Ruta is available for hire
Hire RutaRuta Shastri
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Location
Chicago, IL, United States
Toptal Member Since
December 10, 2018
Ruta is a creative and human-centered designer with two decades of experience working for agencies, startups, NGOs, and corporations. Creating thoughtful and meaningful experiences that help solve complex problems is her passion. Ruta aims to find a balance between business goals, user needs, and technical feasibility in all her projects and enjoys working on both the macro and micro levels of the customer journey.
Portfolio
Work Experience
Design Consultant
2016 - PRESENT
Freelance | Ruh Design
- Consulted for corporations, startups, and design agencies in a range of industries and services: healthcare (Humana, Anthem), eCommerce (Walgreens), startups (GrowIt!), SaaS (GoSecure, Twilio, CrowdStrike), and education (UCLA).
- Designed a new mobile app to enable members of Medicaid to complete healthy activities and earn rewards; the client was Go365 for Humana Healthy Horizons.
- Created, for Walgreens, over-the-counter medicine concepts, led rewards points, product details enhancements, integrated search, and get-it-by-date experiences in partnership with UX, product managers, and visual designers.
- Designed a portal for garden shop owners to add and schedule a garden tour experience that incorporated art exhibits and monuments on the app and managed the garden tour experiences given by park district staff members.
- Designed a SaaS web portal for GoSecure that allows customers to see the value of GoSecure and support their security program by continually increasing their ability for visibility, analysis, correlation, and response.
Technologies: InVision, Adobe CC, Axure, Sketch, Figma, Miro, iOS, Android, Design Thinking, Healthcare Services, Digital Health, Interaction Design (IxD), Product Design, User Flows, UX Design, UI Design, Lean Startups, User Research, Journey Mapping, UX Wireframes, Product Strategy, Layout Design, App Design, B2C, B2B, Dashboard Design, Mobile App Design, Information Architecture (IA), Loyalty Programs, Loyalty Applications, Design Systems, User Journeys, Design Workshops, Discovery Workshops, Workshops, UX Workshops, Ideation Workshops, Interactive Prototypes, Collaboration, User Workshops, Mockups, Usability Testing, User Personas, Design Leadership, Digital Product Design, Human-computer Interaction (HCI), Component Libraries, Web App Design, Responsive Web Apps, User Experience Design, Data Visualization, Storyboarding, User Stories, SaaS Design, Scenarios, User-centered Design (UCD), Story Mapping, Visual Design, Agile, Usability, User Interviews, Complex Application User Interfaces (UI), System Design, UX Strategy, Stakeholder Interviews, SaaS, Rapid Prototyping, Web UI, Mobile App UI, Mobile UX Design, Web UI Design, Web UX Design, Mobile UI Design, Web UX, UX Research, Web App UI, Discovery, Web App UX, White Label Design, MVP Design, Dashboards, Gamification, UI Components, Best Practices in Design, Style Guides, Fintech, User Onboarding, Data-driven Dashboards, Analytics, Complex Web Systems, Web Design, Mobile Design, Competitive Analysis, Feature Prioritization, Interviews, Annotated Wireframes, Finance, Focus Groups, Qualitative Reports, Customer Research, Qualitative Research, Presentations, Modular Design, User Testing, Strategic Design, Design Strategy, Leadership, Stakeholder Management, Team Leadership, Responsive UI, Responsive Design, UI Prototyping, Enterprise Application Design, User Journey Maps, User Workflows, Medical Software, Consumer-facing Product Design, Human-centered Design (HCD), Product Discovery, Infographics, eCommerce UX, App UX, Enterprise, Enterprise SaaS, UX Audits, Microcopy, Product Detail Pages, Web Applications
UX Design Consultant
2023 - 2023
Colgate-Palmolive - Global Tech
- Created an admin experience to monitor user activity, get real-time updates on the status of various systems, and provide quick actions to upload data and goals, change project owner, etc.
- Redesigned the innovation project details page by highlighting the concept, key financials, project scope, and status. The inline page editing was changed to editing by sections for a better user experience.
- Built data visualizations and worked on complex data tables and data estimators to help project managers monitor and track their innovation projects.
