Professional Résumé, UX Designer

Vernard Mercader

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Vernard Mercader is a Hybrid UX designer and frontend developer carrying research, workflow analysis, and accessible design systems into production React and TypeScript, so design intent survives the build. Founder of Logias, a UX-first consultancy delivering Section 508 and WCAG audits. Raised a DoD security tool’s accessibility score from 63 to 92 in four weeks.

A professional since 2006, he has never once stayed inside the role he was hired for, because every team he’s joined has discovered that the thing they actually needed was the thing adjacent to his job description, from building the 3D renders that landed a Sprint retail contract before he’d finished his associate degree to teaching himself the WordPress stack on a live company site because someone had to – to own a DoD frontend alone for four weeks and deliver the only completed project on the team while the rest of the engineering effort was still arguing about architecture.

Experience

UX/Frontend UI Development Contractor
Krozak IT/United States Coast Guard
McLean, VA (Remote)
Jun 2026 – Present

Design and build responsive, accessible U.S. Coast Guard applications using React and TypeScript, translating UX requirements and Figma designs into production-ready interfaces. Develop and integrate frontend functionality with AWS Amplify, GraphQL, APIs, and modern component architecture in an Agile/DevSecOps environment, while supporting mobile and offline-capable experiences and improving usability, accessibility, consistency, and performance across digital products.

Independent Consultant
Logias
Massachusetts, United States
Nov 2025 – Present

Founded and run this independent UX-first consultancy that leads with Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 to 2.2 compliance audits, follows with UX consulting (workflow discovery, heuristic evaluation, UX strategy, and design-system definition), and takes on frontend development only as a remediation follow-on.

Cut customer complaints 42% and lifted mobile-order adoption 16% across 23 participating Burger King locations (via agency) by restructuring a mobile pickup-ordering flow that lets customers complete orders without ever specifying where the handoff would happen.
Audited a luxury remodelling firm’s agency-built production site, documenting WCAG AA contrast failures, stripped focus indicators, empty alt text on image-only controls, and non-actionable mobile phone links, then shipped a seven-step remediation roadmap and a live verification prototype proving the corrected markup, keyboard interactions, and brand palette in code.
Diagnosed a summer enrolment decline for EDMO (Edventure More) through a baseline WCAG examination and Nielsen heuristic evaluation across six targeted pages, tracing it to form placement, information hierarchy failures, and trust signals buried below the fold.

UX Design Lead & UI Engineer
Oteemo/United States Air Force – Platform One
Reston, Virginia (Remote)
May 2023 – Nov 25

Raised the internal accessibility score of Iron Bank’s Vulnerability Assessment Tool (VAT) from 63.1 to 91.7 and improved usability 22.8% on average across five tracked metrics (task success 77.3% to 86.4%, time on task down 22%) by leading the 2024 rebrand and interface rework, validated through Matomo and internal usability testing.

Migrated the VAT React TypeScript frontend from React Bootstrap to Material UI in four weeks, replacing create-react-app with Vite, clearing overdue dependency upgrades and unpatched vulnerabilities in the same pass, and enforcing ESLint and Prettier as pipeline gates; the rework was the only VAT team project completed by the annual projection review.
Established a Figma-driven design system that increased development velocity 10%, measured through PR cycle time, and built self-hosted Ollama agents that flagged Figma token drift and scanned repositories for semantic HTML and ARIA defects, reducing accessibility issues 40% under WCAG 2.1 and Section 508.
Ran discovery with container hardeners and vendor contributors, prioritised features through impact-versus-effort analysis in FigJam and Miro, and prototyped in Figma and Figma Make to replace an onboarding workflow that forced engineers to trigger intentional pipeline failures; mentored designers and frontend developers on UX heuristics and accessibility audits.

Senior UX Designer
California Dept. of Public Health/M-Corp.
Sacramento, California (Remote)
Dec 2021 – Apr 2023

Grew CAIRHub sessions 346% and daily active users from 5 to 22 after launch, measured through Google Analytics and internal CDPH usage data, by unifying fragmented public health applications through UX research, information architecture, and a Section 508-compliant 0-1 design system.

Mapped how the state retrieves and maintains immunization records across school districts through service blueprinting and qualitative discovery, documenting policy friction, manual workarounds, and technical handoffs, then facilitated Feature Priority Matrix, design thinking, and team wireframing workshops to set roadmaps.
Built the design system on Angular Material with accessible behaviour defined inside each component (semantic data tables, keyboard-operable row actions, visible focus states, responsive layouts), achieving full WCAG 2.1 AA compliance across the reviewed portions of CAIRHub.
Set frontend standards for semantic HTML, accessible CSS architecture, and Angular Material component styling, advising the Tech Lead on Angular and SASS implementation and designing components to carry into a planned React TypeScript migration; earned full marks from the VP of Product on the CAIRHub technical prototype.

Lead UI/UX Designer
SAIC/USAF ShOC, Nellis AFB
Las Vegas, Nevada
Apr 2020 – Dec 2021

Cut intelligence operators’ task completion time from 24% to 54% (60 to 70 seconds off a 130 to 250 second baseline), as reported in the 2021 operational review, by designing a coordinate-parsing interaction inside the ops-floor chat tool after observing operators converting coordinates by hand mid-task.

