As a Senior Product Designer with a wealth of experience in UI/UX, visual and experiential design, digital typography and cutting-edge creative direction, I have had the privilege of working with some of the world's most renowned brands, including John Lewis, Camelot, Farfetch, Nike, Shell Oil, Lloyds Bank, Barclays, HSBC, South West Trains, BP and 30 years worth of others. With a track record of serving in various leadership roles, from Associate Creative Director to Lead and Senior Designer in User Interface and User Experience Design, I bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table. My tenure in these roles has allowed me to hone my craft, resulting in an innate understanding of design principles and user psychology, enabling me to design products that not only look great but also drive business results. My approach to design is centered around crafting visually stunning, emotionally-engaging digital stories that are harmonious and impactful, and in elevating brands to their next level. Additionally, my experience in design evolution, as well as my understanding of design principles and user psychology, enables me to create products that evoke a sense of delight that create emotional connections with their users. To further demonstrate my commitment to the craft, I have written a book, "Hacking Your Way to a Career in UI/UX Design," which is available on Amazon.co.uk and Apple iBooks. I am also the founder of thegoldenratio.co.uk, a design system that aims to bring designers back from the brink of design system sterility by learning to design without the restrictions of a paralyzing and overused 12 column grid, by creating more compelling and natural digital interfaces by using the power of The Golden Ratio. In short, I am a highly skilled Senior Product Designer with a proven track record of success in crafting compelling digital narratives for world-renowned brands. My exceptional design skills, understanding of user psychology, and experience leading teams to design excellence make me a valuable asset to any company seeking to elevate their digital presence.

Michael Ruocco

5.0 (5 reviews)

As a Senior Product Designer with a wealth of experience in UI/UX, visual and experiential design, digital typography and cutting-edge creative direction, I have had the privilege of working with some of the world's most renowned brands, including John Lewis, Camelot, Farfetch, Nike, Shell Oil, Lloyds Bank, Barclays, HSBC, South West Trains, BP and 30 years worth of others. With a track record of serving in various leadership roles, from Associate Creative Director to Lead and Senior Designer in User Interface and User Experience Design, I bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table. My tenure in these roles has allowed me to hone my craft, resulting in an innate understanding of design principles and user psychology, enabling me to design products that not only look great but also drive business results. My approach to design is centered around crafting visually stunning, emotionally-engaging digital stories that are harmonious and impactful, and in elevating brands to their next level. Additionally, my experience in design evolution, as well as my understanding of design principles and user psychology, enables me to create products that evoke a sense of delight that create emotional connections with their users. To further demonstrate my commitment to the craft, I have written a book, "Hacking Your Way to a Career in UI/UX Design," which is available on Amazon.co.uk and Apple iBooks. I am also the founder of thegoldenratio.co.uk, a design system that aims to bring designers back from the brink of design system sterility by learning to design without the restrictions of a paralyzing and overused 12 column grid, by creating more compelling and natural digital interfaces by using the power of The Golden Ratio. In short, I am a highly skilled Senior Product Designer with a proven track record of success in crafting compelling digital narratives for world-renowned brands. My exceptional design skills, understanding of user psychology, and experience leading teams to design excellence make me a valuable asset to any company seeking to elevate their digital presence.

Available to hire

As a Senior Product Designer with a wealth of experience in UI/UX, visual and experiential design, digital typography and cutting-edge creative direction, I have had the privilege of working with some of the world’s most renowned brands, including John Lewis, Camelot, Farfetch, Nike, Shell Oil, Lloyds Bank, Barclays, HSBC, South West Trains, BP and 30 years worth of others.

With a track record of serving in various leadership roles, from Associate Creative Director to Lead and Senior Designer in User Interface and User Experience Design, I bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table. My tenure in these roles has allowed me to hone my craft, resulting in an innate understanding of design principles and user psychology, enabling me to design products that not only look great but also drive business results.

My approach to design is centered around crafting visually stunning, emotionally-engaging digital stories that are harmonious and impactful, and in elevating brands to their next level. Additionally, my experience in design evolution, as well as my understanding of design principles and user psychology, enables me to create products that evoke a sense of delight that create emotional connections with their users.

To further demonstrate my commitment to the craft, I have written a book, “Hacking Your Way to a Career in UI/UX Design,” which is available on Amazon.co.uk and Apple iBooks. I am also the founder of thegoldenratio.co.uk, a design system that aims to bring designers back from the brink of design system sterility by learning to design without the restrictions of a paralyzing and overused 12 column grid, by creating more compelling and natural digital interfaces by using the power of The Golden Ratio.

In short, I am a highly skilled Senior Product Designer with a proven track record of success in crafting compelling digital narratives for world-renowned brands. My exceptional design skills, understanding of user psychology, and experience leading teams to design excellence make me a valuable asset to any company seeking to elevate their digital presence.

