Rita Mayumi
UX & Product Design · Founder of Estúdio Aya

Between people and products

Multidisciplinary Product Designer focused on discovery and mapping, with more than 20 years of visual design background.

Available to work from anywhere in the world

See my work
Omnichannel retail Vaza, Falsiane Compre & Confie Unicef BNCC Sustainability

Each project sits where it crosses the three pillars. Tap a pillar to see which projects prove it, or a project to open the case.

Background

I started in visual design more than 20 years ago, focused on editorial work for magazines at a major publisher. That is where I learned to think analytically and to turn content into information through hierarchy and form.

At my studio, working with nonprofits and large companies, I learned to listen before designing. Talking to the people who use what we make, finding the real problem and deciding what matters based on evidence. Today, with more than 8 years in tech, I bring this to products and services.

I lead exploration end to end: I understand people, turn what I learn into hypotheses and concepts, and validate quickly with the team.

I've worked with
Three pillars

What I bring to a product

Research with method

I start from what we need to answer and choose the method from there, so we understand impact with evidence.

Seen in: Proactive service, Vaza, Falsiane, Unicef

From learning to tangible

I turn what I discover into hypotheses, concepts, journeys and MVPs. Research that becomes a decision, not a report in a drawer.

Seen in: Proactive service, Vaza, Falsiane, BNCC

The team, together

I facilitate across every side, from stakeholders to end users, and important decisions are made together.

Seen in: Proactive service, Unicef, BNCC
How I think

What guides my reasoning

  1. 01

    What is the real pain?

    Before thinking about solutions, I want to understand what sits behind the request. What arrives as a demand is often a symptom.

  2. 02

    Good research listens to every side.

    The people who use, serve, operate and decide each see a different part of the same problem. Bringing those views together gives me confidence to move forward.

  3. 03

    Context shapes the solution.

    The same idea can work or fail depending on where, how and to whom it arrives. I look at the channel, the moment and the risks before the form.

  4. 04

    Test small to scale with confidence.

    A small, well-chosen test shows the way and helps the team decide with evidence, without betting everything at once.

  5. 05

    Clarity connects.

    When intent is clear, others find room to come closer. Information with hierarchy lets people and teams decide together.

  1. Understand the real problemWhat needs to be decided
  2. Map assumptionsWhich carry the most risk
  3. Listen to every sideUsers, operations, business
  4. SynthesizeHierarchy and patterns
  5. Make it tangibleHypothesis, concept, journey
  6. Test smallControlled risk
  7. Decide togetherAnd move to the next cycle
See my work
Contact

Let’s work together

Available to work from anywhere in the world

LinkedIn
Selected work

Cases

A few in-depth cases and other projects that show range. Each one shows how a question became a decision.

  1. 01 · Main case · Retail

    The best service is the one the customer didn't have to ask for

  2. 02 · Built from scratch · Education

    Teaching people to check the news before the problem had a name

  3. 03 · Mini case · Unicef

    A call for help that had to go unnoticed

  4. Other projects

    Range across other contexts

01Project 01Main case
Main case · Post-purchase

The best service is the one the customer didn't have to ask for

Challenge

Channels working independently, with no integrated view of post-purchase.

What I did

I facilitated research and mapping with every side, from stores to the call center.

Discovery

Physical stores and online shared a common pain point: delivery.

Result

A proactive service platform, still in use today.

The challenge

The company's channels worked independently. Physical stores, e-commerce and customer service each had their own processes, and no one saw the post-purchase experience as a whole. This created friction for customers and rework for support.

We started from a hypothesis: if we acted before customers reached out to support, we could reduce friction, increase satisfaction and also bring efficiency and cost savings to the business.

Exploration

The method changed depending on the question we needed to answer. I visited stores in different neighborhoods, because the audience varied a lot from one place to another and I wanted to find what they all had in common, without generalizing from a single store.

In parallel, we listened to call center calls to understand the main reasons for contact and patterns of dissatisfaction, with both qualitative and quantitative analysis. We also analyzed call center service data. With each channel's team, I mapped the service flows to identify steps that could be integrated or standardized.

