I came to product design through brands, websites and print, and kept being pulled toward the harder problems underneath: the platforms, workflows and systems that hold a product together. Today I work across SaaS, mobile, AI and design systems, from the first strategy conversation to the details that ship. What ties it together is clarity. If something is complicated, my job is to make it feel simple, for the people using it and the team building it.
More about me →I design digital products that make complex things feel simple.
UX leader with 14+ years designing digital experiences for financial services leaders (Capital Group, USAA) and a Fortune 100 enterprise. A designer who also builds: from story and concept through visual design, front-end development and motion.
I help teams turn complicated products into clear, usable ones, from strategy and UX through to a design system your engineers can build on.
Hi, I'm Aro. I design digital products, write about where UX is heading, and try to make complex things feel simple.
Career highlights.
- 14+Years designing digital experiences, from Fortune 100 enterprise to financial services leaders
- 70%Less task time: a modular planning dashboard cut analysts' report prep at Capital Group from 2 hours to 35 minutes
- LeadLed end-to-end UX at Capital Group, and led and mentored a remote team of designers
- 5Organizations shaped, from Capital Group, USAA and Tesoro to my own studio, Primo Motif
Experience.
Download resume ↓Global Evangelism Inc.
PresentDigital Experience Architect
Architect and lead enterprise-wide digital experiences, connecting organizational strategy, user needs, creative direction, and technology.
- Define digital experience strategy, information architecture, and technical architecture across organizational websites, applications, and digital platforms.
- Lead end-to-end experience development, from strategic planning and concept development through UX/UI design, engineering, integration, and launch.
- Establish creative direction, design standards, and cohesive user experiences across the organization's digital ecosystem.
- Translate complex organizational needs into intuitive, scalable digital products and solutions.
- Partner with executive leadership, business stakeholders, and technical teams to align digital initiatives with organizational objectives.
Primo Motif
Creative Director
- Lead creative strategy and digital execution for an independent creative studio specializing in brand development and digital experiences.
- Direct brand storytelling, visual identity, UX/UI design, and creative direction across client engagements.
- Design and develop responsive websites, translating concepts and Figma prototypes into production-ready experiences.
- Oversee end-to-end project delivery, balancing creative vision, technical execution, and client objectives.
- Develop motion design, visual systems, and digital experiences that strengthen brand identity and engagement.
Capital Group Companies
Lead UX Designer
- Led the end-to-end UX transformation of a large-scale legacy financial application, modernizing complex enterprise workflows.
- Directed UX research, discovery, information architecture, user journey mapping, workflow development, interaction design, and UI execution.
- Redesigned financial reporting workflows, reducing analyst report preparation time from 2 hours to 35 minutes (71% reduction).
- Contributed to the evolution and scalability of the enterprise design system, improving design consistency and reusability.
- Mentored and collaborated with a distributed team of designers, partnering with product and engineering stakeholders.
USAA
Senior UX Designer
- Led UX strategy and execution across the full product development lifecycle, translating business requirements and user insights into digital solutions.
- Developed personas, user journey maps, interaction models, and high-fidelity interface designs.
- Created reusable Figma component libraries to support design consistency and scalable product development.
- Collaborated with Angular and React engineering teams to ensure design feasibility and implementation quality.
- Applied usability testing and iterative design practices to improve product experiences.
Tesoro Corporation (Fortune 100)
UX Designer / Developer
- Designed and developed enterprise intranet and extranet experiences for a Fortune 100 energy organization.
- Built internal applications and digital process tools to simplify business workflows and improve operational efficiency.
- Combined UX design and front-end development to translate complex business requirements into functional web experiences.
- Partnered with business stakeholders and technical teams throughout design, development, and implementation.
Leadership & strategy.
- 01
Cross-functional leadership
Bring executives, product, engineering and business teams into one direction, from design-thinking workshops to dev-ready specs.
- 02
Team leadership & mentoring
Led and mentored a remote team of designers at Capital Group, raising the craft and consistency of the practice.
- 03
Organizational transformation
Helped scale Capital Group's enterprise design system, and turned a 2-hour reporting process into a 35-minute dashboard workflow.
- 04
Team collaboration
Fast-moving in Agile and Scrum teams, working side by side with React and Angular engineers from concept through launch.
- 05
Experience strategy
Define the strategy, information architecture and design direction for web and product platforms as a Digital Experience Architect.
- 06
Creative direction
Run Primo Motif, an independent studio, leading creative direction and client delivery from brand story to launch.
What I do.
- 01
Product strategy
Turning ambiguous problems into clear product opportunities.
- 02
UX design
Research, journeys, information architecture, workflows and interaction.
- 03
Product design
Designing complete digital products from concept to production.
- 04
Design systems
Creating scalable systems that make products and teams more consistent.
- 05
AI experiences
Designing interfaces, workflows and interaction models for AI-powered products.
- 06
Design leadership
Connecting product, design, engineering and business teams around a shared vision.
My story.
Selected work across products, systems, and AI.
All work →
I design from the problem, not the screen.
Great product design starts before the first wireframe. I combine research, product strategy, information architecture, interaction design and visual systems to understand what needs to exist—and why.
Experiments & ideas.
All writing →- 01 · Essay
Why most dashboards are designed backwards
- 02 · AI
The Seductive New Interface
User experience used to be polite. It waited for you to click. It showed you the same buttons as everyone else. It politely asked permission before it got personal. That era is over.
- 03 · AI
Designing for AI when the interface disappears