¡Hola!
I’m Giana Pilar González, a User Experience designer based in NYC. At my core, I bring the creative spark that helps projects evolve and thrive. Throughout my career, I've leveraged user experience design to help agencies land major accounts, foster evergreen client relationships, and develop award-winning designs through a combination of customer insights and creative intuition. My experience includes both agency work and long-term in-house consulting engagements, allowing me to seamlessly contribute across all stages of the design-build cycle or focus on specific project phases. I've designed transactional and e-commerce experiences, developed novel interfaces, and created research-driven digital strategies for consumer products, with particular expertise in beauty and fashion.
Regardless of the subject matter, I specialize in user experience, working across projects that demand design expertise while collaborating nimbly and flexibly with teams. Design, clarity and collaboration are my superpowers.
I'm available for both long and short-term engagements and always eager to connect about new opportunities.
My Background
As a designer, researcher, and facilitator with strong cultural competency (born and raised in Panama), I bring my core strengths to a holistic approach to product design and marketing. These skills enable me to create ideas and experiences that shape businesses, generate profit, and positively impact end users.
My UX career began at R/GA NY, followed by a role as lead experience designer at LBi-Digitas. In 2013, I founded TEOSANTOS, an independent design consultancy serving a diverse clientele.
My projects have reached large online audiences and earned accolades, including Webby awards. Additionally, I have experience helping secure funding for new businesses, providing valuable support for agencies, in-house teams, entrepreneurs, and startups. I also develop art with a focus on performance. Please see my full CV for more details.
Process & Ideas
My first step is to truly understand the challenge and the user, then grasp the brand or organization's identity and structure. Map Your Code illustrates how I can reverse engineer a brand or a person through their visual patterns. I apply this level of curiosity when working with clients to understand how to tackle a design project by analyzing their products, interfaces, and services—since all these tell a story by experientially demonstrating who they are and where they stand, which helps inform where they need to go. I hope you enjoy the MYC video!
Different stages of projects require the development of different types of artifacts. In this case study, you can see the full cycle from strategy and research to tangible, tested designs. What's exciting is being able to provide not just a solution, but the 'why' behind the solution. In my process, I aim to have as much of a complete picture of a problem as possible, as well as having a pulse of the work and trends, and most importantly, listening to the user in their natural environment—in this case, while shopping and expressing their frustrations with checkout. You can hear the users in their own words!
Thank you for taking the time to visit. I welcome the opportunity to discuss how these approaches, and my experience and skills might benefit your project and organization. Reach out with any questions!