Simone Ferraro

After a trainee scheme at Deltatre in Turin, I collaborated with agencies, writing standards-compliant semantic markup, scripting interactions in JavaScript, and crafting visuals in Photoshop and Illustrator.

• Web Design & Development
• Graphic Design

Spent two years studying Sociology and Anthropology, how people think, behave, and form communities. A social-science lens running alongside the day job that would later prove foundational to designing for users.

• Qualitative Research
• Critical Thinking
• Human Behavior & Culture

Fell deep into WordPress: self-taught PHP and MySQL, converted PSD designs into custom themes, and built plugins to extend functionality.

• Backend Development
• Database Management

Built and ran a solo-founded design studio from the ground up, winning clients, managing freelancers, handling finances, and delivering tailored websites for small and medium-sized businesses in the Turin area.

• Web Design & Development
• Client & Business Management
• Finance & Operations
• Project & Team Management

Alongside running the studio, launched an editorial platform covering urban music, graffiti, and street art. The project sharpened a distinct editorial voice and led to writing for a print music magazine and hosting a radio show.

• Editorial Curation & Content Design
• Web Publishing
• SEO & Headline Writing
• Narrative Structures

With the studio at a crossroads (scale up or change direction) I invested in myself by enrolling in an executive master's in UX and Information Architecture in Milan. It reframed everything, merging years of design craft with the social-science lens from university into a single discipline.

• Human-Centered Design
• Information Architecture
• User Research

Stepped up as an independent UX consultant for bigger players, joining Zurich Insurance Italia in Milan as the main UX representative. Worked on the client area of the Zurich Italia website and an internal tool for agents, learning to navigate the dynamics of a large, complex organization.

• Stakeholder Management
• Supplier Management
• Enterprise UX
• UX Strategy

Moved to London as User Experience Architect at the BBC, joining the Systems and Service Design team to work on internal tooling and service design. Shaping ontologies and metadata, interviewing and shadowing journalists, and facilitating workshops.

• Service Design
• Information Architecture
• User Research
• Enterprise Systems Design

Came on board as Senior UX Architect, leading design delivery on BBC Sounds (the BBC's own podcast and live radio platform). Worked on the design vision while staying hands-on when needed, partnering with product to shape narratives, frame experiments, and make sure initiatives hit their KPIs.

• Design Leadership
• Product Thinking
• Data-Informed Design
• Audio & Streaming Platforms

Moved to BBC Mobile Apps as UX Lead, embedded in the Onboarding & Activation Team. Working on the BBC app experience across Android and iOS, I move across product, engineering, and design.

• Design Leadership
• Mobile Architecture
• Design Systems

Started bringing AI tools into everyday design work, using LLMs to accelerate research synthesis, content iteration, ideation, and workflow optimisation.

• AI-Assisted Workflows
• Context Engineering & LLM Prompting
• Rapid Prototyping
• Research Synthesis