I'm Oleksii - a product designer from Kharkiv, Ukraine, now based in Sweden. I'm drawn to the foundational, slightly chaotic part of the work - turning “we're not sure yet” into something people can actually use.
How I got here
I didn't grow up planning to be a designer. At sixteen, straight out of school and with no clue what I wanted, I enrolled in Kharkiv Medical University - I had half-formed dreams of medical robotics and was mostly trying to find myself. Two years in, I admitted medicine wasn't it. But I'd also noticed what I kept gravitating toward the whole time: making the university's social posts, building presentations, editing videos - drifting into design without ever calling it that.
So I called it. I left med school for Computer Science at IT STEP University - the closest thing to design I could find back then. I started in graphic design, realised I wanted people to use my work rather than just look at it, and moved into UX/UI. Then I wanted to shape the product itself, not only its screens - and became a product designer. Every step was me chasing a little more impact.
How I work
My real superpower isn't a tool - it's that I refuse to put barriers in my own head. I don't decide up front that I can't do something. I work out the process and deliver a real result, even if it takes me a while. “I haven't learned that yet” beats “I can't” every time.
I also believe design should be inclusive. There are a lot of people on this planet, and you're not designing only for yourself - that's the whole reason a project like Inclusive RSVP exists. And I don't see inclusivity and business goals as a trade-off: the work I enjoy most is finding where the two meet.
The project I'm proudest of is Visor. A small team, no funding, no guarantees - just an idea, some ambition, and a stubborn belief we could pull it off. We did, and I still love how it turned out.
Beyond the screen
Away from the canvas, I'm a hopeless lover of technology and its history. When I left Ukraine I could only take a few things, and I had to leave behind a small collection of old hardware in our home in the Kharkiv region - a Nintendo Wii, a lineup of old PlayStations, a little run of early iPhones starting with the 3G, and other treasures. I still miss it.
I'm also fascinated by procedural simulations - which probably shows, if you've been clicking around this site. I think Dwarf Fortress is one of the most legendary things gamedev has ever made, and I've lost hundreds of hours in No Man's Sky just drifting between planets and studying the local wildlife. The little living world running on this site is my own small love letter to all of that.
If any of this resonates - or you just want to talk shop about old consoles - say hi.