Designer. Researcher. Problem Solver.
I'm Sean McCarthy, a UX Designer based in the Chicago-land area with 8+ years of experience across enterprise SaaS, web, and mobile platforms. My work sits at the intersection of user research, interaction design, and design systems. I care about building products that are intuitive, accessible, and genuinely useful to the people who use them every day.
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Masters in Creative Technologies from Illinois State University
Where my research focused on UX methodology, multisensory user experience, and accessibility-centered design. That research background shapes how I approach every project. I am rigorous about validation, curious about what experience really means beyond the screen, and committed to designing things that work for everyone regardless of ability or context.
Background in Design
My background spans the full UX lifecycle: user interviews, usability testing, heuristic evaluation, journey mapping, wireframing, prototyping, and shipping production-ready design systems in Figma. I have worked on enterprise automotive SaaS portals at Epsilon serving Nissan, Hyundai, and GM, led UX and brand design for 20+ client products at SquareWaves, and currently lead a design team of five at Thatcher Oaks.
Open to Work
I am currently open to UX Designer, Product Designer, and Design Systems roles in the Chicago area and remotely. If you are working on something interesting, I would love to hear about it.
How I Work
Research Before Solutions
I don't start designing until I understand the problem. User interviews, heuristic evaluations, and usability testing give me the foundation to make decisions that are validated rather than assumed.
Systems Thinking
I design with scale in mind. Component libraries, design tokens, and documented patterns mean the work holds up as products grow and teams change. Good systems reduce friction for everyone, including developers.
Accessibility as a Standard
WCAG compliance is not a checklist item I add at the end. It is a design constraint I build around from the start. Accessible design is better design, and I treat it that way on every project.
Collaboration With Engineering
The best UX work gets built accurately. I invest in clean handoffs, annotated specs, and direct communication with developers so the gap between design and production stays as small as possible.
Honest Process
I document decisions, share rationale, and invite critique. Design is stronger when the thinking behind it is visible and open to challenge. I don't protect ideas, I refine them.
Details Are the Work
Typography, spacing, hierarchy, interaction states, edge cases. The quality of a product lives in how carefully these are handled. I pay attention to the small things because that is where the experience actually happens.