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Language

English
Fluent

Work Experience

Add your work experience history here.

Education

10 GCEs at Edmonton Upper School
January 25, 2023
Scriptwriting course 1 year at st martins school of fashion - london
March 9, 2003 - March 9, 2004

Qualifications

Lecturer Ui/Ux Design / Columbia University / Ivy League Campus
November 1, 2020 - November 1, 2021
Teaching Students Ux/Ui Skills.
Lecturer Ux/Ui Design/Brainstation
November 1, 2020 - October 31, 2021
Teaching further Ux/Ui Skills to help students land their first job

Industry Experience

Energy & Utilities, Computers & Electronics, Consumer Goods, Education, Financial Services, Healthcare, Media & Entertainment, Professional Services, Retail, Software & Internet, Telecommunications, Wholesale & Distribution, Other
    uniE621 App design for safety on wind farms for BP
    logo graphicdesigner illustrator logo graphicdesigner webdesigner designer Bp acquired a small company that dealt with safety in traditionally unsafe places. That Company was called Dynamo. Dynamo’s had found a niche within the energy giants arena by potentially relieving Bp of the worry of safety of the operators on Wind Farms. They had delivered several ideas with initial buy-in from stakeholders although none had been realised via design. This was my role - to ensure the funding required in 2023 for the development of a safety app to be used worldwide on Bp Wind Farms. Working in tight collaboration with the Dynamo team, I was given three journeys via wireframes: From the perspective of the Incident Manager; tasks assigned to him and how they were treated (known as ‘Outstanding Tasks’ and how to make a report for a recent ‘accident’. From a selection of ‘Past Incidents’, ‘Observations’ and ‘Outstanding Tasks’, the manager can keep a general safety eye over multiple sites, to observe any patterns and make reports or changes to how safety is handled. He was also the first to know of any accidents, where they were, whether emergency services needed to be informed and who/what/where and the why of all the nuances of the accidents regardless of where they were in the world. I had access to Bp Cores’ design system but as we were deemed outsiders, we were allowed to go and “discover”, still tethered but with free reign. I kept the basics; fonts and colours and some padding values but created new components, new shadows, new colours and took this bp experience in a new direction. I started with one component and built the small design system from the product and not the other way around. (Never start with the design system :) The total designed output was 20 mobile screens / 10 desktop screens. Outcome: £8 million in funding was secured for the 2023 development of this app.
    uniE621 CEO - The Golden Ratio Design System
    photo logo graphicdesigner branding illustrator webdesigner designer I am the founder of The Golden Ratio Design System for Ui/Ux/Product Designers to purchase. The first Design System built by using only the Ratio (1.618) to design all the 13,000+ components. From gorgeous typography scales to stunning colours. From beautiful, vibrant infographics to fabulous cards. And a powerful flexible grid (now a plugin for adobe creative suite, figma and sketch) that will align all your designs, regardless of screen size or device, with pure Golden Ratio proportions. By using the same design principles found throughout nature and in our most beautiful pieces of art and architecture, you’ll have everything you need to build balanced, harmonious designs, everytime. Wielding The Golden Ratio won’t just make you a better designer – it will change your game completely. https://www.twine.net/signin
    uniE621 UI Lead Designer
    graphicdesigner branding illustrator webdesigner designer A redesign of Gannt Chart software for Blazor, a large American Software Company. Role - UI Lead Year - 2020/21 Client - fantasy.com Gannt Chart Software has always suffered. ‘Design’ when functionality was king, was the last dog to the bowl so any Gannt Chart Experience may have firmly rooted its users to a look straight out of the 1990s. My role was to take what was and make it into what it should be, given the design capabilities of modern devices and our growing understanding of the user experience. The why: A new family member had taken over the running of BST Blazor and decided on a much-needed update. This is how we did it: Five-person team; 2 UX Designers, and 2 Ui designers, 1 developer and a project manager. Daily standups with 'show and tell' every 2 days keeping the client informed of progress making them an integral part of the design process. Two UX designers created multiple journeys from user research, current software experience, peer software reviews and an assortment of other tried and tested UX Strategies. During this process, one other designer and I decided to discard all previous styling cues and make significant changes to the software’s appearance. This included altering the typeface, colours, icons, overall look and feel, and transitioning from a well worn ‘light’ experience to something a little more relevant... dark. We also transformed the various components, parts, and graphical elements with new design thinking. To achieve this, we replaced the previous 12-column grid system with a golden ratio grid system, which provides a more natural and aesthetically pleasing layout for the human eye, compared to the more commonly used 12-column grid among designers and developers. This change provided greater flexibility in the design process whilst moving us away from the sterility of the overused 12-column grid. Basically, we gave them something they hadn’t ever seen before. In A/B testing, 7 our of 7 users recorded a total preference for using the newly designed software with 6 out of 7 users quoted as actually saying ‘wow’ when first shown the new design. As a designer, that’s always good to hear .. :) Overal time was four months e2e. And the client was impressed enough to run this design look and feel across another five of BST’s software offerings.
