Alex Rekas

Design Lead and Product Designer with 12+ years of experience crafting user-centered digital products across healthcare technology, government, and enterprise SaaS. Proven ability to own and scale design systems, translate complex policy and business logic into intuitive interfaces, and bridge the gap between design and engineering in development-focused environments. Comfortable leading strategy and research as well as delivering production-ready UI.

IdeaCrew / Design Lead

7/2020 – PRESENT, DC & REMOTE

 

Own and maintain IdeaCrew’s Figma design system end-to-end — including component architecture, documentation, and implementation — enabling a development-focused team to ship consistent, accessible UI at scale.
Lead accessibility remediation efforts to bring the application into WCAG AA / Section 508 compliance, working directly with engineering to audit, prioritize, and resolve issues.
Define user stories and design patterns for new features, translating complex healthcare policy requirements into simple, usable workflows for end users.
Evaluate and revamp existing design patterns through heuristic reviews and user feedback, measurably improving task flows across the application.
Prototype and present new concept healthcare technology products to stakeholders, facilitating design reviews and negotiating decisions with cross-functional teams.
Elevated design’s strategic role within a primarily engineering-driven organization, establishing design as an equal partner in product planning and delivery.
Led all design work for a $1M+ legacy application migration from Bootstrap 3 to Bootstrap 5 — a security-driven modernization that transformed the application’s look and feel, improved UX across dozens of screens, and brought the full design system into WCAG AA / Section 508 compliance.
Supported marketing and sales through polished collateral and digital assets produced in Adobe Creative Suite.

 

Contract & Freelance / Designer

4/2016 – PRESENT, DC & REMOTE

 

Newmark Knight Frank

Conducted user interviews with current and prospective users to inform product decisions and surface unmet needs.
Communicated design rationale and key UX objectives to stakeholders through wireframes and structured presentations.
Contributed to front-end implementation of new software features alongside design work.

 

Marriott International

Provided creative direction for brand photography, design systems, and print media for internal communications.
Designed logo identities for internal teams and events, maintaining enterprise brand consistency.
Led product and UX design for employee training systems, improving usability and learner experience.

 

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)

Built wireframes for cdc.gov aligned with newly established federal design guidelines.
Conducted a heuristic evaluation of the CDC website, producing a prioritized report of usability findings and recommendations.
Developed storyboards for digital content deployed across the website and social media channels.

 

Various Clients

Designed brand identities, marketing websites, and digital products for startups and established companies.
Developed user personas through research and discovery sessions to anchor design decisions in real user needs.
Delivered end-to-end UX/UI for mobile and web applications from concept through launch.

 

Distributed Solutions / Designer

4/2013 – 4/2016, RESTON VA

 

Designed wireframes and high-fidelity mockups for new features and iterative updates across an enterprise software suite.
Built front-end implementations of designed screens using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, bridging design and development.
Maintained visual guidelines and a shared asset library to enforce consistency across the product portfolio.