Dragos Vuia

I'm a UX Designer based in Vancouver, BC that's passionate about user experience strategy, cognitive-based design decisions, and innovative mobile interactions. Recently I've been engaged with Biba Ventures conducting user research, developing user flows, and building out dashboards and mobile prototypes from scratch. You may also find me working closely with the Data team just to lend a hand and to learn more about this up-and-coming field.

Background & Side Projects

I launched my UX Design career by working at AutoTrader.ca, first as a Lead Web Designer, then as a mobile app designer. Following this, I joined a team of content strategists at the City of Vancouver, where for 2 years I engaged in user research, mapping and prototyping, as well as high-fidelity mockups, which all lead to the successful launch of the Vancouver.ca website. The next 4 years I spent working as part of the Asurion UX team, designing mobile experiences for clients such as Walmart, Costco, Target and Soluto.

I have a formal design background, most recently studying UX Design at BrainStation Academy and before that, Web Design + Development at VCC, both in Vancouver. I obtained my Law degree from the Western University Vasile Goldis (Transylvania, Romania), and completed a 4-year mathematics and physics program at the Moise Nicoara National College in Arad, Romania.

My print designs can be seen throughout Vancouver, as maps & viewfinding materials for Stanley Park, False Creek marinas and other areas; as branding, marketing and wine labels for Mike's Hard Lemonade and Mark Anthony Group; and as annual & budget reports, brochures and various print materials for the City of Vancouver and its affiliated business units (Vancouver Fire Department, Vancouver Parks Board).

As an early adopter of Lean UX and its core principles, I believe that customer satisfaction is the best key indicator of future success.

My Top 3 strengths are: Being highly adaptable, valuing collaboration above anything else and employing analytical thinking to tackle any problem I come across.

Design + Development

Specialties: Human-Centered Design, Mobile Design, Rapid Prototyping, Information Architecture, Visual Design, Data Visualization, Design Thinking.

Favourite design & prototyping tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, InVision, Framer X, Adobe XD, InDesign, AxurePro, Flinto, Principle.

Previous development experience includes: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Yellow Pencil CMS, Jira, Cold Fusion.

Courses currently taking:
• Getting dashboards right (Interaction Design Foundation, online)
• Accessibility and Web Standards (Interaction Design Foundation, online)
• Test Automation with Selenium WebDriver and JAVA (in-class)

Clients & partners

I've worked directly with a wide variety of clients, from various industries (education, retail, government, tourism, construction, art and fashion). Here's a brief list, in alphabetical order:

• Bouygues Construction
• Burnaby Arts Council
• Burnaby Tours & Charters
• Concord Business Development
• Columbia Restorations
• Dynamic Metal Solutions
• Fun 4 Kidz / Crash Crawly's
• Genesis Restorations
• Golden Pita Restaurant
• Hyphen Communications
• Infection Control Training Group
• Industry Training Authority
• Jacqueline Conoir
• Justice Institute of BC
• LionsGate Contracting
• OHS Global
• Retro Specialty Contractors
• Vancouver Grizzlies

Major companies

A list of companies I have worked for in the past 10+ years, and their affiliated partners, clients and business units for whom I've provided services:

• Canada Post
• City of Vancouver
• Walmart (via Asurion)
• Costco (via Asurion)
• Target (via Asurion)
• Sears (via Asurion)
• DirecTV (via Asurion)
• Kenneth Cole (via Stockgroup)
• Stockhouse (via Stockgroup)
• Avalon Advanced Materials (via Stockgroup)
• SunPower Corp. (via Stockgroup)
• BC Cancer Foundation (via Stockgroup)
• Mission Hill Winery (via MAG)
• Mike's Hard (via MAG)
• Yellow Pages Group (via AutoTrader)
• Vancouver Public Library (via CoV)
• Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services (via CoV)
• Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation (via CoV)