About

Hello, I'm Joané.

Good design mostly goes unnoticed. That has been my anchor point throughout my career. I design to anticipate what someone is about to do and clear the friction that gets in their way, while keeping the friction that protects them from a mistake they cannot undo.

Six years of that has been spent in regulated, workflow-heavy software: business banking and fintech, AI compliance monitoring, and healthcare payments. I am South African, living in the Netherlands. Growing up around many languages, cultures and economic realities has made my thinking as a designer richer. I ask early who else is going to open this screen, what they already know, and what it costs them to get it wrong.

That way of thinking started with fine arts. You learn to interrogate every choice: why this medium, why this material, what it adds to the message. Every colour, texture and placement changes what the work says and how the viewer reads it.

Designing software is the same question in a different medium. Every position, colour and label changes what an interface means and how it is experienced. How will someone experience the (art)work? What are they trying to achieve? And how do they get there with the least friction possible?

Where I've designed.

2025
Senior Product Designer

CarePay International (Amsterdam) · Healthcare payments
2022 - 2024
Senior Product Designer

Voyc (Amsterdam) · AI compliance monitoring · First product designer
2022
UX Designer

Discovery Limited (Cape Town) · Health & financial advisory
2020 - 2022
UX Designer

Capitec Bank, via Retro Rabbit (Stellenbosch) · Business banking portal
2020 - 2022
UX Designer

Retro Rabbit (Johannesburg) · Junior → Intermediate
2019
UX Designer

Insol Tech (Pretoria) · Forensic data analysis for insolvency practitioners

What I bring.

Craft

End-to-end product design
Design systems & pattern libraries
UX copy & content design
Information architecture
Interaction & prototyping
UI design & visual polish

Practice

User research & interviewing
Cross-functional facilitation
Stakeholder communication
Critique & design reviews
Agile & lean delivery
Working without a product owner

Tools

Figma, Figma Make
Sketch, InVision, Abstract
FigJam, Miro, Notion
Zeplin (dev handoff)

AI-augmented workflow

Claude, research synthesis, UX copy, design rationale
Figma Make, rapid prototyping & component generation

Where I studied.

2012 - 2015
Honours BA, Fine Arts

University of Pretoria
2016
Diploma, Graphic Design (Cum Laude)

Open Window, Pretoria

When I'm offline.

I train for triathlons, make pottery (with more enthusiasm than technique), strategise over board games, and tend a small balcony of potted plants that have somehow survived six years of me. I travel for sun and for long walks. I'm generally game for an outdoor adventure.