KERIM EL-HAKIM

• Instrumental in launching the Blackjack Common Draw with customizable side bets, which significantly contributed to Light and Wonder (SG)'s acquisition of Authentic Gaming
• UX/UI and hands on for Blackjack Classic, earning the North America EGR Award for Best Product Innovation
• Communicating design decisions, changes, and requirements to stakeholders via presentations and documentation
• Delivering and securing approvals for successful brand adaptation and game logic pitches to stakeholders: Warner Brothers IPs, Light and Wonder IPs, and operator IPs
• Owning the overall UX vision, including strategy, game flow, gamified rewards flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototypes, unifying the UX across all products, ensuring clear developer handover and stakeholder alignment
• Delivering innovative end-to-end user experiences that meet business objectives and consumer needs
• Contributing to early-stage discovery by understanding user needs, adopted brands, generating design principles, and developing models and concepts
• Cultivating UX strategy alignment across digital platforms, studio video screens and studio setup
• Structured the UI library to ensure ease and speed of product rebranding
• Working closely with the CEO, CPO, and CTO to ensure product vision alignment, UX consistency, and agile delivery
• Established a central Atomic UI architecture for all products with restricted collaborative access across departments
• Art directing external agencies for studio animations to ensure brand and game flow alignment
• Developed automations in product development and producing fast, quality marketing materials for account managers
• Managing production and maintenance of all live products, including Roulette UI revamp, XL Roulette, Classic Blackjack, Blackjack Common Draw, Baccarat Common Draw, Show Games, Lobby, internal tools, and Dealer User Interfaces
• Conducting qualitative UX testing with dealers and trainers, creating studio operation flows for new games
• Implementing continuous improvements and new product releases through quantitative user and betting data analysis with the CPO and Head of Product
• Collaborating with LnW, operators, IP owners, brand managers, and Head of Art Development to ensure LnW IP brand and quality standards across UI branding, studio design elements, and delivery quality
• Leading a UI/UX design team, creating micro-teams for collaboration and cross-learning, identifying talent strong points, and supporting designers' career progression through quarterly initiatives
• Creating internal processes to improve quality and delivery speed
• Conducting internal workshops to build trust and delegate responsibilities within the team and other departments
• Adopting AI technologies for UI/UX tools, sales presentations, and studio design concept building
• Serving as a creative consultant for other departments, leveraging attention to detail
• Delivering products for US, UK, EU, and ROW markets

I worked on customer-facing products with a great team at the Mutuel Play, producing games to fill the gambling market gaps, providing frictionless and consistent experiences to our users while enjoying our innovative entertaining and featured games.

• Composing heuristic personas for slot streamers, slot streaming chat participants though user empathy. Researching usability of streaming platforms to formulate how to wrap the streaming service APIs into mobile first all orientation UI design and development. Adobe XD Wire framing UI for mobile / tablet all orientations, converting it into low-fidelity mock-ups, creating an Atomic library system with a high-fidelity branded interactive prototype for the Developers Shareholders. Resolve user friction with the UI through Usability testing with participants from the stakeholder company. Assessing the "Spin Along" brand to increase the product desirability.
• Combining existing UX research data gained at Playtech with the additional guerrilla UX research on target customers to determine the needs of the users. Paper Wireframing to prototype, brand and maintain a mobile first all orientation bingo / lottery game client. Establishing "Bingo Millions" brand variant guidelines and marketing materials. Analysing user reviews, user metrics and user friction from the data provided by Buzz Bingo and Jumpman Gaming.
• Continuously collaborating with our shareholders Buzz Bingo on multiple projects while coordinating remotely with product managers, head of operations, developers, and designers. Translating the brand and defining usability functions into the company portal while liaising remotely with Kiev Playtech developer team, branding the Playtech bingo client I had UX design ownership of, conceptualising and actualising of retention games while liaising with Thunderbite developers.
• Researching the Slot game Market for features and themes to conceptualise, visualise design slot games. Competitor research usability testing to address the best possible slot UI to accommodate all device dimensions, orientations and the mini version of the games we produce. Manage the artwork delivery and quality of contracting game artists.
• Direct communication with the CEO on on-going projects, planning future projects and proven ability to work remotely.

Taking ownership of every UI change lead by the UX data and being involved in conceptualising of all relevant enhancements while leading the design team to produce quality products and UX lead enhancements.

UX:

• Taking ownership of every UI change lead by the UX data and being involved in conceptualising of all relevant enhancements
• Driving the UI in a consistent direction by analysing user behaviour thought user metrics on multiple devices/platforms to create more frictionless and desirable user experience.
• Working closely with Head of Development to ensure both teams are in alignment to succeed in implementing smooth workflows and project deliveries.
• Rapid Balsamiq wire framing solutions for enhancements and new features to solve user pains or add product desirability.
• Establishing user personas, fostering product enhancements, and choosing feature themes through patterns in affinity maps created of data generated from user interviews and lab usability testing of multiple products.
• Analysing user behaviour thought user metrics on multiple devices/platforms to create more frictionless and desirable user experience
• Establishing user personas, fostering product enhancements and choosing feature themes through patterns in affinity maps created of data generated from user interviews and lab usability testing.

Management:

• Participating and supporting Agile development processes, meetings, scrums, story point estimations, T-shirt sizing, incorporating UX work into the Agile backlog.
• Reporting to the Product manager and assisting in prioritising UI / UX tasks depending on release schedule, importance of client, dependency of Dev and the weight of the project.
• Enforcing alternative executions in processes for better results and to save time and resource.
• Ensuring the business analysts and managers provide all project materials while confirming licensee changes are in-line with our objectives, UI best practices and project guidelines.

Design Team:

• Interviewing, testing and choosing designers to expand the design team.
• Enforcing the UX / UI design team within the organisation by the teamwork's effect on the product's ROI.
• Mentoring designers by promoting research and cross learning between designers.
• Lead the design team to produce consistent production standards while tracking project progress, delegating work, and addressing designer roles in different projects.
• Establishing internal communication with other departments and externally with clients.