Jana Cloete

I’m trained as an architect, with a master’s degree and over 6 years of designing experiential, high-end luxury hospitality industry. In my final year working for Luxury Frontiers, an award-winning design firm, frustration surrounding a specific internal process grew and in response, I developed an Excel-based tool that streamlined both the executive and design teams’ workflows by 75%. With this project, I discovered my interest in UX, Product and Service Design. Since leaving Luxury Frontiers in 2022, I’ve completed a UX Design certification to crystallize this shift in my career.

Over my career, I’ve:

• Used journey mapping to understand the minutiae of front and back-end operations and processes, and to script engaging guest experiences,
• Performed contextual interviews and ethnographic observation to understand existing design’s successes and failures, 
• Conducted landscape reviews and trend analysis to find opportunities and propose relevant and appropriate solutions to clients,
• Hosted design workshops with different stakeholders and consultants to develop holistic solutions to large and complex problems, 
• Learned that iteration and systems thinking are integral to the design process. 

I hold a Masters degree in Architecture from the University of Johannesburg, and a certificate in UX Design from the University of Cape Town.