RESUME
Sara Castaneda
SUMMARY
UX/UI Product Designer with 4 years of experience crafting intuitive, research-backed digital experiences through iterative design, systems thinking, and close collaboration with product and engineering teams.
Areas of expertise include:
Interaction Design
Prototyping
Stakeholder Alignment
End-To-End Design
Research Driven Design
AI-Integrated Design
Agile Workflow
Usability Testing
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Independent UI/UX Designer | Freelance
June 2025 – Present
Led discovery across 3 products via 15+ user interviews and usability tests, synthesizing insights into personas, flows, and UX problem definitions that drove iterative, user-centered design decisions.
Simplified multi-step task flows into a unified search-to-save experience, refining controls and clarifying AI affordances; validated through 2+ test rounds with 4/5 users preferring the new interaction patterns.
Designed trust-first experiences by surfacing social proof early, structuring inventory views, and reducing navigation errors — resulting in measurably higher user confidence across tested flows.
Produced dev-ready Figma specs and async documentation, enabling tighter engineering alignment and higher- quality execution from concept through handoff.
UX Designer (Contract) | Context.AI
October 2025 – December 2025
Owned end-to-end UX research for an AI-powered SaaS product, conducting moderated interviews and live walkthroughs to surface churn drivers tied to workflow reliability and user trust.
Translated qualitative findings into affinity maps, POVs, and HMWs, informing a strategic shift to prioritize enterprise customers based on reliability constraints impacting prosumer retention.
Designed user flows and low-fidelity prototypes in Figma for a frictionless cancellation experience (pause, save, cancel), aligned with California subscription law, and targeting a ~10–15% churn reduction.
Partnered cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Growth to deliver implementation-ready UX documentation via Notion and Loom, accelerating design-to-engineering handoff.
Case Studies:
UX Strategist & Product Designer | Retreats & Venues
November 2024 – June 2025
Mapped 15+ workflows in Miro and FigJam, surfacing 10+ bottlenecks and visualizing system dependencies to improve operational decision-making efficiency by 20% and sharpen engineering alignment.
Applied UX methodologies — journey mapping, heuristics, competitive analysis — in collaboration with the Product Manager to refine workflows, driving a 40% improvement in team efficiency and engagement.
Conducted 25 stakeholder interviews, organizing findings into affinity maps and POV statements in FigJam to surface opportunity areas and guide product direction with clearly defined user challenges.
Translated qualitative and operational data into design opportunities by identifying handoff gaps, aligning cross- functional teams, and reducing miscommunication delays across the product lifecycle.
Designed a Figma pricing UI mockup based on competitive analysis, identifying missed messaging opportunities and improving value proposition clarity and conversion potential.
Product Art Director | Freelance
January 2022 – November 2024
Defined visual brand systems for e-commerce clients, including Melie Bianco and Cavana New York, developing style guides, mood boards, and creative direction across social, print, and lookbook campaigns.
Directed full production lifecycles from briefs and contracts through model casting, shoot direction, and post- production across multiple locations, delivering assets that drove sales growth and social engagement.
Partnered with brand stakeholders to translate business goals into cohesive visual strategies, managing timelines, creative feedback, and approvals across concurrent client engagements.
Designed omnichannel content systems ensuring visual consistency across Instagram, e-commerce product pages, and printed lookbooks, growing audience to 6,000+ followers organically.
EDUCATION
Design Lab UX/UI and AI Bootcamp
UX Foundations, UX Academy, Advanced Figma, Vibe Coding, AI for UX
Florida International University | Miami, FL
Bachelor's in Hospitality Management with Minor in Photography and Journalism