Technologies: UX Design, Data Visualization, Figma, Dashboards, Data-driven Dashboards, Analytics, UX Research, Web App Design, User Flows, UI Design, Complex Web Systems, eCommerce UX, Enterprise, UX Audits, Microcopy, Product Detail Pages
UX Design Consultant
2022 - 2023
CrowdStrike - Main
- Moderated the research to validate the design solutions, did comparative testing, met with product groups to gather their design requirements, and looked at the use cases to extract patterns and similarities.
- Ran ideation workshops and discovery sessions to iterate on aggregated data view components. Worked with engineers, UI design, QA, and content writers to iterate on the experience based on research findings.
- Enhanced the workflow builder by allowing users to execute a task or sub-process repeatedly. Came up with analytics tags to measure the experience.
Technologies: User Experience (UX), User Research, User Flows, Design Systems, Product Design, SaaS Design, Wireframing, User Interviews, Complex Application User Interfaces (UI), System Design, UX Strategy, Stakeholder Interviews, SaaS, Discovery, Complex Web Systems, Competitive Analysis, Feature Prioritization, Interviews, Annotated Wireframes, Qualitative Reports, Customer Research, Qualitative Research, Presentations, Strategic Design, Leadership, Stakeholder Management, Enterprise Application Design, Product Discovery, Enterprise, Enterprise SaaS, UX Audits, Microcopy, Product Detail Pages
Senior UX Designer
2013 - 2016
Redbox
- Researched and designed a text to speech experience for visually impaired users.
- Developed concepts, user flows, and wireframes for Redbox digital experiences.
- Created experiences for several initiatives such as the loyalty program, payment options and search experiences for mobile app, web, and kiosk.
Technologies: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Prezi, InVision, OmniGraffle, Axure, Workflow Diagrams, Interaction Design (IxD), Loyalty Programs, Loyalty Applications, Design Systems, User Journeys, Pitch Decks, Presentations, Product Discovery, eCommerce UX, App UX, Enterprise, UX Audits, Microcopy, Product Detail Pages, Web Applications
UX and UI Design Lead
2011 - 2013
Media Chaperone
- Designed a parent engagement platform for parents to help connect with their child's digital experiences.
- Created a group gifting experience as a white label service.
- Designed a shared wallet experience that can be used by parents to allot money and set permissions for their child's game play.
Technologies: iMovie, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Balsamiq, Design Systems, User Journeys, Pitch Decks, Product Discovery, Product Detail Pages
Design Consultant
2010 - 2011
Viewpoints Network
- Collaborated with product managers, marketing team, and developers to come up with visual and interactive design solutions for JC Whitney, Inc., MySears, MyKmart, and Viewpoints community sites.
Technologies: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Loyalty Programs, Loyalty Applications, Design Systems, eCommerce UX, Product Detail Pages
Senior Designer
2008 - 2010
Sears
- Created interactive and visual experiences for Sears, Kmart, and mygofer websites.
Technologies: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Loyalty Programs, eCommerce UX, Enterprise, Product Detail Pages
Art Director | Designer
2001 - 2008
Killian Branding
- Developed creative concepts and designed campaigns for clients like Peapod, U.S. Foodservice, OneAmerica Financial, and Dell | LTG.
- Integrated brand development, corporate identity, print collateral, and website design.
- Created multimedia experiences, animations, and corporate videos.
Technologies: Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Branding, Pitch Decks, Presentations
Education
1998 - 2001
Master's Degree in Film, Video, and Animation
University of Illinois - Chicago, Illinois, USA
1991 - 1997
Master's Degree in Communication Design
National Institute of Design - Ahmedabad, India
Certifications
JANUARY 2024 - PRESENT
Generative AI Fundamentals
Google Cloud
JANUARY 2024 - PRESENT
Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals
IBM SkillsBuild | via Credly
Experience
Collaboration That Works
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
1
Share your needs
Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.
2
Choose your talent
Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.
3
Start your risk-free talent trial
Work with your chosen talent on a trial basis for up to two weeks. Pay only if you decide to hire them.
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring