About Me

where it all began

I'm a Toronto-based User Experience Designer with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University. Combining my business background and user-centric mindset enables me to be a designer who views problems and opportunities holistically. Whether I was re-decorating my house or analyzing how the experience at an all-inclusive resort could have been better, I've always been a creative individual. However, I never knew how to actualize that passion of mine into a career, so as a clueless teenager, I ended up studying Business.

Then one day, I was talking to a friend who was getting into the UX field, and my heart skipped a beat from excitement. The rest is history. I am grateful every day that I have found something where my talent, passion and career could mould together.

Our critical initiatives to drive more revenue for our vehicle selling services wouldn't have been met without Nilan optimizing and improving consumer workflows which had a major impact on completion rates.

- Cameron Farah, VP of Product at AutoTrader.ca

Globtrotter on the side

In my spare time, I love to travel and explore new places. Whether it's discovering hidden gems in a bustling city or immersing myself in the tranquility of nature, traveling allows me to recharge and gain fresh perspectives.

what i'm curious about

I'm curious about humans. I love growing my understanding to grasp what drives humans to behave a certain way. Since getting into UX Design, I've been curious about psychology and learning about influencing behaviour.
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One of my most recent reads was 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' by Dale Carnegie. Although there are some concepts I disagree with, it was interesting to see how small alterations in my behaviour could influence others' behaviour.

Nilan has deep passion for building strong team cultures, fostering collaboration, autonomy, psychological safety. He’s supported multiple junior and intermediate designers.

- Karina Daukaeva, Director of UX Design at AutoTrader.ca

Experience

Apr 2021 — Present

Senior product designer

// AutoTrader

I led projects that boosted revenue by 64%, improved search efficiency by 8%, and launched a financial product for 11 million users. I also mentored designers, contributed to the design system, and presented ideas to executives.

Dec 2017 — Apr 2021

UX Designer

// Manulife

As part of the global XD team, I have worked on 3 different global B and C level initiatives that span across categories such as: Onboarding, Procurement and Manulife's customer facing website.

Sep 2017 — Dec 2017

UX Designer

// Vuka Innovation Inc.

Digitizing the in person experience of helping organizations innovate through Business Design methodology.

what people are saying

karina daukaeva - director of ux at autotrader

I’ve been working with Nilan for over 3 years and he’s been absolutely instrumental to the growth of the UX Design Team at AutoTrader. He’s an extremely talented product designer, strategist and researcher. He’s switched on, passionate, and a great communicator. He’s shown exceptional leadership skills, working directly with senior and C-level product leaders, engineering tech leads and delivery managers. As a Sr Product Designer, he helped the company grow multiple multi-million revenue channels, working on both core and emerging products. Nilan has deep passion for building strong team cultures, fostering collaboration, autonomy, psychological safety. He’s supported multiple junior and intermediate designers. Nilan has helped improve all of our design operations, from onboarding processes to design system implementation. But most importantly, Nilan brings authenticity, humility, curiosity, and a rare growth mindset every day, into every aspect of his life. He’s a wonderful human being, and he's a pleasure to work with. I highly recommend Nilan, any company would be lucky to have him, no matter the challenge.

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cameron farah - VP of product at Autotrader

Nilan supported several of my teams in support of new services. He was an integral part of the team to ideate features, capabilities and took the lead to ensure user's expectations were not just met but exceeded. Nilan was wonderful to work with. He pushes and challenges everyone's thinking around value creation for the user and how will they benefit from utilizing the proposed product/service. I'm a huge proponent of having UX push and challenge the product discovery process and Nilan always exceeded in that role. Most importantly, his ability to gather user feedback and bring it back to ensure product viability brought immeasurable confidence to product and engineering. Our critical initiatives to drive more revenue for our vehicle selling services wouldn't have been met without Nilan optimizing and improving consumer workflows which had a major impact on completion rates. Nilan is one of the best Product Designers I have worked with in my career and he will always be on my shortlist of people to contact for a UX role.

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Marianne sotto - senior product designer at autotrader

I had the pleasure of studying with Nilan at Red Academy for UX Design, and working with him at AutoTrader years later. Even during our academic days, his meticulous attention to detail and commitment to excellence were evident. I can say without hesitation that these qualities have only strengthened in his professional career. Nilan has grown into a confident, effective project leader, with impressive project management skills, often juggling multiple projects at a time, yet consistently demonstrating the same dedication and quality in every deliverable.Aside from his many impressive qualities, what sets Nilan apart is his sociable nature. He had an incredible ability to collaborate seamlessly across teams, bringing people together, driving collective success. His positive attitude and dedication towards a great company culture made working with him a pleasure. Nilan is a valuable asset to any team bringing both exceptional work ethic and a positive, collaborative spirit!

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100+

Projects Completed

Happy Clients

Years’ Experience

Awards Winning

Exceptional experiences are not created alone

LET'S connect

If you’re curious to learn more or just want to connect, drop me a line—I promise to respond faster than you can say ‘Design thinking!’

Contact Me

About Me

where it all began

Globtrotter on the side

what i'm curious about

Experience

Senior product designer

UX Designer

UX Designer

what people are saying

karina daukaeva - director of ux at autotrader

cameron farah - VP of product at Autotrader

Marianne sotto - senior product designer at autotrader

LET'S connect

About Me

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