Pstttttt By using a light-weight single-page website builder, even my portfolio was built with sustainability in mind ;)

CURRENTLY IN THE PROCESS OF UPDATING AND REFRESHING FOR 2025 thank you for your patience
The Arch
Tourism | First Cognitive Sustainable Region in the World | Gamification | Sustainability | Metaverse | Social Club
2023
2021
2021

"aloe"
SaaS | A.I. | Natural Language Processing | Mental Health for Medical Professionals
Web-based SaaS that uses AI to help medical professionals securely identify their emotions within a context, and then provides them with resources to cope and connect anonymously.
Summary
Dr. Kiki, founder of Doctors Under the Radar, is passionate about destigmatizing mental health in the medical field. She wants to optimize her consulting business while also finding a way to create a community within the medical field where mental health is supported.The current stigma is so extreme that doctors noted a lack of access to higher positions or roles if they disclose negative mental health records.
Goal
Create a lucrative product for Dr. Kiki that satisfies business needs while providing medical professionals with the access to mental health resources that they need.
Role
- Research Lead
- Co - Strategist
- Visual Art Director
- Illustrator
Tools and Methodologies
Comparative Analysis
Competitive Analysis
User Research and Synthesis
Rapid Prototyping
Development of Design Systems
Miro
Figma
Typeform
Interaction Design
Sustainable Design Thinking
"aloe"
SaaS | A.I. | Natural Language Processing | Mental Health for Medical Professionals
Web-based SaaS that uses AI to help medical professionals securely identify their emotions within a context, and then provides them with resources to cope and connect anonymously.
Solution

We wanted to inspire systemic change as well as ensuring a product that had maximum value for the user and for the business.

Users heavily noted a desire to discuss problems within their daily lives and institutions without being reprimanded negatively. Therefore, we wanted to ensure anonymity and create a more personal experience by allowing users to customize an avatar named "aloe."
The creation of "aloe" was inspired by the soothing nature of the aloe plant, the gender-neutrality of some anime characters, and the need for identification with "someone who understands." Hence, the medical attire.We aimed to create trust and a sense of friendship between aloe and the user.

We proposed that "aloe" be a SaaS that can produces detailed and anonymous situational and emotional data reports to institutions who want to make actionable changes to improve employee mental health and overall job satisfaction.The data for these reports would be collected from "venting" sessions and community forums which would produce raw and comprehensive insights on potential areas of improvement within an institution.

We suggested that through 50% of users logging at least 4 venting entries a month, we could collect enough data to use Natural Language Processing for outlining trends of key emotions and contexts.Utilizing Mongoose Database would allow a wide variety of data points to be related thus, creating more nuanced reporting with endless possibilities for data analysis.Hosting our data on Amazon AWS would secure HIPPA compliance.React would "learn" the needs and trends of users to personalize the experience for them, creating a more comfortable environment for sharing intimate information.

Above is an artboard of a venting session where Natural Language Processing extracted key emotions from the particular context. The emotion can be identified, then explained to the user and mitigated through specific resources. The contextual information is saved and tracked on the back end for reporting purposes.
Incorporating sustainable design

"aloe"
SaaS | A.I. | Natural Language Processing | Mental Health for Medical Professionals
Web-based SaaS that uses AI to help medical professionals securely identify their emotions within a context, and then provides them with resources to cope and connect anonymously.
Ensuring the right features
Working with information as sensitive as mental health can be tricky. We wanted to ensure raw and valuable data through prioritizing user's comfort and access to resources.In order to do this, we needed to get detailed information on who our users are and what their pain points were. This is what we found:


Users' main sources of stress and lack of mental health supports validated the assumption that medical professionals need those specific resources.

From our research we centered these three personas and their needs.

"aloe"
SaaS | A.I. | Natural Language Processing | Mental Health for Medical Professionals
Web-based SaaS that uses AI to help medical professionals securely identify their emotions within a context, and then provides them with resources to cope and connect anonymously.
Stages of Iteration
From the research we learned that users wanted:
A place to find community around mental health struggles.
A way to process their feelings of the day.
Resources they could access immediately that were "mindless".
A way to track their mental health.
With those user needs in mind we did rounds of Crazy 8's where each of the most agreed upon components were chosen to become wireframes.
We utilized many of the existing preferred user applications, such as Netflix, as inspiration for the designs.

