Christo Claassens \ Design Director

I am a Director level product design leader with 25+ years of experience shaping strategy and delivering modern digital platforms in complex, regulated environments. I am a trusted partner to product and engineering executives. I build and scale UX teams, operationalize design systems, activate operating models that improve consistency, accessibility, and delivery effectiveness.

brolloks@brolloks.com
linkedin.com/in/brolloks
Resume (pdf)

My product design approach focuses teams to utilize an inclusive design process for their digital solutions, starting with a refinement of business ideas, evaluating user needs, executing in the creative studio, and validating in the marketplace. I believe a well-defined strategy seeds all successful solutions.

My experience in interaction design, information architecture and client-side web technology put me in a position to drive innovative digital products. I am passionate about the usability of products, I revel in championing user’s needs, cannot get enough of usability testing, and have a healthy respect for web and accessibility standards.

Christo discussing the Chicago Ideas Week
Christo at the 2019 Chicago Ideas Week

Christo is a passionate and seasoned user experience and design leader. He has a near universal ability to immediately see how a user experience can be made great, and his deft ability to balance the new with the classic keeps him and teams on the leading edge of human-centered design and application.
– Blake Kannady

Christo knows how to work a room and has never met a stranger. He naturally interviews everyone he meets and is able to instantly build a connection using his breadth and depth of knowledge. Christo is a highly skilled presenter and is equally at ease talking to the CEO or an intern.
– Jacqui Miller

Christo was an amazing collaborator, good teacher and most importantly a great listener. He built a very good team and helped catapult Envestnet capabilities forward.
– Blake Wood

Christo possesses a thorough knowledge and understanding of the underlying back-end and front-end technologies, as well as the UX Research and its various methods and techniques. His ability to bring and accentuate the importance of User Experience to the very forefront of the Product Development conversation is second to none.
– Alex Yampolsky

Design Skill Summary

Design Direction
Requirements analysis, Sprint management, Product management, Journey maps

Interaction Design
Experience flow diagrams, Wireframes, Prototypes, Design personas, Information architecture

Usability Engineering
Task analysis, Test scripts, Testing moderation

Design/Prototyping Software
Figma, Sketch, Axure, InVision, Photoshop

Education

BA (Hons)
University of Stellenbosch 1994

MDiv
University of Stellenbosch 1997

MA
University of Stellenbosch 1998