Mara Kestrel Booking from February 2027

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Curriculum vitae

Mara Kestrel

Product designer and design engineer

hello@marakestrel.example Edinburgh, Scotland marakestrel.example

Summary

Product designer with twelve years’ experience on software used under pressure in health, public services, transport and agriculture. Writes production front-end code (TypeScript, Svelte, React, CSS). Strong in field research, accessibility and design systems.

Experience

2019 – now

Independent product designer and design engineer

Self-employed, Edinburgh

  • Night Ward: led design of a night-shift ward board; handovers 36% shorter in pilot.
  • Tideline: designed and built a public flood-warning service; alert sign-ups tripled.
  • Northline: redesigned fare search; refunds for wrong tickets down 27%.

2015 – 2019

Product designer

Digital team, Corrie Bay Hospitals

  • Designed clinical tools used by 2,000 staff.
  • Introduced overnight field research and a shared design system.

2013 – 2015

Junior designer

Studio Allt, Glasgow

  • Websites and print for cultural organisations.

Open source

Quire design system

Creator and maintainer since 2022. 48 components, contrast-checked tokens, about thirty contributors.

Skills

Design
Field research, interaction design, information design, prototyping, accessibility (WCAG 2.2)
Code
TypeScript, Svelte and SvelteKit, React, CSS, design tokens, Playwright, axe
Ways of working
Embedded in client teams, workshops, mentoring, writing

Selected talks

  • 2026 Calm by default, Interface North 2026
  • 2026 Tokens are a contract, Systems & Components Conf
  • 2025 Six nights on the ward, Health Design Forum

Education

2009 – 2013 BA Interaction Design, Northern Institute of Design (fictional)

Languages

English (native), French (good), Scottish Gaelic (learning)

Sample CV: the person, employers and figures are fictional.

Esc
Mara Kestrel
Work
Writing
About
CV
Speaking
Uses
Now
Contact
Night Ward A ward board for night-shift nurses that turns forty competing priorities into one calm list.
Tideline A public flood-warning service that shows how sure the forecast is, not only what it says.
Northline fares A fare finder that leads with the cheapest valid ticket and explains the rules in plain words.
Quire An accessible design system I maintain, where every colour pair ships with its contrast ratio.
Furrow An offline-first harvest log for small farms, designed for wet gloves and no signal.
Designing for 3 a.m. Most interfaces are designed at 11 in the morning by rested people. Some are used at 3 at night by exhausted ones. Here is what changes.
The case for fewer alerts Alert fatigue is a design problem, not a discipline problem. Four questions I ask before any notification ships.
Write the empty state first The first screen most people see is an empty one. Designing it first makes the rest of the product clearer.
Design tokens are a contract, not a palette A token named after a colour tells you what it looks like. A token named after a role tells you what it promises. Only one of those survives a redesign.
What a flood map taught me about uncertainty People trust forecasts more when you tell them how sure you are. Showing uncertainty is a design skill, and a public duty.
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