Curriculum Vitae — UX & Brand

Seema Rao

UX Strategist & Creative Director

Cleveland, OH seema@brilliantideastudio.com seemarao.co

UX strategist and creative director turning rigorous research into content and brand systems that grow audiences and move them to act — a hands-on maker with millions of monthly views and a director of cross-functional teams.

Download PDF ↗ See the Museums & Art History CV →

Experience

Creative Director & Head of Content2022 – Present
PlayAbly

Lead brand vision and copy strategy across products, marketing, and campaigns; direct a cross-functional team of game designers, developers, and visual designers; ship 10–15 client deliverables monthly while keeping a consistent narrative.

  • Steward a flexible play-and-win design language that 30+ brands plug into without losing their own identity.
  • Translate complex product and brand value into clear, audience-tailored content across a diverse client portfolio.
Principal & Creative Director2017 – Present
Brilliant Idea Studio

UX research, content strategy, and brand systems for DTC, media, and cultural clients — field interviews, personas, sitemaps, IA, CRO, and creative direction, from discovery through production.

Chief Experience Officer2019 – 2022
Akron Art Museum

Built and led an organization-wide content strategy and UX practice; created the brand voice & tone guide; relaunched the public website (+200% traffic); originated the TikTok program (11M views, 675K likes; Top-5 museum account per Hyperallergic).

Director, Intergenerational Learning2007 – 2017
Cleveland Museum of Art

Directed studio classes, interactive media installations, and all-ages learning that connected diverse publics to the collection.

Selected Work

  • PlayAbly brand system — 30+ brands on one play-and-win design language
  • Advent Calendar game — +41% December revenue across partner stores
  • Overtime Win-Back game — 18.25X ROAS, +57% average order value
  • UX & CRO studies — audience expansion, landing-page CRO, benefit-led revamp, influencer, subscription strategy
  • Museum website relaunch — +200% views in a year
  • TikTok launch strategy — 12M views, 645K likes in a year

Education

MLIS, UX DesignKent State University
MA, Art HistoryCase Western Reserve University
BA, Biological Sciences & South Asian StudiesUniversity of Chicago

Skills

  • UX research — interviews, usability testing, personas, journey mapping, card sorting, A/B testing
  • Content strategy — brand voice & tone, information architecture, CRO, editorial
  • Audience growth — social, video, podcast, analytics
  • Tools — Adobe CS, Figma, WordPress, Shopify, Airtable, GA4, Klaviyo

Recognition

  • Artlust — 1M+ followers
  • Webby-nominated AR game
  • NYT-covered chatbot strategy
  • Visual Comms Silver, OMA 2020
  • Top-5 museum TikTok, Hyperallergic

Selected Speaking

2024
Western Museums AssociationKeynote
2020
Making Museums AccessibleKeynote
2018
Hack the MuseumMuseumNEXT, London