The UX Portfolio of Jennifer Sassi

I’m a seasoned Information Architect and UX leader with over 15 years of experience designing intuitive, scalable digital systems for enterprise, eCommerce, finance, and healthcare. My work has spanned everything from taxonomy design and content modeling to interaction flows, wireframes, and usability testing—delivering real-world impact like multimillion-dollar revenue increases and improved risk controls at companies like Citibank, BestBuy, and AOL. I approach IA as both a science and an art—combining research, structure, and storytelling to make complex information accessible and actionable. Whether optimizing product taxonomies, building CMS tools, or leading community events like World IA Day, I bring deep systems thinking and a collaborative mindset to every project I touch.

Aol Shopping

I started my career as an Information Architect with Aol’s eCommerce department, where I built wireframes and prototypes for Aol Shopping, Careers, Mobile, Personals, Auto, Travel, and Real Estate. My first project was to perform a card sort test for the Shopping channel, which led to a major taxonomy redesign. The vast and quickly changing data drove us to create an internal taxonomy management tool, which allowed easier and more accurate taxonomy maintenance.

Citibank

At Citibank, I served as Lead UX Architect for the Risk and Controls Management Applications, where I was responsible for the full user experience lifecycle—from discovery through delivery. I designed and prototyped responsive web and mobile interfaces in Figma, integrating advanced plugins to streamline team workflows and design operations. My process was grounded in user research, including contextual inquiries, surveys, persona development, task flows, and user journey mapping. I led three rounds of usability

testing to validate the direction of new product designs, ensuring alignment with user needs and regulatory requirements. In addition, I supported decision-making by building data models and dashboards in Excel to visualize and communicate key insights. My work helped modernize Citi’s internal systems and improved the clarity, usability, and strategic alignment of critical risk applications. (As all my Citibank work was on a secure server, I am not able to share actual articfacts here. )

I first learned how to do usability testing during my studies at the University of Baltimore, then honed my skills at Citibank, BestBuy, and Aol.

At Citibank, I created prototypes, scripts, and conducted tests for three new applications for the Risk and Control Monitoring suite, a $2.5B project to increase the data quality of the taxonomies.

At BestBuy we ran a test on 30 people on the redesign and findability of the new taxonomy, and I created the prototype and the script, and moderated the usability test sessions.

At Aol I conducted a huge card sorting that influenced and drove the redesign of the Shopping taxonomy, which led to a $13M increase in sales.