Balaji Ramesh, Lead Product Designer (AI UX)

FILE // 01 · ABOUT

I make complicated software feel simple, human, obvious

LEAD PRODUCT DESIGNER^™

EST. 2018

Good design feels obvious. Getting there never is.

Agentic AI UX
Product design
Prototyping
Interaction design
User research
Design systems

CREWS I'VE FLOWN WITH

FREELANCE
DESIGNER

FILE // 02 · PROCESS

My process, in a nutshell

How I usually work, minus the buzzwords.

PRE-FLIGHTT-03

Coffee: brewed
Figma: final_v7.fig
Post-its: 0 left
Make it intuitive

01 / 03STEP

Coffee Connect

Coffee first, then questions. I talk to the people who'll use it and watch how they really work.

02 / 03STEP

Collaborate

I pull in engineers, PMs and the AI folks early, so nobody gets a surprise at handoff.

03 / 03STEP

Craft

Then I design it for real: clear, accessible screens, tested with actual users before launch.

psst, the notes peel off too

FILE // 03 · MISSIONS

Recent projects

A few projects I'm proud of: an agentic AI app, a point-of-sale for jewellery stores and a cinema app.

MISSION 01/03

PRODUCTAI

2024 → NOW

Agentic AI App

An AI app that writes code, documents it, fixes bugs, builds APIs, writes tests and sets up infrastructure, all without leaving your IDE.

Jewello

A point-of-sale web app for jewellery stores. It ties billing and sales data into the systems they already use, with a fresh, easy UI.

TakeOne

A cinema app for your phone. I did the product design, strategy and branding, from sign-in to what's showing tonight.

OPEN CASE FILE

FILE // 03B · PRODUCT

Things I built

Side projects I designed, coded and shipped myself. One for designers, one for my neighbourhood.

WEB APP + FIGMA PLUGINDESIGN SYSTEMS

FigGenie

I got tired of rebuilding colour scales for every new project, so I built this. Pick an industry, get palettes with contrast already checked, and export CSS, Tailwind or Figma tokens. The Figma plugin then builds 20 components from them. Try it in your browser.

OPEN THE APP

LIVE · PAPERROAST.COMCLASSIFIEDS

PaperRoast

Classifieds for Puducherry that look like an old newspaper. Find rentals, jobs, plots and government tenders, call the owner directly, or post an ad for ₹9. I designed and built all of it: a React front end, a Cloudflare Worker API, image uploads to R2, Google sign-in and Razorpay payments.

VISIT THE SITE

VOL. CXII, NO. 42ADS FROM ₹9

PaperRoast

Classifieds, tenders and jobs from every corner of Puducherry

PropertyJobsVehiclesTenders

CUT ALONG DOTTED LINE Hot off the press, right next door

e.g. 2BHK, driver job…SEARCH

TO LET2BHK near Beach Road₹14,000 / mo

WANTEDDelivery driver, full-timeCall or WhatsApp

TENDERPWD lift replacementCloses 4 Nov

FILE // 04 · JOURNEY

Hooked on design since 2018

I studied electrical engineering, but I kept wondering why some apps felt easy while others made people want to throw their phone. In 2018 that curiosity became my job, designing for startups and small businesses as a freelancer.

I joined Aspire Systems in 2022 and have led design for SoftSpell.ai since 2024. The biggest lesson so far? Talk to users early, and to engineers even earlier.

Balaji RameshLead Product Designer · Aspire Systems

View résumé

SEP 2024 → NOWLIVE

Lead Product Designer

SoftSpell.ai · Aspire Systems
APR 2022 → AUG 2024

Senior UX/UI Designer

Aspire Systems
AUG 2018 → MAR 2022

UX/UI Designer

Freelance · startups & SMEs

FILE // 04B · AFTER HOURS

Off the clock

Design pays the bills. Off the clock I'm a photographer, voice-over artist, new scriptwriter, bathroom singer, car guy, movie-phile and anime fan, with a long travel wish list. Here's the rest of me.

TALENT01