Research-led, not pixel-first
Every flow starts with the problem and the person, never the trend. Pretty comes after useful.
Available for Q3 2026
Designing calm, considered digital products.
I'm Maya — a product designer and creative developer. I help founders and teams turn fuzzy ideas into interfaces people actually enjoy using. Less noise, more intent.
- 8+
- Years in craft
- 40+
- Products shipped
- 3
- Awwwards honors
Booking new work
2–3 collaborations / quarter
Product design✺
Design systems✺
Creative dev✺
Prototyping✺
Brand & motion✺
Webflow & React✺
Product design✺
Design systems✺
Creative dev✺
Prototyping✺
Brand & motion✺
Webflow & React✺
/ About
Half designer, half engineer — fully obsessed with the details.
I started out building marketing sites in a coastal studio and never lost the urge to ship the thing myself. Today I sit between design and code, which means handoffs don't get lost in translation — the polish you approve is the polish that ships.
I care most about the quiet stuff: the loading state that doesn't jump, the empty screen that still feels warm, the micro-interaction you only notice when it's missing.
Read my full storySystems over screens
I build tokens, components and docs so the work scales after I'm gone. No orphaned Figma files.
Designs that ship
I prototype in real code when it matters, so timing and feel are right before a single ticket is written.
Momentum, not meetings
Tight loops, async updates, things in your hands every few days. I'd rather show than schedule.
/ Selected work
Case studies, not screenshots.
A few projects I can talk about. Each one shipped, measured, and made someone's day a little smoother.
Fintech
Product design
Design system
Tide — a savings app people don't dread
Reframed a cold banking dashboard into a calm, goal-led experience. Rebuilt the design system from scratch and shipped a guided onboarding that lifted activation across the board.
+38%
Activation
4.8★
App Store
Case study
E-commerce
Webflow
Driftwood Goods
A slow-living homewares store. Editorial PDPs and a checkout that cut drop-off by a quarter.
Health
Mobile
Stillwater
A meditation companion with a warm, breathing UI. From brand to shipped iOS build in ten weeks.
SaaS
Dashboard
Harbor Analytics
Tamed a data tool with 200 settings into three clear views. Support tickets dropped by a third.
Travel
Brand
Costa Routes
A trip planner for the slow road. Branding, illustration system, and a playful booking flow.
/ Skills & services
What I bring to the table — and the toolbox under it.
-
01
Product & UX design
Discovery, flows, wireframes, high-fidelity UI, and usability testing for web and mobile.
-
02
Design systems
Tokens, components, and documentation that keep teams fast and consistent at scale.
-
03
Creative front-end
Pixel-faithful React & Tailwind builds, motion, and the interactions designs can't show in static.
-
04
Brand & motion
Visual identity, illustration systems, and tasteful animation that gives a product a pulse.
Toolbox
Figma
React
Tailwind
TypeScript
Framer Motion
Webflow
After Effects
Storybook
Where I'm strongest
Interface design
95%
Front-end development
85%
Design systems
90%
Motion & prototyping
80%
"Maya is the rare designer who can sit in a standup, defend a decision with research, then go and ship the front-end herself. She raised the bar for our whole product team."
Jonas Lund
VP Product, Tide
/ Contact
Have something worth building?
Tell me about your product, your timeline, and what good looks like to you. I reply to every serious note within two working days.
hello@mayasolano.studio
Lisbon · working worldwide