After agreeing on the wireframes, we moved in mid-fidelity, where we conducted usability testing on the and made adjustments accordingly.
Wire Frames | Mid-Fidelity | Hi-Fidelity
Incorporated Feedback
Design System
We chose the color scheme to exude a relaxed feel while utilizing mostly whitespace and color accents.The illustrations were created to be sleek and minimal in order to focus on the purpose of the interactions.Utilizing Tiempo as a header text and Avenir as a body text gave a professional feel while also being approachable.See the details in the prototype below.
"aloe"
SaaS | A.I. | Natural Language Processing | Mental Health for Medical Professionals
Web-based SaaS that uses AI to help medical professionals securely identify their emotions within a context, and then provides them with resources to cope and connect anonymously.
Last thoughts and Challenges overcame
This project was incredibly exciting because we were tasked with creating a product that was not only viable as a business model, but also able to create a safe and resourceful place for medical professionals to get mental health support.I believe we were able to accomplish that and overcome the following challenges :
Some successes we found were:
Securing anonymity for users sharing sensitive information
Pairing down designs to essentials
Ensuring anonymity through an avatar.
Making the application approachable through UX writing and visual design.
Creating a safe emotional processing center for medical professionals.
Creating a business model with positive social impact at the core.
The Arch
Tourism | First Cognitive Sustainable Region in the World | Gamification | Sustainability Education | Metaverse | Social Club
A phygital social club that allows users to create and invest in a strong "conscious futurist" community through incredible immersive phygital experiences and empowering community spaces. Ultimately, driving tourism for a new cognitive, sustainable, and highly technologically advanced region that is being built as we speak.
Due to NDA I cannot share more than the summary for this project. Thank you for understanding.
Summary
The Arch is the first of its kind. Driving tourism through incredible immersive experiences and empowering community spaces, it is an "out of this world" social club blurring the lines between physical and digital, made possible by advanced technology.We were tasked with crafting metaverse experiences for this region's earliest digital community in a way that maximizes user engagement and community growth with the goal of becoming a top destination both physically and digitally.
Goal
Design a digital experience that would maximize user engagement and community growth with the goal of driving tourism to a cognitive, sustainable, and highly technologically advanced region that is being built.
Role
- Incubation Core Team
- CX Designer
- CX Researcher
Tools and Methodologies
Competitive Analysis
Stakeholder Interviews
Personas
Subject Matter Expert interviews
Value Proposition Testing
Figma
Market Research
Midjourney
Rapid Prototyping
Prototype Testing
Summary
thirdACT is the first of it's kind to help marginalized groups transform existing homes to carbon-free, net-zero energy. They do this through calculating the energy benchmark of the home, analyzing the retrofits necessary to reduce or electrify the home and provide the funding for individuals to apply those changes. Ultimately, the owner saves on their energy bills, are eligible for cash rebates and can claim federal benefits.One of the barriers that they are currently experiencing in their business is client's lack of education and understanding of how financially beneficial electrifying a home can be for a single-family homeowner. That was the focus of our work together.
Goal
Educate, encourage and incentivize single-family home owners to electrify their homes with thirdACT.
Role
- Project Manager
- Strategist
- Co-Researcher
Tools and Methodologies
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
Personas
Stakeholder interviews
Usability testing
A/B Testing
Figjam
Figma
Interaction Design
Sustainable Design Thinking
Rapid Prototyping
UX Writing
thirdACT
On-boarding | Gamification | FinTech | Carbon Retrofitting | Environmental Justice
A gamified on-boarding process that educates and excites potential clients on clean energy and energy savings when working with thirdACT, a carbon-zero fintech organization.
Solution

We playfully started by telling the user of a secret they are missing out on.


We then centered the rest of flow around a tangible goal of their choice. This peeks their interest and investment.

We then asked and explained why each essential benchmark question is important to reaching a total potential savings and making an impact with carbon-free systems.

We gamified the process by using game language and creating levels they could beat, ultimately incentivizing them to finish the questionaire.

Lastly, we wanted the product to be very interactive, therefore we ensured to cognitively link the answers to their questions with the increasing monthly savings on their electricity bill.

thirdACT
On-boarding | Gamification | FinTech | Carbon Retrofitting | Environmental Justice
A gamified on-boarding process that educates and excites potential clients on clean energy and energy savings when working with thirdACT, a carbon-zero fintech organization.
Why did we choose this path?
When we first met with Diane, the owner of thirdACT, she mentioned these essential business focuses:
Automating some of her business' quoting process.
Educating, incentivizing and exciting potential clients.
Gamify the process in some way.
In her mentioning the relationship she develops with clients, she noted that she has to have long initial conversations educating the client on the background of electrification and carbon-free system.This raised a red flag for us because if users didn't initially understand the full scope of the potential benefits, they would be less likely to even finish an extensive onboarding process.Although this was true, we mainly assumed that the largest barrier for users going carbon-free was the financial investment.We kept these two assumptions in the back of our minds with the ultimate goal of revealing if the research validated our assumptions. This is what we found:

Most competitors who developed some form of carbon emission calculator, were lacking brevity, incentives or were in a very saturated market, such as solar energy.The most interesting competitor we investigated was the World Wild Life Fund. They have a greenhouse calulator that is geared toward children. The calculator gamified and educated the user in a captivating way. We found great inspiration in that.
We moved on to user research. Here we found a few facts:

We developed two personas from our interviews and centered them in our designing phase.

