Joelson
Leal

About me

Hi, I’m Joelson, a product designer and design engineer based in London, originally from Cabo Verde.
I have 8+ years of experience designing mobile and web products. I’ve worked with early-stage startups and public platforms to create digital experiences that are useful, clear, and built to scale. My work focuses on visual clarity, usability, and solving real user problems.
I’ve led product design in cross-functional teams, shipped products used by thousands, and helped build systems that support accessibility, localisation, and trust. I’ve also advised on product strategy in fast-moving environments where design directly shapes outcomes.
Currently, I’m doing a master’s in UX Engineering at Goldsmiths, University of London, where I’m exploring how people interact with technology and how we can make those experiences better.
I care about great design, teams that work with purpose, and building products that grow with people in their real-world contexts.

Research Interests

User-Centred Design
User Experience
Human-Centred AI
Web3
Blockchain
Decentralized Identity
Fintech
KYC Process

Experience Highlights

Senior Product Designer
Kriolish, Inc. | Remote
2022—Present
Redesigned the platform, boosting monthly visits by 395%. Improved usability across devices through iterative testing. Defined design strategy with leadership and built a scalable component-based design system to support future growth.
VP of Product Operations
hello.cv | Remote (left to pursue masters in the UK)
Jan 2024—Sept 2024
Directed registrar onboarding and accreditation for the .CV TLD, adding 15+ registrars and driving 4,000+ new domain registrations, while automating multilingual customer support to cut response times by 70% and uniting cross-functional teams to upgrade digital services and customer experience.
Design and Innovation Manager
Cabo Verde Digital
2021—2023
Co-led national digital transformation projects and ran workshops to improve program-market fit for startups and public institutions. Led initiatives that supported over 500 tech founders.
Lead Product Designer
Bonako
2016—2019
Led design for 5+ digital products, including MyUnitel and Passafree, reaching over 100K users. Worked closely with developers using React, Kotlin, and SwiftUI to ensure seamless, cross-platform delivery.

Education

MSc in User Experience Engineering
Goldsmiths, University of London
2024—Present
BSc in Multimedia Design
University of Cabo Verde
2010—2014
Certification in Public Management
Arizona State University
2022

Language

English
Fluent
Portuguese
Fluent
Cabo Verdean Creole
Native Speaker

Skills & Toolstack

design
all
Accessibility
toolstack
all
Adobe Creative Suite
design
all
Advance Prototyping
tech
all
CSS
leadership
all
Cross-functional Teams
design
all
Design Systems
leadership
all
DesignOps
leadership
all
Developer Collaboration
toolstack
all
Discord
tech
all
Domain Lifecycle Mgmt
toolstack
all
Figma
toolstack
all
GitHub
tech
all
HTML
research
all
Heuristic Evaluation
design
all
Interaction Design
design
all
Interactive Prototype
tech
all
JavaScript
research
all
Journey Mapping
toolstack
all
Miro
design
all
Mockups
research
leadership
all
Problem Framing
design
all
Product Design
leadership
all
Product Strategy
design
toolstack
all
ProtoPie
tech
all
RDAP
tech
leadership
all
Registrar Operations
research
all
Research Data Analysis
toolstack
all
Sketch
toolstack
all
Slack
leadership
all
Stakeholder Mgmt
research
all
Surveys
design
all
UI Design
design
research
all
UX Design
research
all
Usability Testing
research
all
User Personas
research
all
User Research
research
all
User Testing
toolstack
all
Visual Code Studio
tech
all
WHOIS
toolstack
tech
all
Webflow
design
research
all
Wireframing
tech
all
ccTLD Handling