Pavle Lucic

Senior UI/UX Designer @ Toptal | Prototyping, Branding, UI Development

I am a Senior UI/UX Designer at Toptal, a network of the world's top 3% of software engineering, design, and finance talent. With over 10 years of experience in the design industry, I have a proven track record of creating visually engaging and user-friendly interfaces for in-car navigation systems, SaaS apps, and marketing websites.

My background in business and economics gives me a unique perspective on how to design UX and UI that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also functional, efficient, and user-friendly. I am passionate about solving complex problems, collaborating with diverse teams, and learning new skills. I am also Adwords Search Certified, which demonstrates my ability to optimize the online presence and performance of my clients. My goal is to help tech companies increase their revenue by improving the user experience of their products.

Senior UI/UX Desiger

2 tools that will replace entire product teams in 2026

(designers can do the development now)

1/ Claude → Your thinking layer 
↳ Industry analysis in 15 minutes 
↳ Competitive breakdowns in 20 minutes
↳ User journeys mapped instantly
↳ Feature priorities without PMs 
↳ Strategy without strategists

2/ Figma → Your design AND development layer 
↳ Systems, not screens 
↳ Components that scale 
↳ Figma to code pipelines 
↳ AI-assisted building 
↳ Ship without developers

Old model: 

PM + Strategist + Designer + Developer 4 people. 
4 weeks. 4 handoffs.

New model: 

Designer + Claude + Figma 1 person. 
2 days. 0 handoffs.

Strategy. Design. Development. One designer.

The handoff era is over.

Repost this ♻️ if you're building this way.

P.S. Are you still handing off or already shipping?

undefined undefined

Senior UI/UX Designer

Senior UX Designer

UI / UX designer & UI Developer

Visual Designer

UI/UX Designer

Senior UI/UX Product Designer | UX Strategy | Figma

English

Serbian

Every designer should SAVE this Accessibility Checklist: 

1. Images include alt text
2. Buttons have clear labels
3. Body text is 16px or larger
4. Text contrast is at least 4.5:1
5. Click targets are minimum 44px
6. Forms show clear error messages
7. Icons are never used without labels
8. Navigation works with keyboard only
9. Animations can be reduced or disabled
10. Focus states are visible for keyboard users

Follow this checklist, and you'r already ahead of 90% of products online.

Accessible design isn’t complicated.
It’s just intentional.

Save this post for your next UI review.

(Repost for other designers ♻️)

P.S. Which one do you check last before shipping a design?

Here's a proven way to stand out as a UX designer in 2026.

(Without adding another certification to your wall)

Stop focusing on "designing screens". 
Focus on "designing outcomes".

When you present work to stakeholders?

Your job is not to show how pretty it looks. 
It's to show why it matters.

This is the main "metric" of everything you design"

1. User pain points → Connect them to cost
2. Redesigns → Show the numbers behind them
3. They need a solution → Be their strategic partner

Stop hiding behind "I'm just the designer".

Share the "why" → Not just the "what"
This builds irrevocable trust.

Don't just push pixels. 
Push thinking. 

Make sure your seat at the table stays. 

When restructuring comes? 
(And it will) You'll still be there.

Pretty? No. → "Impactful". Always.

(Repost this for your network ♻️)

P.S. Do you notice some designers hiding behind Figma files? Avoiding the business conversation entirely?

Every time I share this advice, some designers get mad. 

“Users do judge products visually”
“The UI matters more than ever now”
“Brand perception starts with visuals”

My advice: Stop using UI and UX like they mean the same thing.

Chances are: Your interface matters a lot.
Chances are: Your user experience matters even more.

(Fun fact: A product can look amazing and still frustrate users)

So...

If you want better product discussions
If you want smarter design decisions
If you want to solve the right problems

Separate UI from UX. (Thank me later)

P.S. Don’t get mad. ✌️

UX vs UX

Most recruiters ask designers:

“Do you have experience in our specific industry?”

I think the better question is:

Can they understand the audience?
Can they define the real problem?
Can they bring a fresh point of view?

