Supercharge Designer Spotlight – Petra Smolčić

Supercharge Designer Spotlight:
Inès Mir

Welcome to this edition of Supercharge Designer Spotlight, where we explore the stories of extraordinary designers who are redefining the industry.

Today, we’re featuring Inès Mir, whose journey began by studying economics and management at a university. Her passion for creativity and problem-solving paved the way for a successful career in UX/UI design. From freelancing as a teenager to becoming a principal product designer, Inès has navigated the evolving design landscape with adaptability and insight.

Read on as we explore Inès’ journey, key learnings, and visionary design approach.

What made you interested in design in general? What drew you to UX/UI design particularly?

In my high school, I learned about the Bauhaus and VKHUTEMAS. And it felt like a thunderstrike. I was awed by their creativity and freedom. At the same time, the fine art I was learning in my local art school disappointed me cuz I saw little sense in just doing oil and pencil drawings.

So the fact that the Bauhaus students also produced actual furniture and interior pieces felt like something that is for me. It’s practical yet artistic.

I soon learned that Bauhaus school ceased to exist long before I was born 🙂 And that modern designers specialise way more in a certain topic than 20th-century designers.

And I set myself to study graphic design.

However, my family had a different plan for my life, and I went to study economics and management at a university.

At university, I had to sustain my lifestyle in a big city, but nobody would hire an 18-year-old to be a manager in business. So I started freelancing. I found out that my skills in graphic design were too low, but 15 years ago, everyone needed a website. Yet mature graphic designers disregarded those requests as being too small and low-pay. Which was the advantage to me.

Eventually, I realised my dream and learned graphic design when I was 22, but I was at that point too successful in UX/UI, having 4 years of experience and being in a senior position, so I found out I liked UX/UI design way more 🙂

Loan calculator app for patients, design by Joelle Phua

Inès in a work meeting

What was the most significant or memorable project of your career so far? Why did you pick that one?

My first-ever product MVP release.

For a long time in my career I worked in agencies doing primarily marketing design (landing pages, funnels, media blogs). There, we followed the design thinking, too, but we never quite tested our designs and never failed in launching them. Later, I understood that in marketing, it’s impossible to fail in design because the content is king. Not design. (Look at the Richard Branson’s websites and Clickfunnels, they are ugly, but they work)

When I first joined a product company, I was set to work on a small MVP project. I was an ad-managing app for social media influencers.

The team did a fantastic and outstanding job. We went above and beyond with research and branding, and everything.

Yet the app failed crucially.

It failed not because of our design, but because the market didn’t need it.

This is where I learnt that design is actually tied to business way more than I thought. And my education in economics and management suddenly made a lot more sense.

The redesigned merchant portal

Inès’ case study on airport commute

How would you describe your approach to design overall? What principles guide your work the most?

Since I am working as a principal product designer now, my approach has drastically changed over the years.

I now pay way more attention to the business and UX part of the design process than to UI.

Because now we can set an AI model to generate the UI, and that trend will only grow. But business is not easy. If it were easy, everyone on the planet would be a successful entrepreneur with yachts and Rolex watches (or with millions of changed lives from hunger, whichever you prefer to spend the power the business gives). It’s clearly not the case, and that part of job AI can’t emulate yet. And I believe it never will.

This is what I teach my students as well. Unfortunately, lots of bootcamps give their students projects to work on that don’t have business sense, and in my opinion, that’s why most people struggle with landing a job.

Joelle's design of a dashboard

Inès’ AI forecast planning case study

What skills do you see as indispensable for a modern UX/UI designer?

Coming from what I said above: business acumen.

But there is a caveat in this.

Since we are still not in a situation where UI can be generated by AI on a whim we still need to bring strong UI knowledge to the companies. That’s the short cut to succeed in the job search in 2025-2026.

Yet strategically, one should invest in understanding business more to secure their job spot.

How do you maintain your work-life balance? What activities do you enjoy outside of design/work?

My hobby is creating content for my Youtube and Instagram accounts. That might seem like hard work from the outside, but I just enjoy it and get a lot of energy from this 🙂

Petra's work
Petra's work

What are the biggest changes you expect to see in the design industry over the years? What trends excite you the most?

I believe that because of the AI advancement in UI generation UX designers would have to gravitate towards 2 sides of the design process:

  • They either have to liaise with product managers and understand the business a lot more
  • They might need to learn how to code (it’s actually a lot easier than it used to be) and shorten the time between the generated design and its release in code.

I think both parts are way more fun and meaningful than just drawing yet another Home icon for yet another project.

Joelle's design of a dashboard

What advice would you give to aspiring designers?

I’d say it’s a unique moment where old ways (perfecting UI) are still working, giving one a shortcut to finding a job. There is a redundancy of materials on the UI, and it’s easy to master.

I would recommend jumping into this path right now without waiting for a year or more because then we don’t know how the industry will change.

The change that is coming, in my view, is exciting (because we will also be more needed by businesses, and they will be paying us more), yet we will have to figure out ways to teach and learn UX design and find a job.

Inès’ unique blend of business acumen, design expertise, and forward-thinking perspective on AI’s role in UI generation makes her a trailblazer in the UX/UI space. Whether creating engaging content or mentoring the next generation of designers, Ines is driven by a love for innovation and problem-solving. Her story reminds us that the crossing of creativity and strategy is where impactful design happens.

We hope Inès’ journey inspires you to embrace change and explore the exciting opportunities shaping the future of design.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more inspiring stories in our Supercharge Designer Spotlight series! Subscribe to our newsletter to never miss an update!

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