KAREN ALARCON

UX & VISUAL DESIGNER

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

Contract UX/UI Designer
Meraki Vision / Remote / May 2021 - Present

• Responsible for user flows, sitemaps, wireframes, color mockups, clickable prototypes and, style guides for multiple clients
• Work with developers, stakeholders, and project managers to ensure designs are feasible, functional, and fun

Lead Designer                 
ITIAH Angels for Learning / Remote / Mar 2021 – May 2021

• Working with a small team to improve the donation flow of the ITIAH Angels for Learning website built on WordPress
• Conducting a competitive and heuristic analysis of the current site to uncover usability issues and propose possible solutions
• Sketching wireframes and creating a lo-fi prototype to test against current and new donors

Freelance Visual Designer                   
Self-employed / Remote / Mar 2019 – Present

• Assess client needs and design on-brand visual solutions ranging from custom illustrations, iconography, graphic design, product mockups, logos, or animations  

User Experience Designer/ Information Architect
FELOH: For Everyone’s Love of Hair / Remote / Oct 2020

• Collaborated with a small team and key stakeholder in a 3-week agile sprint to deliver a high fidelity IOS application prototype
• Conducted research, card sorting, and usability testing to present recommendations on the organizational structure of app and products
• Redesigned user interface using competitive research, gamification, and task analysis to introduce an elevated mobile experience

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE

Operations Manager
Eleni's New York / Remote / Apr 2017 – Mar 2019

Print Technician & Creative Services
Eleni's New York / New York City / Mar 2016 – Apr 2017

• Implemented an in house 3D printing system to design, create and print custom 3D cookie cutters, cutting 3rd party costs by 70%
• Consulted with the marketing team to launch on-brand email campaigns to increase online sales by 15%
• Directed current employees and taught new hires while achieving company productivity standards, goals, and objectives
  

Art Studio Manager
EarthSeaWarrior, LLC / Brooklyn, NY / Aug 2015 – Oct 2016

• Led the daily operations of the art studio with specialization in product management, web, and graphic design
• Prepared new and existing product listings for various E-commerce websites to optimize for the web and increase online sales
• Organized the logistics of incoming inventory and quality control for accurate reporting, improving business workflow and efficiency by 25%

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Visual Design
Information Architecture
User Interaction Design
Wireframing
Prototyping
Branding/Identity
Competitive Analysis
Usability Testing
UX Research
Project Management

TOOLS

Adobe XD
Figma
Sketch
Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator & After Effects
Miro
Draw.IO
Slack
Google Suite
WordPress

EDUCATION

General Assembly
User Experience Design Immersive
Aug-Oct 2020, Remote               

Fashion Institute of Technology
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Illustration
Mar 2014, New York City