Laura Buel
I find the real problem inside complex products, then design the fix.
6+ years across healthcare SaaS, enterprise tools and live web platforms. Founding design systems from scratch, leading full accessibility overhauls, and building dashboards and tools that turn complicated data into clear decisions.
Laura Buel, journalist turned product designer, San Diego.
Selected Work
Inventory Redesign
Ten years of messy purchase data, finally in order.
Cutting high volumes of support tickets for unredeemed purchases.
News Experience Redesign
A busy news hub made easy to find, read and share.
Bounce rate down from 60% to 49%, and 40% more articles shared.
Admin Tool Design Library
The studio's first admin design system, built from zero.
Tokens, specs and responsive components that closed the gap between design and build.
Two-Factor Authentication
Locking down HIPAA health data with just one extra step.
Shipped to every customer as the platform's first in-house 2FA.
What I Cover
Product & UX design
Design systems
Accessibility & research
From Newsroom to Product
She started out asking questions for a living. Now she asks them of products: what’s the real problem, who is it for, and how do we make it clear?
She started out asking questions for a living. Now she asks them of products.
Report first
Before I open Figma, I talk to the people closest to the problem: users, support, engineers and stakeholders. Then I look at how others have solved it.
Ran user testing with healthcare clients on complex data analysis features at MedeAnalytics.
Find the real story
The stated problem is rarely the whole story. I dig until I find what's actually broken, then frame it so the whole team agrees on what we're solving.
Untangled nearly ten years of inconsistent purchase data behind Intrepid's shop and inventory, cutting a high volume of support tickets.
Draft with engineering
I bring engineers in early and design in their language: tokens, specs, responsive components and working prototypes they can poke at.
Built two design systems from scratch, and code prototypes with Claude Code so developers see behavior before they build.
Check the facts
Nothing ships on assumptions. I test with real users and audit for accessibility, so the final product works for everyone who needs it.
Logged 300+ accessibility issues with Level Access and resolved nearly all within two sprints to pass WCAG 2.1 AA.
What Colleagues Say
Laura was able to work independently and design quickly and consistently. Not afraid to seek out critique and respond quickly and iterate. She works well across disciplines, working directly with engineers and production.
As a UX Designer her work is always high quality, thoughtful, and grounded in solid fact-finding. She is also incredibly skilled at using Figma and I was lucky to learn a lot from her about building top-notch design libraries.
Laura consistently created thoughtful, polished designs and was great at collaborating across disciplines. She was easy to work with, receptive to feedback, and did a great job translating ideas and requirements into intuitive user experiences.
Beyond the Screen
A small collection of what I'm up to when I'm not designing.
Let's Work Together.
I'm looking for product & UX/UI design roles in platform and enterprise SaaS. Remote, or open to relocating for the right team.
Send me a message on LinkedIn.
That's where I'm most responsive. Email works too, and I reply within a couple of days.
Message me on LinkedIn ↗︎or email laura.buel15@gmail.com