Best Paper Award
2026
Federal University of Santa Catarina: Computer Science
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from UFSC, completed in 2026.
Forward Deployed Product Designer specializing in AI, with over 7 years of experience
I build products used by millions of people
Forward Deployed Product Designer specializing in AI, with over 7 years of experience.
I work alongside product and engineering teams, from understanding the problem to implementation.
I research design and AI at UFSC, in Brazil, and I'm writing Design na era da IA, a book in Portuguese forthcoming from the publisher Casa do Código.
Founder of Xikota Design and Chapter Lead of The AI Collective Florianópolis.
Best Paper AwardCo-authored paper · AIMEDIA 2026, NiceBest Paper Award at AIMEDIA 2026 in Nice, France: co-authored paper. Explore the research
- Wellhub
- Zyla
- Yankee
- Samba
- Laboratório Bridge
- Ministério da Educação
- Gympass
- Multidrop
- Turing
- micro1
- PariPassu
- Pixel
Zyla: design and code in motion
As a Forward Deployed Product Designer, I designed and implemented the workout sticker in React Native. For the GPS recorder, I led research, design and the engineering handoff.
One product, two contexts
In practice, I was head of product at a German SaaS and trained a junior product designer. I split producer and affiliate into two contexts of the same product. When the guided tour failed, I turned the dashboard itself into the tutorial, with progress in plain sight.
Public education at national scale
My first version of the Pé-de-Meia enrollment form put everything on one page and increased abandonment. The second split the flow into steps that save progress, so students pick up where they left off when the connection drops.
A social network with AI built in
A social product published for iPhone, with a documented contribution to product design, visual identity, and motion. The case covers presence, Crowds, channels, and the AI direction without confusing prototypes with releases.
Research on design, AI and accessibility
A co-authored paper that won the Best Paper Award at AIMEDIA 2026, a recorded talk, and my undergraduate thesis comparing the accessibility of two design systems, Bold and DSGov.
- Best Paper AwardPublished paper2026
- Recorded talk2026
- Undergraduate thesis2025
Design na era da IA
A book in Portuguese with Casa do Código on how designers and product teams can use artificial intelligence with judgment, ethics, and safer workflows.
In production with Casa do Código
Open book pageMy background, by topic
Open the topic you want to explore. My story and the experience behind my work are here.
About meMy story, Japanese culture, community and music.
About me
I'm Thiago, a product designer born and raised on the island of Florianópolis, in southern Brazil, in a Japanese-Brazilian family (yonsei, fourth generation). I like understanding how things work and questioning what seems obvious. I spend my days turning messy problems into products people can actually use.
I started in design in 2019, before AI became a mandatory topic. Since then I've worked at Wellhub, Multidrop and Laboratório Bridge, where I helped design a platform for Brazil's Ministry of Education used by millions of students. I earned my degree in Computer Science at UFSC, with an exchange in applied computer science and AI at Sapienza, in Rome.
Today I work as a Forward Deployed Product Designer specializing in artificial intelligence. I work closely with product and engineering teams to turn problems into working products. At Zyla, I designed and implemented the workout sticker in React Native and took the GPS recorder through research, design and engineering handoff.
I'm also the founder of Xikota Design, my design studio, and I lead The AI Collective Florianópolis, the first chapter in southern Brazil. I do research at UFSC, I'm writing a book (on its way with Casa do Código) and, in my free time, I teach Japanese music to young people at the local Japanese association.
I still believe in design made for people, with people: conversation, repertoire and critical judgment. AI speeds up a lot of things. Deciding what's worth building is still on us.
ExperienceToday: Xikota Design and The AI Collective Florianópolis. Previously: Zyla (2026), Wellhub (2025-2026), Multidrop (2024-2025), Laboratório Bridge (2022-2025) and Pixel (2020-2023).
Experience
Forward Deployed Product Designer: Xikota Design
2026 - PresentI founded Xikota Design. A digital product design and build studio: websites, apps, and design systems, from problem to shipped product.
Chapter Lead: The AI Collective Florianópolis
2026 - PresentI lead The AI Collective's first chapter in southern Brazil and organize hands-on meetups for people building with AI. The launch event, on July 1, 2026, had about 95 sign-ups.
Forward Deployed Product Designer: Zyla
June to October 2026As a Forward Deployed Product Designer at Zyla, I designed and implemented the workout sticker in React Native. For the GPS recorder, I led research, design and the engineering handoff.
Global Product Designer: Wellhub (formerly Gympass)
Jun 2025 - Jun 2026I worked on end-to-end product journeys at global scale and on accessibility, ensuring WCAG 2.1 AA conformance (focus order, semantics and ARIA) on the screens I designed. Wellhub is a corporate wellness platform with more than 5 million subscribers in 18 countries.
Lead Product Designer: Multidrop
Sep 2024 - Aug 2025Effectively head of product: handled design and product management and trained a junior product designer. Worked on the activation redesign that reduced onboarding abandonment from 50% to 25% and supported growth from 0 to 100 paying clients.
UX/UI Designer: Laboratório Bridge
Jul 2022 - Jul 2025Jornada do Estudante, an app for Brazil's Ministry of Education (MEC) with 14 million users, built at Laboratório Bridge (UFSC). I redesigned the Pé-de-Meia enrollment form so it saves every step, and designed a dedicated screen for each eligibility status.
