Personal details

Ricardo Z. - Remote software engineer

Ricardo Z.

Sr. Web/Product Designer
Based in: šŸ‡ŗšŸ‡ø United States
Timezone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) (UTC-4)

About

Heyā€”Iā€™m Ricardo. Iā€™m a Senior Web & Product Designer who builds clean, accessible, dev-ready interfaces for data-dense products and websites. I work end-to-end: design systems, IA, wireframing, prototyping, accessibility, and production HTML/CSS for reliable handoffs (Zeplin).

Iā€™m not a developerā€”I work closely with developers to ensure that high-quality products are released efficiently.

I care about results and craft.

Highlights:

  • At Check ā€™n Go I improved homepage load time by 84%, reduced page weight 42%, and dropped HTTP requests 89%.
  • At LexisNexis I shipped 2 global redesigns and 30+ localized sites.
  • Iā€™ve also mentored 150+ designers with consistent 5ā˜… reviews.

Accessibility is a big deal to me. I built Color-Ramp.com to solve a real gap: creating OKLCH/HSL color ramps that guarantee WCAG 2.1 AA/AAA in both light and dark UIs.

I also co-created AspireMap.ai, a B2C platform that helps students and career-changers find career paths aligned with their values, personality, aptitudes, and skills.

If you want to see how I think and what I ship, start here:

šŸ’»My work and writing:

āš” What Iā€™m good at (and enjoy):

Web & Product Design ā€” UI/UX/Visual Design

  • Design Systems
  • Development-friendly Designs
  • Wireframing & Prototyping
  • Accessibility & Usability (WCAG-first)
  • Interaction Design
  • Branding
  • Color
  • Typography
  • Design principles: Hierarchy, Grid, Balance, Symmetry, Rhythm, Space, Gestalt, Pattern, Modularity, etc.

Web & Front-End Designer

  • Production-ready HTML
  • Production-ready CSS/Sass
  • jQuery (presentational)
  • Responsive & Adaptive Designs
  • Accessibility & Usability
  • SEO

Work Experience

Design Expert Mentor
adplist.org | Dec 2024 - Present
Visual design
Mentoring
Product design
Design Systems
ā€¢ Provide design feedback. ā€¢ Help designers improve their projects. ā€¢ Give professional advice to designers. ā€¢ Teach Figma to designers. ā€¢ Help designers level up their skills. ā€¢ Assist designers with design systems.
Technical Design Interviewer
Arc.dev | Feb 2022 - Present
Interview Skills
Mentoring
Product design
Interview Preparation
Behavioral Modeling
Competency management
Designers are interviewed and vetted to see if they can be accepted into the Arc.dev platform. ā€¢ Provide UI/UX expertise for their custom-built N|Solid platform. ā€¢ Analyze UX and UI designs, including wireframes and implementation-ready prototypes of new features. ā€¢ Offer ongoing advice on UI/UX best practices and innovative ideas. ā€¢ Develop multiple prototypes to communicate ideas on content architecture, layout, features, accessibility, interactions, workflows, and functionalities. ā€¢ Enhance their strong brand in the new designs for requested features. ā€¢ Suggest messaging strategies for marketing campaigns.

Projects

Pearlmax Oral Surgery website, branding and stationary
2010
https://www.pearlmax.net -- Ā» Website was redesigned in August of 2019 (See the old branding on my portfolio: https://ricardozea.design/project-pearlmax.php), Ā» Great opportunity to work without bureaucratic limitations Ā» Great opportunity to implement new technologies Ā» Great way to handle all pieces of the project, from design for print, to Web Design, to content management, everything.
The Gym of West Milton website
2018
http://thegymofwestmilton.com -- Ā» Great opportunity to design with complete freedom Ā» I didn't charge for this project, we instead exchanged services: I created their website and I had a free membership to the gym for 1 year :) Ā» Designed and coded the entire website

Education

Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
Bachelor's degree惻Advertising
Jan 1993 - Jan 1998
San Juan Eudes
Bachelor's degree惻
Jan 1987 - Jan 1992

Certifications & Awards

ADPList.org Certified Expert Designer
adplist.org | Dec 2024
Design System Bootcamp
Maven | Oct 2024