Redesigned OneChat, the operations floor’s primary communication tool, running discovery entirely on pen and paper inside a SCIF through observation, floor immersion, and handwritten notes; two intelligence officers called the result a monumental change over the original interface.
Spearheaded the ShOC design system, a fork of the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) for secure Department of Defense applications, and translated Figma and Sketch designs into React TypeScript as the team’s SASS and HTML5/CSS3 resource.
Defined operational workflow scenarios through requirements gathering and use-case documentation in a TS/SCI environment, and coached cross-functional designers on design thinking, accessibility standards, and Agile delivery.

UX Lead & Frontend Developer
GetDocsNow
Las Vegas, Nevada
Jan 2019 – Mar 2020

Took an HOA document-processing platform from desktop-only to mobile-capable, landing its first four HOA clients on mobile access with higher login frequency recorded in Salesforce, by rebuilding the responsive layout, semantic HTML, CSS architecture, typography, and colour system on a codebase that predated the iPhone.

Reworked third-party iframes, vendor widgets, and API-driven UI elements built for desktop viewports so they held up on narrow screens without breaking the data flow underneath.
Built a live chat feature in ASP.NET and C# with an offline response bank written from the support team’s own client-facing language, replacing an email-and-callback loop that generated redundant follow-ups.
Spearheaded a rebrand exploration with the company owner, running design thinking sessions across logo concepts, colour, messaging, and company vision to give the owner concrete options for future branding and marketing strategy, earning ownership of the UX effort and the company’s long-term product direction.

UX Designer & Lead Frontend Developer
ActionCOACH Global Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Jun 2017 – Jan 2019

Increased organic traffic by 27% (5K+ sessions per quarter) through the 2018 rebuild of ActionCOACH.com, redesigning visitor and learning workflows from information architecture through responsive frontend.

Applied design thinking and research synthesis to a failing registration flow, rebuilding sign-up around user completion needs and recovering drop-off at the point of conversion.
Built a WordPress Multisite platform with custom plugins for the coach network, giving each franchisee a responsive, SEO-compliant site managed through a WYSIWYG interface.

Earlier Career

Senior UX Web Developer & MIS Ops
Superdraft Pty Ltd (Australia)
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (Remote)
Aug 2015 – May 2017

Increased sessions by 13% by redesigning and redeploying superdraft.com.au with a responsive layout, improved information architecture, and a tighter visual system, validated through Bing Webmaster Tools.
Developed and advised UX for three supporting products: a client portal (Archix), a 3D visualisation tool (Viz360), and an industry forum, each serving a distinct user type.
Managed information systems, including network architecture, setup, and security, first on-site, then remotely for Australian host and website servers after the move to remote.

WordPress Web Developer
WhiteTower Digital
Sydney, NSW, Australia (Remote)
Sep 2014 – Jul 2015

Delivered flagship builds for Lady Anne Funerals and Mobile Computing using Advanced Custom Fields and Flexible Content for complex page architecture and migrated e-commerce clients from Shopify to WooCommerce.
Reduced client onboarding time 32% by building reusable templates across WordPress, Adobe Experience Manager, and Laravel while launching five-plus point-of-sale and business sites.
Paired brand identity redesigns with SEO strategy, pushing 10+ competitive keywords into top-six rankings and lifting client lead generation roughly 9%, validated through Google Analytics.

Freelance work
Self-Employed; Art Of Vernard LLC
Remote
Jul 2013 – Aug 2014

Increased service enquiries by 40% in the first quarter post-launch for Nightingale Construction through improved UX and local SEO on a from-scratch build covering brand, site, security, and search.
Delivered complete digital presences for clients arriving with no brand or web presence, including DWCLawFirm.com and author John Quel, owning discovery, branding, content planning, front-end development, and CMS setup.
Cut project delivery time by roughly two workdays against typical small-agency timelines through a lightweight design-to-build workflow across custom WordPress and Adobe Business Catalyst deployments.
Produced 3D patent prototypes, including a composite decking system, work that led a client’s patent attorney to offer a salaried patent illustrator position.

Multimedia Specialist & Web Developer
Talyst
Kirkland, WA, USA
Sep 2008 – Jul 2013

Increased qualified leads 78% through targeted product microsites for the AutoPharm, INSITE, and Auto340B campaigns, applying SEO strategy, A/B testing, and conversion-focused content structure, tracked through Salesforce.
Produced the creative package for a long-term care sales pitch, including a branded executive deck and a 3D product video, supporting the team in securing an approximately $4M hospital contract.
Rebuilt and migrated Talyst.com from Adobe Experience Manager to WordPress, implementing custom themes, custom fields, landing pages, and contact flows, then owned ongoing content management for the site.
Translated SolidWorks engineering assets into 3ds Max and Maya workflows with product and hardware engineering, producing renderings, animations, and explainer videos of medication dispensing systems.

Multimedia Producer
Intava
Bellevue, WA
Aug 2006 – Aug 2008

Delivered 3D renderings of unreleased handsets for the Sprint retail kiosk programme, enabling customers to view and pre-order devices^{[1], [2], [3], [4]} with no physical unit to photograph, carrying from pitch into deployed store units.
Contributed to interface decisions for Sprint and Nextel kiosk point-of-sale screens, shaping user flows and visual standards for a self-service retail environment.
Built interactive features and prototypes in Flash ActionScript and managed end-to-end photography and post-production for product instruction manuals and packaging graphics.
Produced instructional and training assets with design, engineering, and marketing teams, translating hardware specifications into materials non-technical audiences could act on.