I'm Badiru Alaba, a product designer with a passion for shaping early-stage startups through clear, user-centered design. I design websites, products, and brands for AI, legal, finance, and non-profit sectors, build scalable design systems, and help teams move from concept to shipped product. I thrive on turning complex requirements into cohesive experiences that users love and that drive business growth. My approach blends research, collaboration, and hands-on prototyping to deliver solutions that balance business goals with usability. I enjoy leading cross-functional workstreams, mentoring teammates, and translating insights into intuitive interfaces that improve engagement, retention, and outcomes for clients across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Badiru Alaba

I'm Badiru Alaba, a product designer with a passion for shaping early-stage startups through clear, user-centered design. I design websites, products, and brands for AI, legal, finance, and non-profit sectors, build scalable design systems, and help teams move from concept to shipped product. I thrive on turning complex requirements into cohesive experiences that users love and that drive business growth. My approach blends research, collaboration, and hands-on prototyping to deliver solutions that balance business goals with usability. I enjoy leading cross-functional workstreams, mentoring teammates, and translating insights into intuitive interfaces that improve engagement, retention, and outcomes for clients across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Available to hire

I’m Badiru Alaba, a product designer with a passion for shaping early-stage startups through clear, user-centered design. I design websites, products, and brands for AI, legal, finance, and non-profit sectors, build scalable design systems, and help teams move from concept to shipped product. I thrive on turning complex requirements into cohesive experiences that users love and that drive business growth.

My approach blends research, collaboration, and hands-on prototyping to deliver solutions that balance business goals with usability. I enjoy leading cross-functional workstreams, mentoring teammates, and translating insights into intuitive interfaces that improve engagement, retention, and outcomes for clients across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

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Work Experience

Senior Experience Designer at Yes Chef Design Studio
February 3, 2025 - Present
- Collaborated closely with Brand, Engineering and PM teams to move ideas from concept to reality. - Translated brand strategy and user insight into impactful visual systems, layouts, typography, motion, and interaction. - Worked closely with ambitious clients pushing the limits of their fields - from early-stage startups to industry leaders. - Designed end-to-end products - from research and discovery, through prototyping, UI + system design, launch and iteration. - Built and maintain scalable design systems, improving design consistency and speeding up development handoffs. - Led interaction design and prototyping to validate solutions and enhance user experience before launch. - Managed projects end-to-end, aligning stakeholders, owning timelines, and ensuring high-quality delivery. - Strengthened client positioning and growth through user-centred solutions that balance business goals with usability.
Product Designer at Defijn - Digital Experience Studio
November 1, 2021 - August 30, 2024
- Worked in a cross-functional team to create, manage, and improve our internal design systems which led to a 40% growth in productivity. - Collaborated with my team members to design and develop the company's new website, leading to a 65% increase in overall user engagement and site visits. - Redesigned an existing app with thousands of users for one of the biggest fintech companies in Africa that saw a 25% increase in user satisfaction. - Co-facilitated workshops to capture user requirements and align them with strategic business goals, resulting in the successful launch of four client projects. - Designed and developed creative interactive websites using Figma, After Effects, and Webflow for clients across Africa, Asia, Europe, and America. - Documented design processes to create a comprehensive reference for the team leading to a 15% reduction in design iterations and faster project delivery. - Provided key design input that elevated the quality of our work, drove business growth, and scaled client retention.
Junior UX/UI Designer at YUX Design Agency
October 1, 2020 - November 30, 2021
- Designed UX solutions for B2B, B2C, and SaaS products, focusing on intuitive, user-centered designs. - Collaborated with my team to redesign the YUX Design Agency and YUX Academy website, which improved the daily traffic by 15% of users. - Developed and optimized the company’s design system through close collaboration with design, development, and leadership teams. - Increased the number of users of a leading Insurance tech company based in Sri Lanka by 12% by redesigning a better and more accessible web experience for their website. - Conducted comprehensive user research for three projects, that led to data-informed design decisions and enhanced user satisfaction. - Worked as the Lead UX Designer with a team of Designers, Animators, and Game Developers on a game design for a partnering game studio.
UI/UX Design Intern at Hotels. Ng
June 1, 2020 - August 31, 2020
- Transformed ideas from the product backlog to actual products. - Conducted user research and generated personas, journey maps, wireframes, prototypes, and visual designs for 2+ projects. - Created design systems and style guides used by teams to enhance productivity. - Sketched information architectures with other designers that improved our process and influenced product features.

Education

Masters in Arts and Graphic Design at Leeds Beckett University
September 15, 2025 - July 30, 2026
B.SC. Systems Engineering at University of Lagos, Nigeria
January 1, 2018 - August 1, 2024

Qualifications

Add your qualifications or awards here.

Industry Experience

Financial Services, Gaming, Healthcare, Media & Entertainment, Transportation & Logistics, Professional Services, Non-Profit Organization, Government, Software & Internet, Education
    paper Tada
    Designed the website of a creative and digital design studio based in Auckland, New Zealand. Tada creates purpose-driven brand and marketing experiences through considered strategic planning and creative precision. The Tada Creatives collective of visual storytellers is inspired by the future of brand development, committed to producing ideas that influence. Tada Creatives reached out to Defijn to assist with the redesign and development of the Tada Creatives site. We created a visually rich marketing site, with the aim to create appeal to potential clients and to tell the Tada Creatives story and offering.
    paper Carime
    Split shared ride bills easily. Carimi is a ride-hailing platform that enables riders to share rides with friends and split the costs directly within the app. With Carimi’s built-in wallet system, users can effortlessly split the fare and pay their portion seamlessly, streamlining the entire process within the app.
    paper Maverick City Music Fan Site
    Designed an interactive fan site for 
Maverick City Music. Maverick City music has always been a big part of my creative process and a source of inspiration. They are a group that disrupts the norms of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) by creating space for marginalised voices. As a fan and designer deeply impacted by Mav City’s work, I wanted to create a website where I could tell their story, do something unorthodox, and break some rules while doing it (that is, design rules). I had a chat with my friend Olamide, who is a front-end developer, and he was down to build the website with me. And this was how we embarked on this thrilling journey to tell the Maverick story in our own unique way.
    paper Defijn Web Experience
    Designed and developed the website of a design studio based in Cape Town, South Africa, that improved their customer engagement and communicated the new brand tone of voice. The Defijn website was designed to be more than a digital brochure—it serves as a reflection of who we are: a bunch of rad individuals from different walks of life coming together to form a beautiful culture, tell our story, and reach a new client base. As part of our brand refresh, the goal was to create a non-conventional, experimental, and visually striking website that would embody the essence of the brand’s evolution and showcase the company's development side.
    paper Everest Golf
    Improve your Golf game using advanced statistics and data-driven insights. Everest Golf is a mobile application built for serious and data-driven golfers looking to improve their game using advanced statistics like Strokes Gained, process tracking, and skills testing. With no prior knowledge of golf, I had to quickly immerse myself in the sport’s intricacies to deliver an intuitive and beautiful UI experience that made complex golf data feel approachable and actionable.
    paper DPO Pay
    Request and process payments on the go using your mobile phone as a business owner. I enhanced the app’s usability by improving its visual hierarchy and highlighting key features. Since launch, the DPO Pay app has seen a significant increase in downloads and conversions.