Principal Product Designer · Design Systems Lead
Product designer. Systems thinker. AI collaborator.
Over 20 years I've designed consumer apps, enterprise platforms, and the design systems that keep both consistent. From banking in the Middle East to mobility in Europe — across teams I've built, led, and scaled.
Selected work
Aurora: the design system that made Careem's rebrand possible
NDADS Lead
Fixing the system, not the screens: a platform-wide UX audit at Jisr
NDAPrincipal Product Designer
Building Wasl: the design system that unified seven Jisr product squads in four months
NDADS Lead
Designing GAME: one tool to replace the entire FreeNow campaign workflow
Senior Product Designer
Moving FreeNow design system to the next level
Senior Product Designer
The design challenge: redesigning a Carpooling app for a community that outgrew it
Senior Product Designer
Writing
Design systems: we often build castles over ancient ruins
Creating design systems in companies is often like building new houses on top of existing ones: we need to rely on old foundations and communications. Why is this happening? A design system is a…
How to build a strategy, not a roadmap
Crafting an effective design system strategy A design system is a product. A product that solves concrete tasks: ensuring consistency reducing development time and much more Most often, the main…
A more holistic design workflow: gluing Jira, Figma, and Zeplin together
How to organize an effective design process from planning tasks in Jira, organizing files, to handing over to development Whether you are making coffee or painting a picture, the order of actions can…
Maintaining icon libraries in Design systems
Practical tips for Figma users Icons are one of the core elements of interface design. A designer needs to have a well-organized library of icons that can be easily updated and extended. In the case…
Sometimes you have to say politely “No”
Argumentative rejections are part of the job of creating and maintaining design systems. Credits — Neon effect by Valery Zanimanski There are a large number of articles that teach how designers can…
What people say
Rafael was transformational for us. His understanding of UI/UX is second to none - the ability he has to understand the user journey and interaction from the clients perspective allowed us to grow our product & user base 20x during his tenure at SwipedOn.
I can confidently that Rafael is one of the Top-Designers I've ever worked with. He has a deep understanding of UI & UX combined with technical programming skills. He speaks the language of the user as well as of the Techie who has to implement the design.
Rafael transformed our design system from a loose hodge-podge into one of the strongest design systems I've ever seen in my long career.
As a design system lead, Rafael's expertise is unmatched. He demonstrated a unique ability to bridge the gap between design and development, ensuring that our design system was not only visually consistent but also technically sound.
His improvements to the design system were far more than just technical enhancements — they fundamentally transformed the way our team worked. The result was a more cohesive, efficient, and enjoyable design process for everyone involved.
From scratch, Rafael built a design system that meaningfully upgraded how the entire organization designed and shipped product. Rafael is thoughtful, engaged, and consistently makes time for less experienced designers.
People often think product design is just about creativity and user experience. But working with Rafael shows it’s so much more. Rafael combines deep technical skills, design system expertise, and an incredible ability to mentor others. He doesn’t just solve problems - he helps those around him grow.
At Careem, Rafael played a key role in rebranding by introducing color tokens, automating design-code synchronization, and establishing a robust testing environment. His strategic initiatives, including live documentation systems and process improvements, significantly enhanced team collaboration and efficiency.
Besides being a great human being, Rafael is one of the most talented designers I have met so far. I worked with him on several projects and have always been impressed by his dedication, composure and knowledge.
On top of his work as a member of a high performing cross functional team Rafael filled out the role of a design system architect and was the responsible person for successfully establishing a design system that is being used by all relevant products in our company until the present day.
Rafael is one of the most interesting people I have ever come across to work with. It was quite impressive to realize his ability to deep dive into the analysis of any given problem, dissecting it into pieces with an engineering mindset, but still focusing on the user experience, keeping it as the main goal at all times.