In their own words
“When Luís joined the project, the goal was to redesign one of our most challenging products. The experience was confusing, difficult to navigate, and frustrating to use. He rethought the experience from the ground up and, step by step, transformed it into the product with the best user experience we've had at Uphold.”
Sofia Ribeiro
Lead QA, Uphold
“As Product Manager, I worked with Luis on a daily basis for almost a year. He is a self starter, always trying to find new ways to improve the design process, he implemented a Design System we still use.”
Martin Sigwald
Business Development Manager, CoinAlpha
“Luis is one of the best UI/UX designers that I have ever worked with. He excels at creating highly usable, beautiful interfaces for quant traders, DJs, and other unique user personas with complex needs.”
Michael Feng
Co-founder, Hummingbot
“Luis is a very talented designer who communicates effectively in a business environment, because understands the market and the customers' needs and exceeds their expectations.”
Cristina Ferreira
International Business Manager, Displax
“Luís Oliveira represents the perfect symbiosis between a designer and an entrepreneur. For two and a half years, I worked with him at Edigma. An autodidact eager to continue developing his already outstanding knowledge and expertise on design, he also seeks to keep updated about Marketing, technology, entrepreneurship and arts.”
João Fernandes
Marketing Manager, Edigma
“You have a strong mind, making swift analysis on different subjects at the same time. You are also opinionated and can present a strong case.”
Ricardo Capote
Principal Project Manager, Microsoft
“I had the pleasure of working with Luis at Uphold, where he was my Design Lead. He's a thoughtful and creative leader who trusted his team and consistently encouraged me to keep improving as a designer. I really appreciated his support, the confidence he placed in my work, and the way he created an environment where people were motivated to do their best.”
Antonio Duarte
Senior Product Designer, Uphold
“He led design efforts across our internal products and supported several portfolio companies. His ability to translate complex ideas into intuitive user experiences consistently added value to our projects.”
Petr Martynov
Head of Growth, Morningstar Ventures
Capabilities
Discovery
- UX research
- Research operations
- Customer insight
- Usability testing
- AI-augmented design workflows
Design & Experience
- Experience design
- Visual design
- Design systems
- Design governance
- Scalable UI architecture
Leadership & Collaboration
- Stakeholder management
- Cross-functional leadership
- Team mentorship
- Client & account management
- Design leadership
Business & Product Strategy
- Product strategy
- Growth strategy
- Innovation strategy
- Business design
- Business impact
Work Experience
Responsible for design strategy and execution within the Enterprise vertical, leading the Enterprise design team and helping raise the bar for design and user experience in fintech. Design ownership spans the Enterprise Portal, Ascent, Widget API, and Topper.
- Led the end-to-end redesign of Ascent, Uphold's institutional OTC trading platform built for investment funds, family offices, and institutional investors managing large digital asset volumes, now powering 40% of Uphold's total exchange volume, including a 30% share from mobile OTC trading
- Redesigned corporate onboarding into a single-URL flow using Figma AI to optimize the Enterprise Portal's KYB onboarding flow, cutting QA overhead by over 50% and user activation time in half
- Managed a team of three designers across varying seniority levels, earning a 5.0/5.0 in executive calibration for Ways of Working & Mindset
- Own the strategy and end-to-end experience of the Widget API (Payment widget and KYC onboarding flow)
- Built a Claude Code-powered prototyping playground for the Widget API, integrated with the design system and connected to GitHub, enabling rapid testing, stakeholder validation, and closer collaboration with engineering
- Used Figma AI to generate and evaluate new interaction proposals for Ascent, grounded in user interview data, accelerating how quickly new experiences could be tested and validated
- Promote consistent design systems and clear design governance across scalable UI architecture
- Established a research operations practice across the product team: UX research, usability testing, customer interviews, and data analysis to inform design decisions
- Weigh trade-offs across Product, Engineering, and Business
- Identify and assess UX debt
- Identify opportunities and remove friction from the experience and processes
- Work closely with the Design Systems team and handle stakeholder management across Product, Engineering, and Business
Design of internal products and direct support to multiple portfolio companies of a Web3/crypto-focused venture studio, with teams distributed across Dubai and several European countries, working across product strategy, design systems, and end-to-end experience design.
