User Experience is the pivotal point of my soon to be 25-years-career in the digital design business. Despite a lot has changed since my start as a visual designer, some universal insights stay with me until today. Like the bait has to appeal to the fish, not the angler. Sounds easier than it is for businesses though.
I believe building successful products means being able to orchestrate various business and technological requirements while staying focussed on human needs and goals. This is why I want to be the user's advocate by bringing solid research data to the table, by being the user's voice in design sessions and by finding ways to let the team experience the user's actual joy or pain with a product.
In my opinion, design should be a collective and ongoing learning process in a multidisciplinary team with open minds, open hearts and open communication. Building bridges rather than building silos. These ideas go well with lean and agile teams because they encourage building solutions quickly, testing and refining them with real people in short iterations.
A solid way to guarantee enjoyable products and high standards in usability is to implement the concept of User Centered Design (DIN EN ISO 9241-210) into design processes. This approach is about fully understanding user's context and goals, defining clear user requirements, creating design hypotheses and evaluating them with real people in an iterative way - until the design solution matches the original requirement. As a UX designer, I take various roles in this multi-stage approach and I seek to implement methods from the UX toolbox that fit actual conditions and product stages. I prefer joining teams in earlier strategy phases, because I am convinced that an adequate exploration of the given challenges leads to more accurate and reliable design decisions later on. Plus, it's faster.
Research
Requirements & Modelling
Concept & Design
Evaluation
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I have worked for media companies, online magazines, TV-stations, car makers, game-publisher, internet provider, advertising agencies, energy supplier, music labels, financial service provider, law firms or musicians. I enjoy exploring the similarities and differences in each domain and I seek to find universal patterns that apply for all UX activities.
Some clients that trusted my expertise:
1und1 – BMW – Chip Online – Computerbild Online – Constantin Entertainment – Deutscher Sparkassen Verlag – Focus Online – Gamesload – GMX – Interone – Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Bayern – Maxdome – M-net – Plan.net – Prosieben Digital Media – Sport1 – Stadtwerke München – Techpilot – T-Online-Vision – Vogue Online – WarnerChappell
Get my CV (60KB - english) here
View my portfolio here - password protected Figma file
Medium.com – Designing CRM 360° for Conrad Electronic
uxi.de – Hör nicht (einfach) auf User-Feedback!
uxi.de – ROI von UX-Maßnahmen
Medium.com – How to merge brand values and Interaction Design
Medium.com – The value of conflict in Design
EDUCATION
2014 - 2015
Usability Consultant
artop, Institut an der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
1996 - 1998
Dipl. Kommunikationswirt
Bayerische Akademie für Werbung und Marketing
1994 - 1998
Kommunikationsdesign
Fachhochschule Augsburg