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I'm Ashley

Hello, I’m Ashley. 8+ years of experience in design thinking, my career has been a cross-discipline exploration of the tools and methods needed to understand, design and build easy-to-use products. My core design principles are to make customer experiences delightful and digital products smart, intuitive, and useful, I specialises in solving problems to produce intelligent user-centric designs, deliver engaging digital experiences and believes in minimalism.  I handle multiple roles from providing creative direction and leadership on large scale projects to building briefs, presenting ideas and working as part of design teams delivering at scale digital transformation engagements

Experience

Career History

Check out my professional history to learn more about my experience and career milestones. Throughout the years, I’ve developed critical skills that have led me to partner with leading industry professionals and work on exceptional projects. For more information about my work or to discuss a collaboration, simply get in touch.

August 2022 – Present (Employment Duration 2yr 3 mos)

Senior Product Designer @Zalando            MOST RECENT!

  • Leading design systems projects like the messaging ecosystem within the deisgn system for "Lounge by Zalando"

  • Accountable for guidelines, and consultant design system to other teams in the organisation

  • Design lead for the Checkout as well as Post shopping experience  working with a team of backend and front end engineers as well as aligning and setting strategy with Project managers and other squad design leads.

  • Setting guidelines and consultations with internal squads, while working within a central enabling team

Apr 2020 – July 2022

Art Director @ Fractal Ink Design Studio, Mumbai

  • Managing multiple and complex projects around the problem space

  • Leading strategy and the execution of design

  • Working from creative briefs to translate marketing strategies to creative execution

  • Assisting with the design resourcing & planning

Mar 2018 - Apr 2020

Design Lead @ Fractal Ink Design Studio, Mumbai

  • Managing cross profile teams

  • Stakeholder alignments, Insight generation,

  • Storyboarding, journey mapping,

Apr 2017 - Mar 2018

Senior Creative Designer @ Fractal Ink Design Studio, Mumbai

  • Owning feature designs that create engaging and immersive experiences across desktop and multiple device types on iOS & Android

  • Working closely with Product Managers, Engineers in your team and collaborate with Designers, UX Researchers, UX Writers, and Marketers

  • Transforming complex and abstract concepts and challenges into well-articulated, tangible solution ideas with a strong problem-solving mindset and craft excellence

  • Gaining a deep understanding of our target users through observations, research, and analytics so that you can champion their needs

Jan 2016 - Apr 2017

Ui Designer @ Fractal Ink Design Studio, Mumbai

  • Owning feature designs that create engaging and immersive experiences across desktop and multiple device types on iOS & Android

  • Working closely with Product Managers, Engineers in your team and collaborate with Designers, UX Researchers, UX Writers, and Marketers

  • Transforming complex and abstract concepts and challenges into well-articulated, tangible solution ideas with a strong problem-solving mindset and craft excellence

  • Gaining a deep understanding of our target users through observations, research, and analytics so that you can champion their needs

Oct 2015 - Dec 2015

Design Intern @ Fractal Ink Design Studio, Mumbai

  • Executing design tasks set by the team leads

  • Working within the visual strategy set for projects

  • Timely execution of design tasks

  • Trainee under a senior designer

Experience

Career History

November 2023 - present

Leading strategy and initiatives in checkout and post shopping journeys

As the design lead for the Checkout as well as Post shopping experience,  working with a team of backend and front end engineers as well as aligning and setting strategy with Project managers and other squad design leadsSetting guidelines and consultations with internal squads, while working within a central enabling team

August 2022 - January 2024

Messaging Ecosystem Redesign (Design systems)

  • Creating Messaging Components for Scalable Conversational Customer Experiences: Broaden the range of messaging components and refine color choices to align with 2023 initiatives 

  • Implementing Defined Patterns and Logic: Institute messaging components with well-defined patterns and logic, grounded in considerations of emotion, interest, and engagement. This established clear guidelines for usage, promoting a more structured and intentional approach to messaging, optimizing the overall customer experience.

  • Visual Coherency with the Rebrand initiative: Aligning the messaging components with the rebrand conducted by updating colors. Mapping existing components in the user journey will aid in reassessing the use of relevant components and establishing visual hierarchy for better communication of urgency and attention.

  • Reducing Squad Engineering Effort: Streamline and optimize the app messaging system to significantly reduce the engineering effort required for each project. The goal is to transition from weeks to hours/days per project through the implementation of refactored and more user-friendly components.

October 2020 - November 2021

Digital Transformation and Redesign digital product for an Islamic Bank in Dubai (Strategy + Design systems)

Led a design team of 6 , working in sprints to build digital solutions for a Dubai based bank

working in an agile setup

​

Mar 2018 - Apr 2020

Designer in building the Strategy for a Digital attacker for a nationalised bank- Cairo

Working with stakeholders to collaboratively work on the value proposition and vision of the product and coming up with an MVP

Apr 2017 - Mar 2018

B.E.S.T - Helped build Digital Information Design System for Mumbai’s local transportation

Leading design to build a site for portfolio management service cataloguing for HNI (High Net Income Custormers) in India.

Jan 2016 - Apr 2017

Lead Designer in designing and prototyping quick concepts for a Hackathon- South Africa

Built a end to end prototype for the of the winning idea of a South Africa based hackathon

Oct 2015 - Dec 2015

WIFT (A Hyperlocal Platform design for Job searching and hiring) - India

Leading design to build a site for portfolio management service cataloguing for HNI (High Net Income Custormers) in India.

Aug 2014 - Sep 2015

Axis Asset Management Company

Leading design to build a site for portfolio management service cataloguing for HNI (High Net Income Custormers) in India.

Skills

9/10

User Interface Design

9/10

Design System

8/10

Experience Design

8/10

User Experience Strategy

7/10

User Experience Design

4/10

Service Design

+491744314587

©2021 by Ashley Carlos Gracias.

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