About Me
Matthew Barton
UX Designer + Strategist
Durham, NC  ·  matthew.barton@gmail.com  ·  919.906.7085

I am a UX professional driven by a strict outcomes-over-outputs methodology. With over two decades of experience navigating agency environments, corporate fintech, and enterprise SaaS, I have learned that the highest-leverage design decisions are those tethered directly to product strategy and business health. Delightful user experiences are secondary to positive financial outcomes; my goal is to ensure they are one and the same.

Simplifying Enterprise Complexity

A proven track record of taking highly technical, friction-heavy legacy platforms and transforming them into intuitive, self-explanatory workflows. I specialize in designing for "infrequent users": seasonal or annual stakeholders who require zero learning curve to execute high-stakes tasks flawlessly.

Responsible AI Integration & Governance

Deeply engaged in the strategic transition from manual software oversight to high-leverage agentic AI workflows. I balance this innovation with strict product stewardship, advocating for AI ethics, user-facing verification frameworks, and knowing exactly when to halt a feature to protect resource allocation and system integrity.

Connecting UX to the Bottom Line

Co-authored an internal primer on UX and Finances to train design teams on how their work directly impacts corporate fiscal targets. I bridge the gap between design execution and executive leadership priorities, proving UX value through support-ticket reduction, conversion lifts, and churn mitigation.

Design Culture Architecture

Experienced in auditing operational gaps and rebuilding collaborative frameworks for fully distributed, remote teams. I focus on restoring peer-to-peer feedback loops to keep remote design organizations highly aligned and cross-functionally integrated.

Blackbaud Senior UX Designer 2020 – 2026

Drove UX strategy for the company's second-highest profit margin product. Re-engineered the core scholarship awarding platform to balance individual student needs with institutional funding goals. Introduced agentic AI to capture administrative efficiencies, resulting in sustained sales outperformance (averaging 128% of target) and a 50% reduction in support volume.

Fidelity Investments UX Designer 2019 – 2020

Demystified the HSA investing experience for novice users, translating sophisticated financial advice tools into actionable, low-barrier interfaces regardless of a user's baseline financial literacy.

Republic Wireless Senior UX Designer 2012 – 2018

Led the UX team for over six years, designing a reliable suite of applications and device-activation ecosystems utilized daily by hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Agency & Core Product Beginnings 2007 – 2012

Honed cross-functional execution across early product and agency landscapes (Hesketh, iContact, Brooks Bell), blending frontend execution (HTML/CSS/JS) with data-driven direct response and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

FIDM San Francisco Associate's Degree in Visual Communications