UX Magazine
Contributing Writer: Human Behavior & AI
Writing on the behavioral insights of how humans interact with AI in products. Published externally, not just internally; covering trust, friction and adoption risks.
Anina
Your product isn't getting adopted? It's a human problem. I help founders diagnose and fix it.
Lima, Peru (-05:00 UTC) Afrikaans, Englishfrom Cape Town, South Africa
Usually responds in 1 day
Free
Price per hour
15 min30 min
Time Blocks Available
4.99
43 reviews / 57 sessions
Thu
15
Next availability
Anina is really amazing, definitely an expert in funnel optimization and byer psychology. We will look to work with her in the future :)
Lazar Jovanovic
Anina was incredible to chat with. She brought a perfect balance of empathy, product sense, and real-world parenting insight. Her feedback on friction, emotional UX, and contextual design was sharp and full of practical nuance. She helped me see the importance of timing, cognitive load, and how small tweaks in flow can dramatically increase conversion and trust. The discussion felt collaborative and deep, not just about UX but about human behavior. I left the call feeling inspired, clear, and grateful for her perspective. Highly recommend Anina for product strategy, user psychology, and experience design mentorship.
Foti Panagiotakopoulos
Anina came prepared, she had already reviewed our product before the call and went straight into substance. In 30 minutes she reframed how I think about our onboarding flow. Her sharpest point was the shift from showing value to letting the user experience it, which is now shaping our redesign. She reviewed our actual screens live, gave concrete feedback, and offered a follow-up to review the new concepts. Exactly what a mentor session should be. Highly recommend her for anyone working on onboarding, activation, or conversion.
Leon Farasati
Bio
Your product isn't getting the traction you expected, and you're not sure why. Most of the time it's not the idea. It's how humans actually experience it. I help founders get unstuck by diagnosing the human side of what's not working: — Why users drop off or don't come back — Why a feature exists but nobody uses it — Why onboarding feels right but conversion is low — Why the product works but trust isn't building Practical, direct, no fluff. We'll leave the session with clarity and a clear next step.
Expertise
Design / UX
Translating research insights into conceptual ideas that's both usable, innovative with small budget and tight deadlines is a challenge for most solo UI/UX designer in startups. I coach and mentor many designers embarking to be a startup designer. If you are looking for talent I am happy to assist you in this process.
Idea validation
Startups move fast and idea validation done poorly leads to weak solutions and essentially becoming costly (think about all the expenses in marketing and developing a product that no one needs)
Product launches
Building your first MVP is a balance between dreaming for the beyond and focusing on what right NOW will be the most valuable for your business and customers.
Remote work
I'm one of those lucky few that worked remotely way back before it was the "healthy" thing to do. I've worked across multiple timezones living in multiple countries around the world working with clients across the globe. It made me somewhat obsessed with life design and productivity - happy to share!
User research
Understanding why users behave the way they do is at the core of any adoption problem. I combine qualitative and quantitative methods to uncover not just what users do, but why they do it. Particularly useful when a product is built but behavior isn't matching expectations.
Toolkit
Asana
Asana is the closets affordable tool you will get to Jira. I've used this for managing my remote clients and project all over the world to stay on track with progress and deadlines.
Basecamp
I've adapted to any communication and management tool startup founders can afford and this is one of those light weight tools that helps async teams align coming with a low price. Ideal for early stage startup founders and small teams.
Google Analytics
I've measured various data points eg. bounce rate, time spent on page, exit rates, demographics, funnels and other insights to make informed decisions. Analytics tells us WHAT is the problem, important to combine with quantitative to also understand the WHY & HOW. I've also completed the google analytics academy certifications.
Hotjar
I've used Hotjar to observe user behaviour through heat maps, video recording and gathered feedback from their survey and feedback tool. Combining quantitative with the qualitative research for optimal insight gathering.
Jira
One of the more complex tools and also more pricey because it can do so much more ask your PM ;) I've frequently work with Jira in more mature and financially stable startups.
Trello
I've worked both professional and personally with Trello an easy and simple to do list type of task management tool. Perfect for early stage startups and beyond as you can also use it for free.
Industries
Software
Understanding the core problem, analyse and align business and customer value for SaaS companies and products making sure needs are met and we are creating solutions for real problems.
Experience
Toptal
Product Experience SpecialistEmbedded as an IC within a team for high profile enterprises to detangle complexities in product design.
Sayari
AI Product Experience StrategistEmbedded in a complex intelligence SaaS platform used for high-stakes decisions, financial crime, sanctions risk, and supply chain intelligence. Researching and applying human behavioral principles to AI product decisions, specifically around trust calibration, cognitive friction, and incremental automation. Working at the intersection of how humans make decisions alongside AI.
FoundHer & InvestHer
Mission leaderConnector between female founders and female investors.
Yara International
Product Experience SpecialistEvaluated legacy agronomy software products for a global enterprise operating across emerging markets. Assessed human behavior and decision-making patterns in complex, high-stakes agricultural workflows, users in contexts where cultural and environmental factors directly shaped how technology was used.
Allora Collective
Product Design CoachCoaching international designers from SoundCloud to Disney, supporting in their roles and career transitions.
Ten Slash One
OwnerBuilding entire product experience from 0 to launch for SaaS Startups.
