Sk i lls
Agile Methodology
Wire Framing
User Interface
Information Architecture
Typography & Color Theory
User-Centered Design
Prototype & Mockup
Usability Testing
Design for Accessibility AODA
Design
Strategy
HTML
UX
Fundamental
User Personas
PRODUCT DESIGNER
I M
Helya Arghand
'
An ambitious and multi-skilled broad thinker with a sharp mind, a creative eye and a passionate heart.
Ab ut me
I'm an artistic person and I love being creative. This creativity has always been with me, whether in form of drawing, painting, or designing. Applying simple, elegant, and intuitive solutions to complex design problems is my life passion. I believe art has the mission of triggering an emotional response in people. This is why I can say creativity is my passion first, and then my profession.
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I had started my professional career in Industrial Design and I had this opportunity to work for some of the most renowned companies in past 14 years. My personal mission always remained to create beauty that is both practical, and pleasant to the eye. This became the main driver of a professional journey that was both enjoyable and successful.
UX design is where I found my true passion after immigrating to Canada. It was a perfect fit for my analytical design and technical skills since I could make better use of my industrial design background and apply my product design experience findings in this practical field. Both Industrial design and UX require analytical design and technical skills. Therefore, my valuable product design experience is a tremendous asset.
And now, if I were asked whether I prefer Industrial design or UX, I would honestly say I enjoy both equally. In short, as Mark Baskinger says:
“both roles bake their own cake and decorate it”
Proficiency
Adobe xd
Axure
95%
85%
Sketch
85%
Balsamiq
75%
Photoshop
95%
Illustrator
80%
Invision
70%
Auto Cad
85%
Rhino
70%
Powerpoint
95%
Keynote
70%
Exper i ence
Mid 2019 - Dec 2020
Manulife
Senior UX Designer
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Worked with different agile teams and educating members on UX/UI compliance standards and where accessibility activities fit within the project life cycle.
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Worked independently but collaboratively with UX/UI designers, project managers, product owners, business analysts, developers, engineers and QA teams to resolve issues.
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Provide expert UX/UI advices, recommendations, and directions to team to meet accessibility compliance.
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Prepare UX high fidelity wireframes and mockups that clearly illustrate how sites look and function, present my designs to internal team and key stakeholders and conduct layout adjustments based on user feedbacks.
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Understand customers and their needs through market analysis, customer research, and user feedback.
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Understand business metrics and the ability to translate company goals and objectives into full-fledged digital experiences.
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Review pages and requirements with stakeholders before design for better understanding of users concerns, requirements and goals.
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Develop design concepts and solutions that apply my understanding of user problems, product vision, and technological capabilities.
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Evaluate Manulife's 3'rd party/client's websites/digital products and creating accessible and inclusive designs to meet AODA compliance.
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Collaborate with Content Engineering Team and Content Activation team to provide information/guidelines to them for fixing components, which have problems or needs to be improved.
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Provide training, expertise and guidance to the development team and publishers to optimize front-end code for accessibility.
User Personas
Visual Design
Prototype & Mockups
2016-End of 2017
TD Bank
Interaction / UX Designer
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Designed user-experiences from low-fidelity sketches to hi-fidelity pixel perfect mockups.
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Designed various process flows and navigation maps for various interactive processes.
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Designed and produced various user requirement specifications for various interactive page layouts.
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Created rapid prototypes to validate design concepts with stakeholders and customers.
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Managed multiple design products and assisted all usability researchers to provide appropriate user feedback and ensure compliance to all project deadlines.
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Collaborated and communicated professionally with clients and internal teams.
2008-2010
Asan Pack Co.
Director of Design and Manufacturing
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Consulted with clients to determine the general expectations and attended to their needs.
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Prepared sketches, page layouts, different typographies in design process.
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Consulted with production team during the design and manufacturing process.
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Drove projects from concept to develop.
2018-April 2019
CIBC Bank
UX / UI Designer
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Worked in an agile team, the UX design must be prepared prior to the next sprint; this allowed for feedback from business stakeholders and the working team.
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Worked closely with business team and product owner to understand product specifications and expectations on each sprint or release.
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Ongoing working sessions with development team to review technical capabilities and collaborating about future design process before executed into the product.