  • Visits to stores with different audience profiles
  • Call center call listening, qualitative and quantitative
  • Mapping each channel's flows with its own teams
  • Personas and journeys across every side: consumers, stores, call center tiers and stakeholders
Simplified illustration of the reasoning, redrawn without internal project data.

Synthesis

By crossing the visits, the calls and the flows, we identified which situations could be anticipated instead of waiting for the customer to reach out. The turning point came from a process that physical stores and online had in common: product delivery. That was where we could act proactively and reach a large base of customers.

The question shifted from “how do we serve better” to “how do we anticipate problems”.

From insight to tangible

We prioritized paths by time, risk and effort, always deciding together with the team. For the MVP, we chose a customer pain point that was feasible to build and had low impact on operations. That let us test the idea with controlled risk before scaling.

The hypothesis was validated when the customer responded to the contact and the case was closed, a sign that predictive service worked. From there, a platform was built to manage the cases flagged by the system.

Result

I left the company before following the final numbers, but the platform is still in use today, with gains for operations and room to expand.

What I would do differently

Today I would use AI in parts of the process, such as analyzing call center calls. We could reach the dissatisfaction patterns much faster and put more energy into synthesis and decisions with the team.

02Project 02Built from scratch
Built from scratch · Engagement

Teaching people to check the news before the problem had a name

Starting point

Only the topic. Structure, format and experience were still undefined.

Hypothesis

Gamification and content format would help people keep learning to the end.

Validation

Conversations with very active internet users before building.

Result

Material that is still current, awarded in Human Rights.

Starting from zero

At the time, fake news was not yet a common term, and social media was very different from today. Online learning platforms as we know them did not exist either. There was only the topic: teaching people to identify false news.

We built on accumulated knowledge. Our experience with educators on the BNCC project gave us a foundation for the teaching side.

Validate before building

Our hypothesis was that gamification would help people engage with the knowledge: the further someone progressed in the course, the more materials and incentives they earned to keep going until graduation. Before moving on, we talked with very active internet users to understand whether this was a good engagement strategy and which teaching format worked best.

Result

We delivered a tool that teaches through online, printed and video materials. It has not gone out of date, has become a historical reference and remains relevant. The initiative also encouraged other major efforts to help people identify fake news.

240k+unique visitors to the site
3,500people completed both modules
110k+fans on Facebook
9 millionviews on a single video
Figures for the initiative over the years, published by the Brazilian federal government. My role was in creating the project in 2018.

What the project became

Vaza, Falsiane became one of the leading online courses fighting disinformation in Brazil and a reference in media literacy. The content was updated to cover topics such as fake news in elections and pandemics, and adapted for diverse audiences, such as the Muito Além do Zap platform for rural workers.

The initiative also grew beyond the online space, with talks, livestreams and partnerships with institutions such as São Paulo's Municipal Department of Education, Instituto Palavra Aberta and Brazil's Supreme Federal Court. Today it is part of Brazil's National Network to Combat Disinformation (RNCD).

03Project 03Mini case
Mini case · Context-sensitive research

A call for help that had to go unnoticed

During quarantine, victims of domestic violence were silenced even further. Most violence happens within the victim's close circle and, with everyone at home, reporting it became even harder. In low-income communities, the rates were even higher. The goal was to show girls, especially adolescents, that it was possible to ask for help.

The answer was not only in the material but in the path to it. We distributed the leaflet together with sanitary pads, a basic hygiene item that reached these girls without raising suspicion. I designed the piece so that, in theory, the abuser would not notice, with the text hidden.

Here, designing good material meant being invisible to the wrong person.

Journey redrawn from the project's reasoning.

The action was effective in the communities that received the material, had strong uptake and was extended to other parts of the country.

Other projects

Range across other contexts

Education · Platform

BNCC

Presentation of Brazil's new national curriculum guidelines, with a content platform and support materials for educators. The project evolved into a product.

E-commerce · Trust

Compre & Confie

An analysis of e-commerce trustworthiness, with gamification, visual identity and UI for app and website.

Sustainability · Ongoing

Results that span continents

For a multinational company, communicating the results of sustainability projects organized by continent. The work is evolving into internal products.