I make complicated
products easier to use.
I am Helena, a freelance UX/UI designer in Copenhagen.
I work on products that have become hard to use over time, and I am particular about accessibility.
Eight years of experience with both private and public sector products.
helenaabel@outlook.dk01 — PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
Selected work
Organisations I have worked with in previous roles.
01
mit.dk
Business portal
The platform was new, but its foundation had been established in development before design was involved. Pages diverged from the product's own visual identity, and the underlying design system had lost its structure.
The work consisted of restoring that structure: a revised navigation, a new overview, and a substantial set of screens brought into a single consistent pattern. Flows were prototyped in Figma and validated before handover, with accessibility addressed as part of the design rather than a subsequent review.
02
Landsbyggefonden
Case management system
Two ageing systems, one internal and one external, carried the full case load. User flows were slow, response times compromised daily work, and the data tables held more information than could reasonably be read. Case workers routinely handled several open cases at once, while the navigation had expanded into an extensive structure of tabs and subpages.
Both systems were redesigned: faster user flows, interactive tables that made large data sets legible, forms structured for completion, and a navigation aligned with how cases are actually processed. The design was implemented and remains in use, reducing case handling time and the number of steps required to complete a case.
03
Erhvervsstyrelsen
designsystem.dk
The project began without an existing foundation. The objective was a shared basis for public-sector digital services, so that accessibility and visual consistency would not require solving on each new solution.
Developed in collaboration with Digitaliseringsstyrelsen, the result is a common UI and UX design system with a reusable component library, built on atomic design principles and documented for both design and development. Accessibility, usability and consistency defined the project rather than being appended to it. The system is used across large public solutions, including borger.dk and virk.dk.
ALSO WORKED WITH
02 — ACCESSIBILITY
Accessibility
Most people have never heard of WCAG. Most companies find out the hard way, after a complaint or a lost contract, that it was never optional. And it's not just a public sector concern, if you have a website, an app, or anything else the public can access, accessibility applies to you too.
Accessibility has been part of my work throughout, and I know what breaks before anyone else notices: a contrast pair, a focus order, a label that only works if you can see the screen. I catch these while a design is still a Figma file, not after launch when every fix costs three times as much. I work to AA as standard, AAA when the product actually calls for it.
01
WCAG 2.2 audit
A full pass: screen reader, keyboard, zoom, contrast. Nothing guessed, everything tested.
02
Fixes you can actually use
Each issue comes with the exact WCAG criterion it breaks and a fix your developers can implement.
03
Patterns that stay fixed
I build the corrected version as a reusable component, so the same label or focus-order bug doesn't quietly come back in the next feature.
04
Works at any stage
New design or something that's been live for years, the process is the same: find what breaks, document it clearly, hand over fixes your team can act on.
03 — SERVICES
Where to start
Most projects start with a review.
01
UX Quality Review
I go through your product the way a user would and document where it does not work.
Good starting point if you are unsure where to begin.
02
UX Delivery Support
I work alongside your team while things get built, from journeys to ready-to-build flows.
For teams already in development.
03
Accessibility Review
A review of your key user journeys against WCAG 2.2, at AA or AAA, with prioritised fixes.
Can stand alone or be combined with the above.
04 — ABOUT
About me
I've worked with digital products for eight years, across both private and public sector. Accessibility has been part of that work throughout.
Most of what I've built has been large, data-heavy systems, the kind where a redesign means untangling years of accumulated decisions rather than starting from a blank page. That's the work I keep coming back to: not decorating an interface, but figuring out why it stopped working.
WCAG 2.2 AA & AAA
Complex Digital systems
Design Systems
Developer Collaboration
Helena Abel, Copenhagen
05 — CONTACT
Get in touch
Send me an email about what you are working on.
I usually reply within a day or two.