S
Sofia Joelson
UI/UX Designer at Topia Design
"Hard to accept, but done is better than perfect."
Last updated on 18 Jun, 2025
What apps do you use to help you design?
What books do you recommend?
Career clarity for designers in 5 minutes
See how real designers actually get started and the challenges they face, distilled from 47 experienced designers and counting.
How did you get started in your role?
I was doing admin work for a company that didn't have a website, so I learned how to make websites. I started freelancing on the side and got hired by a web design agency. I kept teaching myself more and more and keeping up with the industry. Eventually, I was contacted by a recruiter to join Shopflix as a UI Designer; a role that soon transitioned to that of a Product Designer.
What are the responsibilities of your role?
Designing screens in flows to serve business requests. Communicating with developers (hand-off notes, videos, real-time chats) to try to get the live site as close to the designs (or make revisions if needed). Cataloguing usability issues and proposing solutions (ok, that was not an official responsibility, but I made it my responsibility nonetheless).
What difficulties do you encounter in your role?
Having a lower say in design decisions within my org, compared to stakeholders with no or little knowledge of design, accessibility and usability heuristics.
How do you incorporate the apps in your design process?
I practically live in Figma: experimentation, polished designs, notes, links… almost everything I do is here. I use ChatGPT and Claude for back-and-forth ideation and critique of designs, to see them from an outsider perspective and get a nudge to explore other directions.
I’m constantly communicating with colleagues and for that I use CleanShot video recordings (Loom alternative, among other features) and Wispr Flow to transcribe. It’s faster than typing which means I can go write more in-depth messages with lower effort.
Lovable is great for prototyping ideas to see how they’d feel to use for real or communicate how something should work.
I use Eagle.cool to organize all my inspiration locally so I can find everything I’ve saved in one place (instead of going to Pinterest, Dribbble, etc. one by one).
When making a new flow/product, I like to consult PageFlows.com and Baymard.com (user research studies).
What advice would you give to your younger self trying to get into the field of design?
Try to find friends in the industry. Join webinars, online communities, and DM people you feel you might genuinely connect with. That’s skyrocket your motivation and you’ll constantly be learning from each other.
Do you have any regrets in your journey in becoming a designer?
Not really! It worked out as expected.
As a designer how do you stay inspired?
I get ideas all the time. It’s usually by combining a personal pain point with something cool I stumble upon online. I follow designers on LinkedIn and check out directories like OnePageLove often. There’s no shortage of inspiration—only time!