They’re hired to:

Think deeper.
Observe better.
Design smarter.

Industry knowledge is useful. Sure.

But if that’s your no. 1 hiring filter...

Chances are: you’ll get familiar ideas, safer choices, and the same patterns your competitors already use.

Sometimes, the best designer for the job is the one who is not stuck inside the industry bubble.

Because fresh eyes catch what insiders stop noticing.
Great design is not about knowing the category best.

It’s about understanding people best.

P.S. What matters more: industry experience or design thinking?

Junior designers add design elements. 

But senior designers remove.

One rule that fixed 80% of my designs:

Take your finished screen.
Start deleting things. One by one.

In practice:

That extra icon? Remove.
That extra border? Remove.
That extra shadow? Remove.

Keep going until something breaks. Stop there.

Everything you deleted before that? Never needed.

Took me years to trust subtraction over addition. 
Now it's the first thing I do on every project.

💾 Save this for your next design review.

P.S. What element do you always overuse?

Unpopular opinion: Figma is the last tool you should open.

Not the first.

Here's the process I use for every project:

Phase 1 → Discovery (1 week)
Research. Competitors. Customer Journey.
↳ You can't solve what you don't understand.

Phase 2 → Prototyping (2 weeks)
Architecture. Flows. Wireframes. Testing.
↳ You can't design what you haven't structured.

Phase 3 → Design (5 weeks)
UI Concepts. Final UI. UI Kit. Handoff.
↳ Now you design. Not before.

8 weeks total. 

"But that's too slow."
No. 

Redesigning a product 3 times because you skipped research is slow. 

Arguing with devs because there's no handoff doc is slow. 
Rebuilding flows because nobody tested the wireframe is slow.

Process isn't slow.

Skipping process is slow.

(Save + Repost for others ♻️)

P.S. Do you follow a process or wing it?

For years, they told us:

Learn computers. Avoid manual work.

Now?

AI is writing emails.
Designing logos.
Making presentations.
Even coding.

Meanwhile…

The plumber is somewhere chilling like:
“Good luck teaching ChatGPT to fix your bathroom.” 🙂

Funny times, friends.

The “safe” jobs suddenly don’t feel that safe.
And the jobs people looked down on?
They’re looking very… employed.

P.S. Which non-computer job is winning the AI era? 😂

Being great at design is not enough.

You can be very skilled...and still lose the project.

What clients remember is not just:

1. Your portfolio
2. Your systems
3. Your creative taste

They also remember:

1. How you handled feedback
2. How easy it was to build with you
3. How safe it felt to disagree with you

Design does not happen in isolation. It happens through conversations.

Through trust.
Through people.
Through uncertainty.

The best designers don’t just push pixels. They move people.

P.S. People don’t just remember the final design. They remember what it felt like to get there. 😊

P.P.S.  Design is not just visual. It’s human ♻️

"Good designers have a natural eye for color."

No they don't.

They have a system.

And most of them use the same one:
60-30-10.

60% of the screen is one neutral 
30% is one supporting tone 
10% is one accent

It's simple a ratio.

You could pick ugly colors and still make a clean UI with this rule.
You could pick beautiful colors and still make a mess without it.

The "eye" people talk about? It's pattern recognition.

And pattern recognition comes from systems.
Not talent.

Start with the system.

♻️ Repost or Save if you're tired of the "natural talent" myth.

P.S. Talent or system what matters more? 👇

I've been studying dark UX patterns for a while now.

Here's everything I see on one Temu product card:

"Deal" badge → urgency without a deadline
"17K+ sold" → social proof replacing analysis
1,180 reviews → volume creating false authority
Fake "original" price → anchoring your perception
Cart icon right next to the price → reducing friction
Product image with dimensions → implying precision
Everything above the fold → no scrolling needed to buy
Percentage shown in orange → framing savings over cost

8 design decisions.

But...0 of them are about helping you choose.
All of them are about helping you click.

Feel free to repost this ♻️ 

But my ask is:
Next time you shop online, count the tricks first. Then decide.

