Baribefe
Gbara
UX Research · Product Design · Figma · Prototyping
I use research as leverage: talking to and observing the actual people who use the product, testing assumptions, and letting real behaviour shape every decision. I came into design from Medical Laboratory Science, and I bring the same precision and empathy to every product I touch.
Medical scientist.
Now a designer.
I trained for years as a Medical Laboratory Scientist, working across chemical pathology, immunology, haematology, and histopathology. It's exacting work. One mislabelled sample and a diagnosis is wrong. That standard for precision never left me, even after I moved into design.
I got into UI/UX through DigiGirls during a university strike, and it stuck because it let me combine that same care for accuracy with something more creative: figuring out what actually makes a product work for the person using it. Since then I've designed for a healthcare research company, a SaaS product, and a nonprofit, always starting from research, not assumptions.
I think in systems. I ask why a flow feels confusing before I touch the visuals. That same curiosity is also why I recently graduated from AltSchool Africa's Cloud Engineering programme and am continuing to build in that space, I want to understand how products work end to end, not just at the interface layer.
What I bring to a team: professional research training from my background as a Medical Laboratory Scientist, a genuinely user centered approach, documentation discipline, and the ability to put myself in the user's shoes when shaping an experience.
How I work
Research-first, systems-minded, and grounded in a healthcare-trained attention to detail.
Selected work
Real client and product work across healthcare, SaaS, and nonprofit spaces.
Verify Social: Trust & Verification Platform
Verify Social is a trust focused platform built to close the gap between customers and businesses during online transactions, promoting transparency and confidence in social commerce. I've led product design on it since 2023, from early discovery through to a live product used by real businesses today.
Online transactions between customers and small businesses often lack a reliable way to verify legitimacy on either side, leading to trust issues that slow down or block otherwise good transactions.
- Own the end-to-end design process across the full product lifecycle, from discovery to implementation
- Lead user research through surveys, questionnaires, and competitor analysis
- Work directly with founders and engineers to translate research into functional, scalable experiences
- Continuously monitor usage and feedback to guide ongoing product decisions
What started as an early concept has grown into a functional platform used by real businesses. It's reinforced a core belief I bring to every product: good design comes from continuous research, collaboration, and iteration, not assumptions.
Metaphor Laboratory: Website Redesign
Designed and delivered a responsive website for Metaphor Laboratory, a translational science and diagnostics company working across sub-Saharan Africa. The challenge was making dense clinical and scientific service offerings feel clear and trustworthy to a non-specialist audience.
- Designed the full site architecture across Translational Science and Market Access service lines
- Applied biomedical background to translate clinical/scientific concepts into clear, accessible UI copy and structure
- Conducted research, wireframing, and high-fidelity prototyping aligned to both user needs and business goals
- Ensured accessibility and intuitive navigation across a content-heavy, multi-service site
View Case Study on Behance →
SaaS Product Design
Took over and improved an existing SaaS product's interface as Product Designer, working closely with developers and a product manager to align design decisions with technical constraints and business goals.
- Rebuilt inconsistent UI to align with a unified style guide across the product
- Ran usability tests, identified friction points, and implemented resulting design changes
- Conducted research to surface marketing insights and improve overall user experience
- Led brainstorming as design team lead, working closely with the product manager
Where I've worked
- Designs healthcare and SaaS platforms in Figma with a focus on usability and clear information architecture
- Collaborates directly with developers to translate designs into working implementations
- Conducts user research and usability testing to drive iterative improvements
- Took over and improved existing designs, creating new interfaces consistent with the product's style guide
- Optimized product performance through usability testing and implementing resulting design changes
- Coordinated with developers throughout the product lifecycle to align design vision with technical specs
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams on the seamless design and development of the Foundation's website
- Developed wireframes, prototypes, and detailed user personas to guide targeted design decisions
- Managed tight deadlines while maintaining high-quality design standards through to public launch
- Gained hands-on experience in a professional UI/UX setting, simulating full designer responsibilities
- Conducted user research and illustrated design ideas for a novel public hospital app using storyboards and sitemaps
- Identified and addressed design flaws in existing websites, focused on improving user onboarding
- Performed laboratory testing and quality control across microbiology, haematology, histopathology, and chemical pathology
- Documented and tracked samples using LIS/LIMS, building the same rigor now applied to design documentation
- Collaborated with medical teams in a time-sensitive, high-stakes clinical environment