Van Ngo
UI/UX and Product Designer with 10+ years of experience across editorial publishing, real estate development, and healthcare. Currently lead designer at a health-insurance SaaS startup full-time, while co-founding InnoGEV, a software startup, on the side. I bring print-trained visual precision into digital product work, integrate AI throughout the design process, and deliver end-to-end from research to working prototype.
Professional Experience
- Co-founded a software startup and led all design and branding — including company identity, website, and product design across 2 client applications
- Designed end-to-end UX for a barber CRM and payment platform — conducting industry research, defining user flows for 3+ user types, and building a full UI from wireframes to high-fidelity prototype
- Designed a live auction scraper application for a client, replacing manual video monitoring with a real-time data interface — reducing employee effort and error rate significantly
- Integrated AI throughout both products — using it for user research, industry analysis, rapid prototyping, and solo-developing a functional local demo with live data tables presented directly to the client
- Delivered full-stack design-to-demo independently, from concept through working prototype
- Lead UI/UX designer on a health insurance SaaS platform serving 10,000+ users across 5 distinct user roles — owning end-to-end design from research and journey mapping through high-fidelity UI and developer handoff
- Designed 5 products total, including a CRM application and full website rework
- Built the company’s first design system from scratch — a comprehensive component library used across all 5 products
- Defined all user roles, permissions, and critical flows across the platform; created logos and brand identities for multiple internal applications
- Co-developed and deployed a production form currently in active companywide use
- Used Claude for research synthesis and rapid prototyping, Gemini for proof-of-concept generation — cutting prototype delivery from days to hours while maintaining full design quality
- Conducted user interviews and heuristic evaluations, identifying and resolving friction points that drove a 20% increase in user onboarding completion.
- Delivered high-fidelity mockups and complex user flows balancing student-centric usability with aggressive business growth objectives.
- Operated as sole in-house designer for a real estate development firm specializing in workforce and student housing
- Designed and produced all RFP and RFQ bid packages — branded booklets, presentations, and print/digital collateral for competitive bids
- Rebranded the company’s entire bid presentation suite, contributing to a 75% bid win rate on competitive proposals
- Managed full production workflow independently from concept through printready file delivery
- Produced magazine layouts, feature spreads, and print-ready files for a regional editorial publication over 7 years
- Developed deep expertise in typography, layout systems, color theory, and print production standards
- Built a visual precision and consistency discipline — now foundational to every UI system and design component I create
Technical Skills
How I Work
Every major design decision has a justification beyond "I think." I run stakeholder interviews, workflow audits, and heuristic evaluations before touching a frame. When I push back on scope creep or a bad UX decision, I bring the data — which means it rarely turns into a debate.
A polished single screen is a deliverable. A design system that lets engineers ship new features without a design bottleneck is a product. I've built three Atomic Design-based component libraries from scratch and structured them so new feature requests take days, not sprints.
I speak the language of components, states, and edge cases. I've co-developed and deployed production code. My prototypes are close enough to production that handoff is a diff, not a translation — which means fewer misinterpretations and faster shipping.
Not brought in to style a decision that's already been made. I want to be in the early conversations — shaping scope, questioning assumptions, and making sure the design problem is defined correctly before anyone starts building.