UX / UI Designer
Alisa in Wonderland
Every project is a room I fall into.
I don't leave until it's beautiful.
Case Studies
Four rooms, four problems.
Every case study runs the full path: research and interviews, personas and flows, testing with real people whether that was a moderated usability round or a focus group, then the interface it produced.
Nuance
Most beauty apps get shade matching wrong. Nuance fixes it with real matching and reviews nobody was paid to write.
User InterviewsUsability TestingFigma
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UX/UI Designer, 12 weeks
Ⅰ · Nuance
Beauty · iOS & Web
Spotify Redesign
A home screen you can actually customize: toggle, reorder, and finally switch to light mode.
A/B TestingAfter EffectsMotion Graphics
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UX/UI Designer
Ⅱ · Spotify Redesign
Music · Redesign
Reboot
Pinterest for gamers: builds, outfits, and guides in one place instead of five apps and a camera roll.
Focus GroupBranding
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UX/UI Designer
Ⅲ · Reboot
Discovery · iOS App
Flosser
A mascot system that rewards consistency over perfection, turning a dull habit into something worth showing up for.
GamificationPrototyping
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UX/UI Designer
Ⅳ · Flosser
Health Habit · iOS App
How I Work
The same process, every time.
Four steps, in the same order, on every project on this site. The tools change from one to the next; the sequence does not.
01
Listen
Interviews, surveys, and a hard look at what competitors already get right or wrong.
- User Interviews
- Surveys
- Competitive Audit
02
Define
Turn scattered findings into personas, a sharp problem statement, and the flows that solve it.
- Personas
- How Might We
- Task Flows
03
Build
Paper to low fidelity to high, with a design system so the hundredth screen still matches the first.
- Wireframes
- Design Systems
- Prototypes
04
Prove
Put it in front of real people, watch where they stall, then change the design instead of the user.
- Usability Testing
- A/B Testing
- Iteration
Alisa Utesheva
About
I'd rather be wrong in a usability session than in production.
Spotify and Nuance each went through two rounds of usability testing before I called them done, and every project here was rebuilt at least once on the strength of what testers said, because good instincts still have to survive contact with real people.
I also take work the full distance myself: research, UI, and a working, branded prototype. I work in Figma, Framer, Webflow, Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects, and I write my own front end when a project calls for it. This site is the second kind: every page here is hand-written HTML and CSS.
MindScoop. My Future Agency class partnered with CBS to ask how AI, AR, and immersive stage tech could reach younger news audiences without being tech for tech's sake. Our three-person team pitched on site at CBS and was recognized as a Breakthrough Insight.
My role: UX Designer on the Pop Quiz app integration and the MindScoop TikTok prototype.
View the pitch deckBackground
- Graduated May 2026. Academy of Art University, San Francisco.
- Started in middle school. A class assignment to build a website, everyone else complained it was boring, I couldn't wait to go back.
Practice
Software
Résumé
The whole record, on one page.
Education, tools, coursework, and the projects behind the case studies above. If you want the version tailored to your role, my email is just below.
Contact
Let's build a world.
Open to full-time roles, contracts, and problems that keep me up at night. Based in the Bay Area, open to relocating closer to San Francisco.