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Ciao!

Welcome, I'm Val

Lead Product Designer · UX & AI Experience (AX)I believe the best technology doesn't feel clever, it feels effortless, trustworthy, and genuinely useful.

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15+ years experienceZero to acquisitionNN/g UX Master certified

Selected work

Things I'm proud of

Ask, Don't Chat

Designing Guided AI Data Import for Expert Finance Modellers.

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From Zero to a Multi-client Workplace App

Led UX and product strategy for a workplace app adopted by Zurich, EY, Mace and more. The Zurich engagement grew from a few hundred thousand to a multi-million contract, and Spica’s revenue doubled in six months.

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AI Prototyping: Designing for Trust

Developing an AI/AX design practice around trust, evaluation and human control.

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What I do

System,
not screens

UX Design

Research-driven, human-centred design that solves real problems — from user journeys to polished interfaces.

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AI Experience (AX)

Designing AI people can trust: the right interaction model, visible sources, human control, and evaluation built into the process.

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Product Strategy

Connecting business goals with user needs. Roadmaps, discovery, and design decisions that move the needle.

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Kind words

What people say

  • TS
    Val is an experienced and hugely passionate UX leader with a wealth of industry knowledge. [She] revolutionised how we thought about UX for our clients, and importantly helped us win many global corporate contracts for our B2B Employee Workplace app solution.
    Former CEO
  • LG
    Val was integral to developing the UX discipline within the company… from mentoring junior team members and customer education through to improvement of our design thinking maturity and practices. … using methodically collected data to get buy-in for change from both internal and external stakeholders.
    Former manager
  • CK
    Valeria and I worked in an agile way on UI/UX. I learned a lot from her and enjoyed her open, solution-oriented, and collaborative working style. The fully branded App … takes care of the needs of visually impaired people and is easy and fun to use.
    Client
  • RJ
    Valeria was a Lead UX/UI Designer and my manager — not just a manager, but a mentor for me at the start of my UI/UX design career. Valeria is the person, to whom you may ask all questions about UX/UI field, and 100% you will get a reasoned, explained answer back.
    Designer, managed by Valeria
  • OC
    Her amazing mentoring skills helped me navigate complex topics… We had regular meetings to debate designs and best practices for user experience. Those meetings became the foundation of regular knowledge-exchange meetings — a ‘design tribe’ — for everyone involved in the design process.
    Designer, mentored by Valeria
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Portrait of Valeria De Rubeis

Experience

15+ yrs

Published authorVedere Digitale

About me

Design that starts
with people.

I'm Val, a Lead Product Designer specialising in UX and AI Experience (AX), with over 15 years of experience creating digital experiences that are both beautiful and genuinely usable by everyone.

I believe good design is invisible — it works so naturally that people don't notice it. Whether I'm running user research, building design systems, or shaping product strategy, my north star is always the human on the other side of the screen.

FigmaDesign SystemsWCAGUser ResearchPrototypingMiro
More about me

From the blog

Thoughts & ideas

8 min read

AI is Redrawing the Designer Role

Faster shipping, blurred responsibilities, and the growing value of human judgement.

Artificial IntelligenceProduct DesignUX Design
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7 min read

Choosing the Right Kind of AI

Why probabilistic models, deterministic systems, and hybrid architectures solve different problems.

Artificial IntelligenceGenerative AI

Coming soon

Personal project: Safe AI

Artificial IntelligenceEthical AI
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Open to opportunities

Let's collaborate

Whether you're growing your design team, exploring what AI can do for your product, or tackling a tricky UX challenge — or just fancy an interesting conversation — I'd love to hear from you.

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