Dante
Garetto

Work

  • UX Design Consultant · May 2026July 2026 · Remote / On-site

    • Constraints

      Constraint

      Nobody on the team had prior UX experience, meaning little-to-no guidance on process, best practices, or scope.

      Response

      My first deliverable was a written scope for my own role. That scope expanded quickly into "out-of-scope" territory — including a production-ready design system and a full product redesign — as the work kept revealing what was actually missing. I adapted and shipped several components of both before I left.

      Constraint

      No design function to inherit, and no system beyond a handful of hex codes — against a product that was already shipped. This meant balancing new ideas against existing product function and brand image.

      Response

      I built a simple single-document design system and art-directed generative tooling against it (FigmaMake, Claude Design, Claude Code), writing prompts with exact hex values, typefaces, and animation easing curves to police consistency and prevent rogue AI design choices.

      Constraint

      The website prioritized content for AI crawlers and webscrapers, which restricted how much I could modify the AEO/GEO-optimized text content I was given.

      Response

      I worked directly with the external content specialist to clarify content purpose and prioritize information architecture, and designed mobile views separately from desktop to work within those content constraints.

      Constraint

      An 8-hour timezone gap between me and the rest of the team significantly reduced working-hour overlap, and made it difficult to schedule user interviews with a mostly Europe-based clientele.

      Response

      I reviewed meeting recordings and organized notes/input independently, delivering findings asynchronously through 1-on-1s and daily updates to keep the team aligned despite the gap.

      Outcome

      Off the back of navigating these constraints, I made the case directly to the CEO for long-term, dedicated UX investment — a written argument for treating UX as a standing function rather than a one-off engagement.

    • The live Luca AI site

  • Merchandising Intern — Hard Home Department · May 2025July 2025 · Corporate HQ, Grand Rapids, MI

  • President, Project Director · August 2025present · Ann Arbor, MI