P.S. Which one surprised you (1-8)? Anything I missed? 👇

My non-negotiable rules for writing button copy.

(7 micro-copy rules every junior designer needs to know)

Lead with the outcome e.g. "Get Your Free Guide"
"Sign Up" = vague → "Start for Free" = clear value
Keep it to 2-5 words → Longer than that? Rewrite it.
Never use "Submit" → Nobody wants to "submit" anything
Never write what the system does → Write what the user gets
Kill the # 1 objection inside the button e.g. "Try It, No Credit Card"

Read it out loud → If it sounds like a robot wrote it, it's wrong.

Bonus: 
Never use "Submit" on a button because you ran out of ideas. 

If you can't describe the value in 5 words, you don't understand the feature well enough.

Bad CTAs describe the process. 
Good CTAs describe the outcome = That's the whole game.

(Save + Repost for others ♻️)

P.S. Do you follow UX copy rules?

2 years ago I was handing off Figma files.

Today I push code to GitHub.

Same person. 
Same skills. 

One new tool. AI.

I didn't hire a developer.
I didn't go back to school. 
I didn't learn computer science. 

I just started "building."

Backend? AI. 
Databases? AI. 
The scary stuff? AI.

Design, UX, how it feels?

That's still me.
Always will be.

Turns out, a designer who builds the "whole thing"?
Pretty powerful.

♻️ Repost if you know a designer who needs to hear this.

P.S. Which idea have you been sitting on? Tell me below. 👇

Here's something I never post about.

(it starts with a DM I almost ignored)

Last week someone messaged me on Linkedin.

"Hey, do you do branding?"

My first instinct: no.
My second instinct: why not?
My third instinct: LinkedIn says I'm a product designer.

I replied anyway. "What do you need?"

She said: 
"Logo for pilates studio".

I quoted the project. She said yes.
I sketched directions in Procreate on the couch.
I opened Adobe Illustrator. Not Figma. Illustrator.

My iPad on my lap. Coffee getting cold.

She wrote back 4 words.
"Don't change a thing."

And I just sat there.

Because I almost said no.
Because I convinced myself that product designers don't do this kind of work.

I thought:

That it wasn't my lane. 
That I needed to be a "brand designer" first.

That night I scrolled through my files.

Logos I made and never showed anyone. 
Brand identities sitting in folders named "personal" and "side work."

Years of work that never made it to my portfolio.

Because I thought it didn't count.
It wasn't "product design" so it wasn't real work.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever believed.

It's design. 
It counts.

P.S. The coffee was cold. The logo was good. Fair trade.

Most people think AI builders must be engineers.

But the next generation may be designers.

AI can write code.
But AI cannot design the product.

Someone must decide:

• What problem to solve
• How the flow works
• How the system behaves

That is product thinking.

Designers already do this.

P.S. Agree?

Top negotiators use this hack. It's called "echoing."

(here's how designers can use it on every feedback call)

So how it works?
Repeat the client's own words back to them.

That's why it's called the "Echo" method.

People trust their own words more than yours.
So make sure you use that.

Here's how it looks:

Client says: "I want it clean and minimal." 
Then later: "Add more icons, a banner, and a pattern." 
You say: "You wanted clean and minimal. Which of these fits that?"

Client says: "The homepage should feel premium." 
Then sends a reference that looks like a discount flyer. 
You say: "You said premium. This reference feels promotional. Let's find a better match."

Client says: "I love version 2." 
Two days later: "Actually, let's go back to version 1." 
You say: "You approved version 2 last week. What changed?"

No arguing. 

No "I told you so." 
Just their words "Echoing".

What if the client hasn't said anything specific?

Then quote the brief. 
The approved direction. 
The project goals defined.

Why this works: people respect their own words more than yours.

Use playback → fewer revisions, faster approvals.
Start quoting your clients back to them 😇

P.S. Repost this ( Save ⭐ this and Repost ♻️ )

Dark patterns are the biggest scam in tech.

And nobody's talking about it.

Today I tried to buy an CapCut app subscription.
Price on screen: €59.00/month.
Price at checkout: €299.99.

