Ariful Islam Sany

Lead Product & UX Strategist

I turn complex business problems into products teams can ship.

Lead UX Designer at BrainStation 23 with 9+ years building SaaS, FinTech, EdTech and enterprise products, and 120+ projects across 19+ countries. I connect product strategy, user research and experience architecture.

Open to lead roles and selected consulting work. Book a call →

See selected work View CV (PDF)

Credentials

Top RatedUpwork · 100% Job Success
5.0 from 40+ reviews
Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g): Measuring UX and ROI
Google, Coursera: Google UX Design Professional Course
CXL: Conversion Optimization MiniDegree
IBM: Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner

All certifications →

Case studies

Selected work.

Routii

A holiday planning app with local deals and Bump, for meeting friends along the way.

QuickTix

A web app for finding sports events, choosing seats and booking tickets in one flow.

CirclerAI

An AI bookkeeping assistant that turns receipts into reviewed accounting entries.

WorkTok

A marketplace app connecting skilled service providers with customers in Iraq.

View all projects

How I help

More than the interface.

01
Product thinking
I start from the business problem: who it is for, what has to change, and how we will know it worked. Then I turn requirements into product direction and UX architecture that engineering can build in stages.
Read the WorkTok case study
02
Design leadership
UX research, design systems and the decisions in between. I lead design work, mentor designers, and keep product, engineering and business stakeholders aligned on what we are building and why.
See my experience
03
AI & innovation
I design AI-driven product experiences people can trust, and bring AI tools into the design workflow, from exploration and prototyping through to handoff.
Read the CirclerAI case study

Introduction

About me.

I work where business goals, user research and engineering constraints meet. I translate business requirements into product experiences that scale, and I stay close to engineering and business stakeholders until the work ships.

More about me

Clients & teams

Teams I've designed with.

Years designing products across SaaS, fintech, edtech, e-commerce and enterprise software.

120+

Projects completed for founders and product teams on Upwork.

19+

Countries I've worked with clients and teams in, across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.

100%

Job Success Score on Upwork, from client feedback on completed contracts.

Worked with teams in

Europe
- Denmark
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Estonia
- Lithuania
- Romania
North America
- United States
- Canada
Africa
- Mauritius
Asia-Pacific
- Japan
- South Korea
- India
- Pakistan
- New Zealand
- Australia
Middle East
- Palestine
- Iraq
- Saudi Arabia
- UAE

Testimonials

What clients are saying.

James David

Founder

Ariful is by-far the best designer I've worked with. He accomplished an extraordinary amount of meticulous design, and listened to all the tiny changes I wanted and executed on them perfectly. He never once complained or asked for more money. He was timely and did an above and beyond job. Go to designer from now on. Thanks Ariful.

Ga Yeon Jo

Accountant

It was a pleasure to work with him. He not only designed UI but helped me to convert my ideas to product. He is not a designer who only does what was told, he thinks of the best options and communicate very well. I really liked his style of designs too. For my product, it was perfect. I would highly recommend him & look forward to work with him in the future again.

Pernille Schulze

Co-owner of tech startup

Ariful is a joy to work with. Very professional and quick worker. We have had a challenging project that has been over the course of a year. In that time period we have been working on the project very intensely together as a team, and the work being produced is always very high quality with the clients requests in focus.

Christine Haas

Founder

I recently had the pleasure of working with Ariful on multiple projects and was thoroughly impressed with his skills and expertise. He was able to take my ideas and turn them into a visually stunning and user-friendly design that exceeded my expectations. His attention to detail and ability to understand my target audience made them a valuable asset to the project. He is also great at communicating and meeting deadlines. I highly recommend Ariful to anyone in need of a talented and professional designer.

Harry Hookes

Project Coordinator

Ariful is a great UX designer. He is quick, flexible and well organized in terms of big project design system management. He is very wise and skilled person. Strongly recommend him for any UI/UX project.

Writing