Bongani Nombamba

Senior UX/UI Designer and Front-End Developer with 16+ years delivering end-to-end digital solutions across financial services, banking, e-commerce, and enterprise platforms. Uniquely skilled at both strategy and execution, architecting UX frameworks and design systems in Figma, then personally building them in React, Angular, Laravel, and PHP. Proven leader, mentor, and cross-functional collaborator who closes the gap between design vision and technical delivery.

Senior UX/UI Architect / Front-end Developer (CX & Digital Platforms) - eNL Mutual Bank | eGroupX - Johannesburg

(2025-08)

• Architected the organisation's first formal UX framework across 4 product squads, defining research, design, and delivery standards that reduced time-to-design-approval by 35% and brought measurable consistency to all digital banking products.
• Designed and personally built a scalable design system in Figma comprising various components, then implemented the full component library in React and Angular, cutting front-end development time by 40% across all new feature deliveries.
• Led the CX redesign of 3 core digital banking journeys (onboarding, account management, payments), conducting user research, producing Figma prototypes, and writing the HTML/CSS/React implementation, resulting in a vast improvement in task completion rates and a significant drop in digital support calls.
• Personally resolved UI/UX inconsistencies in QA by writing production-ready code corrections in React and Angular, ensuring pixel-accurate delivery and eliminating a backlog that had stalled 2 releases.
• Mentored 3 junior designers in UX best practices, Figma systems, and basic front-end principles, reducing senior design review time by 30% as the team's independent capability grew.
• Represented UX at executive and stakeholder level, preventing 15+ features from being shipped without user validation and ensuring every digital product decision was backed by research and data.

Senior UI/UX Designer & Front-End Developer - Idol Consulting Firm - Johannesburg

(2024-08 - 2025-07)

• Delivered UX/UI solutions for 10+ client projects across web and mobile platforms, improving usability and overall product experience
• Conducted user research, journey mapping, and persona development, enabling data-driven product decisions and reducing design assumptions
• Designed information architecture, wireframes, and high-fidelity interfaces, improving user task completion rates and navigation clarity
• Collaborated with stakeholders to translate business requirements into scalable digital solutions, accelerating project delivery timelines
• Iterated designs based on usability testing and real user feedback, enhancing user satisfaction and reducing friction across key flows

UI/UX Developer - uDigital - Johannesburg

(2023-11 - 2024-06)

• Led end-to-end UX processes, including research, journey mapping, and persona development, informing product strategy and reducing design guesswork
• Translated user insights into intuitive UI/UX solutions, improving usability and user engagement across digital products
• Defined key product metrics and collaborated with engineering teams to implement tracking, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous optimisation
• Designed and developed information architecture, wireframes, high-fidelity interfaces, and interactive prototypes, streamlining user flows and improving task success rates
• Built and implemented UI components and front-end experiences, bridging the gap between design and development for faster delivery
• Conceptualised and designed innovative product solutions, aligning business goals with user needs across multiple initiatives
• Contributed to design reviews and cross-functional collaboration, enhancing product quality and ensuring consistency across releases
• Designed end-to-end user experiences, including user flows, wireframes, and prototypes for multiple digital products across web and mobile platforms
• Conducted usability testing and concept validation, improving user experience and reducing friction across key user journeys
• Created motion design and animation assets for digital products and marketing campaigns, enhancing user engagement and visual storytelling across platforms
• Delivered responsive, mobile-first UI designs, ensuring accessibility and consistent experiences across devices
• Collaborated closely with developers to ensure seamless design-to-development handover, improving implementation accuracy and delivery efficiency

UI/UX Designer & Motion Graphics Designer - A2Z Tech Solutions - Johannesburg

(2023-02 - 2023-10)

• Designed end-to-end user experiences, including user flows, wireframes, and prototypes for multiple digital products across web and mobile platforms
• Conducted usability testing and concept validation, improving user experience and reducing friction across key user journeys
• Created motion design and animation assets for digital products and marketing campaigns, enhancing user engagement and visual storytelling across platforms
• Delivered responsive, mobile-first UI designs, ensuring accessibility and consistent experiences across devices
• Collaborated closely with developers to ensure seamless design-to-development handover, improving implementation accuracy and delivery efficiency

