About Mikdam Qandil
Senior UX/UI designer and product designer based in Amman, Jordan. Here’s the story behind the work.
TL;DR: Mikdam Qandil is a senior UX/UI designer and product designer based in Amman, Jordan, with 5+ years designing digital products for companies across Jordan, the Gulf, and the United States. He specializes in design systems, RTL and Arabic-first UX, and AI product design. Currently Senior UX/UI Designer at PrezLab. Bilingual in Arabic and English.
Honestly, my path into design wasn’t a pivot. It was there from the start.
I have a software engineering degree, but even at university I was the person redesigning the project’s interface while everyone else argued about the database. After graduating in 2022, the pattern continued: mobile apps at Open Sky, AI products at Kudzu AI, a full design system rebuild for Truckin Central in the US, and now leading design at PrezLab on a brand compliance tool for PowerPoint.
Five years in, the work splits into two things I care about: products that feel obvious to use, and design systems that let teams ship without breaking things. The engineering background is what makes both possible. I design things developers can actually build.
Here’s what most global design teams get wrong about Arabic: they think it’s translation. It’s not, and it’s the core of what I do. I’m a native speaker who designs Arabic-first products, not Arabic-translated ones.
I wrote up the full picture of what that means, from bidirectional text to dialect choices, on my Arabic UX expert
How I work
- Systems, not screens. A pretty mockup that can’t scale is a liability. I build design systems with tokens, variables, and documented components so screen 200 is as consistent as screen 2.
- Developer-friendly by default. Software engineering degree means my handoffs come with logic already considered. Fewer “wait, what happens if…” messages.
- Bilingual from day one. Arabic and English designed natively in parallel, never one translated from the other.
- Direct. You work with me. Questions get answered by the person who made the design decision.
Ways to work together
Freelance work runs as fixed-scope sprints, so you know the timeline and deliverable before we start:
- Screen Sprint — a focused batch of screens designed, polished, and handed off fast. Good for teams that need momentum, not a months-long engagement.
- Product Design Sprint — a full feature or flow from research to high-fidelity prototype.
- Design Foundation — the design system starter kit: tokens, components, and documentation your team builds on.
For full-time senior roles across the Gulf or remote, reach out at info@mikdam.com.
Mikdam Qandil is a senior UX/UI designer and product designer based in Amman, Jordan, with 5+ years of experience designing digital products, design systems, and AI product interfaces for companies in Jordan, the Gulf, and the United States.
Amman, Jordan. He works with companies in Jordan, remotely with teams in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the wider GCC, and has worked remotely with US-based companies.
UX/UI design, product design, design systems (Figma variables and tokens), RTL and Arabic-first UX, AI product design, and design-to-development handoff. He holds a software engineering degree, which makes collaboration with development teams faster.
Native Arabic RTL expertise combined with a software engineering background. He designs Arabic-first products rather than translated ones, and delivers designs developers can build without back-and-forth.
Yes. Mikdam is a native Arabic speaker specializing in Arabic-first and RTL product design, including bidirectional interfaces, Arabic typography, and bilingual design systems. Read more on his Arabic UX expert page
Yes. Freelance work runs as fixed-scope design sprints: Screen Sprint, Product Design Sprint, and Design Foundation. Contact info@mikdam.com to scope a project.
Figma (advanced: variables, tokens, design systems), Adobe Creative Suite, and AI-assisted design workflows.