About · Sydney

Trained in objects. Now designing for screens.

I'm Michael Papanikolaou, a product designer in Sydney working across UX/UI, research and design systems. I started out in industrial design and have spent the last nine years designing digital products.

Today I design digital products end-to-end: researching the problem, mapping the flows, designing the interface and working with engineers through build and QA. I've done that for Live Payments, Taper, Hello Molly, Lessy, Bed Threads, BWS and Dan Murphy's, across fintech, B2B SaaS and e-commerce.

I started with furniture. At 23 I exhibited at Milan Design Week, and designing for manufacture taught me three things I still use every day: think in systems, respect the constraints, and test with real people before committing. In 2017 I moved into digital and brought that way of working with me.

Outside work I paint non-objective abstracts, hike, salsa dance most nights and walk the coast with Carmelo, my King Charles cavalier.

The journey

Industrial design first, digital since 2017. The jump felt smaller than it looks: a stool and a checkout flow both have users, constraints and details that make or break them.

2025 to Now

Senior Product Designer · Live Payments

Leading product design across web and merchant platforms.

2024 to 26

Senior Product Designer · Taper / Insitchu

Redesigned the core made-to-measure platform, from the live garment visualiser to order management.

2024

Senior UX/UI Designer · Hello Molly

Led the accounts and returns redesign for a global fashion brand across AU, US and UK. Profile completion up 15%.

2023 to 24

Senior Product Designer · Lessy

Designed the sign-up flow, LLM-powered dashboard and design system alongside the founder.

2022 to 23

Senior UI Designer · Endeavour X · BWS · Dan Murphy's

Redesigned the order-tracking experience across native, web, and messaging.

2021 to 22

UX/UI Designer · Bed Threads

Shaped the eCommerce experience across AU, US, and UK: product page, BYOB, design system, homepage.

2021

UX/UI Designer · Skechers · Accent Group

Mobile-first PDP redesign for a key Accent Group client; iconography and responsive scale-up.

2020 to 21

UX/UI Designer · RØDE Microphones

Designed the RØDECaster Pro Shows feature for multi-host podcast studios.

2020 to 21

UX/UI Designer · Zest · Inner Art Inner Soul · Stomble

Three early-stage product teams across hospitality, CMS, and B2B video.

2020

Product Designer · Jimmy Brings

Native-app order experience for a premium delivery brand: research, personas, and final design.

2018 to 20

Bespoke Furniture Designer · Freelance

Designed and made bespoke furniture, exhibited at Din Design Milan and on the Vivid finalist circuit.

Education

Three qualifications across UX, graphic and object design, and industrial design. I learned to make things before I learned to design screens, and it shows in how I work.

UX & UI Design · RMIT University

Formal grounding in UX/UI process, research, and interface design.

Bachelor of Design (Graphic & Object) · RMIT University

Three years across typography, visual systems and object design.

Diploma of Industrial Design · Enmore Design Centre

Materials, manufacturing and form. The training behind the Milan Design Week work.

High School Certificate · The Scots College

How I work

Four habits I bring to every project.

Start with the real problem

A brief is a starting point. First I find out what people are trying to do, and where they get stuck.

Think in systems

Furniture taught me to design parts that work together. Now it's components, tokens and flows.

Sweat the details

States, edge cases, spacing, words. The small things are what people feel when they use a product.

Stay close to the build

I work with engineers through hand-off and QA. A design only counts once it ships well.

Working on something interesting?

I'm always happy to talk about interesting projects and opportunities. If the problem is meaty and the team is kind, I'd love to hear about it.

Get in touch