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0
NIKKI KIPPLE
Product Designer & Developer
San Francisco, CA • hello@nikkikipple.com • linkedin.com/in/nikkikipple
✦ Summary
Multidisciplinary designer with a passion for bridging the gap between design and engineering. Expert in building intuitive user experiences, design systems, and creative web applications that combine aesthetic excellence with technical precision.
✦ Experience
Founder & Creative Director | Kipple Digital | 2021 - Present
- Launched a digital agency focused on solving complex problems through design and technology
- Built and led agile teams to transform ideas into impactful digital experiences
- Specialized in SEO, web design, and brand systems for diverse clients
Senior Product Designer | Tech Corp Inc. | 2019 - 2021
- Led the redesign of core mobile applications, increasing user retention by 35%
- Established a comprehensive design system used across multiple product lines
- Collaborated closely with engineering teams to implement complex animations and interactions
Instructional Designer | Education First | 2017 - 2019
- Developed curriculum based on evolving industry trends and learning science
- Shipped a Learning Management System (LMS) connecting 5,000+ students with faculty
✦ Skills
- Design: Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, Motion Graphics, Design Systems, User Research, Prototyping
- Development: HTML/CSS, React, TypeScript, JavaScript, Creative Coding, Responsive Design
- Leadership: Agile Methodologies, Mentorship, Team Building, Cross-functional Collaboration
✦ Education
Bachelor of Arts in Design Media Arts | University of California
Microsoft(R) Windows 95
(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1995.
C:\WINDOWS>
(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1995.
C:\WINDOWS>
C:\WINDOWS>
Sign My Guestbook!
WebMaster: Thanks for visiting! 1995-08-24
Player X's Turn
🃏 Solitaire
Coming Soon!
Classic Klondike Solitaire will be available here.
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ABOUT_ME.TXT ║
║ Last Modified: 2024 ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
👋 HI, I'M NIKKI KIPPLE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Product Designer & Developer
📍 San Francisco, CA
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📋 THE TL;DR
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I build design systems, lead product design teams, and occasionally
convince developers that yes, those 2 pixels DO matter.
I'm a builder who bridges design and code - I prototype in Figma
AND build it in React. No handoff drama, just solutions that work.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🛠️ WHAT I DO
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✓ Design Systems that actually get used
(Not just pretty Figma files - real, living systems)
✓ Product Design with a technical edge
(I speak fluent React, TypeScript, and developer empathy)
✓ Creative Direction for brands
(That need more than templates and generic solutions)
✓ Instructional Design
(Making complex things learnable and accessible)
✓ Team Leadership
(Building design teams that ship quality work)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💼 CURRENTLY
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
→ Running Kipple Digital (my design agency)
→ Building design systems that don't make developers cry
→ Teaching design at Academy of Art University
→ Probably overthinking a color palette somewhere
→ Building tools that help designers grow
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🎯 MY APPROACH
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I believe in:
• Building solutions, not just designs
• Systems thinking over one-off fixes
• Clear communication (thanks, instructional design background!)
• Code that designers can understand
• Design that developers can build
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🎮 WHY THIS LOOKS LIKE WINDOWS 95
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Because nostalgia is fun, and I wanted a playground to experiment
with creative web development. Plus, who doesn't love a good retro
aesthetic?
This entire portfolio is a working Windows 95 simulator - complete
with games, apps, and easter eggs. Yes, the games actually work.
No, I don't have time to play them (but you should try them!).
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✨ FUN FACTS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
→ I bridge design and engineering seamlessly
→ My instructional design background = obsession with clarity
→ I can prototype AND code (rare combo, apparently)
→ This portfolio is built with TypeScript, Vite, and ✨magic✨
→ I once spent 3 hours debating 2px of spacing (worth it)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🤝 WANT TO WORK TOGETHER?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📧 Email: hello@nikkikipple.com
💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nikkikipple
🌐 Website: nikkikipple.com
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💡 PRO TIP
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Explore the desktop - there are easter eggs hidden everywhere!
Try clicking on things, opening apps, and see what you discover.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Product Designer & Developer
📍 San Francisco, CA
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📋 THE TL;DR
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I build design systems, lead product design teams, and occasionally
convince developers that yes, those 2 pixels DO matter.
