Open to Opportunities

UI/UX Design Leader with 17+ years building enterprise-scale products

I lead design teams, build scalable design systems, and bridge the gap between design and engineering. Looking for my next leadership role at a company where design drives product strategy.

17+
Years Experience
200+
Components Built
14+
Designers Led
J. James Nickson — UI/UX Design Leader
About Me

I don't just design products — I make complex systems feel inevitable.

For over 17 years, I've worked inside enterprise environments where the stakes are high, the systems are complex, and the users have no patience for bad design.

I've led design teams, built design systems from scratch, and shipped production front-end code — often in the same sprint. My strength is operating at both the strategic and the craft level: setting design vision while staying close to the build.

What energizes me is the puzzle — taking a product drowning in feature debt and inconsistent patterns, and turning it into something that feels simple, works fast, and scales.

I bring deep expertise in Figma, HTML/CSS/SCSS, design systems, motion graphics, and a growing practice in AI-assisted design workflows using tools like Claude, Cursor, and Figma AI.

Design Leadership

Hired, mentored, and managed teams of 14+ designers across product lines.

Systems Thinking

Built enterprise design systems with 200+ components, tokens, and governance.

Design-to-Code

Ship production HTML/CSS/SCSS — not just mockups. Bridge the handoff gap.

AI-Forward

Early adopter of AI in design — Claude, Cursor, Figma AI, Lovable in daily practice.

Career Journey

17 years of growing impact

From individual contributor to design leader — each role deepened my expertise in enterprise product design, team building, and cross-functional collaboration.

2024 – Present

UI/UX Manager

Enterprise — Gaming & SaaS
Led a team of 14 designers. Built a 200+ component design system. Established design governance and contribution model. Reduced design-to-dev handoff time by 3×.
Team LeadershipDesign SystemsEnterprise UX
2019 – 2024

Senior UI/UX Designer

Enterprise — SaaS Platform
Redesigned core product dashboards serving 50K+ daily users. Improved task completion by 40%. Led UX research and prototyping initiatives. Shipped production front-end code.
UX StrategyPrototypingUser ResearchFront-End
2014 – 2019

UI/UX Designer

Enterprise — Software Products
Designed complex enterprise workflows. Developed component libraries in Figma. Implemented responsive front-end patterns in HTML/CSS/SCSS. Mentored junior designers.
FigmaHTML/CSSComponent Libraries
2009 – 2014

UI Designer

Early Career — Web & Applications
Built foundational expertise in visual design, information hierarchy, and front-end development. Worked across web applications, marketing sites, and interactive prototypes.
Visual DesignWeb DevelopmentIA
Selected Work

How I think, lead, and deliver

Each case study highlights my role, approach, and measurable impact. These are the stories behind the work.

-35%
Onboarding
+40%
Task Completion
50K+
Daily Users
Case Study

Enterprise Dashboard Redesign

Reduced onboarding time by 35% and improved task completion by 40%
Challenge Complex analytics platform with 200+ features causing confusion and support escalations.
My Role Design Lead — research, IA restructure, component design, front-end implementation.
Process User interviews → journey mapping → progressive disclosure → prototyping → A/B validation.
Impact 35% faster onboarding, 40% better task completion, 60% fewer support tickets.
UX StrategyFigmaDesign SystemUser ResearchHTML/CSS
200+
Components
14
Designers
Faster Handoff
Case Study

Enterprise Design System — Zero to Scale

Built a 200+ component system adopted across 4 product lines
Challenge Fragmented UI across products — inconsistent patterns, duplicated effort, slow handoff.
My Role Design System Lead — token architecture, components, documentation, governance.
Process Audit → tokens → primitives → composed patterns → migration guides → adoption tracking.
Impact 3× faster design-to-dev handoff, 70% fewer UI inconsistencies, org-wide adoption.
Design SystemsFigmaSCSSDocumentationGovernance
4 wks
To MVP
92%
Usability
Case Study

SaaS MVP — Concept to Funded Product

Shipped a testable MVP in 4 weeks that helped secure seed funding
Challenge Early-stage startup with no design or front-end — needed to demo to investors.
My Role Sole designer — research, wireframes, hi-fi, front-end prototype, user testing.
Process Problem framing → competitive audit → rapid wireframing → Figma → HTML/CSS → 2 test rounds.
Impact MVP in 4 weeks, 92% usability score, prototype used to close seed round.
MVP DesignPrototypingHTML/CSSUser Testing
Expertise

Skills & Tools

A comprehensive toolkit refined over 17 years — from strategic thinking to production-level craft.

Design

UI/UX Design
Design Systems
Information Architecture
User Research
Wireframing & Prototyping
Interaction Design

Tools

Figma (Advanced)
HTML / CSS / SCSS
After Effects
Premiere Pro
VS Code / Cursor
Git

Leadership

Team Management
Design Ops
Cross-Functional Collab
Stakeholder Management
Mentoring & Coaching
Design Strategy

AI Workflow

Claude
Figma AI
Cursor
Lovable / v0
ChatGPT Workflows
AI for UX Research

Motion & Video

Motion Graphics
UI Animation
Explainer Videos
Video Editing
Micro-interactions
How I Lead

Leadership Philosophy

The principles that guide how I build teams, set direction, and create environments where designers do their best work.

Hire for curiosity, train for craft

The best designers I've managed were the ones who asked "why" relentlessly. Skills can be taught — intellectual curiosity and drive can't.

Protect the team, challenge the work

My job is to shield the team from noise and politics, while pushing the quality of their output higher than they thought possible.

Systems over heroes

I build processes and design systems that make consistency the default — not dependent on one person having a great day.

Stay in the craft

I never stopped designing and coding. A design leader who's lost touch with the work can't meaningfully review or elevate it.

Radical clarity

I over-communicate priorities, decisions, and tradeoffs. Ambiguity kills velocity — especially in enterprise environments.

Bridge design and engineering

I speak both languages. I write front-end code, attend engineering standups, and ensure that what ships matches what was designed.

Emerging Practice

AI in My Design Process

AI isn't a novelty in my workflow — it's integrated into every phase, from research to production code.

I use Claude for research synthesis, content strategy, and deep analysis. Figma AI accelerates layout exploration and auto-layout decisions. Cursor powers my front-end code with AI-assisted iteration.

For rapid prototyping, I use Lovable and v0 to go from concept to working prototype without traditional dev cycles. And I teach teams how to adopt these tools with practical, workshop-based training — no hype, just workflow upgrades.

This isn't about replacing designers — it's about amplifying what experienced designers can deliver in less time.

Claude

Research & analysis

Figma AI

Design acceleration

Cursor

AI-powered coding

Lovable

No-code MVP builds

ChatGPT

Content & ideation

v0

Rapid prototyping

AI Wireframing

Layout exploration

Design Automation

Scripted workflows

Let's Connect

Looking for a design leader who ships?

I'm exploring my next leadership role — a place where design has a seat at the table and the ambition to build products that matter. Let's talk.