My name is Carmel Hassan Montero, and I’ve been working in the software industry as a UX Designer for more than 12 years. I studied Computer Engineering at the University of
During my work experience, I’ve played the role of a programmer, designer, leader, teacher, people manager, and consultant. Whichever my role could be I enjoy always getting my hands dirty with real design stuff to get my brain active, exercise my hands, and empathize with people.
I’m based in Málaga (Spain), where I’m actively involved in tech communities like Yes We Tech, and support the organization of events that promote diversity and equality.
I enjoy my biking/walking commuting to the office as well as the flexibility of working remotely whenever I need to. Out of work, I simply enjoy biking on weekends, running on weekdays and hanging out with friends and family anytime.
Skills
Tools
- Design Tools:
Invision , Sketch, Adobe XD, Axure RP, Proto.io, Balsamiq Mockups, UXPin. - Analytical Tools: Mixpanel, Google Analytics, Data Studio,
Fullstory , Inspectlet, Amplitude, MyOwnToolForTesting. - Other tools: Intercom, Segment, Big Query.
Other skills
- Soft skills: Teaching, Public Communication, Problem solving, Creative, Analytical, Leadership, Management.
- Languages: Spanish (native), English (advanced), French (ridicule), Arabic (hi, good morning, 1,2,3…)
Experience
Master Front-end Lemoncode – Editions I-VI – I find teaching a great knowledge experience. In this online master, I perform a 3-hour session to introduce key concepts about User Experience for developers. Every year I try to update examples with recent technologies and tools.
ITRS – 2 years – I fell in love with Data working for this start-up company. I created the user interface concept of a real-time analytics platform after a deep analysis of competitors and industry standards. I discovered the power of quantitative user research analysing user interactions and followed an ‘eating-your-own-dog-food’ approach to visualise those metrics with the tool I helped to build, which inspired my article ‘Measuring UX with your own tools’.
CSC – 2 years 9 months – The challenge was to create a common culture of User-Centred Design for a big corporation, so I started thinking about design in a more strategic manner, collaborating with Product Managers to get to the appropriate audience. I created a detailed reference for standards, guidelines, and UI Components for desktop and mobile apps so developers around the globe could build seamlessly healthcare applications.
iSOFT (a CSC Company) – 2 years 3 months – When I joined to iSOFT, I was a junior designer working as part of a team of developers and architect. I had to handle product requirements definition working with people in Australia, India, UK and Spain. Thanks to the success of a small proof of concept, the team grew, and I was promoted. I could hire 4 new designers and 2 more front-end developers. Together we created the first UI framework in XAML and .Net to build healthcare solutions.
Freelance – 8 months – I started working as a freelancer to save as much money as possible and decide my own path of working so I could finish my master degree studies. During this time I built web-based products using Drupal. I’ve created themes from scratch, prototyping and defining the information architecture of websites, and setting up Drupal sites. I spent almost 20% of the time looking for new projects and speaking with customers, which taught me to appreciate the value of good management skills.
Grupo Trevenque Kaplan – 1 year 8 months – This was my very first serious job as an engineer, I won’t forget the vast amount of things I learnt from my colleagues. I was developing cool Drupal modules in PHP while I fell in love with CSS and HTML. Working surrounded by designers made me appreciate the value and power of well designed and developed web interface.
University of Granada – 9 months – During my first job opportunity as an intern, I finish my degree in Computer Engineering. I worked as a Drupal developer and PHP programmer for different departments at the University. It was a good practice of some of the knowledge acquired during my studies.