- Archethic: redesigned the product's end-to-end experience and adjusted the branding to fit the market context
- 37x (Senior Designer, Jul 2023 to Nov 2024, within the same period): reworked the company's communication and visual brand strategy
- Advising 8 portfolio startups on UX and brand strategy: Coin.fyi, Egld.gg, Ethernity, EVEDEX, FereAI, MultiversX, Tada, and Meria
CoinAlpha is a leading provider of liquidity solutions for crypto projects, with Hummingbot, the industry's leading open-source trading bot, as its flagship product. I built a complete design system from scratch (the Hummingbot Design System) to standardize the visual language across digital products and speed up front-end development. It became an open-source project, available to the community.
- Developed and maintained the internal design system (HBUI)
- Analyzed user behavior to inform design decisions that improved adoption rates
- Continuously improved the UI and UX of the digital products
I collaborated with Imaginando as Design Advisor, supporting UX & UI Product, Art Direction, Design Consulting, Brand Communication, and Web & Content Strategy.
- Designed frameworks and developed tools ensuring alignment of the company's vision and positioning, both at individual product level and across the overall brand
- Responsible for building Design Systems for the apps
- Created an intuitive web experience showcasing Imaginando's products and guiding visitors toward purchase, redesigning checkout to increase conversion by 35% and reduce drop-offs
- Products delivered: BAM, VS, FRMS, K7D, DLYM
- Developed communication strategies and marketing campaigns aligned with the audience
- Rigorous attention to detail, shipping pixel-perfect UI
Taught the basics of UX design: core principles, organizing content clearly, structuring visual information around user interaction. Curriculum included Service Blueprint, Consumer Journey Map, Personas, User Flow, Wireframes, Prototypes, and Pattern Library, closing with a 360º project.
Led design strategy and creative direction for multidisciplinary teams, with responsibility for Brand Design, UI/UX, Web Development, Editorial Design, Typography, Motion Graphics, and Brand Strategy.
- Defined and maintained creative strategy and vision across projects
- Led, trained, and managed a team working with clients including Uphold, Uni-form, WIT List, Sabseg, eSolidar, Dancake, Critical Software, Babb, Exeedme, Public Mint, and Hold
- Handled stakeholder management through strong working relationships with clients across all engagements
Public Mint Lead Product Designer, May 2019 to Jul 2021
Team of 5 designers, data-driven design strategy, cohesive design system. A fiat-native blockchain platform co-founded by Uphold's founder.
BABB Lead Designer, 2017 to 2019
Consumer mobile banking app, team of 5 designers, launch of the main website, landing page design system
HOLD Platform Lead Designer, Feb to Apr 2019
Consumer crypto wallet, brand development and style guide, mobile app UI prototyping, team of 2 designers
Exeedme Lead Designer, 2018
Slyk IO Lead Product Designer, Jul 2020 to Jul 2021
Unimoney Lead Designer, Mar 2021 to Aug 2021
Led the project for Unicâmbio's consumer digital-to-physical wallet, covering app design and UX
Co-founded Blleb, a digital interactive agency focused on web and app development, UX/UI design, digital strategy, immersive website development, and brand identity.
- As Creative Director, led the development of Uphold's graphic identity and design framework, turning an ambitious brief into a cohesive visual proposal, work that later opened the door to a direct entry at Uphold as Senior Designer, in 2015
I co-founded Kollectbox, a marketplace for collectors, always as an external project alongside my main roles. I started it in parallel with Blleb, and kept it running as extra work while at Seegno, from Nov 2015 onward.
Interface and visual communication design in a branding and digital design agency context, for national and international clients.
- UI Design for web and digital applications
- Visual identity and brand systems design (brand identity, brand implementation)
- Prototyping and wireframing
- User experience (UX) design for web and digital projects
I worked as an external consultant on the simplification of Activo Bank's digital channels, the first Portuguese bank oriented toward and focused on its users. Activo Bank was honored by the international financial magazine Global Finance with the "Best Web / Home Banking Design in Europe" award.
Design of interfaces and interactive experiences in a technology agency context, focused on multitouch products and digital signage projects, for clients such as IKEA.
- Worked in the R&D department developing the DISPLAX™ Multitouch Pack and the ARENA Multitouch Platform, flagship products of the company at the time
- Led the design of award-winning websites and interactive applications for top brands
Interface and user experience design for financial software, during the early stage of a company specialized in digital transformation for the banking sector. I was particularly involved in the Millennium BCP project.
- UI Design for financial software platforms
- User experience (UX) design
Over the years I have worked on a wide range of projects, such as:
Whether you're looking to collaborate, talk more about my work or just have a conversation:
Let's talk