, Mobile UI, Accessibility, Design Systems, Web Marketing, Google Design Sprints, Design Thinking, UX Mentoring, Software as a Service (SaaS), Dashboards, Digital Transformation
Experience
- Data Visualization - 10 years
- UX Research - 7 years
- Product Design - 4 years
- SaaS - 4 years
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) - 1 year
- Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) - 1 year
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