Vladimir Dzekh
Product Designer. Belgrade, Serbia.
@dzekh
About
I have been working for over 10 years as a product designer at SKB Kontur — a software company that creates IT products for a business. Since 2017 I have been supporting and developing the Kontur’s design system, which is used by over 50 product teams, 100+ designers, and 200+ front-end developers.
The design system includes: Kontur.Guides – requirements for interfaces and a set of tools that help to fulfill these requirements.
All of this is the result of extensive and meticulous work by many designers and developers from various product teams at Kontur. At the same time, the design system has a dedicated support team responsible for the development and synchronization of libraries for designers and front-end developers.
I was the leader of this team for a some years, and currently in my work I combine the roles of an interface designer, analyst, technical writer, tester and product manager.
I have over 15 years of experience in the industry and about 20 years as a designer. During this time I have worked on various projects including web, mobile and desktop applications. I am a skilled designer with a keen eye for detail, aware of the importance of context and scenario, familiar with the subtleties of product development and support processes.
The main tools are Figma and a text editor. I am well versed in HTML, CSS, JS, understand the basics of React, and principles of working with Git. I can negotiate with the team and find the best solution.
For the last two years I have been helping other designers to grow professionally, giving feedback on their work, solutions and their quality – I have been a mentor to three other product designers of Kontur.
Work Experience
2011 - Present
SKB Kontur • Yekaterinburg • Over 10,000 employees
Kontur creates business products that help you spend less time on routine, and make communication with government agencies and suppliers easier and more transparent. Key areas are electronic document management, accounting, electronic signature and online cash registers.
Graphic Designer
In December 2011, I joined SKB Kontur as a graphic designer and, in 2012, I redesigned main Kontur’s product — Extern.
Product Designer
Since 2014, I have been working in the Extern subteam “reporting forms” and, along with the redesign of form pages, was involved in improving user experience.
At the end of 2016, a group of product designers and I created and published the first version of requirements for Kontur’s design interfaces, called Kontur.Guides. Since 2017, I have been supporting and developing the design system based on this guidelines.
Manager
Since April 2020, I have been a development manager: I have assembled a team to support the design system, which includes now 4 front-end developers, 2 designers and a tester. At the end of 2022, I found a manager to replace me, and since January 2023 I returned to product designers.
2007 - 2011
Individual Entrepreneur Dzekh V. V. • Yekaterinburg • 1 employee • 100+ clients
As an individual entrepreneur and freelancer, I provided services for creating websites from design to implementation. Collaborated with companies: Jet Style, Nag.ru, Top Ten, Top-Multimedia, Graff Interactive, Web Zenith, Motiv, Yekaterinburg Youth Theater, Uralintek, Production Center “Premier” and others.
2006 - 2007
Sigmakom Web Development • Yekaterinburg • 5+ employees
Website development and promotion.
Web-designer
Creating website design layouts, flash banners, flash programming, flash animation.
2005 - 2006
Mediasite • Yekaterinburg • 20+ employees
Website development and promotion.
Web-designer
Creating website design layouts, flash banners, flash programming, flash animation.
2003 - 2005
DataKrat • Yekaterinburg • 100+ employees
Trade and service automation, supply of commercial and packaging equipment, security systems, etc.
Graphic Designer
Creating design layouts for corporate brochures, leaflets, printed materials, outdoor advertising, and promotional products.
2002 - 2003
LLC “Mediaforum” • Ekaterinburg • 20+ employees
Manufacture of advertising and souvenir products, organization of events, creation of websites.
Print designer
Creation of design layouts for printed products, outdoor advertising, souvenirs.
2001 - 2002
Model Agency “Millennium” • Yekaterinburg • 20+ employees
The “Millennium” modeling agency provided services for creating a portfolio of models and promoting them on the model market.
Photographer
Portfolio shooting for models. Image processing for virtual portfolio and website. Interior and furniture photography. Advertising shooting.
2000 - 2001
Photo service center «Svetopis» Yekaterinburg • 10+ employees
Printer, photographer
Printing photos in prof. laboratories. Shooting for documents, studio shooting.
Education
1998 - 2000
Yekaterinburg State Theater Institute • Drama and Film Theater Actor Faculty. The master of course is Vladimir Ivanovich Marchenko.
Additional Education
2019
Advanced Feedback Course by Kontur
Igor Shtang’s Course on Typography and Layout
2018
“How to Be a Product” Course by Mikhail Karpov and Roman Abramov
Font Construction Course by Valery Golyzhenkov at bangbangeducation.ru
2017
Digital Design Course by Tilda
2014
Steve Simpson’s Illustration Course
2013
“Branding and Identity” two-day Intensive course
2012
User Interface Design Course in Workshop Format at MGPPU (Moscow State Pedagogical University), Faculty of Information Technology, Instructor Alina Zotova
Participation in conferences
2018 - Report “Design system of thirty products for business” • CodeFest, Novosibirsk • Recording of the report
2018 - Report “At what time a design team should start creating its own design system” • Design Weekend in Samara • Recording of the report
The other Activities
2016 – 2020 For several years, I was the organizer of the Kontur’s annual internal design competition “Kontur Design Award”, held thematic design meetings, workshops. Participated in organizing meetups called “Design Update”.