I'm a builder who bridges design and code - I prototype in Figma
AND build it in React. No handoff drama, just solutions that work.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🛠️ WHAT I DO
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✓ Design Systems that actually get used
(Not just pretty Figma files - real, living systems)
✓ Product Design with a technical edge
(I speak fluent React, TypeScript, and developer empathy)
✓ Creative Direction for brands
(That need more than templates and generic solutions)
✓ Instructional Design
(Making complex things learnable and accessible)
✓ Team Leadership
(Building design teams that ship quality work)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💼 CURRENTLY
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
→ Running Kipple Digital (my design agency)
→ Building design systems that don't make developers cry
→ Teaching design at Academy of Art University
→ Probably overthinking a color palette somewhere
→ Building tools that help designers grow
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🎯 MY APPROACH
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I believe in:
• Building solutions, not just designs
• Systems thinking over one-off fixes
• Clear communication (thanks, instructional design background!)
• Code that designers can understand
• Design that developers can build
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🎮 WHY THIS LOOKS LIKE WINDOWS 95
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Because nostalgia is fun, and I wanted a playground to experiment
with creative web development. Plus, who doesn't love a good retro
aesthetic?
This entire portfolio is a working Windows 95 simulator - complete
with games, apps, and easter eggs. Yes, the games actually work.
No, I don't have time to play them (but you should try them!).
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✨ FUN FACTS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
→ I bridge design and engineering seamlessly
→ My instructional design background = obsession with clarity
→ I can prototype AND code (rare combo, apparently)
→ This portfolio is built with TypeScript, Vite, and ✨magic✨
→ I once spent 3 hours debating 2px of spacing (worth it)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🤝 WANT TO WORK TOGETHER?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📧 Email: hello@nikkikipple.com
💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nikkikipple
🌐 Website: nikkikipple.com
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💡 PRO TIP
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Explore the desktop - there are easter eggs hidden everywhere!
Try clicking on things, opening apps, and see what you discover.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CONTACT INFORMATION
I'm always open to new opportunities and collaborations.
Email: hello@nikkikipple.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nikkikipple
Website: nikkikipple.com
Feel free to reach out via the guestbook as well!
🚩 10
⏱️ 0
Let's play! Click a square to start.
Upload Image
Presets
Win98
8px • 4 levels
Avatar
6px • 5 levels
Vaporwave
10px • 4 levels
Mono
6px • 3 levels
Pixel Settings
8 px
4 levels per channel
Color Palette
Grid & Display
0.35
Ready
—
🔊
The Crit
How I'm solving the design feedback problem one critique at a time
Quick Facts
Role
Product Designer & Founder
Timeline
2024 - Present
Status
Live & Iterating
Overview
An AI-powered design critique platform helping designers improve their craft through clear, educational, and actionable feedback. Built by a design professor who teaches the exact people she's serving.
The Problem
Designers today are more isolated than ever — and AI isn't solving the right problem.
Design education is broken. Not the fundamentals—those are solid. But the delivery? The access? The post-graduation support? Completely fractured.
Pre-2020: Design students got in-person critiques, studio culture, peer feedback
Post-Pandemic: Online classes, isolated learning, professors managing 200+ students via Zoom
The paradox: More people are designing than ever, but fewer people know how to design well. The tools got democratized, but the education didn't.
Research
The Reddit Rabbit Hole
I spent months digging through design communities—2.8M members on r/graphic_design, 109K on r/design_critiques, all desperately asking for feedback.
What I saw again and again:
- "Please be harsh" → They want real critique, not validation
- "I'm self-taught" → No formal training in critique
- "My boss said it needs work but won't say what"
- "I've been staring at this for hours"
The insight: AI democratized the tools, but it actually made expertise more valuable, not less.
The Solution
An AI-powered mentor that teaches design principles, not just fixes designs
I'm building The Crit as a learning partner, not a generic feedback bot. Every critique explains why design decisions work, not just what to change.
Why I'm Uniquely Positioned
- 15 years teaching critique — I know what actually helps
- Academic + industry fluency — I bridge theory and practice
- AI early adopter — testing GPT for feedback since 2020
- I teach the exact people I'm building for — every single day
"I'm not building a 'make my design better' button — I'm building a design education platform that happens to use AI."
