Sophie Nguyen

Sophie Nguyen — UX/UI Designer · Melbourne

I make complex services feel obvious.

Four years designing for clinics, commuters and country towns. I do the research, draw the flows and sweat the screens — then I test everything with the people who have to live with it.

See the work

process included, warts and all

Sophie sketching wireframes at her desk in Melbourne
Now
Contract UX/UI designer at Loopwork Studio
Before design
Four years on the front desk of a community health clinic — the long way in, and the best research training I could have asked for
Open to
UX/UI and product design roles — Melbourne or remote (AU)

Available for new roles

Selected work

three projects — the messy middle included

About me

the short version, honestly told

I came to design through the front desk of a community health clinic in Geelong. For four years I watched people wrestle with our booking portal — a system so confusing that most patients gave up and called, which meant I spent my mornings reading form fields out loud over the phone.

The turning point was helping a woman in her seventies reset her portal password for the third time in a month. She apologised to me. I remember thinking: none of this is her fault. The system was designed for the people who built it, not the people who use it.

So I started sketching how the booking flow could work on the back of appointment slips, then enrolled in the UX immersive at General Assembly Melbourne to find out whether my hunches held up. Some did. Plenty didn't — which turned out to be the interesting part.

Since then I've designed for clinics, commuters and a country fire brigade. The setting changes; the job doesn't: watch what people actually do, then get out of their way.

Based in Melbourne — Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung country

Coffee order: long black, no sugar

Ask me about accessible forms or myki grievances

What I actually do

methods over logos

Methods

  • Moderated usability testing5-user rounds, honest tasks
  • In-depth interviews & JTBDI shut up and listen
  • Affinity mappingstill starts on paper
  • Information architecturecard sorts, tree tests
  • Journey mappingfeelings included
  • Wireframing & prototypinglo-fi first, always
  • AccessibilityWCAG 2.2 AA, not as a favour

Tools

  • Figmaauto-layout & variables, daily
  • FigJam / Mirowhere the mess lives
  • Maze & UserTestingunmoderated, when budget says so
  • Notionresearch repos & docs
  • HTML & CSSenough to prototype and argue kindly with engineers
  • ProtoPiewhen a tap isn't enough

the tool changes; the questions don't

Experience

Download résumé (PDF)

  1. 2024 — now

    UX/UI Designer (contract) · Loopwork Studio, Melbourne

    End-to-end design across service and e-commerce projects. Ran 30+ usability sessions; wrote the research plans nobody else wanted to write.

  2. 2023 — 2024

    UX Designer (freelance) · CareLoop Health, Geelong

    Rebuilt appointment booking for a community health provider. Phone bookings dropped from 71% to 38% in the first three months.

  3. 2022 — 2023

    UX Design Immersive · General Assembly, Melbourne

    Twelve weeks of being wrong in public. Capstone project (Ember) done with a brigade in Kinglake, not a persona template.

  4. 2018 — 2022

    Administration & intake · Corio Community Health, Geelong

    Four years on the front desk. Where I learned that most 'user error' is design error wearing a disguise.

AlsoMentor, UX coffee chats at General Assembly (2024 — now) · Volunteer designer, Kinglake Ranges community newsletter (2023)

still four pages of sketchbook per project

Say hello.

I'm looking for UX/UI and product design roles in Melbourne or remote within Australia. If you're hiring — or just want to compare notes on booking systems — I'd genuinely like to hear from you.

I read everything. Replies within a day or two.

Or write it here

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