●
About Me
Dornaz Niknezhad
UX Designer · Health, Consumer & Enterprise Experiences
I design experiences that make complex, high-stakes systems
feel simple and trustworthy — for the people who depend on
them most.
Experience
5+ years
Focus
Health · Consumer ·
Regulated
Based in
Dallas, TX
Approach
Research-first
01 · About Me
A bit about who I am.
I'm a UX Designer with 5+ years of experience designing digital products that people rely on to make real
decisions — about their health, their work, and their lives. My background spans consumer health platforms,
regulated healthcare software, and enterprise tools, which means I know how to design for both the
complexity of the system and the humanity of the person using it.
My deepest research focus is sleep. I spent a year in graduate school studying how people actually sleep —
behavioral patterns, environmental factors, what wearables like WHOOP and Eight Sleep get right and where
they fall short — and I designed a validated consumer sleep experience from the ground up, tested with 50+
real users. That research lives in me now. I think about sleep, behavior change, and health data differently
than most designers.
I use AI tools daily — Claude for research synthesis and strategic thinking, Figma Make for rapid prototyping
— because I believe the best design process generates and tests more ideas faster, without losing the human
center. Every decision I make is grounded in research, validated with users, and built to hold up under real-
world conditions.
02 · What I Do
Where I add the most value.
01
Design consumer and enterprise experiences grounded in behavioral research
02
Turn complex, multi-step processes into clear, guided user journeys
03
Lead end-to-end UX — from user interviews and synthesis through high-fidelity delivery
04
Build and maintain design systems that scale across platforms and teams
05
Use AI tools to accelerate research synthesis, prototyping, and iteration cycles
06
Design for regulated environments including healthcare compliance and ADA/WCAG standards
03 · How I Work
My approach to every project.
🔍
Research before screens
I start every project by understanding the people —
their mental models, behaviors, and the moments
where things break down. The interface comes last, not
first.
⚡
Clarity in complexity
Whether it's a health data dashboard, a regulated
financial flow, or a multi-step enterprise workflow, I find
the structural clarity that makes complexity feel
manageable.
📊
Research-driven decisions
I've synthesized 300+ behavioral insights across
projects, run usability testing and A/B tests, and used
card sorting and feature prioritization research to
validate before anything gets built.
🤝
Cross-functional collaboration
I communicate in product terms with PMs, in technical
terms with engineers, and in outcome terms with
stakeholders — which means design decisions move
faster and stick.
04 · Experience Snapshot
What I've built and measured.
Consumer Sleep Platform — M.A. Thesis Research
1 year of behavioral sleep research — competitive analysis of WHOOP and Eight Sleep, designed and validated a
consumer sleep experience from scratch.
50+
users validated through usability testing, card sorting & feature prioritization
Enterprise Validation Platform — NTX Embedded
Research-led redesign of an enterprise testing workflow used by expert operators across manufacturing and validation
environments.
3mo → 1wk
validation cycles compressed through workflow redesign
Safety-Critical Interface Redesign — NTX Embedded
Replaced a memorization-dependent 10-step setup process with a guided, tiered alarm experience — making urgency
impossible to miss.
10 → 4
task steps reduced · 60% faster installation
Regulated Healthcare Platform — Esurgi Biotech
Designed accessible, ADA-compliant digital experiences for a regulated healthcare platform with strict governance and
compliance requirements.
300+
behavioral insights synthesized across healthcare, consumer, and enterprise projects
05 · Core Skills
Depth across the design process.
User Research & Synthesis
Expert
Usability Testing
Expert
Figma & Prototyping
Expert
Health & Wellness UX
Advanced
AI-Assisted Design
Advanced
Regulated Platform Design
Advanced
Design Systems
Advanced
ADA / WCAG Accessibility
Proficient
06 · What I'm Looking For
The work I want to do next.
I'm looking for roles where UX sits at the intersection of real human need and product complexity — whether
that's consumer health and wellness, regulated financial or healthcare platforms, or enterprise products that
expert users depend on every day.
Health & Wellness Platforms
Regulated Financial UX
Consumer Behavior Products
Enterprise SaaS
AI-Powered Experiences
Sleep & Wearable Tech
I'm especially drawn to organizations that treat research as a foundation, not a checkbox — where
understanding people deeply is seen as the fastest path to better products.
07 · Tools & Methods
How I get work done.
Tools
Figma (expert)
Claude (daily)
Figma Make
FigJam
Miro
Jira
Adobe Creative Suite
Asana
Methods
User Interviews
Usability Testing
A/B Testing
Card Sorting
Journey Mapping
Insight Synthesis
Feature Prioritization
AI-Assisted Prototyping
08 · Beyond Work
What drives me outside of projects.
Outside of work, I'm genuinely obsessed with how people relate to their own health data — what makes
someone actually change their sleep habits versus just track them. That curiosity is what drove my thesis and
it hasn't slowed down. I follow sleep science research, experiment with wearables, and think a lot about how
digital products can support behavior change without becoming another source of anxiety.
I also stay close to what's happening in AI — not just as a tool for designers, but as a design challenge in
itself: how do you make intelligent systems feel trustworthy, transparent, and human? That question sits at the
center of a lot of the work I want to do next.
09 · Contact
Get in touch.
✉
Dornaz.nk@gmail.com
🔗
dornaznik.figma.site
📞
(210) 701-4742
💼
linkedin.com/in/dornaz-niknezhad
📍
Dallas, Texas, USA
✅
U.S. Citizen · Open to work
Let's work together.
I work best at the intersection of research, complexity, and real human impact, whether that's a consumer health platform, a regulated enterprise product, or something entirely new. If you're building something that matters to the people who use it, let's talk.
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