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?

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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?

I build products for a living.
Most of my work is fixing problems before they become expensive.

Over the past few years, I’ve worked across UX, product design, and delivery on complex digital products. I’ve learned that most product failures don’t start in code but start with unclear thinking, misaligned teams, and decisions made too late.

Most of what I know didn’t come from frameworks or books.
It came from projects with real constraints, real deadlines, and real consequences.

Now I share those lessons openly in public.

Not as a guru. Not as a “10x expert.”
Just me doing the work and sharing what actually holds up in practice.

Here on LinkedIn and in my Touchpoints newsletter, I write about:
• product and UX lessons from real projects
• startups, teams, and decision making
• career pivots, burnout, and sustainable growth
• conferences, networking, and learning from people along the way

It’s honest, sometimes messy, and always grounded in real experience.

If you enjoy thoughtful takes on building meaningful products, you’re welcome to follow along or subscribe to Touchpoints.

Always open to conversations, collaborations, and interesting problems worth solving.

Nika Kralj

Tools don’t make you a better product builder. The right mindset does. But if I did have to pick 10 tools that are making my life easier right now:

1. Mobbin

You know Dribbble? Mobbin blows it out of the water.

On Dribbble, you’ll find a lot of portfolios that are designed to be pretty to generate views and likes. Problem is, half of those designs were never implemented. They’re non-functional.

On Mobbin, you’ll find screenshots of *actual* apps (Revolut is a popular one). They also have really nice filtering, so you can find the best, say, sign-up forms.

2. UX Pilot AI

UX Pilot replaced Figma for me as far as prototyping.

I use it to generate wireframes and designs in a pinch. And I know a product manager who uses it to visualize features and show them to his team.

A picture is worth a thousand words, after all. And it’s worth even more when you can generate it in seconds.

3. UserOnboard

A website with popular examples of user onboarding flows (e.g., Canva, Duolingo, Instagram…).

Instead of signing up for dozens of different apps and giving up your data to experience their onboarding, you can just visit this site and access the screenshots in one place.

I don’t use this one regularly, but it saved my neck the other day, when I needed to redesign an onboarding form.

4–5. Unsplash & Pexels

Let’s face it, AI-generated images aren’t it. At least not yet. Unsplash and Pexels are two of my go-to sites for stock photography, which you’re bound to need sooner or later.

6–7. Claude & Copilot

ChatGPT is still my go-to. But Claude comes highly recommended, especially for prototyping. I haven’t played around with it enough to comment, but it’s shown a lot of promise.

There’s also Copilot, which I’m using for a project right now.

8. Chatbase

An AI-powered chatbot that’s super easy to set up on any website. It has the nicest UX of all the chatbots I’ve seen or tried. Plus it actually works.

It’s a way to help users get an answer about the product without having to sift through dozens of blog posts.

9. Notion

I’ve been using Notion religiously since 2018. It’s where I do all my writing and planning (reminders and to-do lists).

I love the fact that I can build my own version of Notion and make it look and work exactly how I want it to.

10. Medium

An online publishing platform that aggregates long-form written content from various sources, then uses a social-media-like algorithm to curate your feed. Not a tool in the traditional sense. But still one of the highest-quality sources of knowledge I’ve found online.

The articles I find on Medium are just so much more informative than the videos I find on YouTube. They’re more original, less attention-seeking, and research-heavier.

- - -

Honorable mentions:

- Relume for vibe design
- Miro for whiteboarding
- Lovable for vibe coding

- - -

If you have yet to try any of these tools, make sure to do so.

And if you have any questions (or other recommendations), I’m just a DM away.

Product Manager | Sharing Product & UX Insights via Touchpoints Newsletter

10 Tools I'm Loving Right Now

If you’re an up-and-coming product builder/leader, you need all the support you can get. Which is exactly why I launched Touchpoints.

Touchpoints is a newsletter I started writing in late 2025.

It’s about how to build better products, from someone who’s been doing it for a living for 4+ years (= me).

Most of what I know didn’t come from frameworks or books. It came from real projects with real constraints, real deadlines, and real consequences.

Now I share those lessons openly in public.

Not as a guru. Not as a “10x” expert. But as someone who’s in the trenches and sees what holds up and what doesn’t in practice.

I also write about:

- Sustainable growth
- Startups, teams, and decision making
- The events I attend and the people I meet

It’s honest. Sometimes messy.
But always grounded in real experience.

So, why “Touchpoints”?

- It’s short and sweet.
- It relates to both product and business.
- It’s also my own touchpoint with readers.

At the time of writing, I’m 10 issues in. And I’m not afraid to admit that I’m still experimenting and the content is still evolving.

But the more I write, the more feedback I get.
And the more feedback I get, the better the content.

I won’t ask you to sign up (although you’re welcome to). But I will ask you to head over to https://lnkd.in/djybbf8Z, check out the issues I’ve released so far (they’re free to read online), and tell me what you think.

I want to hear what you’re struggling with, so I can improve the content and do an even better job helping you.

My comments and DMs are open.

Appreciate it!

P.S. If you do decide to sign up, you’ll receive the newsletter every Monday at noon.

QA reporting a bug:

“Hey team, empty parameter in feature A causes crash on staging. PFA steps to reproduce. Pls fix ASAP, so we can push to prod on Thursday.”

Designer reporting a bug:

“Heyyy guys 👋🏻 Sorry to bother you, but I noticed that this button is 2px off-center. Think you could fix it? 🙏🏻 Nothing urgent, it’s just triggering me haha”

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