About Aras Bilgen

I am a UX consultant and trainer. I love working with designers, researchers, business analysts, agile teams, managers and executives to create better experiences for people.

My north star metric: Someone that uses my teams' work should say: "I am so glad they thought about this!"

I always loved computers as a kid. I knew I wanted to something with them, so I pursued a computer science degree. As I studied this wonderful field, I realized that I am less interested in what happens inside the computer and more interested in what happens around it. So, that pushed me towards design—specifically human-computer interaction.

I got my first paid web project in college. My first full-time design job was at Intel. I am sorry to say, but I may be responsible for some of the tray icon annoyance that you may have experienced around 2008. I tried my best though. Later on, I moved on to plan work for design teams, then to leading design teams.

In 2018, one year before Covid, I decided to shift my direction from white-collar, big, heavy corporate design to smaller, resource-constrained, lighter-weight design projects. I have setup my own company of one in Istanbul. I'm still working as a solo person, collaborating with other designers, researchers and developers when needed. We have done marvelous work, loosely-teamed, fully-remote. That is how I intend to keep my practice as long as I can.

Outside of work, I am an avid cook. I am currently studying Japanese, and I DJ when I can.

I do my best to answer any DMs I get. If you have something in mind, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.

Corporate Work Experience

Education & Research