About
Hi. I'm Niki.
I've been designing software for 8 years, and building it for most of that time. Not as a side skill — I write real React on real production codebases. It changes how I think about what I design.
Most of my work has been B2B — tools that real people use to do their actual jobs. Warehouse workers shipping orders. Sales reps managing clients on their phone. Dealers configuring custom garments from a fabric catalog. These aren't the most glamorous use cases. But they're complicated, and getting them wrong has real consequences.
At Trinity, I design the tools and then help build them. Not "here's the Figma file, good luck" — I sit in code review, write React components, and debug edge cases alongside the engineering team. Before that, at Hamburger Creative, I was usually the whole design and dev team for client projects. Working solo teaches you to prioritize fast.
I'm currently looking for my next role. I care less about the industry and more about the problem — as long as it's genuinely hard and the team cares about getting it right. Based in Birmingham, AL and open to remote.
Outside of work
Outside of work, I'm usually chasing some small project. Some weekends that means getting lost in a home renovation, trying a new recipe on the Blackstone, or convincing friends to play just one more game of pickleball. Other weekends I'm reading, walking, or going down a rabbit hole about something I've decided I need to learn.
Looking back, all of those things have something in common: I like building, improving, and figuring things out. That's probably why product design has always felt like a natural fit.
I genuinely enjoy working with people. Some of my favorite moments on a project aren't the final presentation — they're sitting with a developer solving a weird edge case, or talking through an idea until it finally clicks. Building good products matters to me, but so does building good working relationships.
Reading
Usually a mix of business books, fiction, and whatever topic I've decided to obsess over that week.
Pickleball
Competitive enough to care. Not competitive enough to ruin the friendship.
Home Projects
There's almost always another room I'm convinced I can renovate myself.
Cooking
The Blackstone has become my favorite excuse to invite people over.
Morning Walks
My favorite place to think through ideas, solve problems, or listen to a good audiobook.
Side Projects
I genuinely enjoy building things, even when nobody asked me to.
Skills & tools
Design
Figma · Atomic design systems · Advanced prototyping · Illustrator · Photoshop · Premiere Pro · Lightroom
Front-end development
React · HTML · CSS / Sass · JavaScript · Git · REST APIs · Component-based architecture
Research & QA
Contextual inquiry · User interviews · Sentry · Hotjar · Google Analytics · Cross-device testing
AI tools
Claude · Figma Make · Replit · Midjourney · Notion AI
Experience
Senior UI/UX Designer
Trinity Custom Apparel — Remote
- —Lead designer across all digital product and print needs
- —Built atomic design system in Figma; React component handoff docs
- —Integrated Sentry QA into pre-release design review process
- —Shipped multiple internal tools from concept to production
2022 – Present
Web Designer & Developer
Hamburger Creative — Birmingham, AL
- —Designed, built, and launched responsive client websites end-to-end
- —Built React components integrating client APIs and animations
- —Mentored junior designers on responsive design best practices
- —Managed multiple concurrent client projects, balancing design and dev
2018 – 2022
B.A. Digital Media & Design
Southeastern University
Full-Stack Development Bootcamp (2020) · Front-End Development Bootcamp (in progress) · Bootcamp Final Project Winner: Tasky App
Education