PowerToFly
Virtual UX Event SpeakerLeading 10+ virtual events on remote work, job and interview preparation.
Newchip Accelerator
Startup MentorBuilding the future with tech startup founders helping with problem discovery (defining problem), validation (user needs) and implementing behavioural design frameworks to define MVP's.
Remble
UX Specialist (Mental Health)Involved from strategising, scoping, UX problem solving and translating into UI deliverables. Focusing on understanding people who wants to improve their mental well-being. Collaborating with professionals in the field through discovery and ideation workshops. I've combined the creative problem solving process to better define the users and applying behavioural frameworks to drive ideas focused to their behaviours. https://www.remble.com
CareerFoundry
UX Design MentorUX mentor to multiple students in Europe and the USA enrolled in the UX program for intro to UX and UX immersion courses. I’ve supported students from various stages into UX (Early career, transitioning and/or upskilling).
Majid Al Futtaim
UX Lead (Self-service Kiosk)Part of the Ski Dubai project was launching a self-service kiosk at the Mall of Emirates and newly build Abu Dhabi snow park. With prior knowledge leading the UX web experience I've closely aligned with the Head of Experience to scope, define requirements and do sprint planning. I've conducted research to understand how to design ergonomically experiences following industry standards of how people use self-service kiosks. Combining the research, physical kiosk dimensions and human biology I've identified "comfortable touch areas" within where the experience can take place. Insights from the explorative phase led to more refinement of the experience, identifying guidelines and principles for the design team. While working on both MVP and post MVP journeys it was vital to have clarity on how both those experiences will scale. I've build an IA (Information Architecture) and user flows for two key journeys, purchasing tickets and printing tickets. Conceptualising these journeys through wireframes and flows, I've worked closely with the UI lead and iterating as testing occurred in parallel.
Perflo - Reinventing Performance Management
Head of DesignI honed in on both my leadership and research skills at Perflo which launched a real time software to measure performance better. I conducted research and interviews that led to implementing social psychology principles to increase productivity in project-based teams. I’ve also managed the design team supported with frequent 1-1's, design reviews and facilitated workshops.
Majid Al Futtaim
UX Lead (Web)I had the opportunity to lead the UX outcomes of their Ski Dubai project part of the international holding company from the UAE. In this role I could apply my skills and experiences to uncover the problems, define the experiences, creatively solve problems and conceptualising through wire framing while working in parallel with the UI lead, Creative Director and Product Manager. As this was a high pressure and tight deadline project it led to an immersive collaboration in order to kick off successfully I approached this project to work closely with head of experience strategy and content strategy. This opened the field to understand the main priorities, business direction and user goals. I've developed user persona's from existing research insights, defined jobs to be done for each audience group, researched benchmarks to inform UX principles, identified most complex experience to create user flows. These activities supported the rational through presenting how we solved these key user journeys and met business goals. As the lead for UX I’ve presented and collaboratively worked with local and international cross functional teams in content, marketing, strategy, product, business, design and development.
Institute of Product Leadership
UX Research InstructorLecturing the User Research module within the UX international certification I’ve implemented a pedagogy learning approach to convey principles such as research practices, methodologies, testing, analyzing and synthesizing.
RookieUp
UX Design MentorProject based mentorship at Interaction Design Foundation I’ve supported students through live video calls, written feedback, and video recordings.
Institute of Product Leadership
UX Product Managment InstructorAs an UX instructor I’ve introduced the relationship and overlap between these two disciplines to illustrate how to work best together and hosted an exclusive 3 hour masterclass on this topic.
timetoreply
UX SpecialistI've had the opportunity to increase the conversion rate and increase retention through simplifying the complexity of their onboarding journey and analytical dashboard. By implementing an experience map I identified the main barriers and optimising the priority areas where users lost interest.
Institute of Product Leadership
UX Management and Leadership InstructorWith a pedagogy teaching approach I’ve developed course materials, assignments, presentations and recorded lectures.
Mobile Guardian
User Experience Design Specialist - EdTechI've worked in true agile fashion at Mobile Guardian. Working iteratively I've identified the priorities on how to improve the onboarding experience and CMS for the parent beta product. Running a full usability review of the entire parent experience. I've created a usability feedback report measuring strengths, problems, severity, and best practices. Leading the design for the entire parent CMS re-design. I've worked closely with the product team to ideate and sketch solutions. I've implemented a process where the designs go through reviews with the team before final designs.
Mobile Guardian
User Experience Consultant - EdTechI had the opportunity to work on a truly technical educational platform for schools in the USA, Singapore, Europe and UAE. Collaboration with design, engineering, marketing, CEO and oversight from Head of Product we simplified the key experience areas. After an extensive analysis I've improve the onboarding experience for the school product. I've conducted a usability analysis of the entire onboarding process and mapped these phases into an experience map. Through measuring the emotional experiences, pain points & opportunities we were able to identify the main priorities. That led to research to help us better understand the technical and non-technical users. Combining results from survey's to existing/ trial users and insights from quantitative data using Hotjar we developed evidence based user persona's of our audiences to drive future decisions. Additionally I've conceptualised solutions through wire framing and leading the UI design team. To strive for sustainability I've identified the design principles and developed the foundation of their design system using design tokens