Vlad Balan
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, Romania
Toptal member since August 19, 2019
With several years of experience under his belt, Vlad is a seasoned product strategist specializing in UX/UI design. In the past year alone, he's worked with over 45 startups to bring their ideas to life and transform them into digital prototypes. Due to a passion for entrepreneurship, Vlad enjoys creating products that people love but even more importantly, that are products that solve a real problem.
Portfolio
Work Experience
Freelance Product Designer
Vladesign
- Ran design sprints with a Brazilian B&B guest house to remodel their customer base.
- Embarked on a UX-oriented path with a focus on mobile app design while working with 45 startups.
- Established a few ongoing key client relationships (completed over 100 projects): Evoluxis, Yazamo, Ursus Breweries, Farmec, and so on.
- Worked as a freelance web designer with clients from Romania and the US, specializing in eCommerce sites.
- Developed user interfaces for small businesses in the US market through different contractors.
Product Design | Team Lead
Hyper
- Onboarded the client and workshopped the initial idea in order to create a happy flow for the prototype.
- Developing the UX wireframes while incorporating design patterns.
- Created UI screens that followed established moodboard directions and finally prototyped the mobile app.
- Made presentation calls with the founders and ironed out any uncertainties or questions that showed up during our process.
- Worked as a team lead and built and nurtured a design team; also ensured the company’s objectives were fulfilled.
- Created internal design processes to ensure unity and projects flow.
- Attended weekly team lead meetings that allowed collaboration on internal projects within the departments of executive, marketing, sales, and operations.
Co-founder | UX/UI and Front-end Developer
MyLift
- Joined as a co-founder, MyLift which aimed to build the leading ride-sharing platform in Romania and Eastern Europe.
- Wore many different hats such as newbie entrepreneur, product designer, project manager, and marketing strategist.
- Built, in the span of a few months, a fully responsive website which we launched to actual customers.
- Designed the UX and UI, developed the front end, implemented QA testing, and gathered feedback.
- Closed down the startup in March 2015, after a strategic expansionist move by the leading worldwide car-sharing entity, BlaBlaCar.
UI Designer
MindMagnet
- Worked as an in-house designer, creating several Magento-based eCommerce web interfaces for US clients.
- Developed a strong understanding of user psychology and UX guidelines in the eCommerce platforms, especially concerning the buying process.
- Worked in cross-disciplinary team collaboration.
- Was very involved in the workflow with developers and understood their needs from an implementation point of view.
- Learned project management principles and how to work with Basecamp and Jira.
Education
Bachelor of Arts (BA) Degree in Computers and Automation
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca - Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Skills
Tools
Adobe Photoshop, InVision, Sketch 4, Sketch, Basecamp, Jira, Slack, Toggl, Chef, Adobe Illustrator
Languages
HTML5, CSS3, HTML, JavaScript
Platforms
iOS, Android, MacOS, Desktop, Mobile, Figma
Industry Expertise
Luxury Goods, Hospitality, Music, Restaurants & Dining
Other
App UX, Responsive Design, User Interviews, User Flows, Product Management, Strategy, Research, Customer Development, App UI, User Interface (UI), Stacks, Business Model Canvas, Design Sprints, Mobile UX, Wireframing, User Experience (UX), Elegant Themes, Minimal UI, 3D Printing, Mobile Apps, Prototyping, Product Design, Responsive Layout, UI Style Guides, Cross-platform, Eyesight, Customer Journeys, UI Design, UI Patterns, Azure Application Insights, Motorcycles, APIs, E-learning, Online Course Design, UX Design, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Marketplaces, Mobile UX Design, Collaboration, Australia, Sound, CreativeJS, Creativity, User Personas, Two-sided Marketplaces, On-demand Services
Experience
- Product Management - 10 years
- Responsive Design - 10 years
- Research - 6 years
- App UI - 6 years
- Strategy - 6 years
- User Interviews - 6 years
- App UX - 5 years
- Sketch 4 - 4 years
Tools
- Sketch 4
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