About Me
I’m Nikolina, a Senior UX/UI & Graphic Designer based in Split, Croatia.
Designing since the dial-up era. No decoration. Just clarity, logic, and results (with some dark humor and INTJ hits).
What I stand for
Clear Vision
You know what you want, or if you don’t yet, you’re willing to explore it with me instead of expecting magical solutions out of thin air.
Open, Direct Communication
Talking straight. No ego spirals, and no psychic guessing. Just clear expectations, honesty, and actionable solutions.
Respect for Design
Design isn’t decoration. It’s function. Strategy. Communication. Value. If you think design is just “making things pretty,” sry we’re not a match.
Data-driven Decisions
I'm not for making design decisions based solely on personal preferences. I lean on data and user testing to ensure real results.
A principle I work by
“Don’t debate what you can test.”
My story
The Accidental Start
It was a time when the dial-up sound exposed my every crime when trying to connect to the interwebz. This meant thunderous yelling from a typical Slavic woman, my grandma, “j** ti sunce, the bill will eat us alive!”
With online access only on weekend evenings, I was deprived. Constantly looking for other ways to entertain myself and satisfy my creative impulses. After years of writing long anime-inspired stories in Word, mastering Solitaire, and coloring doodles in Paint (the height of my digital art at the time lol), my fresh teen spirit needed more.
It was a heavy summer noon. The air stood still. No aircon ffs. The PC was overheating our triple bedroom, as if I didn't have enough sweat. Destiny's Child banged in the background on a tiny cathode TV the moment I noticed it...
that heavenly, blue-white icon under which it said… Microsoft FrontPage. I double-clicked. And the universe said: “lol good luck.”
In this peak of early-00s digital brilliance and creativity (spoiler: FrontPage long dead), I could insert text, buttons, and images, and view HTML and CSS code that looked like quantum physics to a 13-year-old. At that moment, I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life... Nah! Let's calm down. Like most teens, I had zero idea what I’d do after elementary school. But it was fun to create my first 2 Fast 2 Furious-themed website. A masterpiece that only I was proud of.
The Unconventional Curriculum
Later, when I saw a brand-new program at a graphic design high school, “graphic/multimedia designer” and the brochure mentioned web design, my brain connected the dots with simple logic: “I made ONE website. Obviously, this is my destiny.”
In design school, I didn’t just meet Photoshop. I met photography, programming, and even databases, because why not throw a little SQL into a teenager’s existential crisis?
That unexpected mix, combined with the usual Slavic “design isn’t a real job” skepticism, shaped what came next. Lacking self-confidence. Although I wanted to, I didn’t even dare apply to an art academy. Instead, I picked the other “logical” option: an IT faculty.
Spoiler: my creative soul hated coding. But the analytical part of my brain? Oh, it thrived. It got ripped. Engineering logic, algorithmic thinking, all that jazz that suits my INTJ mind.
Entering the Creative Business World
After graduating, I worked in agencies as a graphic and web designer, and later started my own solo business. I'm calling it self-employment (keeping it low-key next to the E-word trends.) I handled clients across pretty much every niche: education, beauty, tourism, finance, insurance, gastronomy… You name it.
Ironically, younger, shy me dreamed of quietly designing pretty things in a dark corner, avoiding people. First issue: pretty things? Naive! Second issue: quietly? Impossible for an excellent design. Life had other plans: strengthen me where I was weak. To teach my bum how to communicate. Because…
Design communicates between the client/brand and the user/audience, and between the designer and the rest of the team.
I invested heavily in mastering user psychology and communication dynamics. I turned that knowledge into action. Organized and held dozens of design workshops. Design volunteering. Public speaking. Articles writing.
I wrote my first book about design, Nije sve u izgledu (2019). Thankfully, in the pre-AI era. No one could accuse me of sus work. :D The English version, Looks Aren’t Everything, is out in 2026.
Leveling Up (The Seniority Era)
Fast forward. All that jazz opened the door to the international scene with big teams, big platforms, big HR/fintech madness.
In the meantime, I sharpened my skillset as a UX/UI designer in product environments, building and scaling large SaaS platforms. I learned how to:
- Own design decisions that balance business goals with real user needs.
- Keep design files organized and sane.
- Run a design squad, mentor teammates, and level-up team communication.
- Collab efficiently with managers, devs, stakeholders, and cross-functional teams. With clarity and assertiveness.
My work is not decoration.
It is clarity, structure, function, and communication.
Outside the Screen
To confirm I still exist in the physical world, I enjoy creating through pottery. And I also practice a certain type of dance everyone asks about, but no, I’m not telling. Dragon Ball Z fan. Loving Espresso martini.
When I’m not creating, I’m analyzing the world: society, psychology, humans, and behavior. Because if design hadn't claimed me first, psychology absolutely would have.
If you also look at the big picture and want to create solutions that convert, let's design something meaningful together:
Reach Out