Sydney Pagiel
A product designer driven by business strategy and an understanding of development constraints, designing financial and consumer products around user intent and trust.
Experience
Website Designer | Sales Advisor 2026
Sub Sahara Africa Motors
Conducted competitive analysis across local automotive platforms, identifying UX and accessibility gaps.
Designed a user story–driven website improving purchase clarity and reducing decision friction.
Identified lifecycle gaps and proposed a loyalty program to improve retention.
Co-Founder 2022-2023
Fyve Meal Services
Led a user research effort that resulted in a 650% increase in subscriptions in the second month of operations.
Developed a comprehensive meal delivery programme that met the requirements of 3 defined user types resulting in an uptick in referrals and subsequent onboarding.
Developed and began the roll out of a container exchange programme that reduced recurring container expenses.
Graphic Designer | Business Advisor 2019-2022
Skin Nurse Organics
Overhauled the brand identity and product strategy for an organic skin care startup with a heavy emphasis on a more streamlined sales process, and visuals that promote trust and diverse market requirements.
Identified demand for targeted skincare solutions through research and split the product line into treatment-focused and organic ranges, driving growth in an emerging market.
Conducted market research to identify key markets to focus on cutting out poorly performing products to save costs when sales dropped.
Projects
UX Designer | Self Initiated Project 2024-2025
Standard Chartered: Design Systems
Audited cross-market navigation, revealing internal banking structure prioritized over user intent, forcing users to self-identify by segment before reaching products.
Designed a core and extended navigation system, scaling from flat links for small markets to mega menus for large ones, organized around user intent.
Paired information cards with bottom sheets for progressive disclosure, letting users scan content without page redirects.
UI Designer 2024-2025
Standard Chartered: UI Redesign
Designed a new home screen experience with action cards, allowing common banking actions to be fast tracked and completed quickly.
Rebuilt mobile navigation around user tasks rather than user type, with a 4–5 item primary bar and an adaptive secondary menu.
Redesigned the money transfer flow, reducing steps to complete a transfer by up to 50%.
UI Designer | Self Initiated Project 2026
Ndovu: Design Systems, Website Redesign
Redesigned Ndovu’s landing page around a trust ladder, strategically pairing low and high commitment CTAs and placing trust signals at the point of decision.
Replaced abstract benefit copy with concrete, first-investor framing (S&P 500 and ETFs from KES 5,000) and elevated Ndovu’s CMA/ODPC regulation into a hero trust marker.
Built a clearer color hierarchy, reserving green for trust and positive signals and orange for targeted highlighting, with a product-forward hero showing real portfolio and fund surfaces.
Skills
Design & UX
Prototyping
Interaction Design
Wireframing
Visual Design
Design Systems
Accessibility
UX Auditing
Usability Testing
Information Architecture Design
User Research
Development
HTML
CSS
SvelteKit
Tools
Figma
Sketch
Product & Strategy
Marketing
Business strategy & Analysis
Product Thinking
Conversion Optimisation
Competitive Analysis
Education
Bachelor’s in Business Information Technology (2019–2023)
Diploma in Business Information Technology (2017–2018)
Certifications
Effective Altruism Introductory Program
Applied frameworks for prioritisation, expected value thinking, and high-impact decision-making.