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Selene Ruscica

About

UX/UI Designer | Design Systems | Strategic Design

UX/UI Designer with end-to-end ownership across product strategy, design systems, and execution. I define UX standards and design
solutions in parallel — research, wireframes, UI, and handoff as one integrated process, not sequential steps.
Background in cognitive psychology and visual systems, applied to ensure consistency and quality across every stage of the product
lifecycle. Comfortable presenting and defending design decisions to technical and business stakeholders.
High ownership, startup environment, direct collaboration with product and engineering.

Skills

2-D Design

Accessibility

Adaptive Systems

Adobe

Adobe Illustrator

B2B software

CSS

Figma

Framers

HTML

Information Architecture

Product Design

Prototyping

Remote User Testing

SaaS

UX

User Research

VUI Design

Wireframing

Open for

fulltime

parttime

internship

Work Experience

Freelance

2024-12 - 2026-03

Workplace
Product Designer
Location

Remote

Employement type

freelancer

Driving end-to-end design for B2B/B2C products with a focus on architectural scalability, user efficiency, and data-driven iterations. Orchestrated feature design from discovery to developer handoff, collaborating across product and engineering teams. Key Project Highlights: Caffeinated Ink (Commissioned — Web & Admin Panel) • Designed a responsive B2C website and admin dashboard for a hybrid coffee & tattoo business, serving two distinct user types: customers booking services and staff managing operations. • Ran task-based usability tests with 5 users; iterated on findings to reduce average task completion time from 4.2 to 1.9 minutes (–55%) and achieve 100% task clarity across all primary flows. • Built a 60+ component design system following Atomic Design principles, enabling 1:1 developer handoff with zero interpretation gaps. • Delivered full IA, wireframes, high-fidelity UI and interactive Figma prototype — end-to-end in 2 weeks. SaaS AI Platform ( B2B) • Designed agent orchestration interfaces for a multi-agent AI workspace, reducing key user actions to 2 clicks and cutting userreported friction by 35%. • Applied CRO principles and psychology-informed microcopy to reduce time-to-value and help users understand complex AI outputs without additional guidance. • Decreased cognitive friction by 60% through progressive disclosure and a UI system that balances product power with simplicity. Personal Portfolio Website • Designed and built an interactive narrative-driven experience, combining custom animations and UX copy — doubled average session duration from 45s to 99s.

Freelance

2024-02 - 2026-03

Workplace
Graphic designer
Location

Other

Employement type

freelancer

Visual identity and collateral for local businesses and event organisers via referral. • Brand Identity: logos and visual systems applied consistently across print and digital. • Marketing collateral: posters and promotional materials for events, managing the full creative cycle.

Academic Experience

Start2impact -

 

2025.05 - 2025.12

Master of Arts, MA in UX/UI Design and AI

CalArts -

 

2024.08 - 2025.01

Master of Arts, MA in Foundation of graphic design