Work
Education
College: University of Granada
- UGR · Master Degree: Computer Engineering / 2010 / PFC · LCMS Platform based on Drupal
- UGR · Degree: Systems Computer Technical Engineering / 2005
Certifications
- Information Visualization (IDF) / 2019
- Introduction to Data Analytics (Codeacademy) / 2018
- R Programming (Coursera) / 2016
Other training
- Interaction Design Foundation (membership) / 2018-19
- Aprender a Enseñar / 2018
- Data Visualization with David McCandless / 2015
- Contextual Research with Steve Portigal / 2012
- The Characteristics of Effective Personas / 2012
- UX Design in the Mobile Frontier / 2012
- Designing effective surveys / 2012
- Lean UX: Getting out of the deliverables business / 2012
- Introduction to effective web design on-line / 2009
- Dynamic of Complex Systems and Bio-inspired Algorithms (UNIA) / 2006
- Web Site Development and Information Architecture (UGR) / 2005
- Database driven web server programming: HMTL, Javascript, CGIs, PostgreSQL, Java (UGR) / 2005
Volunteering
- Organiser: Yes We Tech (since 2015). Feminist Tech community.
- Collaborator: J On The Beach (2016,2017,2018). Tech Conference.
- Volunteer: PyConES (2018). Tech Conference.
- Web Developer: NOS (2008-2009). LGTB Non-profit organisation.
Events
- UI/CSS Day – Amsterdam / 2019
- T3chFest – Madrid / 2019 (speaker)
- Generate Conference – London / 2018
- PyConES Málaga / 2018 (volunteer)
- OpensouthCode / 2018 (speaker)
- J On The Beach / 2016-18 (organiser)
- Smashing Conference – Barcelona / 2017
- UX Spain / 2012-2017 (speaker, 2014)
- Visualized – Nueva York / 2015
- Material Fest – Cádiz / 2015
- UX Fighters – Madrid / 2014
- Beyond Tiles – Madrid / 2013
- Microsoft Events – Megathon Málaga / 2013
- Web & Mobile – Webvision Barcelona / 2012
- Microsoft Events – reMIX Madrid / 2010
- Drupal International – Drupal Conference Barcelona / 2007
- Ruby on Rails Events – Rails Spanish Conference / 2006
Recommendations
My bosses
- Manuel Domínguez Hidalgo – Global Portfolio Manager – DXC Open Health Connect and Connected Ecosystem:I would like to be very precise defining Carmel: “UX Passion and leadership Essence”. Carmel, I will steal your innovation and great ideas wherever company you go when I will have any chance.THANKS for these 5 years and go on enjoying.
- Pablo Fridlender – Development Manager en DXC Technology:Carmel is the greatest UX professional I have had the luck to work with. A very proactive person, always fully dedicated to achieve the best quality results and with the capacity of leading UX teams with team members playing different roles in an agile environment. During the time I worked with her, she was the key person defining the way an agile user centered methodology had to interface with an agile development team. Through her great communication and technical skills she always shows how a leader must behave to make people follow her. An indispensable leader to build a successful UX team.
My team mates
- David Rundle – Software Engineer: Carmel is really passionate about UX, and this shows in the quality of her work. When designing, she would take into account all the key aspects and be able to provide solutions which we could work with. Carmel worked really closely with the team which yielded great results, and awesome looking software.
- Oihana Cordero Rodríguez – Investigadora y Docente (FPU) – Departamento de Escultura – University of Granada: Apasionada por su trabajo, creativa y resolutiva. Destacaría sucapacidad para encontrar soluciones que integran el diseño, lafuncionalidad y la experiencia de usuario.
- Sergio López Carulla – .Net Senior Developer: One of the best professionals with I had the pleasure to work. Fully dedicated to the world of UX and passionate about her job. Nice manager, knows how to organize and take the lead in design meetings. Good communicator, a pleasure to listen to.
- David Aragonés Otero – Interaction and Information Designer for User Experience: As the lead of the Bluebird UX team at CSC Healthcare Division, Carmel did a great job leading us: scheduling tasks, defining our work methodology, conducting co-design sessions and checking deliverables quality. During that time she built a strong team who looked to her for guidance and direction. But the most important role she made was as a UX Evangelist. She spread the UX language in a development company based in traditional processes. She opened up bridges between managers, developers and designers following up a common goal, have a better experience for users in the healthcare realm. I’ll never forget the time we were working in a design studio with some developers. She inspired them to try to propose a solution and encouraged them to think out of the keyboard. Finally, we created a new and innovative control for our UI framework. Carmel did an excellent job and I would highly recommend her for any position. Be part of her team made me grow as a person and UX professional.
