UX / UI Designer · Portland, OR
Alfonso
Barreiro
Most design problems aren't visual problems. They're decisions someone hasn't made yet: surfaced through research, made explicit, shipped to a live product.
Long-press to pin, pause, or remove. One surface, reversible.
Selected Work · 2026
Three case studies.
About
Different problems, same question:
Why doesn't this work better?
I learned BASIC from a magazine, typing it line by line. I built my first website as a Rush fan site that probably broke every design rule that existed. I'm still doing the same thing: staring at something on a screen and asking why it doesn't work better.
I design from the gaps I actually live in. Spotify is my most-used app, and the Recently Played shelf had blind spots that bothered me for years. I dealt with plantar fasciitis, toenail fungus, and the quiet shame men carry about neglecting their own bodies, so I built a resource for it. Each project starts with a real problem I can feel, not a brief I was handed.
I still learn like I'm running out of time. I'm teaching myself Hiragana. I walk five miles a day, building back toward a marathon. I meditate. I watch birds. I read everything. If that sounds like someone with too many interests, you're probably right. But the curiosity is the same muscle I use in research. I just don't turn it off.
Coffee in Portland? Book a time
Research & Discovery
Design & Systems
Delivery & Craft
How I work
Figma comes last. By the time I open it, the research, the brief, and the structure have already done most of the work. The interface is the last step, not the first place I look for answers.