Digital Lead - PR Worx - Johannesburg

(2021-03 - 2021-10)

• Led multi-channel digital strategy across web, mobile, email, and social, increasing brand reach and engagement across key audiences
• Delivered 10+ integrated campaigns from concept to execution, aligning UX, design, and performance marketing to achieve measurable outcomes
• Managed and coordinated cross-functional teams (design, marketing, development), streamlining workflows and improving delivery timelines
• Applied UX optimisation strategies to campaign and product experiences, driving improvements in user engagement and conversion performance

E-Commerce Developer - CreativeCarbon - United Kingdom

(2020-07 - 2021-03)

• Built scalable e-commerce solutions across WordPress (WooCommerce) and Shopify, supporting multiple online stores and product catalogues
• Led third-party API integrations (payments, shipping, CRM), ensuring seamless backend connectivity and reliable transaction flows
• Improved platform performance, stability, and user experience, reducing load times and enhancing customer journeys
• Conducted A/B testing and optimised user journeys based on analytics, increasing conversion rates and reducing cart abandonment
• Delivered end-to-end UX/UI strategy from research to implementation, aligning user needs with business and revenue goals

Full Stack Designer & Creative Lead - Axiz - Johannesburg

(2018-02 - 2020-04)

• Led a team of 4 and served as sole front-end developer, designing all digital assets in Figma and Adobe Suite, then personally coding them in HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript/PHP, ensuring zero gap between design intent and technical delivery.
• Designed and built Axiz's corporate website and internal intranet, improving internal communication efficiency and reducing IT support tickets related to the intranet by approximately 30%.
• Created the company's first formal design system, a Figma component library paired with a SASS stylesheet, reducing design production time and eliminating brand inconsistency across all digital output.
• Delivered numerous digital campaigns for 52 Vendors from concept to live code, managing design, HTML/CSS builds, and QA, achieving consistent on-time delivery and an average performance uplift vs. prior benchmarks.
• Mentored 2 junior designers in UX principles and HTML/CSS fundamentals, enabling them to contribute to front-end builds independently within 6 months, increasing the team's output capacity.

Senior Web Developer & Designer - African Proficient Group - Port Elizabeth

(2014-07 - 2017-12)

• Led the successful design and development of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature website and intranet, one of the most significant public sector digital projects in the portfolio, delivering a fully accessible, compliant, and content-managed platform for a provincial government institution serving thousands of users.
• Architected the information architecture, and front-end build of the KZN Legislature intranet, replacing a fragmented legacy system with a structured, role-based digital workspace that improved internal communication and document access across multiple departments.
• Designed and developed UIs for 7 enterprise software platforms, producing UX specs in Adobe XD and building in HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript/PHP, reducing user error rates and cutting new-user training time.
• Led and mentored 3 junior designers and developers in UX, HTML/CSS, and PHP, enabling the business to take on 40% more concurrent projects within 18 months.
• Designed and built a Java-based internal reporting tool UI, replacing a manual spreadsheet process, saving the operations team 8 hours per week and improving data accuracy.

Graphic Designer & Web Designer - AsiPiko Marketing - East London

(2009-03 - 2014-07)

• Grew from junior designer to the agency's lead digital specialist in 2 years, taking full ownership of web design, front-end development (HTML/CSS/JavaScript), motion graphics, and print DTP across 25+ active client accounts.
• Produced motion graphics and animation assets in After Effects, helping clients shift from static to dynamic digital marketing, with average campaign engagement for clients who adopted animated content.
• Designed complete brand identities for clients, logo, visual system, print collateral, and digital guidelines establishing brand frameworks that multiple clients still operate from today.
• Managed print-ready artwork for large-format campaigns, achieving a zero print-rejection rate over 5 consecutive years of production work through rigorous colour profile and specification management

BTech - Graphic Design - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (2005 - 2008)