Shivani Harode
Senior UX Designer
I make complex information clear for the people who use it.
Case studies
PROTECT case management
Sole designer for a statewide legal system: brand, a design system built from IBM Carbon, three web tools and a desktop app.
Live in all 72 Wisconsin counties
Read case studySchool finance portal
A six-month rebuild of the state's school-finance portal, from a maze of links to a role-based system.
Research to handoff in six months
Read case studyManaged Print Central
A live sales-to-contract platform, improved release by release, with one shared component set matched to the code.
Shipped into a live app, release by release
Read case studySpotlight dashboard
An internal portal for module status and ownership, built inside the Citi Design System in light and dark.
One component set, light and dark
Read case studyPrint product pages
Where I moved from UI developer to designer: customer research and tested concepts for choosing print products.
Two rounds of usability testing
Read case studyKind words
“Working with Shivani on PROTECT has been a rewarding experience. Over 1.5 years she delivered thoughtful, user-centered design. She rose to every challenge with professionalism and curiosity.”Lisa FangmannBusiness Analyst, DA IT Program, Wisconsin
“You took the team's input and put together a nice design scheme. Applying patterns to our XCQ design is one of your real strengths. Good that you adjusted the approach from web to desktop forms.”Jenn MacainagProject Lead, PROTECT, Wisconsin
“Shivani brought real structure to a complex design problem. Her ability to map two completely different user types and design separate but coherent interfaces showed a maturity of thinking I rarely see.”Shakila ShanmugnathanUI/UX Lead, HP Managed Print Services
Same discipline, every project
On most projects I have been the only designer, so the process has to hold up on its own: decisions are written down, the system comes first, and engineers are in the room early. I also run workshops and design reviews, guide developers through builds, and mentor teammates on UX and Figma.
Understand the work
Stakeholder sessions, walkthroughs of the current tool with business analysts, and testing with real users or the people who support them.
Audit before drawing
A heuristic review first, so the redesign doesn't rebuild the same problems in nicer colors.
System, then screens
Tokens, variables and components in Figma before high fidelity, so hundreds of screens stay consistent.
Hand off and stay
Specs in Dev Mode, a written decision log, and build reviews with developers until it ships.
Yes, this portfolio has its own design system: 14 color tokens, three modes and a few shared components. It’s tokens all the way down. Take the two-minute tour
I use Claude, Figma Make and Claude Code for the slow, mechanical parts: sorting interview notes, first drafts of navigation trees, clickable prototypes and small front-end fixes. Research conclusions, design decisions and accessibility sign-off stay with me, and no real user data goes into an AI tool.
Outside client work
Everyday UX problems I noticed and worked through on my own. More, including Figma experiments with components, variables and motion, on My work →
Pantri: cook from what you already have
A grocery and pantry app shaped by home cooks I met at a cooking competition in Dallas. Research, scope, a variable-driven design system, Smart Animate and Figma Motion.
Read the case study →
The GuruNanda toothpaste cap
The top looks like the cap. The real cap is the green base.
Netflix: what to watch, with AI
Research plan and concept for picking a show together.
Amazon homepage redesign
Every change tied to a UX law, checked against WCAG 2.2.
Six everyday UX problems
Doors, car screens, stoves, parking signs and more.
I came to design through front-end code.
I started at Atos Syntel building FedEx pages as a UI developer and kept asking why screens were built the way they were. That curiosity turned into UX research, wireframes and, eventually, owning the full design of statewide systems.
Code still shapes how I design. I know what's cheap and what's expensive to build, I write specs engineers can act on, and I can open a stylesheet myself when a fix is small.
Hiring a senior UX designer?
I'm looking for senior product, UX or design system roles on complex products, including healthcare, government, enterprise and fintech. Remote or Dallas–Fort Worth.