From trainee to president: Pixel, UFSC's junior enterprise
Aug 2020 - Jul 2023I organized and hosted the 3rd edition of Pixel Init in 2021: three online evenings, nine speakers from UFSC and from companies such as Google, Nubank and SAP, and more than a thousand sign-ups.
EducationBachelor's degree in Computer Science from UFSC and an exchange in applied computer science and AI at Sapienza, in Rome.
Education
Formal training, international study, and continuous learning shaped around product, systems, and implementation.
Formal education
2025-2026
Sapienza University of Rome: Exchange in Applied Computer Science and AI
Exchange in Applied Computer Science and AI at Sapienza University of Rome, focused on AI systems, research, and the technical foundations behind modern workflows.
2024-2025
Pontifical Lateran University: Italian Language Course (Level B2)
Completed the Italian Language Course (Level B2) at the Pontifical Lateran University in 2025, strengthening communication skills and cultural fluency during my academic period in Rome.
2018
High School in Vancouver, Canada
Completed a year of high school in Vancouver, improving English fluency and experiencing cultural exchange through daily academic life in a Canadian environment.
Languages
- Portuguesenative
- Englishfluent
- Italianintermediate
- Spanishbasic
- Japanesebasic
Continued learning
Recent coursework across UX research, accessibility, design systems, AI, and front-end implementation.
2025
IAUX Lab, 2nd Edition
UX Unicórnio
2025
UX Unicórnio Certificate
UX Unicórnio
Capabilities in practiceDesign and React Native implementation at Zyla, design systems and research with clear limits.
Capabilities in practice
I work closely with product and engineering, from the problem to implementation. These deliverables show where I used code, data and AI, and who owned each part.
Design and implementation
At Zyla, I designed and implemented the workout sticker in React Native. For the GPS recorder, I carried out technical research, design and the engineering handoff.
See design and code at ZylaSystems for the product
At Multidrop, I built tokens and components with governance shared with engineering. At PariPassu, I designed a foundation with over 110 components for two products.
View the PariPassu case studyEvidence and validation
In my undergraduate thesis, I audited the Bold and DSGov documentation: 277 A and AA nonconformities. I co-authored the award-winning AIMEDIA 2026 paper, an exploratory AI design pilot (n=5 per group).
See the research and its limitsProduct & UX craft
Figma and FigJamInterface designProduct decisionsContextual researchCode prototypesTokens and componentsUsability testingAgent specificationsWCAG accessibilityReact, React Native and TypeScript
How I make decisionsEdge cases at Bridge, accessibility in DSGov and Multidrop's design system.
How I make decisions
01
Edge cases at scale are millions of people
At Bridge, on a platform with 14 million users, the Pé-de-Meia student benefit had 8+ possible eligibility statuses, 6 of them genuinely ambiguous. A good share of helpdesk tickets boiled down to "I don't understand my status". At Multidrop, the context switcher was buried in settings, so users worked in the wrong context without noticing. I design for the scenarios most people ignore.
02
Constraints force clarity
DSGov, the Brazilian government's design system, failed 8+ WCAG 2.1 AA criteria. I fixed it in code with the devs: semantic HTML, ARIA and focus order, without changing a single pixel of the spec. The clarity came in the invisible layer: keyboard navigation, screen readers, states that announce themselves properly. Accessibility isn't compliance. It's a design tool.
03
Systems outlast screens
At Multidrop, I built the design system from scratch: color, spacing and type tokens, the grid, governance shared with engineering. It was the precondition for two very different user types to coexist in one product. A good design system changes how the whole team makes UI decisions, not just how the screen looks.
What colleagues say
Product, design and engineering people I've worked with. Each name opens their LinkedIn profile.
Articles and essays
Notes on design, product strategy, accessibility, and how AI changes the way design teams work.
Articles are written in Portuguese.
Frequently asked questionsAccessibility on a tight deadline, working with engineering, using AI and how I measure results.
Frequently asked questions
How do you fit accessibility into a tight deadline?
Accessibility goes in as an acceptance criterion from the start, so it doesn't turn into rework at the end. At Laboratório Bridge, I fixed DSGov's WCAG 2.1 AA failures in code with the developers (semantic HTML, ARIA and focus order) without changing the visual spec.
Read the Bridge case (in Portuguese)How do you work with engineering?
I have a Computer Science degree and write React. At Multidrop, I built the design system from scratch, with color, spacing and type tokens and governance shared with engineering.
Read the Multidrop case (in Portuguese)How do you use AI in design work?
To generate variations, prototype in code and automate repetitive work, always under my direction and review. I specify before I generate: in the pilot from the paper I co-authored for AIMEDIA 2026 (n=5 per group, a small sample), all five runs without a designer produced the same information hierarchy.
Read the studyHow do you measure the success of a design delivery?
By the change in behavior, measured before and after. At Multidrop, after the activation redesign, onboarding abandonment fell from 50% to 25% (n=3.1k, 30-day window). When I don't have a number, I say so: at Bridge, the drop in eligibility tickets came from the support team's reports, with no A/B test.
Let's build together
Working on a product that needs design direction or AI in the workflow? Tell me what you're building.
thiagoxikota@gmail.com
Quick chat
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