About
Product Designer (UX/UI)
I
design
the
quiet
backstage structure
that
shapes
everything
people
see
on
stage.
Hi, I’m Anika, a Product Designer based in South Africa, with experience in enterprise configuration portals and internal tools, delivering products from first brief to developer-ready handoff. I’ve worked remotely on almost all my projects, with teams in the US, the UK and Georgia. Most of the time, I’ve been the only designer, working directly with senior product owners and business analysts.
I spent nearly four years designing configuration and admin tools for Vitality, the global health programme that rewards people for healthier habits.
My background as an educator shapes how I structure complex information for people learning a new system. Health and wellness coaching added deep listening and open questions, which help user and stakeholder interviews uncover what people need and what motivates them to adopt a new tool.
Outside work, I’m happiest outdoors, on a hiking trail or in my garden, and around my dinner table with friends and family. Hosting, I’ve realised, is backstage work too: guests remember the conversation, not the planning that made the evening easy. Good internal tools work the same way.
Product design experience
Professional development
Career break
Nov 2025 – present
A planned period of study to sharpen how I research and to prepare for designing AI into enterprise tools. I earned IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner credential and Anthropic’s AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations certificate, and completed a Level 5 Diploma in Health and Wellness Coaching, coaching eight clients with motivational interviewing and behaviour change models.
Product Designer (UX/UI), embedded consultant
Retro Rabbit · Vitality Global · Configuration Portal
Mar 2024 – Oct 2025
I was the first and only designer on Vitality’s Configuration Portal, which platform teams use to configure the health and rewards programme for more than ten markets. I wrote the user stories and requirements for each tool with the business analyst and product owner, and proposed four-week design cycles that were approved. I designed the portal’s landing page and the configuration tools behind it, from verbal brief to developer-ready handoff, and initiated the portal’s first user research with 13 internal users. I also created the documentation, processes and artefacts future designers could inherit.
Contribution: Care Connecters Portal
With Vitality’s US member-side design team
2024 · Between projects
While I was handing over the Admin Portal on the Vitality US project and before joining the Configuration Portal on the Vitality Global project, I worked with the US member-side design team on a portal that health coaches use to manage appointments and meet with clients. I analysed competitors and best practices, then designed the dashboard that became the basis for the team’s work.
Mentor to junior designers
Retro Rabbit mentorship programme
2023 – 2024
Alongside my client work, I mentored a designer in each year of Retro Rabbit’s mentorship programme. We met weekly or monthly to prepare them for onboarding onto client projects: reading a brief, preparing for stakeholder meetings and documenting work for developer handoff.
Product Designer (UX/UI), embedded consultant
Retro Rabbit · Vitality US · Admin Portal
Aug 2022 – Mar 2024
I was the sole designer for most of the project, as one developer-built portal became a Client-Employer Portal and the internal Admin Portal. I audited the old portal screen by screen and proposed a new information architecture, then redesigned the tools for both portals. I designed role-based access for every level, from Vitality super users to a single team, and wrote each tool’s requirements with its product owner. Every access flow was built as designed.
UX/UI Designer, embedded consultant
Retro Rabbit · Sorcery Coffee Roasters
May – Jul 2022
I designed a responsive e-commerce website from scratch for a Pretoria coffee roaster, as one of three designers presenting directions in parallel. My research-led directions were chosen in most rounds, and the site launched on them.
UX/UI Designer
Retro Rabbit · Internal claims tool
Jan – Mar 2022
I interviewed Retro Rabbit employees to understand the current experience and process of submitted claims. I used the feedback and context to design the end-to-end user flow from submission to approval, as part of a small team. I also designed the portal’s main dashboard, contributed to the claims designs and presented progress to the company founders every week.
Education and qualification
Qualifications
Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner
IBM SkillsBuild · 2026
AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations
Anthropic · 2026
Interaction Design Foundation
Five certifications, including User Research and Journey Mapping · 2022
UCT GetSmarter
User Experience · Web Design · Graphic Design · 2019 – 2020
UXSA Conference, Johannesburg
Attended, and shared the learnings with my team · 2024
Bachelor of Education (BEd)
Intermediate and Senior Phase, 2016
Level 5 Diploma in Health and Wellness Coaching
Health Coaches Academy · 2026
Skillset
UX design
Requirements gathering
User stories
Stakeholder interviews
User research and analysis
Competitive analysis
UX audits
Information architecture
User flows
Wireframing
Prototyping
Role-based access
Configuration UX
Design reviews
Developer handoff
DesignOps
Business rules translation
Error prevention and validation
UI design
Visual design
Responsive web design
Component libraries
Typography
Soft skills
Ownership from brief to handoff
Working independently
Listening
Mentoring
Critical thinking
Facilitation
Presenting design rationale
Clear documentation
Remote work across time zones
Establishing design practice
Stakeholder alignment
Systems thinking
Reliable delivery under pressure
Enabling adoption
Initiative beyond the brief
Ethical judgement
Tools
