Designing how people and AI agents actually talk to each other.
Hi! I'm Rafael
An AI-driven senior Product Designer,
always matching business' requirements with user's desires.
/ Professional Experience
Altify - Senior Product Designer
- Creating end-to-end experience of how our customers interact with the product.
- Contributing to the product design strategy all the way to the UI details.
- Understanding problems and identifying user needs and motivations.
- Using effective user science to uncover the best solutions to high potential user problems.
- Helping with the implementation of designs, ensuring design solutions are understood and executed correctly.
- Mentoring other designers on the team to grow within their roles.
- Defining and maintaining UX best practices, ensuring consistency and usability across products.
AIB Bank - UX/UI Designer
- Understanding the problem given.
- Outlining key questions that need to be answered.
- Compiling competitor analysis.
- Leading customer interviews.
- Compiling and analyzing data and qualitative feedback to identify problem statement to inform design decisions.
- Determining information architecture through user flow diagrams and journey mapping.
- Creating wireframes to visualize solution for team discussion.
- Developing high fidelity designs and interactive prototypes.
- Conducting and moderating usability testing with existing AIB customers.
Aunua Global - UX/UI Design Lead
Accenture - Senior Agent, Trust & Safety / UX/UI Designer
Saúde Já - UX/UI Designer
Kartal - UX/UI Designer
Idealfarma - Graphic Designer
C2 - Graphic Designer
/ Professional Education
Escola Panamericana de Arte e Design
- Learned all graphic design concepts, applications, Adobe suite, animation and Motion Graphics.
- Honorable Mention in the project "Criatividade Panamericana".
Universidade Metodista de São Paulo
- Learned during the course: art history, painting, drawing, visual concepts and software, sound mixing, animation, 3D, video production, HTML, PHP.
- Won the Destaque Award for the best project of the course in 2009.
/ Certifications
AI for UX Designers
AI Agents & Automation Development - No Code & ChatGPT
UX Design Mentorship Programme
Advanced CSS and Sass
HTML5 and CSS3
Web Development - JavaScript
English Certification
UX/UI Design for Mobile Interfaces
Artistic Draw
HTML5 and CSS3
Programming Logic
XHTML - Tableless
/ About
I'm Rafael de Rezende Basso, a UX/UI Designer with dual citizenship (Brazilian and Italian), based in Portlaoise, Ireland. A polyglot professional (Portuguese, English and Spanish) with 15+ years of experience, holding a Degree in Digital Media, a Diploma in Graphic Design, and certificates in UX/UI Design and Front-End development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript).
I have strong technical know-how in creating user-centred solutions - always matching user's desires with business requirements - based on data collected through researching people's behaviour and market trends.
Right now, I'm focused on conversational design and working as an AI-driven designer, building agents and integrating them into existing UIs so they feel native, useful and trustworthy rather than bolted-on.
On the side, I'm a UX design mentor and HTML/CSS instructor - I've certified 70 people across Brazil, Germany, Ireland, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom. I also run weekly free portfolio reviews for junior UX designers to help them land their dream job.
Along the way I've been recognised with the Prêmio Destaque 2010 for the best Digital Media course project of 2009, and an Honourable Mention for the "Criatividade Panamericana" project in 2012.
/ Recommendations
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Daiko Hachiya
Product Design Manager at Upland Software · March 25, 2025 · Managed Rafael directly
I've enjoyed watching Rafael grow from a talented tactical designer into a truly strategic product designer. Over the past few years, he's taken on more complex challenges, leading projects from inception to completion with a calm and confident approach. Rafael has a knack for speaking the language that resonates with each team member, whether he's diving into technical details with developers or sharing clear, simple narratives with PMs. Not only is he a joy to work with (he brings a very chill, collaborative vibe to our team) but he also goes above and beyond by mentoring junior designers outside of work and helping them polish their portfolios and resumes. His passion for design extends well beyond his day-to-day work, and it's clear that he's committed to raising the bar for any organization lucky enough to have him on board. Rafael is passionate about his growth, and every 1 on 1 ends with a, 'what can I do better as a designer'. I'm confident that Rafael will continue to elevate any team or project he's a part of, and I'm excited to see where his journey takes him next!
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Suzana Oliveira
Coworker and coordinator
I had the opportunity to work with Rafael as a coworker and as his coordinator, on both experiences he showed great creativity, interpersonal skills, a great team player and highly committed with results. He's always interested on learning new things and helping the team achieve the results. I highly recommend Rafael as a coworker and personal friend.
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Leon Nussbaumer
Driving business growth the human way, with AI · September 27, 2021 · Rafael's client
I was part of Rafael's introductory course to HTML and from being "afraid of the language" I became an enthusiast. He is super patient with the students, very approachable and finds really easy to simplify complex subjects. If you get the chance to join his course, do it while he's not charging millions for it!
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Conchúr Ó'Donnchú
Product Strategy @ Hibernia Venture Labs · September 12, 2024 · Rafael's client
Rafael was amazing! We jumped on multiple calls to talk through my portfolio when I was looking for a job. I found his advice to be very practical and easy to follow. It was also very actionable and allowed me to get a job. If you're looking for a good mentor to guide you in your career, Rafael is your man.
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Larissa Arnold
UX Researcher & UX Designer at Madcraft · September 12, 2024 · Rafael's client
Rafael is an excellent mentor, I took part in the portfolio review for Junior UX Designers, and it was my turning point. His method is very good, he asked me to present my portfolio and a case study, and from that he gave me valuable feedback, his way of explaining is simple, without a lot of beating around the bush and most importantly he is sincere. For example, he showed me how to structure my website to make my projects stand out to Hiring Managers and Recruiters, he showed me examples of portfolios from market references, and he gave me tips on what to highlight in my projects when I present them at an interview. This has given me the confidence to apply for jobs and feel more prepared for interviews. Rafael also asked me to collaborate on his blog, creating content about UX/UI Design, which has opened doors to freelance work and more interviews. I'm immensely grateful for the mentoring and support Rafael has given me, and I highly recommend that if you've just graduated in UX you take part in the portfolio review, which is something so valuable that words can't describe it!
/ In Life
/ Entertainment
How we decide to have some fun and de-stress is also a very important information. In my case, those songs and some TV shows were not only entertainment - because of them I started to be interested in the English language and to study it as a teenager. Especially those bands helped to shape my personality.
