Stefano Rainieri

Design Leader · Milan

I lead design teams that turn messy problems into products people understand.

Ten years designing digital products and, for the last stretch, leading the people who design them. I work between design, business and technology: framing the problem with stakeholders, running the research, and staying close enough to the interface that the intent survives contact with delivery.

Selected work

Case studies, end to end

12 projects

Most of what follows are business cases and project works: briefs I took on during design selection processes or set myself, run with the same method I use on client work. Each page shows the whole chain, from audit and framing through ideation, wireframe and interface, and says plainly which steps I produced and which are the method I would run with access to real users. My work at Spindox is under NDA, so it lives on its own page as a description of how I lead, not as screenshots.

SuperEnalotto app 01

SuperEnalotto app

Reframing a home screen around the 70% who never open an account

UX researchWireframingUI designMobile
trivago Magazine 02

trivago Magazine

A content homepage rebuilt from a heuristic audit and a six-player benchmark

UX researchWireframingWeb design
Casavo property listings 03

Casavo property listings

Six heuristic findings, four solutions, each drawn twice

UX researchWireframingUI designWeb design
Uber dispatch console 04

Uber dispatch console

One screen for an operations team choosing drivers under time pressure

WireframingUI designDashboard
Docebo learning dashboard 05

Docebo learning dashboard

Designing for one named learner who needs to prove her progress

WireframingUI designDashboard
Smart home control panel 06

Smart home control panel

Scheduling a tilt-and-turn window from a wall panel, in as few taps as possible

WireframingUI design
TrueLayer press page 07

TrueLayer press page

A press page designed from a benchmark, then built in Bootstrap

UX researchWeb designFront-end
Satispay redesign concept 08

Satispay redesign concept

A short self-initiated concept: the home screen as one clear question

WireframingUI designMobile
Dsquared2 online store 09

Dsquared2 online store

An audit that ends in experiments with success metrics, not in screens

UX researchWeb design
EidosMedia website 10

EidosMedia website

Corporate site for a global publishing-software company, built on its own platform

Web designFront-endClient work
Cobalt website 11

Cobalt website

Launch site for a publishing product whose promise is a calm workspace

Web designFront-endClient work
Future Financial 12

Future Financial

An editorial publication about digital transformation, published from the platform it describes

Web designFront-endClient work

How I work

Design thinking, applied honestly

Start with the audit, not the pixels

Before proposing anything I walk the existing product against Nielsen’s heuristics and against the competitive set. It is the cheapest research there is, and it turns opinion into something arguable.

Reframe the brief when the data says so

In the SuperEnalotto case the brief said “restructure the home”. The data said 70% of users only check winnings. The real job was onboarding retail players, and the layout followed from that.

Separate what I know from what I assume

Each case study marks which steps produced evidence and which are method I would run given users. Overstating research is the fastest way for a design leader to lose a team’s trust.

Wireframe on paper, decide in the open

Pencil first, always. Cheap artefacts invite other people to disagree early, which is exactly when disagreement is useful.