About
I’m Mateus Da Silva – or Matt D’Silva – a Brazilian-American product designer passionate about design ethics, design systems, accessibility, Figma, music, and knowledge sharing. I specialize in Figma, rapid prototyping, dev-designer handoff, and design systems.
I seek opportunities to create with people who also wish to make a positive impact through their work. And I believe this work should be done collectively, with cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
I believe the role of a designer is to help create human value – designing for positive impact, understanding and respecting goals and constraints, ensuring accessibility, and setting up people for success. As the great Victor Papanek once said, “You are responsible for what you put into the world. And you are responsible for the effects those things have upon the world.”
On the side, I am also a music recording artist, playing sax, guitar and vocals in multiple musical projects, including my main bands Contando Bicicletas and Mattmatize. Currently making a new record. Read more about my music here.
Speaking + Honors
So, What the @#$%& Are Design Systems?
Spot Educação, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Dec 2019
An introduction to design systems and how they shape company culture, held at Spot Educação by myself and fellow designer Fel Fortes.
Da Capo – Exploring Music Visualizations – ESDI Semana Design 2019
ESDI, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sep 2019
I had the honor of being accepted by ESDI’s (Industrial Design College – Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial da UERJ) 2019 Design Week and giving a talk about the possibilities of data visualization applied to music and as a tool in musical education, based around my project Da Capo.
Da Capo – 3rd Festival Ecrã for Audiovisual Experimentations
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Jul 2019
Da Capo (a personal project that explores the relationship between music + data visualization + interaction design) was featured in the 3rd Festival Ecrã for Audiovisual Experimentations in 2019.
2018 Uber Tech Scholarship
Uber, Miami, Florida
2018
I received the 2018 Uber Tech Scholarship for Ironhack’s UX/UI Design bootcamp in Miami, where I reinforced my UX/UI knowledge and began specializing in the field.
Da Capo – 11th Semana Design PUC-Rio
11th Design Week PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2017
My senior-year project, Da Capo (an exploration of the relationship between music + data visualization + interaction design) was chosen to enter the 11th Design Week exhibition of Brazil’s most prestigious institution, the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio).
Work
Spot Educação (Lead Product Designer – Hyper English/Cultura Inglesa)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Oct 2018 – Present)
At Spot Educação (a leading education and eLearning institution in Brazil), I worked with an agile team to implement a culture of design systems and agile methodologies for the first time in a company of 500+, within the ever-changing startup environment of Hyper English, one of the projects within the company. Hyper English is an online English course offered by Spot Educação as the evolution of its previous Cultura Inglesa online course. It is 100% online, with activities, conversation classes with teachers, and more, available for mobile and web.
I was involved in all stages of the product development process as the first product designer in a company of 500+ people, and onboarded 5 new designers. At Hyper English I also established Popsicle, Spot’s design system. In addition, I helped launch two new products, increasing student registrations by 90% (over 40,000 students in all) and increasing trial plan-to-paid plan conversion by 23%
It was exciting to learn at first hand the challenges and benefits of improving dev-designer flow and handoff, as well as communication between product, marketing, support, teachers and other stakeholders. Collaborating with other design teams at the company, I was successful in implementing a culture of usability testing in the company starting with guerrilla usability testing, and sharing key learnings with the entire team.
Learn about more the work I did with Hyper English’s design platform for mobile and web, the Popsicle Design System.
Inventos Digitais (Freelance Product Designer and Design Sprint Facilitator)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Aug 2018 – Oct 2018)
Inventos Digitais has been called many things – an incubator, accelerator, software factory and agency – but, more than that, it is catalyst for ideas, business and creative careers. During my time there I had the chance to help develop an idea for a sports-related startup. Through a series of design sprints and workshops (proto persona creation, business model canvas development, design studio, etc.) we developed a proposal for an app called Talk to Your Idol. It would connect sports fans and idols with a platform for sport-related content, advertisement channels, and a direct channel for fans to talk to their idols. For the product pitch I created a full, interactive prototype accessible through Figma, easy for all stakeholders and potential investors to access.
It was an exciting opportunity for me to take lead of the design component of a team, as well as facilitate workshops where I had to ease stakeholders into the design process, helping them buy in to the entire process, feel more comfortable sketching their own ideas and contributing to brainstorms, and leaving each meeting satisfied and understanding the process.
Festival do Rio (Graphic Designer)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Aug 2017 – Oct 2017)
I was part of the design team behind Brazil’s premiere film festival – Festival do Rio. I worked on the catalog and zine distributed during the 19th edition of the Festival, as well as social media material, layout, composition and image editing. I was successful in meeting very tight deadlines and working with the unpredictable nature of juggling multiple film studio projects, directors and content. As my first job out of college, it was a great and challenging experience for me to jump right into the industry.
Say hello! 👋
Figma
Set in Inter, made with 💖
© Mateus Da Silva 2020