I am a design daredevil and I like the challenges the UX field brings. I design Digital Products, go well with User Research and Design Systems and I am in a very serious relationship with Design Sprints. Living the UX dream since 2013.
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I work with people, not for people. I’m looking for projects that challenge me, people that inspire, and experiences to remember. Got an idea or need help? You can always contact me via email at hello@blagaoana.com.
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Product Designer
Senior product designer at Acuris | Fixed Income division (2019, August – present)
Building and improving digital products destined to the financial world: trusted data, news and analysis on the global credit markets. Working on Fixed Income Divisional Intelligence (mainly Debtwire, but also xTract Research and Creditflux).
UX Rocks: Co-founder & Product Designer (2018, February – present)
UX Rocks is a disruptive product design studio focused on strategic product design, rapid innovation & growth using the Design Sprint framework and Design Thinking methods. We apply the process on the projects we’re working on, but also do workshops and talks about it. We are Oana, Adrian, Dan and Mihai. 4 UX designers that want to go beyond the common. 4 horsemen that started this to make the designer’s life more challenging.
Within UX Rocks I focus on:
- UX Research (adapt the process to fit our projects, decide the research strategy, plan and execute)
- Facilitating Design Sprints
- UX plan and strategy
- UI
- Facilitating workshops
- Do presentations showcasing our work
1. MUSIC FESTIVAL APP – CASE STUDY
- first project to showcase the Design Sprint Process
- took the challenge of a mobile app and tried to improve the overall experience of the festival participant
- did a research survey to learn about the festival participant, to see the pain points and what are the possible features we can focus on, beside secondary research (competitive analysis, other studies)
- presentation of the project: Fast Ways to Create Better Products
2. [PROJECT NAME] DESIGN SPRINT
- main challenge: to validate the product idea and to have a starting point for the project
- solution: Design Sprint
- result: idea was validated, the team has a plan to start the development (the MVP and future features to be implemented)
- tools: Miro (Realtime Board) for remote work, Figma – prototyping, Skype – meetings, pen and paper.
3. Optymyze: Senior UX Designer (2016 – present)
My work with Optymyze implied to:
- Improve the Design process
- Facilitate Design Sprints within the company
- Insert the Design Sprint into the Agile/ UX process
- Build the Optymyze Design System
- Collaborate with the Front-End, Back End and Testing departments.
- Research, create common understanding of complex concepts
- Sketch mock-ups and flows
- Validate, implement and test products and features
- Run or participate in usability tests, interviews and surveys with users.
- Improve the accessibility of the web and mobile app
Features/ Products I worked on:
- Mobile app (together with the development team worked on adapting the mobile web platform into a mobile app, developed mobile specific features, provided accessibility features; provided support for the development team on the migration from Cordova to React Native). // Android app // iOS app
- Collaboration. Chat capabilities over specific sales components.
- Integration with third party apps. Adapted existing apps to our design system and capabilities while integrating them into our app. Worked together with the development team to decide on prioritising what to be integrated or not.
Namogo: UX Designer (2015 – 2016)
Worked together with the Namogo team on (mostly) local projects. Collaborated with local business to design their websites or mobile apps. Did work on research, user personas, customer journey maps, empathy maps, sketches, wireframes, UI, prototyping and little user testing. Followed the brand guidelines through the process.
Some projects I worked on:
[Attached case studies (the presentations) are all the work of the Namogo team. I am adding them as reference for the projects I worked on]
- Simap mobile app. For this project I worked on the mobile app (both iOS and android) and did the research part, sketches, wireframes and UI. Supported the development team along the way for a better implementation.// Case study presentation: Design for an artistic mediation mobile app.
- Vezuvian. For this project I worked on the website and did the research part, sketches, wireframes and UI. Also, worked on the illustrations. Alongside the development team, we decided on the best animations and overall experience of the website. // Case Study presentation: Unquenchable.
- Adaptabi. For this project I worked on the website and did the research part, sketches, wireframes and UI. Alongside the development team, we decided on the best animations and overall experience of the website.
Older UX positions: LinkedIn profile
Presentations & Workshops
Presentation: How to: Research
For the UX students from Scoala Informala de IT. Individual presentation.
- introduced students to UX research
- talked about best practices
- chose 2 specific methods to focus on: Surveys and user testing interviews
- did a practical exercise on how to better define the objectives and the hypotheses of the research phase of a project
Presentation: How to: User Testing [Fail Fast and Fail Often]
During Codecamp Cluj (April 2019). Individual presentation.
- introduced audience to user testing
- talked about user test plan, script, selecting users, finding patterns and problems
Workshop: Jamming with UX rocks: make problems work for you.
In collaboration with Startups Iasi community, during the monthly meetup. Team workshop.
- applied the Lightning Decision Jam Workshop to find problems of the startup scene in Iasi and come up with action items to solve the most important ones.
- found solutions from simple ones (to help people to validate first their ideas, and then invest in development using Design Sprints) to complex ones (change the educational system).
Workshop: Jammin’ Workshop
For the People of Design Iasi community, to showcase the Lightning Decision Jam exercises. Team workshop.
- applied the Lightning Decision Jam Workshop to find the problems of the design community and solutions of how can we bring the innovation to our city and not only the execution.
- Story told by Mihai Balea: UX Rocks “Jamming Workshop” — a Lightning Decision Jam case study.
Presentation: Faster Ways to Create Better Products
During Codecamp Iasi (October 2018). Team presentation.
- showcased the Design Sprint process with the practical application of our Music Festival mobile app.
- Slides: Fast Ways to Create Better Products.
Presentation: Research First. Design later.
During Codecamp Iasi (April 2016). Individual presentation.
- talked about the importance of asking WHY, before starting working on designs, the importance and the impact of research on digital products.
- Slides: Research First. Design Later.
Community Management
Design Sprint Romania
Together with my colleagues from UX Rocks we started the Design Sprint Romania group. Together with other agencies/ people that do Design sprints, we are trying to grow the community.
People of Design Iasi
Working with the whole team to grow the community, organize meetups and presentations. Also collaborating with other local communities for common gathering, or to promote local events.
Trance IS*
Started the local Iasi Trance community alongside other fans and trying to grow it by organising events, meetups or travel groups to other big events from Romania, or the rest of the world.