Carina Frey — About

About

Summary

intersection of business, design and marketing

With a strong academic foundation in business admin and marketing, I have developed a keen sense of connecting design with tangible business objectives, whilst providing delightful experiences tailored and conversion-focused. I'm currently leading efforts to conceptualize and test solutions that enhance the user experience and aesthetics across all digital touchpoints in the customer journey at Spreadshirt, a prominent print-on-demand shop.

Contact Me

background

crafting meaningful experiences that shape how we interact with technology

As technology advances, things are getting more complex. This gets me excited because as a digital designer, I have the great opportunity to simplify complexity via efficiency and elegance. I always strive to build the most feasible, viable and desirable solutions. Hence, I ask a lot of questions and conduct thorough research to reflect consistently both business and user needs.

My natural curiosity led me to follow my profound passion for design. As a motivated self-starter, I dedicated countless hours to self-learning the complex field of user experience design through the means of books, podcasts, YouTube, online courses and conferences. I’m still learning every single day to ensure I stay relevant and can deliver the most modern and effective solutions.

Additionally, I actively contribute to the design community by sharing my journey and insights. I frequently write detailed design articles to educate and inspire fellow designers, fostering success and growth.

my capabilities

UX Research - Rapid Prototyping - Interaction Design - Usability Testing - Strategy - Websites - Mobile App Design - E-commerce Design - Design Thinking - Agile Development - Branding - Art Direction - Visual Communication - Collaboration - UX Consulting

My Toolstack

My repertoire of tools includes cutting-edge design, research and collaboration software, complemented by the tried and true pen and paper, ensuring a versatile approach to my work.

Figma

UserZoom

Miro

Jira

Adobe CC

Teams

Confluence

Notion

Leapsome

ProtoPie

Brevo

UserTesting

My Experience

With a multicultural background encompassing experiences in both the United States and Germany, I have amassed over five years of extensive professional expertise spanning marketing, business consulting, and digital design.

2023 - Present

Spread Group

Remote, Germany

Advancing the company's UX/UI maturity through the advocacy of human-centered approaches, shaping visions and roadmaps within the team and organization. Translating complexity into user-centric and aesthetic design concepts utilizing design thinking and collaborative UX metrics. Responsibilities include user needs assessments, research planning, competitive analysis, and collaborative usability test plan creation with researchers.

Senior UX / UI Designer

2021 - 2023

Fashion ID Gmbh & Co. KG

Remote, Germany

Lead Designer in the Welcome Discover domain with focus on customer acquisition and content exploration. Responsible for user research, testing, interaction and visual design, and information architecture across all web and mobile products of Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf. Published monthly internal UX newsletter for transparency, identifying and transforming weaknesses. Led research-driven iterations to streamline the Insider loyalty program, achieving exceptional results. Collaborated cross-functionally to define roadmaps and proof of concepts for new products and features.

UX / UI Designer

2019 - 2021

zetVisions GmbH

Heidelberg, Germany

Led SaaS implementation projects for renowned national and international clients in the SAP ecosystem. Collaborated with a diverse team to implement and configure our master data management solutions, establishing a unified "Single Point of Truth" (SPoT software) and ensuring reliable data with robust governance rules and the four-eye principle. Supported analysis workshops, identifying pain points and defining project scope. Conducted passionate training sessions to onboard key users to the new system.

Consultant

2019 - 2021

Carina Frey Designs

Remote, worldwide

Consulted with freelancers and startups to improve user experiences and align business goals with user needs. Responsible for user research, testing, information architecture, visual design, interaction design, and prototyping. Practiced Lean UX for efficient team collaboration and creating minimum lovable products for early testing and iterative learning. Proficiently prepared and presented pitch decks to potential seed investors.

freelancer

2018 - 2019

Caliber Living, LLC

Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

Showcased leadership and management skills in onboarding new marketing assistants for Caliber's portfolio of student housing properties along the U.S. East Coast. Planned and executed marketing budgets, campaigns, and strategies, resulting in a noticable revenue growth. Conducted frequent user testing to enhance the user experience of our newly launched property management app. Utilized expertise in Adobe Creative Cloud Suite to design and supervise social media content and marketing collateral.

Marketing manager

20+

Projects

in UX and branding

Certifications

from Google, NN Group & UserZoom

98%

Client Rating

5+ testimonials

my focus & approach

What is your design process?

As a digital designer, I have been asked many times “What process do you follow?” The answer to this query depends on the specific project, its scope, and budgetary constraints. I possess proficiency in Lean UX, an agile project approach commonly employed by startups to minimize resource and time wastage while swiftly delivering a functional product. However, my preferred methodology is Design Thinking, which involves five key phases: empathizing with the user to comprehend their needs, defining the problem to be addressed, ideating sustainable solutions, crafting functional prototypes, and validating concepts through iterative testing.

What are your focus areas?

I specialize in conceptualizing, designing, and delivering best-in-class digital products and websites. My expertise extends beyond visual aesthetics and user interfaces, as I meticulously craft user journeys that not only captivate users but also solve complicated problems. In addition, I am building and activating brands by leveraging strategic insights, emotional connections, visually compelling elements, and creative expression.

What is your Agile team philosophy?

Working in an agile environment means to me that relevant stakeholders are involved early and often to maintain maximum transparency, efficiency and effectiveness. From my perspective, fostering empathy within the team and collectively defining and aligning on problem statements forms a robust foundation for rapid ideation. It isn’t enough to run through a design process once. Frequent testing to learn from the users allow the team to reiterate and optimize the solution. Being agile is to be set up to react to new information fast.

What are your design principles?

Achieving seamless design experiences across various platforms is paramount, regardless of the user's chosen platform. As a UX designer, it's my duty to ensure that designs effectively accommodate and leverage the distinctive features of each platform. When preparing to design across platforms, I adhere to the following design principles:

Consistency: Avoid uniformity, but be consistent. Re-use design patterns to create familiarity.
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Clarity: Create structure and hierarchy. Make decisions easy by avoiding paradox of choice.

Continuity: Your design should work everywhere; responsive is not only screen size.

Aesthetics: First impressions do matter. Take the extra time to delight your users.

What is your biggest Dream?

I am driven by a guiding philosophy: "Find your freedom. Live your life." It is my ultimate goal to achieve true freedom which personally means to break free from societal constraints, embrace my true self, and lastly pursue my deepest desires. One of my primary ambitions is to foster connections with people from diverse cultures to better understand their behaviors, mentalities and traditions. This will not just allow me to find more meaning and grow personally but also to build equity-focused products that are sustainable and make a true impact in our society.

I’M Carina, YOUR GO-TO product DESIGNER AND MARketing specialist.