
Sven Read
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Tacherting, Bavaria, Germany
Toptal member since September 27, 2021
Sven designs complex interfaces that feel simple, including AI platforms, energy management systems, medical devices, and financial dashboards. With over 20 years of experience, he works seamlessly in Figma and code, and uses AI tools to increase his speed by 5–10x. Sven builds scalable, living design systems, bringing senior expertise, startup-level speed, and a deep love for typography and clean interfaces.
Portfolio
Work Experience
Head of Product and Design
Aeyes
- Took the product from zero to market launch in under one year as co-founder and sole designer, owning strategy, research, design system, and prototyping end-to-end.
- Designed an AI trust vocabulary incorporating confidence intervals and classification transparency, enabling home inspectors to rely on AI outputs without second-guessing results.
- Reduced post-inspection reporting from hours to minutes by designing a camera-centric mobile workflow optimized for real field conditions.
- Built a complete design system from scratch in Figma, covering iOS mobile app and desktop CRM, scalable for future product growth.
- Conducted field research with home inspectors in real working conditions, validating workflows and uncovering insights that directly shaped core product decisions.
- Prototyped the desktop CRM in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, enabling faster iteration and more precise engineering handoff than Figma alone.
Staff Interface Designer
Baind AG
- Built a component-based design system in React and Shadcn with a component index, enabling AI-assisted feature development without hallucinations or design drift.
- Designed AI/ML interfaces that made complex building automation outputs understandable and trustworthy for non-technical users.
- Simplified complex building management workflows, reducing cognitive load for facility managers handling multi-sensor energy data.
- Established design system governance across web and mobile, ensuring consistency as the product scaled across multiple platform surfaces.
- Designed energy optimization interfaces that translated dense real-time sensor data into clear, actionable decisions for building operators.
Senior Product Designer
Vaillant Deutschland
- Designed a complex web app and helped installers plan heat pump installations and manage clients, integrating many previous apps.
- Improved and advanced a complex heat pump planning application using an existing Figma design.
- Planned and conducted user research using the existing customer base.
UI/UX Designer
Mochila Fulfillment LLC
- Created a design system for the B2B logistics web app and created a working prototype based on it.
- Prototyped various pages to use as marketing material.
- Solved complex UI problems around controling of handling delivery items.
UI/UX Designer
Maxtel Software Ltd
- Set up a design system to rapidly prototype different product ideas using HTML/CSS and test them for payroll platform improvements in real-world scenarios.
- Facilitated regular workshops to completely rethink the existing product structure and propose a new and simplified approach.
- Simplified a very complex product to a more user-friendly version.
Senior UX Designer
Brainlab
- Designed a tablet user interface for a mobile CT scanner used by surgeons during surgery. Made it easy and failsafe for operating under stressful conditions.
- Explored and researched the possibilities, constructed the first concept, and designed a prototype for Magic Leap in the hospital environment. Worked on a challenging project because there was a lack of good prototyping tools.
- Led a team effort to modernize, optimize, and fix the existing interface library and style guide without disrupting the day-to-day business.
Senior UX Designer
KI Labs (part of KI Group)
- Created a concept and prototype—based on artificial intelligence—in HTML and CSS for the chemical marketplace.
- Developed an idea, prototype, and final design for a connect truck project based on artificial intelligence. Helped with a conference organization in Lisbon to launch a local incubator for this company.
- Created a concept, prototype, and final design for a mobile app that helped sell electric cars for a prominent German car manufacturer.
Senior UX Designer
Ottonova
- Redesigned the product and company's website entirely; optimized the page load times and sales funnel.
- Integrated a CMS to help the marketing team build different sites for the A/B testing.
- Helped fix problems and added missing elements to the company's style guide.
Senior UX Designer
Talentry
- Designed a shareable snippet of a specific job to help employees share the job postings with their friends and followers, which was challenging as the content had to be adjusted to different social networks.
- Created a concept and design for the company's back-end editor, which enabled employees to add, edit, or share jobs.
- Designed various eye-catching reward graphics in Sketch.
Senior UX Designer
Allianz
- Created a concept, prototype, and final app for an internal case management app to help the company process case files faster.
- Conducted extensive research with the internal users and built a concept based on the users' needs.
- Helped the internal design team members to evolve their daily design work to focus more on HTML and CSS.
Senior UX Designer
Cliqz
- Created a concept, prototype, and final design for a mobile search app that respects privacy. The app was built in HTML and CSS for optimal user testing.
- Planned and executed extensive user testing in a controlled setting.
- Created the product landing page, including a content management system.
Lead UX Designer
BoerseGo
- Built a concept, prototype, and final design for a completely new financial app that is still the primary revenue stream for the company.
