// About

Portrait of Deniz Topuz

I connect users, product, technology and teams to turn complexity into clear digital experiences.

I'm Deniz Topuz, a UX Lead based in the Netherlands. I combine UX design with a technical front-end background.

My strength is not one individual skill. It is the ability to connect disciplines and move between strategic, technical and design perspectives.

Let's talk

I work as

  • UX Designer
  • UX Lead
  • UX Architect
  • Epic owner design system
  • Product Designer
  • Consultant

Across six layers

  1. User experience
  2. Product
  3. Technology
  4. Design systems
  5. Organisation
  6. Strategy

// Method

  1. Understand

    Understand users, context, systems and the actual problem.

  2. Connect

    Connect users, stakeholders, product, design and technology.

  3. Simplify

    Turn complex information and flows into clear experiences.

  4. Scale

    Create solutions, systems and patterns that work beyond one screen or one team.

// Experience

Fifteen years of making complex products clear.

UX designer with over thirteen years of experience in complex digital products, working as UX Lead, UX architect and epic owner of a design system. I research how people use software, turn what I learn into accessible interfaces and prove the idea with low- and high-fidelity interactive prototypes. My background combines UX and UI design with front-end development, which makes it easy to work with product owners, developers and stakeholders across teams.

  1. Oct 2024 – Present

    NDW

    UX Designer · UX Lead · UX Architect · Epic owner design system

    Designing digital products at NDW (Nationale Databank Wegverkeersgegevens): an information hub, applications for several teams and new data dashboards, across team boundaries.

    • Epic owner of the design system: I direct the front-end team in building the components that NDW's applications use.
    • Working on the information hub, the central place that brings NDW's products and services together for people looking for information.
    • Designing and improving the applications of several teams, thinking along on solutions for existing and new features.
    • Designing entirely new dashboards, from heavy goods vehicle charging (vrachtwagenheffing) to road safety and Inweva.
    • Taking part in conversations with partners, municipalities, stakeholders and internal colleagues, to gather the question and translate it into user-friendly interfaces.
    • Information hubOne central place for NDW's products and services
    • Verkeersveiligheid (opens in a new tab)Road safety dashboard
    • InwevaDashboard for partners (behind a login, so not publicly viewable)
    • Heavy goods vehicle chargeA new dashboard for the vrachtwagenheffing
    • Design systemComponents for NDW's applications, built with the front-end team

  2. Sept 2020 – Sept 2024

    Blue Billywig

    Product UX & UI Designer

    Improved the user experience and interface of existing and new features of an online video platform, from research to design system.

    • Organised research and brainstorming sessions and used design thinking to arrive at solutions.
    • Redesigned the whole online video platform and built a design system for it.
    • Worked with junior designers and shared knowledge; supported the marketing team.

  3. Apr 2017 – 2020

    Wortell

    UX & UI Designer · Front-end developer

    Designed and built responsive applications for large organisations, working with stakeholders, product owners and developers.

    • Wrote HTML, CSS and JavaScript for responsive mobile and desktop applications.
    • Created interactive prototypes and ran user tests.
    • Worked with stakeholders abroad (USA), product owners and developers on implementation of features.
    • Aegon: Data Migration FactoryUser experience, interface and visual design of a migration tool
    • IHC: SherlockCognitive search and knowledge mining over drawings, manuals, certificates, scans, reports and contracts
    • PWNUser flows, visual style, style guide and prototypes for internal apps

  4. Jan 2011 – Apr 2017

    PeopleWare (now ProACT)

    UX & UI Designer · Front-end developer

    Worked in a multidisciplinary team on the Collaboration Factory, a tool in the SharePoint framework for intranets and collaboration portals.

    • Owned all visual design and prototyping, built in HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
    • Designed more than 25 SharePoint portals for organisations such as Engie, Jumbo, Mazars, HAK and KPMG, for news sharing and document management.

Education

  • Communication & Multimedia DesignHogeschool van Amsterdam · 2007 – 2010
  • Interaction DesignMediacollege Amsterdam · 2003 – 2007
  • MAVOHet Amsterdams Lyceum · 1999 – 2003

Certifications

Nielsen Norman Group UX Certificate

Earned July 2026 · ID 1059998

Download the certificate (PDF)
  • UX RoadmapsNielsen Norman Group · July 2026
  • UX Leader: Essential Skills for Any UX PractitionerNielsen Norman Group · May 2026
  • Design Systems and Pattern LibrariesNielsen Norman Group · January 2025
  • Emerging Patterns in Interface DesignNielsen Norman Group · August 2023
  • The Human Mind and UsabilityNielsen Norman Group · August 2022
  • Application Design for Web and DesktopNielsen Norman Group · July 2022
  • User Research Methods: From Strategy to Requirements to DesignNielsen Norman Group · May 2022
  • 70-480 Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3Microsoft

Skills

Research & strategy

  • User research
  • Interviews
  • Usability testing
  • Human-centred design
  • User journeys
  • Design thinking
  • Facilitation and workshops

Design

  • UX & UI design
  • Interaction design
  • Wireframes
  • Low- and high-fidelity prototyping
  • Design systems
  • Accessibility (WCAG)
  • Visual design

AI in my work

  • Prototyping with Figma Make
  • Claude Code
  • Claude Design
  • Perplexity
  • Gemini
  • ChatGPT

Tools & delivery

  • Figma
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Adobe XD
  • Sketch
  • InVision
  • HTML, CSS and JavaScript
  • Agile and Scrum

Languages

  • DutchNative
  • EnglishGood

Where I find inspiration

People I follow in UX

  • Zander Whitehurst
  • Femke van Schoonhoven
  • Michal Malewicz

// Contact

Have a complex product problem? Let’s make it clear.