That's 30x markup.

This isn't a bug.
It's a feature.

It's called "bait and switch"one of the most common dark patterns in UX design.

Here's why it keeps working:

1. The purchase screen looks trustworthy
2. The real price only shows at the very last step
3. Most users tap "confirm" without reading

I teach designers to reduce friction.
But some companies use that skill to reduce your attention.

This wasn't some sketchy app.

It was in the App Store.
Processed through Apple.

If you're building products:

- Transparent pricing isn't a "nice to have"
- Transparent pricing is the bare minimum

Dark patterns are a tax on user trust.

And trust, once broken, doesn't come back.

♻️ Share this with someone who builds digital products.

CapCut

Quick UX test:

Where is “Cancel subscription”?

A. Upgrade plan
B. Personalization
C. Settings

Drop your answer below.

P.S. Bonus points if you explain the UX logic behind your choice.

No one will taught you this at any design workshop.

Your clients used to find you like this:

1. Search Contra ( or other freelance platforms )
2. Check your portfolio
3. Like your vibe
4. Read your bio
5. Send a message

Every step there was a real person deciding with their gut.

Do they like you.
Will they hire you.

But, software is now doing that process. 

Browsing profiles. 
Comparing freelancers. 
Choosing who to hire. 

Without a human in the loop.

Now:
AI agents entered the freelance market. 

Which means...

1. A new buyer category that evaluates without messaging you first
2. Profiles being scanned by software, not just humans
3. Less "let me think about it" - more instant decisions
4. More freelancers who have no idea this is happening
5. A new competitor category that delivers work 24/7

The point I want to make is:

Most freelancers don't fall behind because of skill. 
They fall behind because of awareness. 

I really hope YOU won't. 

(Repost further for others ♻️)

P.S. I created a playbook on how to attract these AI agents. 

P.P.S. Comment “AGENT” and I’ll send it your way. 

( Make sure we’re connected first ❤️ )

Every app free trial plan:

Click "Create" ➝ Upgrade to Pro
Click "Export" ➝ Upgrade to Pro
Click "Share" ➝ Upgrade to Pro

After 13 years of product design, I seen this "kill" good products over and over.

The fix?

One feature. 
Fully unlocked. 
Before the paywall. 

Do → stay → upgrade.

Let users "do" something. Not "see" something.
That's the whole UX strategy. 

Written in 3 words: value before money.

♻️ Repost if a product designer needs this.

P.S. What app "lost" you because the free plan was useless?

Christopher Nguyen

I help UX designers go from Fuzziness to Focused (uxplaybook.org), now Freedom (backlog.design)

I went from 0 experience to Head of Design in 4 years

Then, in 2020, I quit

But, I wasn't ready to give up on UX

Working with 100s of designers, I saw most designers are in someway self taught. Thinking back to my non-linear & uncomfortable journey of:

– fired (multiple times)
– jobless with 0 savings
– broke in a foreign country
– overworked, over-titled, under-fulfilled

Somewhere in between all of that, I realised:

Most designers don’t fail because they’re untalented. They struggle because there’s no clear path in figuring out their craft, their career, and their calling. 

And most UX education is incredibly expensive, lack accessibility, and real-world practicality

I had a hypothesis

Designers craved for education that: 

1) cuts to the core
2) applies to every day scenarios
3) real examples from real experience 

So, I started an experiment in mid 2020

The results were pretty phenomenal, we grew 1400% in one year

It was clear people valued UX Playbook

That’s why I’m here—doing my part to be useful for designers dealing real constraints

3 pillars to my mission:

𝟭. 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 — 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼?

Your ability to execute
Your skillstack
Your taste

Helping you:

– build real, usable skills
– understand why frameworks work
– become more self-reliant as a designer

Through stories, breakdowns, & practical plays.

𝟮. 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 — 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿?

Great designers don’t just design well. They build leverage in/outside their orgs.

Helping you:

– earn trust
– communicate clearly
– navigate stakeholders
– create impact that’s visible

So your work doesn’t just ship, it matters.

