Rafael Rocha

UX/UI Designer. I help teams turn complex problems into products that are easy to use.

Fintech products since 2021: real user research, a design system, and shipping at the team's pace.

Interfaces that solve real problems: intuitive for people, decisive for the business.

Portrait of Rafael Rocha, UX/UI Designer

I've worked as a UX/UI designer since 2021, and what draws me in is the problem behind the screen. Before that, I spent seven years coordinating digital editorial products, which sharpened my eye for how people read, interact, and drop off.

I come from a Graphic Design background, and I believe in continuous beta: a digital product is never finished, it improves while it's live. My process is straightforward: understand the real problem, ship a version quickly, and refine it with what real usage shows.

Today I own the experience of the Ewally app and its B2B and admin portals, from discovery to handing off specs for development. I like work that brings the product closer to the people who need it, no fluff.

5 years
designing fintech products at Ewally
30+
components in the design system I built from scratch
50+
screens redesigned across 10+ critical flows

Case studies

Selected work

A few of the projects I've worked on.

NutriFlow case study cover with three app screens: uploading the meal plan, the home screen with the current meal, and a progress screen

End-to-end UX/UI 2026 7 months

NutriFlow, healthy eating always within reach

Problem
People who get a meal plan from a nutritionist get stuck on execution: the meals are personalized and made by hand, and in the daily rush no one manages to cook or order them.
Solution
An app where AI reads the plan sent as a photo or PDF, builds the meal calendar, and delivers everything ready at home. Ordering fits in three steps: period, delivery, and payment.
83responses in the quantitative survey
5in-depth interviews
100%success on the ordering task in testing
View project
Mercado Livre case study cover with a notebook search mockup, showing the filter panel and the Rating group marked as missing

Heuristic evaluation 2026

Why doesn't Mercado Livre have a rating filter?

Problem
The star rating shows up on result cards, but it can't be used as a search criterion. Amazon has offered this filter since 2013.
Solution
An audit of the search flow against Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics, plus a proposal for a rating filter that coexists with seller reputation, with a safeguard for products that have few reviews.
21filter groups mapped in the Notebooks category
0filter by rating
View project
Capa do Blu, o Design System da Ewally: logo, biblioteca de componentes com botões, seleção e campos de texto

Design System 2024-25 Material Design 3

Blu Design System

What it is
A design system kit built on Google Material Design 3, with ready-made components and tokens to speed up interface work.
Built with
Prototyped in Figma Make, following Material Design 3 guidelines and patterns.
View on Figma

Experience

The path that led me to UX/UI design.

Feb 2023, present

Product Designer (UX/UI)

Ewally 3 years 7 months São Paulo, Brazil

In charge of design for three products in parallel: the Ewally app, the B2B Portal, and the Admin Portal, in a squad with 1 PM and 2 devs, on quarterly delivery cycles.

  • Anti-fraud research: ran a round of interviews and moderated remote tests with 5 users. The finding (100% manual entry, no filters, and no way to approve in bulk) drove a redesign of the flow that cut the average task-completion time by 60%.
  • Design system: built Ewally's DS in Figma with 30+ components (buttons, modals, inputs, tokens), adopted by all three products, ending the inconsistency between the app and the portals.
  • Pix: redesigned the transfer flow around the mapped error points, with a 5% drop in reported transfer issues.
  • Mentoring: mentored a junior UX designer on the squad, supporting her ramp-up in research and prototyping.
  • Delivery at scale: 10+ critical flows and 50+ screens redesigned, with specs handed off ready for development.
  • Figma
  • Design System
  • Prototyping
  • Usability testing
  • Qualitative research
  • Handoff

Jan 2021, Feb 2023

UX/UI Designer

Ewally 2 years 2 months

The company's first UX designer, in charge of setting up the initial design processes where no such area existed.

  • Ran the initial user-research cycles that grounded the app's redesign, defining the interview and testing method the company still uses today.
  • Built the component and pattern foundation that would become the Ewally Design System.

Apr 2018, Jan 2021

Front-end / UX consultant

EZ4, IT easy for you 2 years 10 months São Paulo, Brazil

Consulting on TOTVS's Fluig platform for enterprise clients including FIDI and Planus.

  • Prototyped, tested with users, and handed technical specs straight to the development teams.
  • The habit of weighing technical feasibility alongside the design decision comes from here.

Aug 2010, Dec 2017

Digital advertising coordinator

Editora Abril 7 years 4 months São Paulo, Brazil

Coordinated digital advertising for tablet editorial products, for the magazines VEJA and VEJA São Paulo, with hands-on UX work for iOS and Android.

  • Closed the digital editions of VEJA and VEJA São Paulo, from the publisher's first tablet edition, in September 2010.
  • Ran usability testing on iOS and Android for new titles in the publisher's digital portfolio.
  • Trained 2 professionals to take over digital advertising coordination, ensuring continuity of the process.

Early career

  • May 2009, Aug 2009 Freelance graphic designer, Editora CARAS

    Special marketing projects. Created materials for the publisher's events and for sponsorship outreach.

  • Aug 2008, Oct 2008 Art assistant, Editora CARAS

    Special project for the CARAS Noivas 2008 yearbook, 400 pages with a print run of 40,000 copies.

What I bring to the team

Hard skills

  • Applied UX research

    Interviews, usability tests, and continuous research that turn into product decisions, not reports left in a drawer.

  • Design systems

    Built Ewally's from scratch, with 30+ components documented in Figma.

  • High-fidelity prototyping

    Clickable prototypes ready for user testing and for handoff to development.

  • Metrics and product sense

    OKRs, the HEART framework, and reading support data to prioritize what actually moves the number.

  • Technical fluency

    A front-end background. I talk with engineering as a peer about what's feasible.

  • Fintech and Open Finance context

    Pix, anti-fraud, B2B and admin portals. Critical flows, with money and trust on the line.

Soft skills

  • Close collaboration with PM and development, from refinement to sign-off
  • Focused on the problem, not the screen
  • Outcome-driven, with the metric agreed before we start
  • Clear communication, including with non-designers

Tools

  • Figma
  • Adobe XD
  • Miro
  • Maze
  • Claude
  • Photoshop
  • Illustrator
  • Trello
  • Notion
  • Slack

Education & certificates

Bachelor's in Graphic Design

Centro Universitário Senac

2004, 2008

Courses

  • Web Interfaces with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript IME-USP, 30 hours, 2018
  • UX Unicórnio in progress UX Unicórnio, 2026

Certificates

  • AI & UX Portfolio Workshop UX Unicórnio, 2026
  • Triplo UX Workshop UX Unicórnio, 2023

Languages

  • Portuguese Native
  • English Advanced

Contact

Like what you see? Let's talk.