- Established and led a design team for several years.
- Created and built a company-wide design system and style guide.
Certifications
Interaction Design Specialization
University of California | via Coursera
Interface Design Bootcamp
Smashing Mag Conference
UsabilityWeek London
Nielsen Norman Group
Masterclass of Art Direction
MCAD
Skills
Tools
Figma Prototyping, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Framer Prototyping, Pixelmator, AI Tools, Sketch, Photoshop CC, Adobe Photoshop, Zoom, Slack, Claude, Google Meet, Xcode
Languages
HTML, CSS, Markdown
Platforms
Figma, Mobile, Web, Android, Webflow CMS, Webflow, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), AIX
Other
Usability, UI Design, Complex Application User Interfaces (UI), Web UI, Interaction Design (IxD), Prototyping, Typography, Readability, Responsive Web Apps, Icon Fonts, Web Fonts, Logo Design, App UX, App UI, User Requirements, Style Guides, Mobile UX, User Flows, Product Design, UX Design, SaaS Design, User Experience (UX), Web Design, Information Design, Web App Design, Web App UI, Web App UX, Web UI Design, Mockups, Dashboard Design, Mobile App Design, Mobile App UI, Mobile UI, Mobile UX Design, Mobile Design, Wireframing, Creative Direction, Design Leadership, High-fidelity Mockups, User Interface (UI), User Journeys, iOS App Design, Low-fidelity Mockups, Low-fidelity Prototypes, High-fidelity Prototypes, Design, Information Architecture (IA), Design Patterns, Workflow, Data Visualization, Dashboards, Web Dashboards, Analytical Dashboards, Financial Reporting Dashboards, Responsive Web Design (RWD), B2B, Enterprise Design, Web UX Design, Redesign, Responsive Design, App Design, Design Systems, Mobile UI Design, Digital Product Design, SaaS, Enterprise SaaS, Tailwind CSS, UX Prototyping, UI Prototyping, Rapid Interactive Prototyping, Software Prototyping, Startups, Enterprise, MVP Design, Rapid Prototyping, Tables, UI Components, New Product Development, UX Wireframes, Minimalism, Web UX, Product Discovery, Visual Design, Mobile-first Design, Design Thinking, Ideation, Tailwind UI, Interactive Prototypes, Data-driven Design, Software as a Service (SaaS), Complex Web Systems, Web Application Design, IoT Design, Flat Design, Mobile Web, Software Design, Interface Design, UX Consulting, Cursor AI, Claude Code, Art Direction, Landing Page Design, Landing Page Optimization, Framer, Desktop App Design, Reading Interfaces, Complex Problem Solving, UI Style Guides, Brand Design, Icon Design, User Testing, Interface Testing, Dark Design, Business Requirements, Dark UIs, Custom Solutions, Stakeholder Management, Responsive UI, Social Media Design, No UI, iOS Design Guidelines, Fintech, Material Design, Google Material Design, Consulting, User Research, Usability Testing, System Design, Medtech, Medical Software, Health Insurance, Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS), Internet of Things (IoT), Branding, Feature Prioritization, Mobile Banking, Ghost, Blog Design, Color Schemes, User Interviews, Marketplace Design, Accessibility, Chatbots, Chatbot Conversation Design, UX Audits, Atomic Design, Next.js, React, Energy, Charts, Enterprise System Design, Component Design, AI Chatbots, Native Mobile Apps, Conversational UX, Conversational Design, Conversational UI, Svelte, Website Conversion, Funnel Optimization, UX Branding, Messenger, User Conversion, Zed, UX Research, Personas, Social Media Apps, Financial UX, Web Applications, Infographics, DataViz, Light UI, eCommerce, OutSystems, User Management, Landing Pages, News, HTML UI, Remote User Testing, Interactive UI, Testing, UI Testing, UX Testing, Educational Platform Design, Learning Management Systems (LMS), User-centered Design (UCD), Cross-functional Collaboration, Cross-functional Design, Analytical Thinking, CodeKit, Microsoft Teams, Chrome, Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Industrial IT, Data Analysis, Data, Widgets, Customization, Data Analytics, WebApp, Minimal UI, Analytics, Enterprise SEO, Feature Planning, Feature Analysis, Neumorphic Design, Motion Design, Brand Guidelines, Mobile Apps, Flutter, AI-powered Product Design
Experience
- User Interface (UI) - 20 years
- Product Design - 18 years
- Complex Problem Solving - 15 years
- App Design - 15 years
- Usability - 15 years
- SaaS - 15 years
- Prototyping - 15 years
- Claude Code - 1 year
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