Neil Patel

Founder/Designer at Sans Studio | MEng Design Engineering from Imperial College London

United Kingdom

About

Designer and builder working with AI founders to launch and scale intelligent technology — building experiences people love, understand, and live with. I explore how people interact with each other and with machines, making tools that feel present and intimate. I founded and run Sans Studio, an independent studio designing interfaces for intelligence. I also write Workshop, a newsletter on designing better products. Previously, I researched AR telepresence, worked on a health-tech startup, and studied Design Engineering (MEng) at Imperial College London. My approach is multidisciplinary and systematic, built on strong product sensibility and craft. I value restraint, obsessive attention to detail, and making better products, not just different ones. My work has been recognised by the Design Intelligence Honourable Mention Award and Imperial College’s DESIRE Innovation Award.

Experience

  • Founder & Designer at Sans Studio
    Feb 2025 - Present · 1 yr 5 mos

    Managing the studio and leading all multidisciplinary projects, working with visionary companies to strategise and design AI software.

  • UX Researcher - AR/VR at Wellbeing Technologies Lab
    Oct 2023 - Jun 2024 · 9 mos

    Designed, developed and evaluated a realistic, full-body AR telepresence system that offers enhanced usability and viability of avatar creation and real-time body tracking over current telepresence methods and significantly greater social presence over video calling for older adults.

  • Co-Founder & Product Lead at Arcus
    Oct 2023 - Mar 2024 · 6 mos

    • Led the development of an AI-powered dental check-up device by engaging with over 40 dental professionals and patients to map out pain points through existing and ideal customer journeys, resulting in clear UI flows. • Defined a brand identity and adopted Apple’s iOS library to create a design system. Developed wireframes and high-fidelity UI mock-ups in Figma for a patient mobile app and dentist PC app that were iterated based on stakeholder feedback. • Optimised UX for trust, effectively conveying oral health to patients whilst minimising dentist liability. • Designed Review flows that incorporated our GTM Strategy to navigate medical regulations. • Created a Figma prototype MVP and tested it with dentists and patients, evaluating comfort, acceptance, and performance through assumption experiments. Successfully validated 4 times speed improvement and generated interest from over 2000 patients with a click-through rate of 2.9%. • Successful entry into prestigious UK accelerator programmes and awarded Design Intelligence Honourable Mention Award 2024.

  • UI/UX Designer at Thomas International
    Apr 2023 - Sep 2023 · 6 mos

    • Contributed to a continuous discovery process at a B2B SaaS company by leading UX interviews, workshops and surveys to test assumptions whilst working in an agile, cross-functional team. Researched human behaviour and psychology to optimise user interactions. • Acted as UX Design Lead in my team during manager absence, collaborated with PMs to drive product direction changes, assumed additional responsibility for UI creation. Recognised by colleagues for seamless maintenance of progress. • Applied empathetic thinking during product discovery to uncover customer pain points that informed opportunity selection. • Created key UI components and Figma prototypes, contributing to a new design system which improved product accessibility. • Delivered a major new product capability and oversaw a 58% usage within 2 weeks during a category shift.

  • Undergraduate Teaching Assistant at Dyson School of Design Engineering
    Jan 2023 - Mar 2023 · 3 mos

    Undergraduate Teaching Assistant for a 2nd year MEng Design Engineering Finite Element Analysis module.