Angelika Grundmann
I'm a freelance UX and UI designer with an expertise in developing user-centred web- and mobile applications. I have worked for various startups, corporates and agencies for more than 5 years. My mission is to help companies better understand their customers' needs and create meaningful products and services. I'm empathic by nature and I have a strong focus on user experience design and user research. My background in digital and industrial design empowers me to bring both worlds together and create seamless user experiences. I care about social innovation and love to support projects in the area of health, education and sustainability . And in my free time, I teach yoga, work with 3D printers, or enjoy van life.
🧗♀️ 🚐 🏄♀️ 🥐🧘🏽♀️
How do UX/UI designers work?
A UX/UI or product designer is usually part of software development team and works hand in hand with the product managers and engineers. They are familiar with scrum or agile frameworks but can easily adapt to other set-ups as they usually stick to their profound design processes. Depending on the design task, they can also work alone on the development of a design, following a self-organised work ethic.
What is UX/UI or Product Design?
The role of UX design, UI design or product design have been mixed up a lot in the past years, which makes sense because their fields overlap. In many companies there’s a rather blurred line regarding the responsibilities of each of these design roles. However all of these roles are cruicial for the succesful development of digital products and services. UX designer, UI designer and product designer are home in the tech industry and responsible for designing digital products like software, web applications, websites, online shops or mobile apps. While UX/ UI and product designer are all focused on bringing the best experience possible to the user, they fulfill different tasks and use different methods to do so.
In the past, UI (user interface) design or GUI was the more commonly used term. A UI designer’s work lies more with the look & feel. They are the experts in visual design and responsible for the overall product appearance all the way to the finest details and finishing touches. They are the masters of typography, color, layout, design systems or even animations.
The role of UX (user experience) design has developed as a counterpart to UI design and as the name says, they focus on designing the experience of a product. The UX designer is the advocat of the user and knows all about user needs, wants, and goals. A user experience designer is responsible for collecting, quantifying and understanding data gathered from user research. They know how to do user research and market analysis, define core concepts and requirements, work on the information architecture or do usability test. UX designer aim to create the most intuitive and user friendly experience possible, while constantly iterating and researching to understand the problems and motivations of their users.
The term product design somehow combines the skills of both the UX and UI designer. A product designer is not only focussing on the digital product but trying to paint the bigger picture, by understanding the surrounding of the product. Product designers want to create products that meet both the needs of the users and the needs of the business. Their approach is more strategic as they have a deep understanding of the competitive landscape, the business goals, and the overall vision for the product. They think about the impact that the design has and aim to understand its growth opportunities.
Which tasks can a UX/UI Designer do for you?
Research & Analysis
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User Research, Interviews & Surveys
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Competition & Market Analysis
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Requirement Engineering
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User Personas
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Problem Definition
Design & Prototype
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ideation & sketching
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Wireframing & mockups
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UX desing
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UI design
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Prototyping & Click Dummies
Concept & Strategy
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Concept Development
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Information Architecture
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Strategy Consulting
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Customer Journeys & User Flows
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User scenarios & Storyboards
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Product Sitemaps & Screen Flows
User Test
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Usability Testing
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User Interviews
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A/B testing
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Analysis & Refinements
How does the design process look like?
A good UX/UI designer commonly applies the Design Thinking approach to design a user-centric product and to ensure an end-to-end product development. Design thinking is an iterative process, involving five phases — Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. It is used to understand the users/customers, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test.
Here is an example of my applied design process.
