Polish is the product
Users can't tell you why an app feels cheap, but they always feel it. The 200ms transition, the empty state, the button that responds like it heard you. That's not decoration, that's trust.
Hi, I'm Michelle. I've been fixing broken UX since before I knew that was the job title. I just knew broken experiences bothered me more than they bothered other people. Turns out that's a career and here we are!
Boarding passMH ✦
- Passenger
- Hardi / Michelle
- Class
- Product design · Senior
- Route
- MEL → World
- Seat
- 1A · Studio of one
The route so far
- The early legs · 2010–2020
E-commerce, Retail Zoo (Boost Juice, Salsa's), Officeworks among them. A decade of learning and growing with both small and big enterprises.
- Reece Group · 2020–2022
Design systems and point-of-sale for the trades. The shop counter is the toughest usability lab there is.
- UniSuper · 2023
A contract stint in superannuation, designing for money most people avoid thinking about until it matters. Good training for making the complex feel calm.
- REA Group · Mortgage Choice · 2023–now
Designing the money conversations most people find terrifying: home loans, borrowing power, big decisions. If I can make finance feel calm, I can make anything feel calm.
- Studio of one · ongoing
Nights and weekends I design, build and ship my own products. Some fly, some don't. Every landing teaches me something the day job can't.
- next…
Along the way I've helped shape product and design strategy, facilitated more workshops than I can count, mentored designers, and even started a UX meetup back in the pre-Covid days, all while working shoulder-to-shoulder with cross-functional teams to untangle complicated problems together.
Carry-on essentials
Ship, test, iterate
I'd rather put a rough version in front of five real people than a perfect one in front of nobody. Momentum finds answers that meetings never will.
Copy is design
The words are the interface. I'll rewrite a label eleven times, because “Get started” and “See what you can borrow” are completely different promises.
Fight for the empty state
The first screen most users ever see of a feature is the one with nothing in it. If that screen doesn't teach and invite, nothing after it gets used.
Direct the AI, own the outcome
I ship production apps solo by running an AI crew for engineering, QA, PM and finance. I set the direction, review every pull request and make the calls. The leverage is new. The accountability isn't.
Outside of work
I live in Melbourne with my little family of four: Matt my partner, Cookie the dog and Rayray the cat. Life outside of work involves printing fun things with my 3D printer, working on fun side projects, baking something yum and the mandatory Saturday brunch out. I love my Marvel, fantasy and sci-fi shows, movies and books. And I love improving my workflow with AI tools like Claude.
Currently
Working my 5-to-9 on Simply Kind after the day job, and decompressing in Crimson Desert once the laptop finally shuts.
– M ✦Want the longer version?
My résumé has the full timeline: the companies, the roles and the work in between.