Professional Résumé, UX Designer

Vernard Mercader

Need the PDF? go here.

Vernard Mercader is a hybrid UX designer and frontend engineer who runs Logias, an accessibility-first freelance consultancy that offers Section 508 and WCAG auditing, UX consulting, and development. Products fail when nobody understands the problem before building, a thesis he’s spent eight-plus years proving across the Air Force twice, the California Department of Public Health, and a string of commercial engagements.

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 owning a DoD frontend alone for four weeks and delivering the only completed project on the team while the rest of the engineering effort was still arguing about architecture.

Experience

UX, Accessibility, and Development Consultant
Logias
Massachusetts, United States
Nov 2025 – Present

Raised mobile-order adoption 16% and reduced customer complaints 42% by restructuring a large American fast food chain’s mobile ordering flow to require explicit pickup-location selection.

Run standards-based accessibility audits against Section 508 and WCAG 2.1-2.2, delivering findings reports and remediation guidance.
Scoped EDMO’s web evaluation targeting 20-35% conversion gains through heuristic and WCAG testing across key pages.
Audit interaction debt driving user churn under an approved Niantic Pokémon GO statement of work, mapping clunky inventory and multi-tap routines to modernise veteran player retention.

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

Raised the Vulnerability Assessment Tool’s accessibility score 28.6 points (63.1 to 91.7) and overall usability 30% by migrating the frontend from Bootstrap to Material UI and applying new DoD brand guidelines, validated through usability testing and Matomo.

Rebuilt the React TypeScript frontend end to end, replacing create-react-app with Vite, enforcing ESLint and Prettier across the codebase, and clearing years of dependency and security debt in a four-week delivery.
Established a Figma-driven design system that lifted development velocity 10% and deployed self-hosted Ollama agentic AI to scan repos for WCAG 2.1 and Section 508 violations, reducing accessibility issues 40%.

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

Unified the fragmented CDPH CAIRHub platform through UX research, information architecture, and a Section 508-compliant 0-to-1 design system, driving a 346% increase in user sessions after launch.

Advised frontend implementation in Angular, SASS, and Angular Material, setting standards for semantic HTML, accessible CSS architecture, and responsive layouts ahead of a planned React TypeScript migration.
Led discovery alongside a business analyst and facilitated Feature Priority Matrix, Design Thinking, and wireframing workshops to align cross-functional teams on roadmap and delivery order.

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

Accelerated intelligence operators’ average task completion by 60 to 70 seconds (from a 130 to 250 second baseline) by designing the interaction for a coordinate-translating middleware inside the chat interface.

Ran discovery for the OneChat redesign entirely on pen and paper inside a SCIF with no WiFi or recording tools, rebuilding it into Hyve for secure-container approval.
Spearheaded the ShOC design system, a USWDS fork tailored for secure DoD applications, and translated Figma and Sketch designs into React TypeScript while maintaining Go proficiency for backend alignment.

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

Delivered the first mobile access on a desktop-only HOA document platform by rebuilding its responsive layout and frontend architecture, onboarding the first mobile-adopting HOAs and raising client engagement tracked in Salesforce.

Built a live chat feature in ASP.NET and C# with an offline knowledge bank co-developed with the support team, matching their language closely enough to resolve inbound queries.
Debugged C# application logic and SQL databases to resolve high-complexity production issues, executing precise data corrections that restored customer accounts while preserving integrity in a live environment.

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.