About

Product designer with 5 years of experience, cat admirer, football fan and gym lover. Based in Kraków, Poland. Master's & Bachelor's in Social Informatics (Product Design) at AGH University of Science and Technology – both with honors, score 5.0.

I've worked across product companies and software houses – OLX, Miquido, Brainly, Interia – designing for healthcare, education and marketplaces in Europe, Africa, the US and India.

Outside of client work, I co-organised and hosted the Halo Design conference, spoke at "The Dark Side of UX", UX Bielsko-Biała, the UXberries science club and OLX's Masterclass Product Design panel in Barcelona, and mentored students on the UX&PD postgraduate programme at AGH.

I'm hungry for knowledge and try to get the most out of every experience – I actively seek feedback from the people I work with, so I keep growing not just on my assigned tasks, but as a designer.

Julia Szymik — Me, off the clock – in my beloved Italy.

Julia presenting a persona template to a classroom during a design-thinking lecture at AGH. — Design thinking lecture, AGH

Julia speaking into a microphone on a small stage at "The Dark Side of UX" event. — “The Dark Side of UX” talk

Julia and a co-host on stage at the Halo Design conference, which she co-organised. — Hosting Halo Design

Julia on a panel discussing AI's impact on product design at OLX's Masterclass Product Design event in Barcelona. — OLX Masterclass panel, Barcelona

Career

Full-time

OLX ↗
- Senior Product DesignerDec 2025 – Present
- Product DesignerFeb 2024 – Dec 2025
Design UX/UI for key marketplace categories across web and mobile, and champion generative AI tools that speed up prototyping and design workflows.
Interia ↗
- Senior UX DesignerAug 2023 – Feb 2024
Owned UX for multiple local media platforms across iOS, Android and web, unifying the design strategy and driving WCAG accessibility upgrades.
Brainly ↗
- CX Product Designer (contractor)Sep 2021 – Feb 2023
Improved Tutoring on web and mobile through UX research, workshops and close work with product managers and cross-functional teams – see the Brainly Tutoring case study.
Miquido ↗
- Product DesignerApr 2022 – Aug 2023
- Junior UX/UI DesignerOct 2021 – Mar 2022
- Intern UX/UI DesignerJul 2021 – Sep 2021
Designed apps and websites end to end in Figma, backed by UX research and client workshops, and co-organised four editions of the Halo Design meet-up.

Freelance & Consulting

Restaurant Week ↗
- Senior Product DesignerJun 2026 – Present
Growing RestaurantWeek's mobile and web apps across the Polish, Czech and German markets, the festival platform behind 400+ restaurants.
CaniCast ↗
- Freelance Product DesignerJun 2026 – Sep 2026
Audited the product, designed its screens and laid the foundations of the design system for a startup building an app that helps dog owners read their dogs' stress and behaviour.
VueLabs ↗
- Freelance Product DesignerApr 2025 – Oct 2025
Designed landing pages for US clients at a UX agency and maintained ongoing work on a marketing-campaign app.
MeMedic ↗
- Freelance Product DesignerDec 2024 – Feb 2025
Ran the design process end to end, research included, and created the branding for KlikLekarz, a new telemedicine service.
GG.deals ↗
- Freelance Product DesignerOct 2024 – Dec 2024
Optimised the gg.deals game price-comparison site to lift key metrics while keeping the visual language consistent.
Awumba Solutions ↗
- UX ConsultantNov 2023 – Sep 2024
Led UX/UI and built the design system for a school-management platform serving administrators, teachers and parents across African markets – see the AcademIQ case study.
AGH University of Science and Technology ↗
- UX&PD MentorMar 2022 – Mar 2023
Mentored two student groups on AGH's UX & Product Design postgraduate programme through workshops and feedback on their design work.

Education

AGH University of Science and Technology ↗
- Master's, Social Informatics (Product Design)October 2022 – September 2024
- Bachelor's, Social Informatics (Product Design)October 2019 – July 2022
Graduated with honors, final score 5.0 – both degrees.

Courses & certificates

Apr 2026
Claude Code for Designers ↗ · Human Centered AI Institute, via Maven
Nov 2025
Generative AI Products · Udacity
Nov 2022
UX Workshop Facilitation · Symetria
Jan 2022
UX Research · WitFlow
Jul 2019
Certificate in Advanced English · Cambridge English

Tools

Design & Research
Figma, FigJam, Figma Make, Claude Design, Lovable, Miro, UserTesting, UserZoom, Maze, SurveyMonkey
Collaboration & AI
Jira, Confluence, Google Docs/Sheets/Slides, GitHub, n8n, Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, NotebookLM, v0.dev

Outside work

There's more to me than Figma files (I promise).

Outside of work, I'm a Real Madrid fan who tries to catch a football match wherever I'm traveling, a recent PS5 convert (RIP my gaming PC), and – most days – outnumbered by one very opinionated cat. I take the gym and calisthenics seriously, I'm teaching myself to paint (slowly), and in a past life I used to dance – these days good food and new cities scratch that same itch.

Work is a big part of who I am, but so is everything you just read. It all shapes how I think, how I design, and how I live.