UX Design & Research Strategy
Hi, I’m Natalia!
I investigate your business problems and design the solutions.
I’m a Product Designer specialized in Research and Development who believes that designing without a strategy is just a fast way to build the wrong thing.
Featured WORK
UX Research Strategy • Generative Research
Transforming an internship experience into the Top 1 in the country
How a 6-week research sprint debunked HR myths and placed the program at the top of the U.S. energy industry.
UX Design & Research Strategy • Trauma-informed design
Design research in the fight against sex trafficking
How a multi-layered design strategy transformed a disengaged educational program and built a global community to unify the global fight against sex trafficking demand.
UX Design & Research • Accessibility (WCAG)
Improving doctor-patient communication for seniors
Empowering patients to plan, prepare, and organize medical conversations by helping them prepare for medical visits.
Want to see more projects? I have a bunch of them! However, I only show a few selected projects here to respect client privacy and keep the focus on impact.
If you want to see more examples of how I solve complex problems, just reach out. I’m always happy to share more of my work and chat about how I can help your team ship with confidence.
Below are a few other projects to give you a broader look at my work. These are shorter snapshots of problems I’ve worked on over the years.
PROCESS SNAPSHOTS
Dashboard Co-design Session
A toolkit for a dashboard co-design session with power users.
Value Proposition Canvas
Synthesizing market research conducted through dozens of short interviews.
Neighborhood Identity Study
Using a sandbox to co-design a neighborhood with users to identify opportunities for improvement.
Love/Hate Letters
Users participated in a Love/Hate letters session to provide feedback on a software that was to be redesigned.
Prioritization Grid
Users and stakeholders prioritized issues during a Design Thinking workshop for a tool migraiton.
User Interview Toolkit
Students’ feelings about different class formats during the pandemic were explored through evocative images.
Site Menu Map
We mapped the site menu for the BRASA website redesign, including the navigation structure and sub-pages.
PROs Clinical Workflow Swimlane Diagram
Clinical workflow diagram for the PROs dashboard showing patient and provider interactions across the visit.
Concept Testing Notes
Concept testing wireframe with user feedback annotations.
Workshop Approach Timeline
Approach timeline for the design workshop showing phases from kickoff through iterative design review.
Design Thinking Workshop Outline
Outline of a 5-activity design thinking workshop with whiteboard screenshots and goals for each activity, from problem understanding to solution ideation.
UX Audit – Heuristic Assessment
UX audit grid assessing a product system against the 10 NN/g usability heuristics, with issue markers and a highlighted callout on flexibility of use.
As-is Scenario Map Activity
As-is scenario map for invoice verification capturing process phases and user emotions across doing, thinking, and feeling swimlanes.
Study Overview Reported
Study overview showing workshop numbers and metrics: 28 participants, 4 use cases, 8 pain points, 20+ ideas, and 25 UI issues found.
Product Value Assessment
Evaluating the product’s market potential by analysing its emotional appeal, functional ease of use, and practical value, the 3 pillars of user experience (UX).
Customer Journey Map
A customer journey map for a prepaid program service showing a persona, scenario, feelings, research insights, and opportunities.
Brainstorming Workshop
To attract new talent, we ran a “Game of Life” workshop with HR to redesign the company’s Employee Value Proposition (EVP).
Usability Issue Prioritization
Synthesizing, clustering, and prioritizing product usability issues.
Concept Testing
Design concept development and testing with final users, specifically physicians.
User Journey Mapping
Co-creating a user journey to collect feedback on a prepaid service. This mapping helped identify positive and negative experiences, opportunities for improvement, and key points of contact with the company’s website, app, SMS, or call center.
Co-synthesizing Research Workshop
I led a synthesis workshop with my design team to speed up the creation of a final report for a high-priority project that demanded rapid delivery.
Internship Co-design Session
I created the “Medieval Reactions” co-design toolkit to prevent power dynamics within the company from intimidating participants (interns) from sharing their feedback during the research.
Dashboard Co-design Session
Co-design session board for the PROs dashboard with feature prioritization and visualization preference sorting.
Research Synthesis by Frequency
Research synthesis board for the PROs dashboard categorizing user feedback by frequency and highlighting key conclusions.
Participant Recruitment for Diversity
Participant recruitment table with demographic data for users, showing diversity across race, age, income, and job level.
Synthesis Prep
Research synthesis prep with data to be organized into color-coded sticky notes by theme and sentiment tags.
Research Synthesis Board
Synthesis board from usability testing, organizing findings into first impressions, workflows, and general themes with color-coded notes and user ratings.
Usability Test Issues Prioritization
Usability issue prioritization table with user quotes, frequency, and recommendations.
Solutions Ideation Workshop
Ideation workshop with participant idea tracking and grouped solutions.
Snippets of Issues Report
UX research report snippets with prioritization criteria and prioritized findings.
Screener & Interview Guide
Screening and interview guide for the internship research study, plus a ‘research prototype flow’ designed for the participant experience.
To-be User Story
Internship program ideal happy path to work as a North Star vision for the HR team.
Let’s TALK STRATEGY!
Nothing great is ever build alone, so why not make the next big thing together?
Feel free to reach out to me personally via sending a message to say hello.