Unexpectedly, our research validated that the largest barrier to going carbon free was not financial at all, but rather continued to point to a lack of understanding around the details of the concept as well as its benefits.
thirdACT
On-boarding | Gamification | FinTech | Carbon Retrofitting | Environmental Justice
A gamified on-boarding process that educates and excites potential clients on clean energy and energy savings when working with thirdACT, a carbon-zero fintech organization.
How do we build it?
We spoke to energy engineers and non-profit liaisons between lending firms and home-owners to get an understanding of the type of questions we should be asking our users. They mentioned the points below:

They both mentioned that a lengthy quoting process could get exhausting to homeowners thus, breaking up the process into managable steps is ideal. That looks like reducing the questions asked to only the essentials.In our case, we found four essential questions that would allow us to largely automate the process of providing a savings quote, while not fatiguing the user.
My team and I used Crazy 8s to start ideating and expressing some of our designs.

We found that we had two different visions. One group envisioned an interactive dashboard that would automate the entire quoting process for thirdACT. While the other group went for a more user-centered approach in educating, exciting and incentivizing the user in a gamified way.
In order to figure out how to move forward we went back to research and created some non-negotiables.

With our non-negotiables we were able to move forward with the gamified version including some adjustments:
Changed from Mobile to Web App format because most of thirdACT's current traffic comes from laptops and desktops. Web App can also easily be compatible with mobile.
Incorporated more of those essential questions.
Centered the users goals.
This was the sketch we used to build the low-fidelity prototype.

Visual Design
We ensured to use thirdACT's existing color palette and typography.


Our design system changed over time, this was our initial one.

We also wanted to gamify and personalize the flow with an avatar. We made adjustments to Elly and animated her throughout the process.

Evolution
We then began in low-fidelity and moved into mid and high fidelity. Here is the evolution.
Throughout the process we got the following feedback from users.



We performed A/B testing to see if a mixed visual design would be preferred. Users preferred the lighter background and to keep the visual design consistent from one section to another.

Diane also noted that she would like an incentive to be added to the end of the flow. This incentive would be applied to the overall cost of electrifying the users home.

Check out details in the prototype below:
thirdACT
On-boarding | Gamification | FinTech | Carbon Retrofitting | Environmental Justice
A gamified on-boarding process that educates and excites potential clients on clean energy and energy savings when working with thirdACT, a carbon-zero fintech organization.
Last thoughts and next steps
Being that I am so passionate about sustainability, I was thrilled to take on this project and be asked to continue on with thirdACT through the rest of it's development.Upon being presented with the prototype thirdACT had the following comments:
They were very excited to have been presented with such a unique product that does not currently exist in her market.
Diane wishes to adjust the UX writing and key questions.
As a previous gaming professional, she absolutely loved the gamified aspect to the onboarding and would like to expand the UI with some connections she has in the gaming world.
We were really proud of the following challenges we overcame throughout the process:
Communication barriers.
Aligning the product to user needs.
Gamifying in a non-distracting way.
We plan on the following:
Supporting thirdACT in research, strategy and testing of the following iterations of the product.
Graphite | Oil | Digital

Nude Study | 2023 | Oil on Wood | 14in x 18in | Abstract Personal

"Criatura Within" | 2022 | Oil on Wood | 12in x 12in | Abstract Personal

Strange version of myself | 2020 | Oil on Wood | 12in x 12in | Personal

"Marble" | 2023 | Graphite on Paper | 6in x 6in | 60 min Sketch

Epiarx | 2022 | Digital | Logo | Commission

"Sustainable" | 2023 | Mixed Media on Wood | 12in x 12in | Realist Personal

"The Afghan Lemur" | 2021 | Oil on wood | 12in x 12in | Surreal Commission

"The Last Game" | 2018 | Digital | TIF on Microsoft Sketchbook | Commission

"Neytiri" | 2023 | Graphite on Paper | 6in x 6in | 30 min sketch

Doctors Under the Radar | 2022 | Digital | Logo | Case Study

"Community" | 2023 | Mixed Media on Wood | 12in x 12in | Abstract Personal

Untitled | 2020 | Oil on canvas | 12 in x 18in | Realist Commission

"The String Queens" | 2021 | Oil on Wood | 12in x 12in | Commission

"Jessie" | 2018 | Graphite on paper | 8in x 12in | 20 min sketch

Deliberate Designer Logo | 2025 | Digital | Logo | Personal
In 2017, I started Hijasdetierra (daughters of the earth), a commission-based small business. It has been a blessing in keeping me evolving as an artist. In 2025 I rebranded to "The Deliberate Designer".My goal is to have my work consistently be inspired by nature and designed with purpose.I am humbled that you are here to share it with me.Go on and explore, my friend!Instagram handle: @thedeliberatedesignerArtShows:
Pancakes and Booze - Washington, DC - April 2023