𝟯. 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 — 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱?

This is the part no bootcamp talks about.

The quiet questions:

– who am I without my title?
– what does “success” actually mean to me?
– what kind of life am I building through this career?

My aim is to creates space for that reflection.

Not with answers.
But with courage.

My impact:

→ 20,000,000+ content impressions in the last 3 years
→ 500,000+ weekly newsletters & blogs read
→ 100,000+ people following my daily UX content
→ 20,000+ people downloaded my UX guides & templates
→ 1,000+ people, from 93+ countries, bought my products

If you’re a designer trying to:

– get better without ego
– grow without burning out
– build a career that is yours

You’re exactly who I help

Learn more about my FAST TRACK DESIGNER BUNDLE → https://uxplaybook.org/fast

Email: hello@uxplaybook.org
YouTube, Twitter, IG: @uxchrisnguyen

Co-Founder & CPO

I spent years figuring out my personal brand.

Today, I'm giving my blueprint away for free.

What's inside this FREE package:

— How to sell yourself concisely
— How to stay authentic (vs generic)
— How to define your unfair advantage
— How to position yourself in a 1-pager
— How to tell your unique story (concisely)
— How to answer "what's your superpower?"

BONUS: Entire step-by-step process
(including FigJam board + canvas + workshop videos)

Pitch is how I built this blueprint.
It's the only tool I'd use for this.

I can spin up a beautiful, interactive deck fast, embed workshop videos directly into slides, and share it with a link. Thanks for partnering on this!

Who’s this for:

• Designers looking for FT roles
• Freelancers looking for more work
• People looking to differentiate themselves
• Anyone job hunting

Honestly, because most people suck at selling themselves.

Same generic bios.
Same buzzwords.
Same cliches.

No call-backs.
No new clients.
No new opportunities.

This will help you fix that.

Want my blueprint deck?

1. Like
2. Repost (priority)
3. Comment "BRAND" and I'll send it to you ↓

(Don’t forget to duplicate my deck)

P.S. I recommend you spend 1-2 hours working through it (good little weekend activity)

P.P.S Try Pitch for your portfolio deck: https://lnkd.in/g5Tt67qv

#pitchpartner

Brand partnership • I help UX designers shape their Craft, Careers, and Calling.

In 4 years, I wrote 100K words on portfolios.

I turned it into 50 laws. Want them for free?

100,000 words.

That's longer than Thinking Fast and Slow.

Except instead of cognitive bias & System 2 thinking, it's me yelling about case studies & value propositions.

But I had a problem.
None of my writing was organized.

Slack threads (from 2022)
Notion pages (inside Notion pages)
Google Drive folders (I forgot existed)

I knew I had gems about portfolios in there somewhere. I just couldn't see it.

So here's what I did.

I asked Claude to search everything.

→ Miro
→ Slack
→ Figma
→ Notion
→ Google
→ Granola

All of it.

Every word I'd ever written about portfolios. Pulled, read, understood.

Then I asked it to do something crazy. Summarise everything into…

“The 50 Indisputable Laws of Portfolios”

(still working on the name lol)

• Added context from my coaching calls
• Dropped in my livestream recordings
• Included real portfolios examples

I pushed back. Refined them.

Then, still inside Claude, I generated a full deck in Gamma.

Visuals.
Structure.
Something I could share.

Not buried inside Notion. Not a 6,000 word essay.

A clean deck. Free. For you.

Want my 50 Indisputable Laws of Portfolios?

1. Like + Repost
2. Comment "GAMMA"
3. I'll send you the link

—

P.S. 4 years of writing. 100K words. One conversation. One deck. Times are WILD!

📌 Try Gamma x Claude: https://lnkd.in/g6Nht-zR

#gammapartner

taplio

The Battle

Pavle Lucic

Christopher Nguyen

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScorePavle Lucic's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreChristopher Nguyen's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Pavle Lucic

Christopher Nguyen

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Pavle Lucic's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreChristopher Nguyen's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScorePavle Lucic's LinkedIn Performance