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Cecile Roca UX Architect-Researcher · NYC
Portrait of Cecile Roca

Cecile Roca

UX Architect & Researcher, New York Now: AI & financial platforms at Synechron
Portrait of Cecile Roca

Taking chaos to funded to shipped.

Law, business, museums, now enterprise AI. Every room started as chaos, and every one ended the same way: structure found, room won over, work built.

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The throughline

Tangled systems, brought to order.

Untangling high-stakes, regulated platforms.

Mapping how people actually work, validating fast, and designing the structure underneath the screens.

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Selected work · 2023 → now

Three knots, unraveled.

All projects →
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Single Client View prototype Chōro prototype AIDA product blueprint
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How the funded ones got funded

From idea to funded in six weeks.

Teams bring me a vision and a bottleneck. A validation sprint then gives leaders the evidence to make an investment decision. Single Client View and Chōro were both funded this way.

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WEEK 06 · THE DECISION Green-light A narrated film makes the business case. ✓ Funded
Before software

Learned UX in rooms, not screens.

Museum and spatial experiences at Gallagher & Associates and Rockwell Group, designed for broad, walk-in audiences:

People in motion, with short attention and no instructions. Enterprise users aren’t so different.

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An unusual path

Fluent in engineering, business and law.

More about me →
01LawConstraints are design material
02Intl. businessFind the deal that serves every stakeholder
03MFA, Design & TechPrototype with your hands; test before you trust
04Museums & spacesDesign for people in motion
05Enterprise AIValidate fast and make the case to executives
Case study Information architecture EMEA division, financial institution

Eight platforms. One client. One calm view.

A bank’s client data lived in eight platforms. Role: UX lead on a six-week validation sprint. The result: a tested, executive-funded Single Client View.

RoleUX Lead
Timeline6 weeks
TeamInnovation team, UI designer, SMEs
OutcomeFunded for development
SCV prototype walkthrough
Chapter 01: The mess

Knowing a client meant logging into eight systems.

Client data was scattered across eight platforms. Legal and operational details lived in different places, and answering a simple question often needed emails between departments. Some tasks took weeks.

The Innovation Team wanted to build a single view on top of the Data Hub and MDM. First they needed evidence that users wanted it and that it was technically feasible.

SYS 01
SYS 02
SYS 03
SYS 04
SYS 05
SYS 06
SYS 07
SYS 08
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Single Client View
Legal Operational Relationships
Chapter 02: Listening

Workshops first, screens later.

Hands-on workshops and in-depth interviews with users and SMEs came first, and their findings became personas. Every later decision came back to one question: what does this person need to do their job today?

PersonasBuilt from qualitative research, so the team could argue from user needs instead of opinions.
JourneyTouchpoints and pain points mapped across departments, then scoped into an MVP flow.
StoriesRequirements written as user stories that engineering and business could both sign off.
Chapter 03: Structure

The real design was the filtering logic.

The work defined how information was categorized, how multi-dataset search and filters behaved, and how granular permissions shaped what each role could see. Favorites and recent interactions cut repeat searches from the daily workflow.

Single Client View user flow
User flow for Single Client View · click any area to zoom in, click again to zoom out, drag to move around
Chapter 04: Iterate cheap

Sketch, test, then wireframe.

Dashboard sketch Dashboard wireframe Search by name sketch Search by name wireframe Underlying records sketch Underlying records wireframe Reorder results sketch Reorder results wireframe

Each sketch was tested with clients before it became a wireframe. That kept iteration fast and cheap, and it let engineering check feasibility before scope was locked.

Chapter 05: Make it real

A high-fidelity prototype and an 8-minute film for the executive room.

Search results
Client detail
Filtering
Customized view
Chapter 06: Outcome

Executives saw the film and funded the build.

8 → 1platforms, with single sign-on
Weeks → daysfor research and cross-team requests
6 wksfrom kickoff to green-light
Validated needUser testing confirmed the value proposition, and SMEs bought in.
Feasibility mappedEarly wireframes exposed the technical architecture needed before any code was written.
A roadmapIt laid the groundwork for the EIC and transaction-monitoring platforms that followed.
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All work
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Or browse by category
All work
Index · 16 projects

From museum floors to AI platforms.

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About Cecile

From contracts to kinetic sculpture to AI.

UX architect and senior experience designer in New York, turning complex, regulated systems into clear, compliant, intuitive products. The method: strict logic and regulation, balanced with business strategy and empathy for the people who use them.

Cecile Roca
Five rooms, one habit

Each career left a lesson that’s still in use every day.

01LawRead the fine print. Regulation isn’t an obstacle to design; it’s part of the material. That’s why compliance-heavy products don’t scare me.
02International business developmentEvery stakeholder wants something different. Good strategy finds the version that serves all of them, and says so in their language.
03MFA, Design & TechnologyPrototype with your hands, and test before you trust. Along the way came a love of kinetic sculpture and physical computing.
04Gallagher & Associates · Rockwell GroupAward-winning museum and spatial experiences, from Mississippi to Hudson Yards. Design for people in motion who will never read the instructions.
05SynechronHigh-stakes software for AI, insurance and financial services. Running validation sprints, mapping workflows, and helping secure executive funding.
The toolkit
Information architectureMental models, taxonomies, filtering logic, permissions. Consolidating fragmented legacy ecosystems into one structure.
Research & validationGenerative and human-centered research, usability and A/B testing, data synthesis that enables decisions.
Executive facilitationWorkshops and stakeholder alignment that end in decisions, and in funding for financial and GenAI initiatives.
AI & LLM productsResearch frameworks for responsible, user-centered LLM applications in global financial institutions.
Validation sprints4-week sprints that turn a department bottleneck into a fundable, testable product.
Prototyping & storytellingLow/mid-fi and clickable prototypes, plus narrated product films for the executive room.
Journeys & personasUser journey mapping, persona development and systems thinking across complex, regulated flows.
Design systems & deliveryGuiding UI designers, partnering with engineering and QA for fidelity and accessibility compliance.
Physical–digitalInstallations, kiosks and spaces where screens meet bodies. SEGD Global Design Award.
Always in beta.Learning something new every day, and putting it
to work the next.
Tools Figma Miro Mural Jira Trello Agile / Scrum Claude GenAI tooling
AwardsGold Star Award (two-time), Synechron · SEGD Global Design Award & Honor Award for Digital Experience Content · Dean’s Scholarship, Parsons
EducationMFA Design & Technology, Parsons · BA Liberal Arts, Eugene Lang College · Law coursework, Universidad Internacional del Ecuador
TeachingGuest lecturer in Design & Coding at Parsons School of Design
Off the clock, the same focus
Muay Thai Mezzo-soprano in chorus groups Cooking world cuisines
Contact

Got a tangle? Let’s untangle it.

Pick what it’s about, then choose how to reach me. The email opens with the subject already filled in.

{{ nycTime }} in New York
What’s it about?
01 · Email →
Email cecile@cecileroca.com Subject: {{ subject }}
Gmail ↗Outlook ↗
02 · Résumé →
Résumé Law, business, museums, enterprise AI PDF · opens in a new tab
03 · LinkedIn →
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/ceciler Opens in a new tab
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