How It Works
Round 1: Relevance AI + Make.com
Fast prototyping, but hit credit limits and couldn't customize feedback quality.
Round 2: n8n + Claude (Current)
More control over AI prompting. Better feedback consistency. Worth the technical overhead.
The Multi-Agent System
Instead of one AI trying to do everything, I built a multi-agent system orchestrated through n8n. Each agent specializes in one dimension of critique:
Visual Design: Layout, typography, color theory
UX/UI: Usability, navigation, interaction patterns
Brand Consistency: Voice, identity, cohesion
Accessibility: WCAG compliance, inclusive design
Copywriting: Microcopy, messaging, clarity
They collaborate to produce one unified Crit Sheet that's comprehensive without being overwhelming.
Results So Far
8.5/10
User Satisfaction
<24h
Response Time
12+
Countries Served
High
Repeat Usage
What's Next
Building the design education platform I wish existed when I started
- Launch newsletter and resource library
- Build custom frontend (because designers care about UX)
- Scale into full design education platform
The ultimate goal: Democratize access to quality design education. Make good critique available to every designer, regardless of their educational background, location, or budget.
Join the Journey
Building in public, iterating based on real feedback, and helping designers improve one critique at a time.
Daily Ticker
A daily market brief that saves busy investors 25 minutes every morning
IMAGE: Landing Page Hero
Screenshot of dailyticker.co homepage with animated ticker and email signup
Quick Facts
Role
End-to-End Product Strategy, UX, System Design, Implementation
Stack
Next.js 14, TypeScript, Tailwind, Supabase, Stripe, Polygon.io, Alpha Vantage, Finnhub
Business Model
Freemium newsletter, $96/year premium tier
Overview
Daily Ticker delivers 1-3 curated stock picks at 8 AM EST with just enough context, risk, and education to make a decision in 5 minutes instead of 30-60. Built for busy, intermediate investors who want to stay in the market without doom-scrolling financial news.
The Problem
Time-poor investors waste hours and still don't know what to do
I kept seeing the same pattern with people around me: they had $10-250k portfolios and real interest in the market, but either doom-scrolled CNBC, Reddit, and Twitter and still felt unsure—or gave up entirely and left money sitting idle.
IMAGE: User Personas
Journey map or persona cards showing "Busy Builder Brad" and "Learning Lisa" with their goals and constraints
"I want to be in the market, but I have a full-time job. I don't have time to read 5 articles and 3 threads just to decide if I should hold NVDA today."
Professional traders have a 30-minute morning ritual: economic calendar → indices → charts → trading plan. I realized if I could compress that into a 5-minute daily brief and prove it works, I'd have a strong product.
Designing the Product
A 14-field stock pick designed around real trading decisions
I designed the daily brief format first, then built the system around it. Every pick follows a fixed schema validated against what both pros and beginners actually use:
What: Ticker, company name, sector
Now: Current price, momentum context
Why: Summary, "why this matters" context
Risk: Risk level, caution notes
Execution: Entry zone, stop-loss/profit targets, allocation %
Education: Mini "learning moment" explaining a key concept
IMAGE: Annotated Email Brief
Screenshot of a single pick with callouts on "Summary", "Momentum", "Caution Notes", "Mini Learning Moment"
The daily experience: Email lands at 7:59 AM. User skims 3 picks in 5 minutes. Sees what the stock is, why it's moving, high-level risk, and what to watch.
The First Version
A beautiful interface with a dangerous shortcut
I shipped the classic "thin slice": Next.js landing page with animated ticker, email capture flow, and daily briefs. But underneath, I took a risky shortcut—GPT-4 simulating current prices, news, and sentiment based only on its January 2025 training data.
What this meant:
- No guaranteed real-time prices
- No source attribution or timestamps
- No validation layer checking hallucinations
- Plausible-sounding numbers that couldn't be independently verified
The realization: For a product about people's money, simulated data isn't a cute bug—it's a trust deal-breaker. This triggered a complete data architecture redesign.
Data Architecture Redesign
Real-time data first. AI reasoning second.
