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OTAVIO BONATO

ABOUT ME

Hi, I’m Otávio.

A Lead UX/UI Designer based in Budapest, Hungary.

I’m half Brazilian, half Italian, and a European citizen. I’ve been surrounded by creativity for as long as I can remember, and I’ve worked professionally in UX/UI design since 2017. Outside of work, I’m a music producer, photographer, and tattoo artist, and that mix shapes how I design: with an eye for craft, rhythm, and detail.

I specialize in complex domains. Today I lead design for a large enterprise data platform at EY, including its Knowledge Management System (KMS), and I’ve designed a B2B commuter benefits management platform for NMBS. My work covers B2B portals, data-heavy products, design systems, and AI agents, always with the goal of making complicated things feel clear and usable.

More recently, I’ve been taking ideas out of my head and into game UX/UI, a field where creativity and systems thinking meet.

Over the years, I’ve worked on 50+ projects for clients across many countries. I’m currently open to new opportunities and to relocation.

RESUME

Otavio Bonato

Senior Product Designer · UX/UI · Design Systems · Enterprise & Product Design

Budapest, Hungary · EU citizen · Open to relocation

Professional summary

Senior Product Designer with 8+ years of experience delivering end-to-end UX/UI solutions across enterprise platforms, B2B portals, data products, and mobile apps. Skilled in design systems, heuristic evaluation, stakeholder facilitation, and high-fidelity prototyping. Currently leading UX/UI for Ernst & Young and co-founding three app startups as Design Lead. Strong background in cross-functional collaboration with engineers, PMs, and senior stakeholders across global and remote teams. Experienced mentor and instructor in UX/UI design fundamentals and portfolio development.

Experience

  1. Lead UX/UI Designer · Ernst & Young

    Jun 2025 - Present

    Remote

    • Leading UX/UI for EY’s Data Fusion and KMS platforms: new technologies, maintenance, and feature enhancements.
    • Responsible for design system governance and consistency aligned with enterprise standards.
    • Collaborating with product owners, PMs, architects, and stakeholders to validate solutions and guide the platform’s UX strategy.

  2. UX/UI Design Lead & Co-Founder · Lutter

    2025 - Present

    Remote

    • Leading end-to-end UX/UI for three apps in development (Taagyo, oowlab, Pryce), with design systems and visual identities built from scratch in Figma.
    • Acting as product lead: organizing project structure, managing the design backlog, and aligning the team on priorities and delivery.
    • Conducting user research, defining IA, and producing everything from wireframes to high-fidelity prototypes.

  3. UX/UI Design Mentor & Instructor · Sketch & Flow

    Sep 2025 - Present

    Remote

    • Instructor for an 8-week online UX/UI workshop: UX research, ideation, wireframing, visual design, and prototyping.
    • Guiding students from initial research to the final interactive prototype, with portfolio and feedback support throughout.

  4. UX/UI Designer · TCS Pace

    May 2023 - Jun 2025

    Amsterdam, Netherlands (Remote)

    • Led Design Sprints for global clients including Pandora, Ericsson, and ABB, delivering validated prototypes and user-tested concepts.
    • Main designer on a one-year project for NMBS (Belgian National Railway): rebuilt the entire B2B portal with heuristic evaluation, stakeholder interviews, user research, IA, user flows, and 100+ high-fidelity screens.
    • User testing confirmed significant usability improvements; after launch, service desk calls were notably reduced.

  5. IT Support Analyst · Sanofi

    Jan 2020 - May 2023

    Budapest, Hungary

    • Provided remote IT support for Sanofi Portugal across software, network, VPN, security, and hardware; collaborated with cross-functional teams to streamline internal tools.

  6. Product Designer · Slideworks

    Jan 2017 - Jan 2020

    São Paulo, Brazil (Remote)

    • Designed web and mobile products for startups and enterprise clients worldwide, covering the full process from UX research and IA to prototyping and developer handoff.
    • Built scalable design systems; delivered platforms for delivery, real estate, logistics, e-commerce, and SaaS.

  7. UI Designer (Freelance) · Any App / Appetite Food

    Feb 2018 - Dec 2019

    Toronto / São Paulo (Remote)

    • Designed delivery apps for the Canadian and Brazilian markets: competitive research, user analysis, end-to-end UI concepts, wireframes, and interactive prototypes.

Personal projects

  1. MitMind

    In development

    Digital platform to help users reduce social media usage and improve mental well-being.

    • Researched Brazilian user habits (a 3-hour daily gap above the global average in social media time; 5% therapy attendance rate).
    • Designed user journeys, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototypes promoting mindfulness and self-awareness.

  2. Atlas Rush

    Concept · Case study

    Asynchronous location-based strategy game for mobile: you plan, the boards fight.

    • Designed the rules, the economy, 30 boat levels, 8 island levels and 44 items, plus a design system and 53 high-fidelity screens.
    • Created all the visuals myself with prompt engineering + LLM image generation and an automated asset pipeline.
    See the case study →

  3. Animal Flag

    Concept

    Team-based capture-the-flag game for desktop, where players fight as animal warriors with their own classes and abilities.

    • Designed the match HUD: team score, timer, minimap with flag states, player status, ability cooldowns and keyboard shortcuts.
    • Led the creative direction, from character concepts to animated combat scenes.

Core skills

UX & Research

  • User Research
  • UX Strategy
  • Information Architecture
  • Wireframing
  • Prototyping
  • Usability Testing
  • Heuristic Evaluation
  • Journey Mapping
  • Persona Development
  • Rapid Prototyping

UI & Design Systems

  • UI Design
  • Interaction Design
  • Visual Design
  • Design Systems
  • Mobile & Web Design
  • UX Writing

Product & Collaboration

  • Product Thinking
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Agile & Scrum
  • Design Sprints
  • Mentorship

Data & Enterprise

  • Enterprise UX
  • Data Products UX
  • ETL & Data Pipelines UX
  • AI-Assisted Experiences
  • SaaS Platforms
  • Knowledge Management Systems

Tools

  • Figma
  • FigJam
  • Miro
  • Jira
  • Confluence
  • Looker
  • Metabase

Education

  1. Postgraduate in UX/UI Design

    2021 - 2022

    Instituto Faculeste

  2. Postgraduate in Web Application Development

    2021 - 2022

    Instituto Faculeste

  3. Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering

    2010 - 2015

    Universidade de Taubaté

  4. Technical Degree in Mechatronics

    2007 - 2010

    Universidade de Taubaté

Languages

  • Portuguese · Native
  • English · Professional
  • Spanish · Basic
  • Italian · Basic

Learning: French, German, Hungarian, Danish, Swedish