Product/UX Designer · Arlington, TX · Open to Work

Designing for people
at their most vulnerable.

I build digital experiences that remove barriers — not add them. Four years in patient care taught me that great design is the difference between someone getting help and someone giving up.

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Sarah Lee · UX Designer

step join flow — reduced from multi-screen friction

WCAG

2.1 compliant across all projects

years direct patient care informing every design

scroll

My Why

Accessibility is a human right.

"Serving as a primary advocate for my mother through her journey with Parkinson's Disease taught me that accessibility isn't a 'feature' — it is a fundamental human right. Watching her navigate a world that was slowly becoming inaccessible changed how I see every interface. A designer's real job is to understand the human context at their most vulnerable moment."

— Sarah Lee

Selected Work

Case Studies

End-to-end design from research
through prototype and delivery.

Mobile · iOS/Android

JOIN GAME

01 / 03

Mobile App · UX Research · Figma · Axure RP

Play Connect — Local Sports Coordination App

Local athletes lack a reliable platform to find spontaneous games and build consistent sports communities — resulting in an 85% monthly cancellation rate and 20+ minutes wasted organizing a single pickup game. I designed a mobile-first solution that reduces the entire join flow to 3 steps.

85%

cancellation rate addressed

3-step

simplified join flow

user personas researched

User InterviewsEmpathy MapsHi-Fi Prototype Usability TestingJakob's HeuristicsAI IntegrationFigmaAxure RP

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02 / 03

Web · Design System · HTML/CSS/JS · Live Project

UTA Philanthropy Conference Website

Before: Registration During: Live Event After: Subscribe

Designed and developed a fully responsive, WCAG-compliant web application for the real UTA Philanthropy Conference — live at philanthropyconference.net. Managing 3 distinct user states: pre-event registration, live day logistics, and post-event community. Led a 4-person team, owned all CSS/design systems and client relations.

person team led

user states designed

Live

deployed & in production

Design SystemWCAG 2.1ResponsiveClient Relations Team LeadFigmaHTML/CSS/JSPHP

View live site → View full case study →

Web · Responsive · Live

UTA Philanthropy

Conference 2026

Web · Real Client · React Rebuild

BNK

All

Drinks

Hotpot

Seafood

03 / 03

Web · Real Client · HTML/CSS/JS/PHP · React

The BNK Café — Restaurant Web Platform

A family-owned café took orders by phone only — I watched customers give up mid-order, so I pitched the owner and built the solution myself: a responsive web app with a 40+ dish dynamic menu, online reservations, and an event platform. I live-tested the ordering flow with revenue as the metric, redesigned it into a streamlined 3-step process — and recently rebuilt the menu system in React.

40+

dishes in dynamic menu

3-step

redesigned order flow

2 yrs

owned brand & web

Self-InitiatedLive TestingRevenue Metrics Brand IdentityHTML/CSS/JS/PHPReact

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philanthropyconference.net — Live in Production

April 8, 2026 · UTA Central Library · "Leading with Heart: The Lone Star Way"

Designed & developed by: Sarah Lee (lead), Joseph Naggar, Angela Rodriguez, Diana Tostado
Deployed by Anh Ta · UTA Department of Communication – Philanthropy Program

Visit Live Site ↗

How I Work

Design Process

Research-first, iterate-always — from messy ambiguity to clear, tested solutions.

Empathize

User interviews, observation, empathy mapping. I listen for what users don't say as much as what they do — informed by 4 years of real patient-facing experience.

MiroInterviewsEmpathy Maps

Define

Synthesize research into personas, user flows, and a sharp problem statement that aligns every stakeholder before a single wireframe is drawn.

User FlowsPersonasIA

Ideate & Build

Low-fi sketches → wireframes → hi-fi with design systems and WCAG compliance baked in from the first component. I build what can be coded.

FigmaAxure RPAdobe XD

Test & Iterate

Usability testing, Jakob's heuristics, A/B testing, hypothesis-driven iteration. Every round of feedback is a design input, not a setback.

Usability TestingA/B TestingHeuristics

About

Sarah Lee

I'm a Product Designer & UX Researcher based in Arlington, TX — graduated from UT Arlington with a B.A. in Communication Technology, UX Research & Design focus.

"To me, User Experience isn't just about making something pretty — it's about making someone feel capable. When we design with intention, we give people back their agency and their dignity."

Before design, I spent 4+ years in patient care as an optician and optometrist assistant — managing high-volume data, translating complex clinical output into accessible information, and advocating for my mother through her Parkinson's journey. That's not background noise. It's the foundation of everything I build.

Also: my puppy Leroy is the world's best design critique partner. 🐶

Skills & Tools

What I bring

Design & Prototyping

FigmaAxure RPAdobe XDIllustratorAfter EffectsPhotoshop

UX Methods

Usability TestingWCAG 2.1User InterviewsJourney MappingA/B TestingUnmoderated Testing (Maze/Google Form Surveys)Heuristic EvalHi-Fi PrototypingInformation Architecture

Development

HTML/CSS/JSReactPHPCursorClaude AIGemini AI

Soft Skills

Cross-functional CollabStakeholder MgmtTeam LeadershipClient RelationsVietnamese (Proficient)

Experience

Lead Designer & Front-End Developer

UTA Philanthropy Conference — philanthropyconference.net

Aug – Dec 2025 · Live Production

UX Product Designer (End-to-End)

Play Connect App — Mobile Case Study

Jan – Dec 2025

Marketing & Web Lead

The BNK Café — Family-Owned Hospitality Business · Arlington, TX

2021 – 2023 · Designed, built & live-tested the web platform

Optometrist Assistant & Optician

Distinctive Vision Care · Irving, TX

Oct 2020 – Sep 2024

B.A. Communication Technology

University of Texas at Arlington · UX Research & Design Focus

Graduated Dec 2025

Concept Work

How I'd approach mental health product design

Three design principles I'd bring are — grounded in research, WCAG experience, and the personal reality of watching a loved one navigate systems not built for her.

♿

Design for the lowest-energy moment

Someone opening a therapy app is often at their most exhausted. Every step is a potential exit. The job is to make the path to help feel effortless — not impressive.

↳ Zero-friction onboarding · Progressive disclosure · Clear affordances

🔍

Reduce cognitive load in matching

My Play Connect research showed that overwhelming filter options caused users to abandon entirely. Fewer, better-labeled choices build confidence — critical in therapist matching flows.

↳ Plain-language filters · Confidence scaffolding · Trust signals

✓

Accessibility isn't optional in health-tech

My WCAG experience is personal. My mother's Parkinson's taught me that motor, cognitive, and visual needs aren't edge cases in healthcare — they're the primary use case.

↳ WCAG 2.1 AA · Screen reader testing · Motor accessibility

Contact

Let's build something intentional.

I'm currently open to product design roles — especially in health-tech and high-expectation service industries — anywhere thoughtful design meaningfully changes someone's experience at a critical moment.

✉

Lsarahtran@gmail.com

→

linkedin.com/in/sarahtranlee

→

↗

Live Project

philanthropyconference.net

→

"Mastery is the cumulative effort of small, strategic failures. This is the story of the effort."

Based in Arlington, TX (DFW) · Open to on-site, hybrid, or remote · Open to relocation for the right opportunity

Available now · Actively interviewing