art school graduate, psychology student, and a big pasta lover

Hi there! I’m Sabina, a product designer finishing a BPsych at the University of Hong Kong in '27. I’m from Kazakhstan, currently based in Hong Kong, and recently came back from an exchange sem in the UK (Uni of Edinbrugh). As a designer, I'm interested in user experience, AI in design, and social activism.

Back in KZ, I studied in a STEM and Art Schools at the same time. Then, in HKU, I started off as a BASc Design+ student and then transferred to BPsych. Outside of work and school, I love painting, cooking, and watching Netflix. You can find my creative dump in the for fun page :)

Design for the person having the worst day

At Kin the user is often someone with six prescriptions and unsteady hands, at 7am, before coffee. If the flow holds for them, it holds for everyone else too.

It is better done than perfect

I used to polish one screen while the flow underneath stayed broken. Now I build the simplest honest version, test it, and earn the details afterwards.

Other people do think differently

Buttons that were obvious to me were invisible to my testers. Studying psychology taught me the theory; testing taught me how wrong I am in practice.

Architecture, then a kit, then pixels

At Kin I rebuilt the app’s structure before touching a single screen, then a UI kit, then the five features. It’s the only way a very small design team ships.