Product Designer / UX Leader
Empathyguidesthework.Usabilityprovestheresult.
I'm Dick De Leon. Thanks for stopping by. I want to walk you through how I approach design, not just how it looks, but how I collaborate, listen, and solve real problems.
Perspective
Great design isn't about how a screen looks. It's about whether the person on the other side of it feels understood.
01Listen
Design starts before the first sketch, with real conversations.
02Clarify
Complexity is a first draft. My job is to simplify it without dumbing it down.
03Prove it
A good idea isn't done until it's tested with real people and it holds up.
Process
From principle to practice
The same five-step loop, every time: from listening to shipping to reflecting.
Empathize
Focus
Understanding user needs through research and engagement
Toolkit
- User interviews
- Journey mapping
- Stakeholder alignment
- Product analytics
Who's involved
Users, stakeholders, and teammates, gathering perspectives to understand needs and pain points.
How I apply it
I spend time with users: interviewing, shadowing, and observing. These insights uncover real problems and shape every design decision.
Studies
Proof it holds up
Three products where that process shaped the outcome.
CoachOne
Product design & buildA training app for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coaches and athletes, turning a coach's weekly plan into programming their students can actually follow, set by set.
- Personalized weekly programming, tuned by frequency (e.g. a drill scheduled 2x/week shows up twice, on the right days)
- Focus Mode: a distraction-free workout screen with live timers, per-set tracking, and countdowns for warm-ups, cool-downs, and holds
- Built and iterated directly with coaches training on the app, catching real usability gaps (like checkmarks leaking across days) before they became habits
MobyPlus
Product designA K–5 literacy platform from MobyMax. I led the design of the teacher-facing tools that turn raw reading assessment data into a clear signal of who needs help, and when.
- A roster view that groups every student into No data / Struggling / Progressing / Proficient at a glance, instead of a wall of raw scores
- An Insights dashboard translating words-correct-per-minute, accuracy, comprehension, and expression into benchmark-referenced signals teachers can act on
- An engagement view that surfaces behavioral patterns, like practice dropping off on weekends, that teachers wouldn't otherwise catch
- One shared platform with separate teacher and student experiences, built on a unified design system
Aplos
UX leadershipAplos is fund accounting software for nonprofits and churches. Over six years as UX Director, I led the redesign of the Register, the core transaction ledger bookkeepers live in every day.
- A register view that surfaces account balance, deposits, payments, and unreconciled transactions as clear summary cards, not just a raw ledger
- Filtering by account, fund, transaction type, and amount range, so multi-fund organizations (general, building, missions) can find what they need without digging
- A guided "Add New" entry point (Payment, Deposit, Transfer, Journal Entry) that named each action in plain language instead of requiring users to know accounting terms upfront
- Built on the design system I established across the product, so the same table, filter, and entry patterns held together across all of Fund Accounting
Reflect
The work that lasts isn't the work that looks best in a portfolio. It's the work people forget was ever hard to use.
That's still what I'm chasing: fewer clever ideas, more problems actually solved. If that's the kind of designer you're looking for, let's talk.