Dennis van Lith

In 1996, at the dawn of the digital age, I immersed myself in the world of graphic design, studying in Rotterdam with dreams of shaping visual masterpieces. My natural passion for design fueled my curiosity and led me to explore various aspects of the field.

By 1998, the internet exploded with potential during the first dot-com boom. The web was chaotic, full of websites that were functional but lacked any aesthetic appeal. I was fascinated—not just by the technology—but by the possibility of making these digital spaces more beautiful, more intuitive. The web, I realized, was my new canvas.

Late nights were spent coding as a self-taught generalist in HTML, CSS, and dabbling in JavaScript, but I quickly realized my true strength wasn't in programming—it was in design. My natural instincts for layout, typography, color, and an natural flow made me think about websites not just as products, but as experiences. I discovered a deeper drive: to create sites that didn’t just look good, but felt right for the user.

As I refined my skills, I began to recognize that my ability to understand what users wanted and needed wasn’t just a talent, it was a passion. My journey from webdesigner to UX design felt inevitable. And while time pssed by, I transitioned from simply creating websites to crafting intuitive user experiences. I took on freelance work, designed desktop applications, and even conducted user research, each project pushing me to refine my craft.

Looking back, changing paths wasn’t the end of my journey was the beginning of an adventure that allowed me to forge my own direction, find my purpose, and become the UX designer I am today.

Good UX is invisible; bad UX is unforgettable.

At LexisNexis Risk (Nextens), my role as a Senior UX Designer, Strategist, and Team Lead is multifaceted. I lead and mentor the UX design team, oversee multiple projects, and collaborate with product and design leadership on strategic initiatives to enhance user experience in Fintech UX.

Key Responsibilities:

• Mentor and guide a team of junior and mid-level UX designers, fostering growth and development.
• Share, explore, and cultivate industry knowledge and insights, creating a shared understanding within the UX field.
• Support and collaborate on projects across individual squads, ensuring alignment with UX objectives.
• Strategize collaboratively with UX Researchers, management, Product Owners, and other stakeholders to drive user-centered design.
• Establish and lead research and validation phases to inform design decisions and improve usability. Facilitate workshops to build empathy and address customer pain points and challenges.
• Manage, maintain, and advocate for design systems, ensuring consistency and quality across products.
• Facilitating Workshops: Lead cross-functional workshops and brainstorming sessions to gather diverse perspectives, encouraging input from all relevant teams.
• Champion the integration of customer needs within the organization, aligning UX strategies with business goals.
• User-Centered Advocacy: Act as the voice of the user in cross-functional teams, advocating for user needs while balancing technical constraints and business goals.
• Adaptability: Flexibility to adapt UX processes and designs based on the needs and feedback of cross-functional teams, ensuring a holistic approach to product development.

At LexisNexis IP (Intellectual Property), my role as a Senior UX Designer and Strategist was centered on the intellectual property industry. I led and managed UX design processes, overseeing multiple projects and teams in Leiden (Netherlands) and Bonn (Germany), while collaborating with product and design leadership on strategic initiatives to enhance user experience.

Key Responsibilities:

• Elevate UX maturity within the company by driving user-centered design practices.
• Facilitate and optimize UX designs within the front-end development squad, ensuring alignment with user needs.
• Develop, manage, and uphold the design system, ensuring consistency and scalability across products.
• Advocate for and embed user needs across the organization, aligning UX strategies with business goals.
• Advocate for UX approaches across departments, fostering a user-centric culture company-wide.

As the Lead UX Designer at SuperShift, I focus on delivering full-service, solution-oriented web, cloud, and application design for B2B, B2E, and B2C clients, ensuring optimal engagement across cross-device and cross-platform experiences.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and mentor a mid-level UX Designer, driving growth and development within the team.
• Onboard and collaborate with clients, co-creating ideas through interactive workshops to align with their goals.
• Enhance and refine solutions by working closely with the development team to optimize designs for implementation.
• Validate and iterate on designs by gathering feedback from clients and their end-users, ensuring the final product meets their needs.

Lead UX Designer at OneWelcome (formerly iWelcome), Europe’s leading Identity Platform offering IDaaS (SaaS) CIAM solutions. Focused on researching and redesigning user interactions for GDPR-compliant identity and access management across B2E, B2C, B2B, and CIAM markets.

Key Responsibilities:

• Conduct in-depth research on GDPR/AVG legislation and translate findings into actionable UX strategies.
• Design and validate optimized login screens, onboarding flows, and user management portals tailored for the CIAM, IAM, and IDaaS sectors.
• Collaborate strategically with the Product Management team and key stakeholders to align UX initiatives with business objectives.
• Identify industry best practices that address user pain points, driving the creation of user-centered design solutions.
• Investigate and implement optimized MFA/2FA methods to enhance security and user experience.
• Support and collaborate with the development team based in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) by providing UX-optimized designs and discussing innovative solutions for upcoming features.
• Analyze user flows and funnels using metric applications to identify and resolve usability issues, enhancing overall user experience.

At Coosto, I was brought on board as a Senior UX Designer to optimize the mobile experience of their social media data analysis and web care application. In this role, I led the mobile development process, starting with wireframing to establish a clear structure and flow. I conducted robust user testing to validate design decisions and ensure a seamless user experience. Additionally, I enhanced the design process by creating detailed personas, scenarios, and storyboards to guide the development team and align the product with user needs.

Key Responsibilities:

• Interaction Design: Applied advanced interaction design principles to create intuitive, user-friendly interfaces that enhance the mobile user experience.
• Prototyping and Usability Testing: Developed interactive prototypes to test and refine design concepts, ensuring that the final product meets user expectations and business objectives.
• Persona Development: Crafted detailed personas and user scenarios to inform design decisions, ensuring that the mobile application caters to the specific needs and behaviors of target users.
• Senior UX Leadership: Provided strategic guidance in UX design, leading the team through iterative design processes and fostering cross-functional collaboration to deliver a high-quality product.
• User-Centered Design: Advocated for user needs throughout the development process, balancing them with technical constraints to create a product that is both functional and engaging.

Recruited for backtracking and reorganizing the Microsoft SharePoint environment. Due to the wild grow of sites, environments, and blogs, the 2,2Pb of science- & work data was almost unattainable. Redesigned the look and feel. Redesigned a better search function with the Development team in London to optimize the workflow.

Recruited for backtracking and reorganizing the Microsoft SharePoint environment. Due to the wild grow of sites, environments, and blogs, the 2,2Pb of science- & work data was almost unattainable. Redesigned the look and feel. Redesigned a better search function with the Development team in London to optimize the workflow.

I'm a true adrenaline junkie! I love pushing my limits, and this sport gives me the power to test those boundaries. Whether it's 45 meters in the air or 45 kilometers per hour, I thrive on overcoming big fears and chasing new goals.

Photography enhances my creative process, allowing me to focus on the details, beauty, and essence of design. It also helps me enter a meditative state, clearing my mind and sparking fresh ideas.

You’ll often find me exploring museums and art galleries, searching for inspiration in all forms of art—whether it's painting, music, or even street art. I'm also a big fan of Banksy!