Lou Barkan · Product Designer

Selected work

Launching and scaling a system of record

LPL Financial

Redesigning NORCAL’s insurance claims process

BuildOnMe

From bench to signpost

Designed and built with AI

PSIgnpost Consulting

Coming soon!

Bringing a membership association back from the brink

HFMA

How I work

My method is simple and straightforward.

Frame the real problem
I map the system and talk with the people in it to build context and understand deeply: the goals, the pain, the economics, how the work actually flows. What I find has often changed what we built and why.
Design in the open
I show my work early and often, rough and polished, bringing the team along and explaining my decisions as I make them. I welcome their feedback which makes the team and work stronger.
Validate and evolve
I validate with real users and real numbers and let the evidence decide. What I learn feeds the next round evolving the product or service.

Skills & capabilities

My work is grounded in classic UX craft and sharpened on regulated, enterprise realities. Increasingly, I do it with AI in the loop, governed by my judgment.

Research & Strategy

Discovery & problem framing
Qual + quant research
Process & systems mapping
Opportunity framing & prioritization

Design

Product & service design
Interaction design
Information architecture & content strategy
Design systems & governance

Leadership & Delivery

Stakeholder alignment
Workshop facilitation
Mentoring & team building
Design-to-dev handoff & QA

Building with AI

AI-assisted research synthesis
Rapid prototyping
Human-in-the-loop design
Design-to-code with agents

What I stand for

The principles I keep coming back to when the work gets messy.

People first. Always.

Life and work happen with and through people. I invest in the people I work with and am committed to their personal and professional growth.

Drive to the why

You can't solve a problem until you know why it exists. I dig for the real objective and build shared understanding as I go keeping the team aligned and solving the same problem.

Mind the value exchange

Advocating for the user is where I start, not where I finish. I design the full trade: what the customer gives, what the business gives back, and whether that deal is worth making at all. Some deals aren't, and I'll say so.

Outcomes over output

Output is nearly free, and it's easier than ever to confuse producing things with making progress. I ship to learn what research can't tell me, measure the result, and revise. The artifact was never the point.

Life's too short

Work is hard enough without being grim and salty about it. I lead with humor, keep it light when the pressure's on, and make sure the team's having a good time doing hard things. I do my best work that way and believe others do too.

What others say

Don't take it from me. Hear it from clients, managers, and teammates.

"He helped us distill mountains of qualitative data into unique insights, then manifested them into the best experiences for our customers. HFMA’s new digital experience attracted an average of ~20% more new customers a month versus our previous model."

Garth Jordan

Client, Chief Strategy Officer · HFMA

"Lou has demonstrated the breadth and depth to execute across the full spectrum of user experience — from information architecture and interaction design work on very complex business workflows, to product research and development (exploring and applying emerging UX trends), to practice development (researching and designing new offerings such as a “Problem Solving Workshop in a Box”)."

Frank Wang

Chief Product Officer · BuildOnMe

"Lou is a talented designer, but that’s not the best part of having him on your team. The real reason I’ll stand beside him is that he’s a person of integrity, he leads with humor and humility, and has no ego."

Rosie Rathburn

Director, PM · lululemon

"Large or small, strategic or tactical, he would not stop until he was satisfied with the results. His mastery of UX, IA, content strategy, and service design makes him a formidable resource."

Terry Peters

Managing Director · ICF Next

"He took our technical ideas and built the UX flow and look-and-feel, facilitating full-day design workshops and leading development with my team. He pushed back where appropriate, the results were beyond our expectations."

Jay Wrobel

Senior Advisor · U.S. Dept of Energy

"He approaches problems focused on end-user benefits rather than an arbitrary list of tasks, and isn’t shy to responsibly push clients to think bigger."

Faryar Borhani

Chief Comms Officer · Encore

"Lou drives to ‘the why,’ then toward the best ‘what’ and ‘how.’ He’s a true consultant, an asset to any team looking to build the right thing, the right way."

Ken Wasetis

Technical Strategist · ICF Next

"Lou is powered by doing the hard work that makes things better. Easy to say, super-hard to find. So few can provide the entire suite of design services with a spirit of curiosity and the dedication of an expert."

Jamie Anderson

CX Design Exec · ICF

"Every project I was on with him, I knew was in great, capable hands. His UX expertise comes with excellent communication, thoughtful strategy, and cutting-edge service design, delivered with an eloquence matched by few."

Danny Mason

Creative Director & Consultant

Get in touch

Ask me anything, or just say hello.

Chat with my AI assistant who knows my work, or reach me directly.

Emaillouisbarkan@me.com LinkedIn/in/louisbarkan RésuméDownload PDF

Hey, I'm Lou's AI assistant, trained on his real work. Ask away, or reach Lou directly on the left.

AI assistant · answers grounded in Lou's real work

I take tough business problems by the horns and turn them into well-designed, well-built products and services.