Hey! 🌿 I'm a Puerto Rican - American with a passion for making the world a better, more interesting place.I aspire to be an innovative CEO and leader in social entrepreneurship.But at 30, I am focusing on understanding sustainability from a more technical perspective, while fine tuning my soft skills.As an artist, I would love to utilize my passion for natural sciences, society, sustainability and mixed media creation to make sustainability more emotionally and cognitively tangible.
Currently, I am getting MS in Sustainable Engineering at ASU and am working with Rescate Playas Borinquen, a non-profit that aims to restore and maintain 642 acres of beach and recreational spaces in Punta Borinquen, Puerto Rico.
I love:
Solving problems💡
Constantly learning 🎒
Traveling 🛫
Anything creative 💃🏽
Rick and Morty 🥒
Thrifting ♻️
Expertise:
ability to pivot quickly and positively
data interpretation, integration and visualization
beautiful and minimal early venture design systems
disruptive design
sense of humor
passion for building ventures for the "good"
I've worked in:
Art and Design - 7 years ✏️
Science Ed - 6 years 🏫
Peace Corps - 2 years 🕊️
IT - 3 years 💻
Science research - 2 years 🔬
Service Industry - many years
misunderstood, yet incredibly important
Below are some of my personal sustainability related activities:
Completed:1. UX work for ThirdAct ⚡️
- Customer acquisition and retention model for communicating benefits of retrofitting residential homes to make them carbon-free.
- Dates: May - June 20222. Science education 🔬
- Taught natural sciences to students grades 4 - collegiate highlighting the interconnected systems that make our world possible.
- Dates: 2015 - 20213. Earned Disruptive Design Practitioner Certification through Unschool 🤓
- Certificate focused on systems, sustainability, and design.
- Professional development within current role at Portfolio T
- Dates: January - June 2023
Completed: cont.4. Community engagement projects aimed at spreading awareness of the benefits of sustainable thinking 🌿
- "Envisioning a better world through sustainable empowerment" dinner.
- Creation of sustainability related instagram posts5. Investigating how sustainable systems thinking can positively influence early venture building methodology 🔍
- Side project within current role at Portfolio T
- Dates: September - June 20236. Milo Climate Action Academy - Puerto Rico
- Created an app to help local farmers develop resiliency plans for climate change and economic challenges.
- Won second place.
- Dates: September 2024 - December 2024
Current:1. Consult early ventures on the integration of sustainable systems thinking into business modeling 💡
- Consulting
- Start date: June 20232. Study Environmental Engineering
- MS
- Start Date: January 2025
Future:2. Found a company built on sustainable business models 🏁
- Where: TBD
- When: TBD
Find out more about some aspects of sustainable design in the contexts below:
misunderstood, yet incredibly important
My Portfolio is more sustainable than most!
I am so passionate about sustainability, I even designed my portfolio around it.I am able to reduce my overall portfolio carbon footprint.There are even more examples below that show how intentionality can positively contribute to our progress towards a more sustainable world. Go on above and explore my friend!
Building my portfolio on Carrd, a one-page load portfolio means that the assets on this page get downloaded, only once. Ultimately this reduces the amount of data being processed in one visit to my portfolio.
Using smaller features, minimal colors and reducing image size and quality reduces the data processing load of my portfolio, making the carbon footprint lower as well as more accessible.

Riddle: What is the same size of Germany's and growing every day?
The collective energy consumption of the internet!
According to the BBC: "The IT industry’s greenhouse gas emissions are predicted to reach 14% of global emissions by 2040."
It sounds like a jarring figure but, there is good news!
What's the good news?
The UN's International Telecommunication's Union has set targets for reducing IT emissions by 45% over the next decade.
To make this happen there are a ton of sustainable design concepts that we can globally implement to progressively reduce the amount of energy we use while online!
How does that work?
Here are some ways I used sustainable design concepts to build my portfolio!
When possible used black and white photos, or no photos at all. This uses less energy and makes the site accessible in more remote places.
Have everything on one page. This reduces the amount of reloading of the same components in a website, thus reducing energy use.
Only writing what is necessary to know. Better for the brain and the environment.
What can I do to help?
If you're a designer:
Here is a good place to start. Leyla Acagrolu and Tom Greenwood. Both reimagining how we design our products with sustainability in mind.You can also sign the sustainable web manifesto.
If you're a consumer:
Here is a list of some cool companies who really adhere to sustainable missions.
If you're with a company:
Get ahead of the curve by hiring people interested in sustainable design. Or, provide your current employees with opportunities to learn about how sustainability can positively impact your business!
Here is a great sustainable design program for professionals!
© Frances Vazquez Design. All rights reserved.