Rachel Reid

Product designer at fintech startup Ascent Platform since 2022, from early stage to Series A. I created its design system from scratch: 119 React components, WCAG 2.1 AA, dark mode and white-label skins. I'm now leading the app's migration onto it, and took a desktop-only product to 95% responsive on borrower pages.

I design and build front-end UI with Claude Code, prototyping in working code on the real design system instead of static mock-ups. I work with international clients, including lenders in the US.

Design system and accessibility

• Created Ascent's design system from scratch: 119 React components built on MUI, following Material 3 and customised for the brand, each with usage and accessibility guidelines.
• Made the system WCAG 2.1 AA (keyboard use, focus, contrast and ARIA), now protected by a nightly automated accessibility check across 1,313 component stories and 15 contrast checks on every code change.
• Leading the migration of the live app onto the new accessible system, about half complete, auditing each page's UI and UX and redesigning where needed.
• Restructured the colour theme from 35 to 42 light and dark roles, then designed and built user-selectable dark mode and a white-label skin system for each client's brand colours.
• Taking a desktop-only platform mobile, borrowers first: 95% of borrower pages and 85% of lender pages are now responsive, and 53 components are built mobile-ready.
• Designed the team's Claude Code workflow for the design system: commands that create, review and check usage of components, audit pages into Jira tickets and run those tickets end to end, plus a coaching agent for junior engineers.

Product design and front end

• Design and ship new features end to end, from discovery with founders, clients and lenders to release.
• Led the loan reviews and renewals feature, replacing email, letters and fax with one trackable flow for lenders and borrowers.
• Prototype in working code with Claude Code and Claude artifacts built on the design system, so stakeholders and engineers review real UI, not static files.
• Build front-end UI in React with Claude Code, and hand off cleanly to engineers for back-end work.
• Built Claude Code quality-control commands that developers run on front-end work, catching design system, accessibility and consistency issues before code review.

Leadership

• Stepped up as lead UX designer: guide and give structured feedback to junior designers and support their onboarding.
• Work daily with founders, product managers and engineers to set priorities and balance user needs with business goals.
• Review every pull request that touches UI, from any developer, for component use, guidelines, consistency and UX.
• Ran remote research sessions with a US lender client, then designed and built the front end of the fixes: a reviews overview, a documents overview and request deduplication.

• Audited and redesigned the Shopify store with Claude Code, from priorities to production code and data.
• Rebuilt navigation around how people shop for gifts: by product, occasion and interest. Added 11 occasion collections and 4 storefront filters.
• Rewrote, tagged and added alt text to 191 products using scripted bulk edits with dry runs, backups and verification.
• Fixed a header menu that closed on tap, adding keyboard (Escape) support and 48 px targets, and shipped it to the live store.
• Made personalisation clearer: a "how it works" homepage section and a longer, better-labelled engraving text field.

• Audited the venue's 44-page website and brochures, logging 22 findings tagged as bugs, quick wins or decisions for the trustees.
• Designed and built two clickable concepts in code with Claude Code, one led by weddings and one by the building, so volunteer trustees could compare directions on their own phones.
• Both concepts pass automated WCAG 2.2 AA checks with no axe violations across 42 page and screen-size checks. Pitched to the trustees with redesigned brochures and a handover plan.

Design: product discovery, user flows, end-to-end feature design, design systems, Material 3, accessibility (WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 AA), prototyping, journey mapping

AI and build: Claude Code, Claude artifacts, React, MUI, Storybook, Git and GitHub, Shopify

Tools: Figma (advanced), VS Code, Notion, Excalidraw, Adobe Creative Cloud

BSc (Hons) Digital Interaction Design, 2:1 · University of Dundee, 2022