Nicole Emilia Fornander
UX/UI Design Consultant
I'm a senior creative with a versatile skillset, a "Swiss Army knife" of design, with my focus today firmly on digital product design and UX/UI. Over 10+ years I've designed user experiences, visual identities and brand concepts across products ranging from corporate platforms to early-stage startups. I care about typography and branding as much as I care about usability, and I let data guide the details without losing the craft.
Beyond the hands-on design work itself, I've led design strategy, mentored designers and worked closely with stakeholders to keep teams aligned and moving in the same direction. AI is part of how I work now, woven into everything from research and discovery to prototyping and content creation, it's become another tool that helps me move faster and think bigger, not a replacement for the thinking itself. Whether I'm part of a cross-functional team or working closely with a founder building something from scratch, I bring the same care to the work.
Experience
UX/UI Design Consultant
Strategic 9, IKEA Ingka Group
Malmö, May 2026 – Present
Working as a Senior UX/UI Consultant at Ingka Group, I design within the Discover team, a focused group of 6 designers embedded in a broader 14-designer web organisation. My work shapes the first moments of the IKEA digital shopping experience across homepage, rooms and ideas, navigation, and inspiration surfaces, reaching millions of customers globally.
The core focus of the role is upper-funnel discovery and conversion: designing adaptive, personalised experiences that move customers from casual browsing to shopping intent. This includes contributing to recommendation systems, dynamic content modules, and content prioritisation logic, with considered judgement about when personalisation serves the customer and when consistency and predictability matter more.
The work is deeply data-informed, with a strong emphasis on experimentation and evidence-based iteration. I form hypotheses, design for A/B testing and experimentation frameworks, and use analytics and customer behaviour data to measure impact and drive continuous improvement. I integrate AI tools into my daily design and research practice, using them to accelerate discovery, surface insights, and support decision-making at pace.
I collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Analytics, Content, and Research to define problems and ship solutions. All design work is built within the Skapa design system, extending and contributing patterns built for scale, flexibility, and consistency across multiple markets and customer contexts.
Senior UX Design Consultant
Strategic 9, Inter IKEA Group
Malmö, Dec 2025 – May 2026
As a UX Consultant at Inter IKEA Group, I led design within a cross-functional product team, shaping an enterprise platform that digitalised complex product activation and commercial briefing workflows for global marketing and communication teams. The work spanned end-to-end journey design across data-rich interfaces, including search and filter functionality, data visualisation, and multi-layered notification systems, all built within the Skapa design system.
Senior Product Designer & Brand Designer
Block Zero
Malmö, February 2025 – December 2025
Worked at a multidisciplinary agency delivering digital product design across telecom, energy, and greentech, leading discovery, UX/UI, and client interactions. Contributed to brand strategy and created generative AI workflows to streamline internal creative and design processes. Clients include: Telus, PluvioFlow.
Lead Designer (UX/UI and Brand)
Levels, venture studio
Stockholm, May 2017 – August 2024
At Levels venture studio in Stockholm, I collaborated with a range of brands and startups, focusing primarily on product design, UX/UI & brand development. Clients include: Nividas, Vogue, Payer, Returpack, Beauty Disrupted, Fidesmo, Afripods.
UX and UI consultant
Fortum – SmartLiving (Levels assignment)
Solna, 2018 – 2020
Working closely with the Fortum in-house design team, my role was to design the UX/UI and data visualisation for the SmartLiving app. Also designed and maintained the Smart Living design system based on the Fortum guidelines.
Product Design Consultant
Balcony8 Agency (project basis)
Dubai, 2016 – 2017
Branding strategy and campaign concepts, digital design and UI/UX design for various local Dubai brands in the retail & food industry.
Leap Recruitment
Dubai, 2016 – 2017
Also included under this period: Leap Recruitment — developed the brand identity and designed the SaaS platform for their digital recruitment service, working closely with a remote team of developers.
Product Designer & Art Director
The Entertainer
Dubai, November 2015 – October 2016
Working in-house at the HQ Dubai office, on the UX and UI of the main product (a 2-for-1 offers app) as well as creating campaigns and design concepts for the promotion of the product and service.
Skills & Tools
Knowledge
- Product design
- UI/UX design
- Brand design
- Wire-framing
- Prototyping
- Style-guide creation & management
- Design systems
- Project management
- User research & testing (quantitative & qualitative)
- User personas
- Brand systems
- Brand and design auditing
- Pitching
- Content creation
- Workshops
- Concept sketches
- Typography
- Print design
- Inclusive design
- Packaging design
- Illustrations
- Mentoring and design leadership
- Art direction
- AI content creation
Tools
- Figma
- Sketch
- Adobe CC
- Webflow
- ChatGPT
- Midjourney
- SendGrid
- Claude
- Cursor
- Jira
- Slack
- Miro
Processes
- Scrum
- Kanban
- Design thinking
- Design sprints
- Double diamond
Education
Diploma, Brand Strategy
Berghs School of Communication, Stockholm — 2021 (part-time)
A course for professionals within the creative industry looking to further their knowledge of brand strategy with a focus on the digital market and products. Taught by Michael Aneto (Chief Design Officer at SAI in Amsterdam). Covered how to develop, focus and execute brand strategies that integrate business, creative and technological perspectives, including brand modelling techniques, tools, and practical applications.
Bachelor of Art, Graphic Design & Communication (Major in Brand Strategy)
Falmouth College of Art (Plymouth University), Falmouth, UK — 2003–2006
Awards
Svenska Designpriset
Nominated
Nividas Eyewear – Grafisk Identitet
Issued by designpriset.se. Nominated for best brand identity, for the brand reposition, logo and identity created for the Swedish eyewear brand, Nividas.
The ShortList App Awards
Winner, App of the Year
The Entertainer
Worked together with the product team on the UI design for the newest upgrade of the app, developing the new visual language, iconography and style guide, including new features such as gamification, a leaderboard, and a virtual currency ("smiles").
“The Entertainer is an app that has been a star performer in so many sectors. Its buy-one-get-one-free model has been a game changer in the market that has been followed by so many others.”
Languages
Swedish
Native
English
Native (lived in the UK from age 12 to 28)
About Me
I'm into illustration and make my own jewellery as an aspiring silversmith, exploring cities and travelling. I love concerts, spending time with family and friends, and running a startup, ellska.se, with my developer partner. I enjoy running and skiing almost as much as I love baking.