    uniE621 Updating a buying journey for Nike ecom experience
    Part of a team dissecting and updating the current eCommerce journey for an agency pitch towards leveraging a little piece of the Nike world. Role - Branding, UX, UI Year - 2020 Client - fourfeet.co.uk I created a couple of concepts which allowed me the first pieces of a design system. This was then added to as and when. Nike has a strong set of guides that must be adhered to fully however so some of the assets below were plays on what was available currently. What we suggested was ratified and embraced by Nike (central) as some suggestions had shown to be improvements on what was currently used. THE CHALLENGE Changing the style without changing the style. There’s a wide spead love in digital to talk about the future. Hard to embrace though as anything too ‘future_design’ has no metrics, ergo, 'how will it perform?'. I think it was Ogilvy who coined the phrase, 'make it the same but make it different..' which was dutifully applied throughout our pitch work but with a few moments of subtle change. THE OUTCOME We added one more font (Din Condensed) into the mix on product pages (giving it more contrast/tone) and clawed back lots of white space throughout allowing the key messaging to be delivered with little to no visual fuss. Glassmorphism was used on shoe size selection and the menu slide draw. Singular product pages have more space than before allowing more control over font placement, contrasting weights and reduced letterspacing throughout to bring prominence at the right moments. Flat buttons are gone replaced with subtle grads and beautiful, minimal background blur and colours allowing a more natural flow to the design. As someone a lot smarter than me once said, 'the beauty is in the details.' photo graphicdesigner branding webdesigner designer
    uniE621 Adding a community and marketing journey to a Natwest Banking App
    graphicdesigner branding illustrator webdesigner designer logo When tasked with designing a community hub feature for the NatWest mobile experience, I encountered a common challenge in the form of a design system that was still revered but also perceived as outdated and lacking in modernity. This caused concern among stakeholders and users, as the feature needed to both meet the brand's strict guidelines while also feeling fresh and engaging. The existing design system was rigid and inflexible, which made it difficult to introduce new elements that would lift the overall system design. This caused agitation among the team, as we struggled to find a way to create a design that would meet the brand's standards while also appealing to a more modern target audience. To solve this challenge, I decided to take a liberal creative approach and introduce a few new, unconventional design elements certainly for something as rigid as a bank. Working in tight collaboration with the UX Design team, I created all the designs, concepts and even educated some along the way to the possibility of change ;) ergo this new illustrative approach helped to refresh the brand's overall look and feel, bringing the design up to modern acceptable standards. By incorporating feedback directly from user research, I was able to design a community hub feature that was intuitive, warmer and more user-friendly. The new design included features that addressed users' pain points, such as clear and simple navigation without being distracted via easy-to-use interfaces. Overall, this unconventional approach allowed us to solve the challenge of updating NatWest designs while staying true to the existing NatWest brand guidelines. Two design directions: One illustrative. One more conventional. Overwhelming thumbs up from the user group on the illustrative style.
    uniE621 Creating New log-in journeys for Domestic and General Utilities App
    D&G have a very well-performing app that monitors user appliances, servicing, engineer visits and the supply of spare parts. What they didn't have was a good onboarding journey. This is where Inviqa came in... Role - UX / UI Redesign of App Year - 2020 Software: Sketch / Figma (wires) Client - Inviqa.com The Challenge Too many users were leaving the app before they had signed up due to poor ux journeys and very static design. My role was (1) to assist the UX designer with redesigning the onboarding journey, create wireframes, sitemaps, and user flows, run user testing sessions, prototype the wires then (2) create the Ui around four onboarding experiences: Registration Migrating User Biometric & Non-Biometric Login Forgotten Password. Mostly the Ux was in very good hands. However, I did create wireframes/userflows for the ‘Registration’ journey; all fairly standard stuff. User testing at the completion of all wires for the four journeys with 6 persons. Feedback was taken, wires adjusted and then I went into the design. The original Styleguide was handed to me but it was quite dated so I used what I could for the ‘out-of-the-blocks’ starting moment and iterated the doc as I went along. A style-guide is a living breathing document and so it should always be in a state of flux. As soon as I was confident about one component's further usage, this was added into the style guide, and this action I repeated, each new graphical piece informing the newly created other graphical pieces and around and around we went, until I had a style I was happy with (primarily), and, which in turn, supported all the relevant journeys/design from that point onwards. Work completed for both iOS and Android devices. Outcome: A refreshing, beautiful design which the client loved as did the user-testing crowd. This style was therefore put forward as the creative solution to unify the design offerings of D&G apps and website experience. designer webdesigner branding graphicdesigner logo

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