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Good experience and knowledge of PEGA UI and UX with their recommendations and limitations.
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Understanding and observing user behavior for every release. This allows me to gather their feedback on how to make the application more intuitive and easier to navigate.
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Design and deliver Wireframes, mockups, prototypes, user journeys and personas, UAT testing, managing design process from sketch to development.
2010-2016
Freelance Designer
Product / UI - UX Designer
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Designing products with new forms, actions and experiences.
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Meeting with clients to establish the design brief, including the concept, performance and production criteria.
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Researching materials, processes or market requirements.
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Sketched initial design ideas.
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Making samples and models by hand or computerized prototyping.
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Arranging meetings with engineers and other departments, including marketing team, to negotiate appropriate production processes, costs and commercial issues.
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Making presentations to clients, either when bidding for a contract or to present design proposals.
2006-2008
Innovate Design Co.
Product Design Lead​​​
Medical Equipment / UI - UX Designer​​
2002-2006
Research Center of Science & Technology
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Conducting user research to find product requirements.
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Designing and Optimizing aesthetics, good interface, human appeal, new actions and user experiences by using preliminary concepts and sketches.
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Making 3d models, prototypes and final plans and prepared for molding and manufacturing processes.
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Consulting with Bio Mechanic, Bio Electronics and Bio Medical Engineers, Doctors, Mold makers and production team during the manufacturing stage to ensure compliance with the concepts developed.
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Conducted user research to find product requirements
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Analyzed the intended use of the product and user preferences
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Prepared design concepts and sketches
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Consulted with clients and production team to establish product requirements
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Researched production materials, methods, and estimated cost
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Made 3d models, prototypes and final plans; prepared for molding and manufacturing processes
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Consulted with engineers and production staff during the manufacturing stage to ensure compliance with the concepts developed
George Brown College
UX Design Postgraduate Certificate
2015 - 2016
Canada-Toronto
Education
University of Art & Architecture
Master's Degree in Industrial Design
2002-2005
Iran-Tehran
University of Art & Architecture
Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design
1998-2002
Iran-Tehran
Design Thinking
Every project requires a unique approach, however, the process most of the times contains five steps:
Hand-drawn Sketch
Sometimes a quick sketch is all I need. Depending on the project and the stage it's at, sketching is a great way to flash out ideas.
Card sorting
This is a great way to sort out pages and paths towards pages, which ultimately help with developing a good understanding of the site map and how the website should be organized.
Making Workflow
Workflow is a design specification format that combines wireframe-style page layout design with a specified flowchart-like way of presenting interactions.
Making Site Map
Making Prototype
Clickable prototypes are used in order to examine ease of use in interactions. This step is called usability testing, and it allows users to navigate from page to page.
This is the step after card sorting, during which the content is organized. In preparation of site map, it is important to think about simplicity, and be mindful of the user journey.
Creating Different Breakpoints
Making Wireframe
Breakpoints determine at which size the page has to reorganize itself, in order to appear best on different screens: desktop, tablet, or mobile.
Wireframe is the placement of elements in the design. It is a simplified representation of how the user can interact with the final product: buttons, links, CTAs, and more.
On most of the agile projects, I'm keeping UX one sprint ahead to make sure on time delivery of design tasks with in a sprint and getting feedbacks from the stakeholders.
UX Projects
Please note: I was involved in strategic innovation work and long-term initiatives that remain confidential. Due to confidentiality reasons, I'll describe my contributions in general terms, but am unable to provide any sensitive project specifics in my portfolio.
TD Bank
I initially joined TD Bank as an interaction designer, and started to design processes and functions that help users interact across the " TD wealth, TD Direct Investing, TD Credit Card and TD Mortgage ".
As an Interaction Designer, I worked closely with content strategists, Marketing, UI and Visual Design team, Usability Testing and User Research team.
Manulife
Manulife, as a largest insurance company in Canada and one of the largest in the world, offers life, health and income insurance protection, as well as annuities and wealth and asset management. Solutions include life and health insurance, annuities, mutual funds, retirement solutions, and institutional asset management.
Industrial Design Projects
C NTACT
C
Copyright 2017, All right reserved Helya Arghand