Magdalena Wielopolski

Magdalena is a product designer based in Los Angeles, CA. With 12+ years working in the digital design industry, she specializes in solving user problems through easy-to-use, accessible, delightful experiences. Over the course of her career spanning in-house and agency roles, she has worked with a variety of clients including DIRECTV, Vistaprint, Samsung, American Express, NYU, and ALDO. Outside of her accomplishments in the world of design, she is a coach, an ADPList mentor, basketball player, and co-founder of Bird, a digital publication and podcast showcasing the stories of exceptional women around the world.

Hi Magdalena! Tell us about yourself - how did you get to where you are today and when did you first become interested in design?

Growing up, I was always drawing in my free time. I would paint and do stencil art as well. Then I started dabbling on the computer, designing gig posters for friends or just experimenting in Photoshop. I didn’t realize what I was doing was actually a thing; graphic design.

I finished my degree with a major in multimedia production and I was looking for a summer job. I came across a job listing in the paper (yes, the physical newspaper) for a junior graphic design position. I read the description and thought, “This is a job? This is what I do in my spare time.” I went in for the interview with a “portfolio” (a collection of printouts of my designs and photography) and the guy interviewing me said, “Well, you clearly have no idea what you’re doing but how about you come in for some work experience?” 

With some work experience under my belt, I moved to London and got a job at a publishing company. Most of the work was pretty uninspiring, but I had a lot of freedom to get creative. From there, I moved to Montreal and worked at a small design studio, Dynamo. This changed everything for me. I was designing websites and apps for the first time. Working on a canvas that wasn’t fixed like print blew my mind. Since then, I’ve worked at some of the best agencies on the planet, in government, for mental health platforms, and now I’m at Hover, a construction and home renovation platform.

Designer Magdalena Wielopolski

“When you design for a living you are always designing for someone else. It’s not about you.

It’s important to drop the ego and play your role in making the work as successful as it can be. Be someone people want to be around.”

How would you describe your aesthetic and how has your design style changed over time?

I tend to lean more minimal, inspired by designers like Massimo Vignelli and Wim Crouwel. Over the years, accessibility has become more at the forefront of my work, so the challenge now is finding that balance between minimalism and accessibility.

Are there particular themes you like to explore through your work?

Accessibility and empathy. I’m always curious to understand how people coming to the platform are not only experiencing the product but experiencing life as well. What’s the environment like that they’re accessing it from? What were they doing before? After? Is English their second language? What if they’re color blind? All of these things are so interesting and impact someone’s experience in numerous ways. I want to help them have a positive experience.

You’re currently the Lead Product Designer at Hover - what’s a day on the job like for you? How do you work with your team and across the organization?

I lead design across three teams - Construction (supporting construction professionals, Growth (focusing on acquisition and retention across products), and Insurance (inspectors and homeowners). It’s fast-paced and there’s a lot of context switching.

Today, for example, I prepared a research plan and interview guide for some upcoming usability testing I will be conducting, explored solutions for a responsive map component, made UX and UI improvements for an insurance claims flow that we are relaunching, connected with one of the designers I oversee to review work and discuss how we can better collaborate with product managers and engineers, and had a QA session with a lead engineer to improve our email experience. I’m also working on some vision work that will guide our roadmap for the next 6-12 months.

Over the course of your career, you have worked with a variety of clients  - how do you approach creative collaboration with client partners?

It’s all about relationships. Building rapport with clients is critical in the success of any project. I approach my client relationships similar to how I approach user experience - I try to understand where they’re coming from. What pressures are they under? What are they trying to achieve? What gets them excited?

At the end of the day, we have the same goal. It shouldn’t feel like “us” vs “them.” It should feel like a team. I have become friends with many of my clients and maintained those relationships long after the work is done. This is how I measure success.

Can you tell us about your accessibility work? How do you approach accessibility in your design practice? 

Accessibility has been an incredible journey, and I’ve barely grazed the topic. I was first introduced to accessibility while working at Transport for London (TfL). The team was doing some great user research around using public transport (physically and digitally) with a variety of impairments. While there I was fortunate enough to travel the tube system with a visually impaired woman. The experience was humbling and changed how I saw my role as a product designer.

After TfL I worked at an online mental health and wellbeing platform, Kooth. I partnered closely with a lead engineer, JF Hector, who was driving change around accessibility on our platforms. This is where I really started to get into the weeds, using WCAG and gov.uk as guides for what we need to consider when designing digital experiences. JF and I collaborated on the talk “Understanding accessibility makes you a better developer / designer / leader.”

Since then, accessibility has been a rollercoaster and I’m trying to be the best advocate I can be in any work I’m involved in, with varying success. It really is something that has to be embedded in the ethos of an organization to be truly successful. I will continue pushing for accessibility to be at the core of all digital experiences.

You also run Bird - a platform you created with Stephanie Geddes that features interviews with inspiring women around the world. What was the catalyst that led you to create Bird? What do you hope people walk away with after listening to episodes of your podcast?

Bird was born out of creative frustration. I was working with some uninspiring clients at the time and Steph was trying to build her photography portfolio. We were also expats living in New York City and dying to learn what brought other women to the big smoke (and also to see inside their apartments, a rarity for NYC).

Bird is 10 years old now, we’ve done over 140 writtens interviews and over 30 podcast episodes. I’ve spoken to neurosurgeons, war journalists, graffiti artists, forensic scientists, dancers, and writers, to name a few. What keeps me inspired and keeps me doing Bird is the opportunity to connect with women about deeply personal experiences, and to share my own, in the hope that we can end the interview as better people than when we started. I hope that’s what people take away from Bird.

What’s your philosophy on the importance of having personal projects in addition to your daily work?

I think it’s important to immerse yourself in something you love, even if it’s just for a moment. Something that has no expectations of you or of the outcome. It can be something that’s just for you or something that you share with the world, but it’s something that makes you feel like you’re alive. 

What’s been one of the biggest career lessons you've learned so far?

Being laid off. The first time I was laid off I was shocked to realize that I was just a number. That I didn’t mean as much to “them” as they did to me. The job had played a big role in my life, it had gotten me to New York, a life-long dream of mine, and ultimately to LA. It played a role in my identity. Being laid off changed my relationship to work, but in a good way. It helped me realize that, like everything in life, jobs are temporary and we have the autonomy to make the most of them and not the other way around.

Where do you find creative inspiration? Do you have any favorite design resources?

Nature is a great source for color and composition inspiration. I love taking photos of plants, flowers, and birds. Portrait photography is also my passion and I love the work of Frank Ockenfels 3. For art, I’m drawn to the colorful work of David Hockney.

What advice would you give to artists and designers just starting out?

When you design for a living you are always designing for someone else. It’s not about you. It’s important to drop the ego and play your role in making the work as successful as it can be. Be someone people want to be around.

When you look to the future, what are you excited about?

Well, I’m currently pregnant. I’m excited about a new way of life, to continue to grow as a person, and to do my best in guiding my daughter towards her future.

Thanks for sharing with us Magdalena! To view more of Magdalena’s work, visit her website.

Magdalena was nominated by Noun Project. All art courtesy of Magdalena Wielopolski.