Vanessa Sánchez

Senior UX researcher and designer with deep cross-functional expertise in fintech, climate tech, healthcare, and responsible AI. Combines rigorous mixed-methods research with strong visual design craft, translating insights into solutions. Proven across enterprise platforms, early-stage products, and interdisciplinary research initiatives—from blockchain innovation lab to shipped consumer apps to a $10M research platform.

Skills

Core Competencies

End-to-End UX Research
Experience Design and Prototyping
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Visual Design

Design

Experience Design, Wireframing, Prototyping, Interaction Design, Visual Design, UI Design, Information Architecture, Data Visualization, Mobile Design, Platform Design, WCAG/A11y

Tools

Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Firefly, Google Stitch, Miro, Otter, Claude, JIRA, Notion, HTML/CSS

Emerging Technologies

GenAI, Prompt Writing, AI Workflow Integration, Responsible AI Frameworks, UX for Blockchain, UX for AI

Strategy and Collaboration

Stakeholder Engagement, Cross-Functional Teams, Design Strategy, Presentation, Project Leadership, Mentorship

Research

Mixed Methods (Qualitative, Quantitative), Usability Testing, User Interviews, Surveys, Heuristic Reviews, Recruitment, Competitive Analysis, Workshop Facilitation, Personas, Journey Mapping, Data Synthesis

Education

The University of Texas at Austin

Master of Science in Information Studies: Human-Computer Interaction and Responsible AI

Explored principles of UX, how different people interact with complex information systems, and societal impacts of emerging technologies
Capstone: Conducted 14 semi-structured interviews with AI practitioners, revealing 4 distinct goal types that informed responsible AI toolkit design recommendations.

Texas State University

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design, minor in Anthropology,
6x Award-winning student designer

Certifications

LinkedIn Academic Research Foundations - Quantitative
CITI Social/Behavioral Researchers Credential ID 54364242
Career Foundry UX Fundamentals

Experience

2024–2026

UT Austin, Office of the Vice President for Research and Creative Endeavors

Planet Texas 2050: A research group at a large public university focused on interdisciplinary work in ecological resilience and community engagement.

Initiated UX research for a high-profile interactive platform based on $10M and 10 years of interdisciplinary research.
Pitched, planned, and conducted 36 semi-structured 45-minute stakeholder interviews 1:1 via Zoom with a digital workshop component from July 2024 to June 2025 to uncover goals, challenges, risks and synergies, informing platform scope, roadmap, metrics, design and features.
Facilitation of group workshops for brainstorming and prioritization of ideas.
Conducting comparative research of other websites, exploring development options, I translated qualitative data from UX research into themes, insights, recommendations, a site map, wireframes, and a taxonomy.

2023–2024

UT Austin, School of Information, Human-AI Interaction Lab

Research lab at a large public university largely focused on human-AI interaction in the public/civic sector.

Proactively overhauled lab operations, enhancing team efficiency via best practices, digital tools, and streamlined communication.
Developed equity-centered surveys and improved usability testing, resulting in better research methods and outputs.

2023

UT Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences, UT-City Climate CoLab

Research lab at a large public university focused on climate science and climate tech for improved mitigation of extreme weather events in collaboration with the City of Austin.

Initialized UX integration, designing the Austin Future Climate Report and data portal to improve the accessibility of complex data
Enhanced research communications with the community and helped establish human-centered design as a core value of the lab.

2022

Evernorth, UX Lead (Contractor)

Data engineering and analytics team within a health insurance (fintech) corporation focused on improving internal analytics tools.

Streamlined UX research methods by introducing tailored scalable frameworks and resources.
Improved usability through heuristic evaluations, rapid iterative testing (RITE) method, generative qualitative studies, and market research translated into wireframes for monitoring health insurance trends.

2019–2022

EY, Advanced Technology Tax Lab, UX Lead

Boston-based blockchain and AI technology incubator within EY focused on innovating solutions to challenges in the exchange of sensitive information within supply chains and global tax processes.

Senior UX Designer (July 2021—June 2022)

Led UX research and design for 3 MIS platforms to drive stakeholder engagement, resulting in leadership buy-in, continued funding, and an invitation to apply to EY’s global UX team.
Interpreted, architected and prototyped a blockchain-based platform designed to manage forced labor risks in supply chains, managing project complexities and enabling quick turn-around for stakeholder buy-in.

UX Design Contractor, ClearPath Workforce Management (Nov 2019—June 2021)

Developed UI for TaxGrid, enhancing stakeholder trust and facilitating a global demo with 12 stakeholder organizations across government, industry and academia, paving the way for commercial production in 2024.
Spearheaded a design system alignment initiative for TaxLab, influencing strategic discussions that shaped global UX leadership’s evaluation of a solution for isolated designers and small teams.

2019

Kapitus, Design Lead (Contract)

NYC-based financial services company providing small business loans.

Led design in a lean marketing team for 3 months as back-fill for their design leader, resulting in enhanced branding across touch points and an offer of ongoing consulting work.
Addressed UX challenges in online marketing, website design, and print mailers, resulting in improved design solutions.
Directed activities of junior marketing employee while leading company-wide intranet update initiative.

2016–Present

Independent Design Consultant

UX and communication design professional providing services in product research, product design, stakeholder engagement, digital presence, branding, and marketing execution.

Crafting detailed proposals for UX research services, aiming to identify user needs and enhance product usability through targeted research methods and stakeholder collaboration.
Led UX projects across various industries, enhancing user engagement, operational efficiency, and stakeholder communication.
- Public navigation app for Duke Farms nature preserve
- App management system for Billboard Hot 100
Developed and implemented a comprehensive branding and web design strategy for clients, enhancing online presence and user engagement.
- AMP Engineering | www.amp-engineering.com
- EcoAssets Environmental | www.ecoassets.us
Led design and production efforts for high-profile clients, improving marketing effectiveness.
- Revitalized brand expression across touch points for the Texas Hospital Association
- Produced graphics for top NYC retail brands at Catch24

Volunteer Work

OpenAustin Civic Hack Summit,

Canvas Designer

Developed a custom Project Planning Canvas as a tool to help facilitate the problem-solving process at The Civic Hack Summit, part of Code Across America and in collaboration with The City of Austin
Resulted in 11 viable ideas (up from 1) and adoption of the canvas by a non-profit in Japan.
The event brought together local developers, designers, project managers, government staff, public policy experts, and citizen advocates to launch a new wave of community-developed civic technology projects for Austin. www.open-austin.org

Cultivate Health Hackathon, Ethnographic Researcher and Team Coordinator

Coordinated team and designed observational research study for in-home interviews with people who live with diabetes.
The product is an app that helps people living with diabetes in low-income neighborhoods better manage their food intake, levels, and allows them to easily share that data with their healthcare providers.

NYU EdTech Accelerator,

UX Consultant

Advised an edtech start-up on design thinking, emphasizing user research and iteration.
Delivered UX research strategy, user survey results, interview questions, user research insights, wireframes for the website, mixed fidelity mocks, and graphic assets.
Guided graduate student interns in UX activities.

UT EcoCentric Future Lab,

Graphic Designer

Enhanced and unified team poster series exploring frameworks for animal-computer interaction and interspecies interaction in art-making and design.
Posters were displayed at a local Austin art show, Interspecies Intelligence.

UT AI in Health Lab,

Market Researcher

Led market research for an AI-powered CBT ADHD app for women (NSF I-Corps) to understand the experiences, motivations, attitudes, and behaviors of target users.
Designed the research study, which included competitive research, recruitment method, survey design, interview script / discussion guide, and analysis method.

Rainforest Partnership,