Alyssa Ramirez

Hi, I'm Alyssa

UX researcher + designer

I love figuring out what people actually need, then designing around it. Ask people carefully and they will usually tell you exactly where a product lets them down.

Looking for UX research and UX design internships and junior roles. Irvine, California.Resume (PDF)

Alyssa in a portrait lit in pink and magenta, looking off to the side, in a black turtleneck against a rose wall.

What I bring

Case studies

A project I'm building now, then the research and accessibility work behind it. Each one says what we found, what we decided, and what we haven't tested.

Grayscale mobile wireframes for the Cuidance first-time path: welcome, create account, guest preview, unlock full guidance, a quiz question and the guidance result.

Featured. Beauty and wellness app (in progress)

Cuidance

Researcher and designer, two-person team

Beauty and wellness advice is scattered across TikTok, YouTube, Google and retail sites, and nothing tells you whether it fits your skin, hair or experience level before you try it.

Finding so far: Not tested yet. The research points to one thing: people are guessing whether advice fits them, so every answer needs room for 'not sure.'

Mobile app · Competitive review · Prototype · Accessibility

Read the Cuidance case study

Research and accessibility work

A journey map on sticky notes showing a parent buying a toy, introducing it to a child, and watching how the child plays over time.

Primary research study

Designing Inclusive Play for Kids

Lead researcher, team of three

Toy companies say they want more inclusive products, but few can say what families actually want children to see in their play.

Finding: People pick the characters that stay with them for their values, such as bravery and humor, as well as how they look.

Interviews · Survey of 51 · Journey mapping · Archetypes

Read the Designing Inclusive Play for Kids case study
A slide showing the redesigned Settings and Notifications screens, with a profile option to show neurodiversity and controls for when and from whom to get notifications.

Accessibility audit and redesign

Bumble Accessibility Redesign

Lead UX researcher and designer, team of four

A 24-hour match timer pressures autistic users to start a conversation before they have had time to work out what to say.

Finding: The 24-hour match timer was the most serious of six barriers, and neither Hinge nor Tinder has one.

Accessibility audit · WCAG · Prototype · Self-audit

Read the Bumble Accessibility Redesign case study

More work

How I work

Four habits, and the work that shows each one.

Start with empathy

I picture one real person on their worst day with the product, then design for that day.

  • Bumble: a persona named Sam, and the 24-hour match timer that was hardest on her.
  • Inclusive Play: three interviews and a survey of 51 young adults.
  • Cuidance: a worst moment mapped for each type of user.

See the Bumble redesign

Design for everyone

Accessibility is a requirement from the first sketch, not a polish step at the end.

  • Cuidance: accessibility moved up to a Must Have after our prioritization review caught it.
  • Bumble: audited against WCAG, with a severity rating on every barrier.
  • Ramboll: client reports of 50+ pages remediated to ADA and WCAG standards.

See how Cuidance changed

Tell the story

Film school taught me that structure decides what an audience feels.

  • A24: one argument (protect the label) shaped every choice, down to the size of a logo.
  • Whitewater Films: 20+ scripts read, with structured feedback for the team.
  • Every case study here says what is tested and what is not.

Read the A24 story

Work better together

Two points of view usually beat one, as long as everyone can disagree out loud.

  • Cuidance: Esme and I each drafted user roles, then merged them into one set.
  • Teams of three on Inclusive Play and four on Bumble.
  • Ramboll: co-chair of a global employee network group.

See how we worked

From film to research

I studied Cinema & Television Arts, read scripts for a film development team, and worked in operations before I moved into UX. Film taught me to watch an audience and notice what they feel at each moment. Operations taught me how a process breaks when real people use it.

More about me

Also available for freelance projects. See my services

Contact

I'm looking for UX research and design internships and junior roles, and I'm always happy to talk about a role, a project, or design in general.

Alyssa Ramirez on LinkedIn