A million ideas. One is the right one
I am Francifelly Bencosme, a product and UX/UI designer in Santo Domingo. I find out what people need, then design and build it. This is my portfolio: one page you travel through, star by star.
Follow the light ↓Follow the line ↓Projects
Six projects: five for clients, one for fun
-
Website and brand for a health-data consultancy, designed and built alone, then handed over to their team. See the case
-
A government app where citizens report problems, and each report stays open until the institution proves it is solved. See the case
-
The city council’s app: the eight services residents actually use, on one screen. See the case
-
The innovation lab’s website, plus a 3D town you explore on a scooter. See the case
-
Two government brands designed to feel curious and human, not like a ministry. See the case
-
A free arcade space game hidden in this site. Plays in the browser. See the case
Is this for my problem?
Which one sounds like you?
What I do
First I find out what it has to do, by talking with you and with the people who will use it. Then I design it, work with your developers until it’s built, and test it with real people before it launches.
Like Reportero and the innovation lab
What I do
I can do it alone, from start to finish: what the site has to say, the design, the build, the domain and email, and getting it ready for Google. At the end it’s all in your name, and your team can update it without me.
Like HMC and Star Drill , which I designed and built alone
What I do
I don’t guess why. I put it in front of the people who use it, watch where they get stuck, and ask them. Then we fix that, test again, and repeat until it works for them.
Like Reportero and the Santo Domingo Este app
What I do
First I put everything people see from you side by side and find where it stops feeling like one company. Then I set simple rules for the logo, the colours and the words, and hand them to your team so it stays that way.
What I do
First I find out what people come for and where they give up, by watching a few of them use it. Then I make that path short and clear, and test it again with new people.
Like Santo Domingo Este
How I work
I ask first. I build after
Five steps. Asking takes the longest. Testing sends me back to an earlier step as often as it needs to.
- 01 · the long oneAskI find out who will use it, and for what. For Reportero: twenty days in the field, from police stations to the National Palace. Reportero
- 02DecideI name the real problem before solving anything. The lab asked for a logo; the real problem was trust: an office that asks citizens for ideas can’t look like a ministry. LID & OGTIC
- 03BuildI build it, alone or with your developers. Star Drill began as one ship and a belt of rocks, and grew into five levels. Star Drill
- 04TestI put it in real hands early, then fix what they find. In its first week, 100 residents tested the Santo Domingo Este app and filed 250 reports. Santo Domingo Este
- 05Hand overI stay until it’s used, then hand it over. HMC now writes and publishes its own website. HMC
Biography
MMVIII — Artifex Stellerum
Dominican Republic
Fran Bencosme
Product designer. I also build what I design.
Banco BHD + Redviver.
About me / The beginning
How I got here
Francifelly Bencosme.
Everyone calls me Fran.
Based in Santo Domingo, I studied multimedia at ITLA and have designed websites, apps and brands since 2008.
At Theorem, an ad agency, I turned other people’s designs into working interactive ads. At Phnx Studio, I worked on projects for UL Solutions. At OGTIC, I designed the innovation lab’s brand, Reportero and the city app.
Today, I design product at Banco BHD, where I led the acquisition journey, and run Redviver, the studio I co-founded with Kenny M. Beltre.
A screen becomes
someone’s day.
I find out what’s really wrong before I design anything.
I stay until people use it.
What I write
Essays on how I work
Three short pieces about decisions I run into on every project.
-
Why saying no is part of the job
Every client arrives with a list. Sometimes it is a document, sometimes a sentence that starts with "we also need." The list is never the problem. Treating it as the plan is.
A list is a record of everything anyone has ever wanted. It has no author and no priority. It grew because saying yes is free at the moment you say it, and expensive for years afterwards.
Keep readingInside
- What a feature actually costs
- No is not a refusal
- Earn it first
-
A logo shouldn’t be decided by taste
The worst meeting in this profession is the one where a brand gets decided by whoever has the strongest feelings about the color green.
It happens constantly, and it is nobody's fault in particular. A logo is the one piece of work everyone feels qualified to judge. You don’t need any design vocabulary to say you don’t like it. So the conversation turns into personal taste, and you can’t argue with someone’s taste.
Keep readingInside
- The question that changes the meeting
- A brand has a job to do
- Where taste belongs
-
A design isn’t finished until people use it
At Theorem, an advertising agency, I was on the other side of the design file: I turned other people’s designs into real, working interactive ads on a platform called Celtra. That shaped everything I think about this job.
What I learned there is that a file is a proposal. A very good proposal, often a beautiful one, describing a product that does not exist yet and may never exist in that form.
Keep readingInside
- The gap between the design and the product
- Staying close to the developers
- Why it is worth it
Who vouches for me
Fernando Pepén LinkedIn ↗Product Owner, Banco BHDMy direct manager Aug 2026
“He led the design of the acquisition journey — landing pages, emails, banners and pop-ups — always with a holistic view of the process and of the customer experience.”
Translated from Spanish
Michelle Luna Borrelly LinkedIn ↗Project Manager, OPTIC / OGTICSame team Aug 2026
“He has a rare ability to think like an architect while keeping the end user at the center of everything he builds.”
Fernando Salazar LinkedIn ↗Project Manager, UL SolutionsClient, via Phnx Studio Aug 2026
“…he could guide them toward best practices while still genuinely hearing out their ideas and making them feel part of the process.”
Who trusted the work
10+ institutions
El Salvador
Banking
Phnx Studio
Digital transformation
Kids’ learning app
Health consulting
City Hall
Questions
- Do you work outside the Dominican Republic?
- Yes. I work remotely with clients in the United States, and Redviver has clients across the Americas and Europe.
- Can I hire you from the United States?
- Yes. I work in English and Spanish, and my hours overlap with US Eastern time. Write to me and we start with a conversation.
- Do you only design, or do you stay to the end?
- I also build. I designed and built HMC’s website alone, and handed it over so their own team now updates it.
- What do you need from me to start?
- Your description of the problem, and access to the people who deal with it every day. You don’t need a written plan.
- What kind of projects do you take?
- Apps and websites, new or already running. I build them from zero, or find out why one isn’t working and fix it.
- What does it cost?
- There’s no fixed price list. After a first conversation, I send you a quote before any work starts.
- How long does it take?
- It depends on the project. The Santo Domingo Este app took three months; Reportero took six.