Time: 8-16 hours to go from simulated to real data
Budget: Max $50/month in API costs
Safety: No breaking changes to existing automations
UX: Must still feel fast and human, not like a CSV dump
I rebuilt the entire pipeline around a new principle: multiple independent data sources feeding a validation layer, which then feeds GPT-4 as a reasoning engine—not a data source.
IMAGE: Architecture Diagram
Data Sources (Alpha Vantage, Finnhub, Polygon) → Aggregator & Validator → GPT-4 Analysis → Post-AI Checks → Email + Archive
The New Pipeline
1. Stock Discovery: Polygon.io for momentum + Finnhub social sentiment to prioritize what Reddit/Twitter is watching
2. Real-Time Data: Alpha Vantage (quotes, fundamentals, news) + Finnhub (social sentiment) + Polygon (price cross-checks)
3. Validation Layer: Flag if sources disagree on price >5%, sanity-check fundamentals, require recent news for high confidence
4. Guardrailed AI: GPT-4 sees only verified, timestamped data with explicit instructions not to invent anything
5. Post-AI Validation: Compare AI output back to actual prices, adjust confidence scores, inject mandatory source citations
This transformed Daily Ticker from a good-looking demo into something I'd be comfortable using with my own money.
Designing the Business
Freemium from day one—no bait-and-switch
Competitors charge $199-$299/year for similar or less actionable information. I chose $96/year ($8/month annual, $10 monthly) as a sweet spot: affordable for intermediate investors, high enough to support a real business.
The initial instinct was to make almost everything free to grow quickly. But research showed that 90% free value means no one upgrades. I redesigned the tiers around a clear principle:
Free proves the product is real and useful
Premium provides the tools to trade with conviction
IMAGE: Tier Comparison
Free vs Premium table with checkmarks, locks, and "why this matters" for each premium feature
The 50-50 Split
Free gets: 1-3 picks/day, ticker, sector, basic summary, high-level risk, 7-day archive
Premium gets: 5 picks/day, unblurred confidence scores, precise entry zones, stop-loss/profit targets, allocation %, full caution notes, learning moments, unlimited archive + performance tracking
Target: 25,000 subscribers, 8-10% conversion, $240-300k ARR in 12 months.
Messaging & UX Polish
I ran a systematic messaging audit across the site:
- Fixed inconsistent language (e.g., "3 picks" vs "1-3 picks")
- Strengthened CTAs: "Join the Brief" became "Get Free Daily Picks"
- Reframed archive as "Track Our Performance" to emphasize accountability
- Added ROI framing: calculator showing how one 10% gain or avoided 15% loss pays for subscription many times over
IMAGE: Pricing Page with ROI Calculator
Screenshot showing ROI calculator and how value ties to outcomes
The data architecture, value prop, and monetization story all reinforced a single narrative: "We save you time, help you avoid dumb mistakes, and give you the data you need to act with confidence."
Proving It Works
Performance dashboard to build trust
The final pillar: tracking each pick's entry, exit, holding period, and return. Comparing performance vs S&P 500 benchmark. Surfacing win rate, average return, and sector breakdowns on a /performance page.
IMAGE: Performance Dashboard Mock
Hero section with big win rate number, average return, and vs S&P 500 comparison
This serves three audiences:
- Skeptical visitors: "Show me the results"
- Free users considering upgrade: "Is this worth $96/year?"
- Premium users deciding to stick around: "Am I getting value?"
What Changed
Data Integrity
All metrics sourced from real-time APIs with explicit attribution. Price discrepancies flagged and handled gracefully.
User Trust
Emails confidently state: "Data sourced from Alpha Vantage, Finnhub, and Polygon.io. Last updated at 8:00am EST."
Business Leverage
Architecture supports performance dashboard for higher free-to-premium conversion and homepage trust signals.
Cost Efficiency
Pipeline stays within free/low-cost API tiers under $50/month.
What This Shows About My Process
- Start with the user's day, not the technology: Designed around the 5-minute morning ritual before touching APIs
- Validate with research: Grounded each field, feature, and price point against market research and competitors
- Prototype and then harden: Accepted a scrappy first version to test the experience, then invested in robust architecture
- Design the business into the product: Monetization baked into how the system generates and stores emails, not bolted on as banners
- Treat copy and UX as first-class citizens: Messaging, CTAs, and layout systematically audited and iterated
Check It Out
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