Hello!
I’m Sayonara Bittencourt – but you can call me Sayo
I’m a Multidisciplinary Award-Winning Designer based in Dublin with a passion for creating accessible and seamless experiences. I always prioritise the people in my work ethic so I have a passion for Human-Centered and User Experience Design. Raised near the beach in Brazil and learning a lot by pure independent curiosity, my spirit animal and brand is the Seawolf. I have over six years of professional experience, three awards, two Usability scientific researches published and I’ve been funded with scholarships twice to study Design in Ireland. Currently I am a Product Designer at Distilled and I take ownership at various projects on DoneDeal. My daily routine can vary from managing our Design System on Figma to prototyping the flow of features and testing them remotely with users.
Expertise
WORK EXPERIENCE
2021-Current: Distilled
Product Designer @ DoneDeal
As a Product Designer at DoneDeal, my goal is to create the most accessible, meaningful and consistent experience our buyers and sellers can have in Ireland.
I analyse data, competitors, create and translate our surveys into easy to read canvas about our users on Miro, identify opportunities and create prototypes on Figma that will eventually turn into finished features after a variety of validations and testing. I also manage and create easy to use components for our Design Systems, write documentation and prepare hand-offs for Front End Engineers, Product Managers, Stakeholders, Back End Engineers and fellow Designers.
My personal favourite task in my sprints is spendings hours listening to synthwave music while I create hundreds of connections for our interactive prototypes - a beautiful noodle soup of connections!
I analyse data, competitors, create and translate our surveys into easy to read canvas about our users on Miro, identify opportunities and create prototypes on Figma that will eventually turn into finished features after a variety of validations and testing. I also manage and create easy to use components for our Design Systems, write documentation and prepare hand-offs for Front End Engineers, Product Managers, Stakeholders, Back End Engineers and fellow Designers.
My personal favourite task in my sprints is spendings hours listening to synthwave music while I create hundreds of connections for our interactive prototypes - a beautiful noodle soup of connections!
2019-2021: Distilled
Creative Designer
As a Creative Designer at Distilled, I was responsible for managing the DoneDeal and Daft visual language. This was achieved by updating brand guidelines, creating Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects templates for our various campaigns and banners. I've led the redesign of the Daft House Price Report, the Daft Rental Report and DoneDeal Motor Report by working alongside marketing managers and senior designers on a content-first approach. I was also responsible for designing B2B portals for estate agents and car dealers, creating native templates on Ad Manager with HTML/CSS for the ad ops teams and supporting the sales teams with slick presentation decks.
2017–2019: The Sayo
Graphic & Digital Designer
Freelance services for clients in corporate, theater, events and marketing industry
2016–2018: Crowe Ireland
Graphic & Digital Designer
Development of graphic and digital assets for internal branding and clients
2016: DV4
Graphic Design Intern
Responsible for the design of illustrations and printing material
2014-2015: IBGE - Brazilian Institute of Geography & Statistics
Statistical Field Researcher
Collection of demographic information, key experience that’s driven me towards Human-Centered Design
2013-2014: UFPE - Federal University of Pernambuco
Academic Researcher
Project: Analysing the Usability & Ergonomic aspects of digital smart boards in primary & secondary schools of Recife
2013: Tipograf Graphic Store
Graphic Designer/Art finalist
7-months internship developing print, branding and graphic design
EDUCATION & CERTIFICATES
Adevinta Product Academy - Discovery Track
2022 Course and Certificate
Selected to bring my career to the next level by attending workshops by the Adevinta Product Academy, where we explored how to identify opportunities, create hypothesis, validate assumptions and streamline the product discovery from concept to production.
Advanced Google Analytics
2021 Course and Certificate
As part of my career progression to Product Design and a team learning and development initiative, the Design team at Distilled became certified at Google Analytics. Happy to provide certificate upon request.
Lucerne University (Switzerland)
2019 Summer School Scholarship Recipient
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland - selected for the Summer Academy, 2019 on the Sustainability & Mobility and Design Thinking programme.
Best Project of The Year - The Senior RoomKaleidoscope is the Creative Digital Media Annual event hosted at TU Dublin - Blanchardstown Campus. The Senior Room
has been awarded Best Project of The Year in 2019.
Best Project - The Senior Room The TU Dublin Media Research Symposium happens yearly and selects a group of selected students to present their projects in the City Campus.
The Senior Room has been awarded Best Project at the Symposium in 2019.
Technological University Dublin - Blanchardstown
2019 - BA (Honours) in Creative Digital Media
Creative Digital Media Graduate funded by the Government of Ireland Scholarship and the Science Without Borders Brazilian Scholarship
UFPE - Federal University of Pernambuco
Bachelor Degree (Honours) in Design
University where I’ve started my undergraduation journey in 2013 by studying Product & Graphic Design
Publication: Ergonomic & Usability Analysis of Interactive Whiteboards in the Academic Environment
2015 - Article published on the 17th HCI - International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
Publication: Analysing the use of digital smart boards in primary education in Recife
2015 - Article Published on
7th CIDI - Information Design International Conference
NAVE Recife & SBGames 2012Nave Recife was the school where I graduated high-school with a Diploma
in Design for Digital. I entered the SBGames 2012 national competition and won Third Place in
“Best Visual Aspects for Mobile Games” with the game Crash Boom Monster.
Volunteering
As someone who’s passionate about Human-Centered Design, Design Thinking and problem-solving, I’ve dedicated part of my life to volunteering and partnered with two charities for my Final Year Project:
2018-2019: ALONE
Video and Human-Centered Design
Developing the Final Year Project on bringing awareness about older people in Ireland.
Also created video campaigns and social media material for the charity.
2018-2019: Friends of The Elderly
Video and HCD
Developing the Final Year Project on bringing awareness about older people in Ireland. Also taken photography for charity’s marketing publications.
2018: DePaul
Video Production &
Editing
Responsible for creating DePaul’s off icial Christmas campaign bringing awareness about homelessness in Ireland
2017: Dublin International Film Festival
Graphic Design
Assistant Graphic Designer at ADIFF’s marketing off ice. Developed material such as brochures, flyers, posters and
social media imagery
