Selected Clients & Collaborations
Featured Projects
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Looking for a strategic designer who understands both user needs and business goals? Let's discuss how I can help elevate your product.
Start a Conversation →About Me
I'm Melissa — a graphic designer turned product designer who chose this path because I wanted something both artistic and pragmatic. Something that solved real problems while still letting me create. Design gave me exactly that.
Over the last 5+ years I've worked across SaaS, music tech, real estate and startups — designing systems, MVPs, and digital products that balance user empathy with business results. My roots in graphic design give me a strong visual foundation that shows up in every UI decision I make.
But the role that keeps me most grounded is my work as a UX/UI Professor at Sergio Arboleda University. Teaching isn't a side gig — it's what keeps me connected to what design is actually for: people. My students remind me to question assumptions, stay curious, and never lose sight of social impact.
Outside the screen, I illustrate, experiment with artistic makeup, and grow things — plants, ideas, students. I'm drawn to anything that requires patience, observation, and care. That same sensibility shows up in everything I design.
Apr 2025 – Mar 2026
UX/UI Designer · Guarapo Labs
Remote Contractor · Colombia
Structured an early-stage SaaS MVP into a scalable, system-based product. Established a token-based design system, reorganized Figma architecture, and participated in product discussions around feature differentiation and experimentation planning.
Feb 2024 – Present
University Professor (UX/UI) · Sergio Arboleda University
Colombia
Educating professionals on user experience as a differentiating factor through Design Thinking. Fostering a Social Design approach — encouraging students to create solutions that positively impact their communities, beyond commercial constraints.
Sep 2023 – Dec 2024
UX/UI Designer · Real T
Remote Contractor · Colombia
Led user research to identify friction points in the customer journey. Designed end-to-end flows iterating via usability testing, and collaborated with dev teams on handoff through Zeplin and Figma Dev Mode.
May 2022 – Aug 2023
UX/UI Designer · Innomake
Remote Contractor · Colombia
Contributed to defining and building MVPs for early-stage startups. Established foundational design systems and style guides to accelerate prototyping and ensure brand consistency.
Jan 2019 – Apr 2022
Visual & Graphic Designer · Procaps S.A. & Universidad Autónoma
Colombia
Developed visual content, editorial layouts, and branding materials — building a strong foundation in visual hierarchy, typography, and color theory that directly informs my UI work today.
Foundations of UX Design
Google / Coursera · 2023
Professional Degree in Graphic Design
Universidad Autónoma del Caribe · 2018–2022
As a UX/UI Design Professor at Sergio Arboleda University, I mentor the next generation of designers in Social Design and flexible methodologies. This role keeps me connected to emerging trends while reinforcing the fundamentals that drive effective design.
Teaching has made me a better designer — explaining complex concepts forces clarity of thought, and my students constantly challenge me with fresh perspectives. I don't just teach design; I advocate for design as a force for social good.
Projects
A collection of strategic design projects where user needs meet business objectives. Each case study demonstrates my approach to solving complex problems.
Guarapo Labs · Apr 2025 – Mar 2026
Gami — Structuring an Early-Stage SaaS MVP
Building a scalable design foundation for a music industry cloud platform.
Real T · Sep 2023 – Dec 2024
Increasing User Satisfaction through Research-Led Workflows
Data-driven design decisions that improved user satisfaction metrics.
Personal Project · 2022
HERE! App — Safety Platform for Women
Mobile app designed to help women stay safe and connected with their trusted circle.
Contact
Looking for a strategic designer who understands both user needs and business goals? I'm open to new opportunities and collaborations. Open to remote aligned with EST & CST time zones.
Guarapo Labs · Apr 2025 – Mar 2026 · Music / Cloud SaaS
Role
Product Designer
Team
2 Designers + Dev
Industry
Music / Cloud SaaS
Gami is an early-stage SaaS platform designed to support music professionals in managing cloud-based assets and workflows. When I joined, the product already existed as an MVP — but it lacked a structured design system, consistent UI patterns, and a scalable foundation to support feature growth.
UI components were inconsistent across screens, Figma files lacked structural organization, there was no formal design system, and design-to-development handoff required clearer alignment. The team needed to move from a feature-based MVP to a structured and scalable product foundation.
As part of a collaborative design team, my responsibilities included:
I introduced a token-based UI structure defining color, typography, and spacing tokens; reusable components and variants; and naming conventions with consistent patterns. This helped reduce inconsistencies and provided a scalable structure for future features.
I reorganized the Figma workspace to standardize component usage, reduce duplication, improve collaboration clarity, and facilitate smoother developer handoff — creating a maintainable design environment that supported product evolution.
This experience strengthened my ability to work within early-stage SaaS environments where structure is still evolving. It required balancing flexibility, system thinking, and collaboration while preparing the product for long-term scalability. ✦
Real T · Sep 2023 – Dec 2024 · Real Estate & Blockchain
Role
UX/UI Lead
Team
Design Squad
Focus
Internal Tools + Subproducts
Industry
PropTech / Web3
Real T is a real estate company that leverages blockchain technology to transform how properties are bought, sold, and managed. I joined as part of the design team and quickly took on the role of UX/UI Lead, taking ownership of the design direction across two main fronts: internal tooling for the team and experience improvements for their sub-products.
Working at the intersection of real estate and blockchain presented a unique design challenge: the technology was evolving fast, and the team needed interfaces that made complex concepts accessible without sacrificing trust or accuracy.
The work required constant iteration — new blockchain features meant rethinking flows from scratch, adapting mental models for users unfamiliar with Web3, and ensuring that internal tools could keep up with an equally fast-moving operation.
As the UX/UI lead within the design team, I was responsible for:
One of the most interesting aspects of this role was designing for technology that was constantly changing. Blockchain-based real estate introduces concepts most users have never encountered — tokenized assets, smart contract steps, wallet-based verification — and making these feel intuitive required deep user research and relentless simplification.
This experience sharpened my ability to work in high-ambiguity environments where the technology itself is a moving target. Leading the UX/UI direction taught me how to align cross-functional stakeholders while keeping the user at the center — even when the product landscape kept shifting.
It also reinforced how critical clarity is in complex domains. When users are making real financial decisions through unfamiliar technology, every interaction has to earn their trust. ✦
Personal Project · 2022 · Mobile / Social
Role
UX/UI Designer
Type
Personal Project
Year
2022
Platform
Mobile App
HERE! is a safety and location-sharing mobile app designed for women in Colombia. It allows users to share their location at any time, alert their trusted circle in case of danger, and access safety tools like an SOS button, a fake call feature, and silent emergency activation. The project was born from a very real problem: women in Colombia face alarming levels of street violence and harassment, and existing tools weren't designed with their specific needs in mind.
Colombia's gender violence statistics paint a stark picture of why a tool like HERE! is not a luxury — it's a necessity.
We surveyed 150+ women about insecurity and gender violence to understand real behaviors and needs.
We mapped the full app structure to keep every interaction as simple and efficient as possible — with the main map as the hub, branching into SOS button, Trust Circles, and Fake Call. The biggest challenge was designing the emergency flow to work in seconds, with minimal friction, even under stress. We started with hand-drawn sketches, then moved to digital wireframes in Figma before moving to high-fidelity screens.
HERE! taught me that the best UX work comes from genuine empathy — not assumptions. Every design decision was grounded in real data from real women, and that made every interaction feel necessary rather than decorative.
This project reinforced my belief that design can be a tool for social good — and that the most impactful products are the ones that solve problems people have been quietly living with for too long. ✦
Explore the full project on Figma