Hi, I'm Michalina!
/me-ha-lee-na/
I’m a London-based Customer Experience Strategist, certified UX Manager, and UX Coach. I specialize in helping businesses improve their strategies, boosting sales in e-commerce space, optimizing customer experience, leading experimentation activities, and conducting CX & UX audits.
My Story
It’s All Started With a UFO Invasion...
My passion for design and hands-on creativity has been growing since early childhood. At five, I persistently persuaded my grandmother to teach me how to sew. By seven, I was co-designing my first UFO invasion during local art workshops for kids. While that was my last “invasion” project, some of my later work went on to be showcased regularly at my local World Trade Center, marking an exciting milestone in my creative journey.
Here Came the Music!
At just eight years old, I performed my first piano recital alongside my teacher, and by eleven, I started composing my own music. Around the same time, my curiosity for technology began to shine through as I was experimenting with Logic Pro to create songs and using CSS to give my MySpace page a personal touch. My early coding skills even earned me my first “client”: a friend who traded my favorite candy for a custom MySpace layout.
Design vs. Technology
Back in high school, I realized that friends and family often turned to me whenever they ran into tech troubles—from computers to everyday devices. That sparked a question that still drives me today: How can we make experiences and technology easier, more intuitive, and truly helpful for everyone?
This curiosity led me to deepen my skills in countries known for their cutting-edge innovation—South Korea and Japan—where I immersed myself in learning from some of the most forward-thinking approaches to technology and customer experience design.
Recent Work Experience
Director & Principal Consultant at Tako Strategy
May 2025 – Now. London, UK
UX Designer at Fortnum & Mason
Jan 2023 – Now. London, UK
E-Commerce UI/UX Designer at Canon EMEA
Nov 2021 – Jan 2023. London, UK
UI/UX Designer at Moonbay Labs
Jun – Nov 2021. London, UK
Freelance UX/UI Designer
Jun 2017 – Sep 2019
Certifications
Business Strategy Specialization
University of Virginia Darden School of Business · 2025
Certificate in User Experience Management
Nielsen Norman Group · Mar 2024 · ID 1077234
Contentsquare Certified Expert
Contentsquare · Jan 2022
Advanced Google Analytics
Google · Jan 2022
Conversation Design Course
Botsociety · Jul 2021
Awards
UK User Experience of the Year (Canon EMEA)
Nov 2022 · Issued by UK eCommerce Awards
Education
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interaction Design
Ewha Womans University. Seoul, South Korea
Graduated as the first international student ever studying a design major.