The place I have called my home since 2008 is the beautiful northern port city of Hamburg in Germany, though I was born and raised in Fulda. What I like best about Hamburg is the cool, breezy climate and the gentle restraint of the people here.
Hamburg is also very diverse and has a bit of everything. ****I live in the northeast with my family, where a nature reserve is not far. But if I feel like socializing, I can be downtown in 20 minutes for a coffee, a concert, or to visit one of the many parks and museums.
****Fun fact: Hamburg has more bridges than Venice.
The Köhlbrandbrücke in Hamburg👇
During my studies as well as during my whole work experience since 2008 I pursued several paths, a technical, a creative and an educational. After being trained as media designer I studied media technique and reached a bachelor of science and master of education degree.
I have always been working in parallel to my studies for digital agencies, as software teacher and finally as graphic, digital and UI designer for Gruner + Jahr in Hamburg, a big publishing house (known for magazine brands like GEO, Stern, etc.) which is today RTL Deutschland.
Since the beginning of my design career I’m a highly practical, structured and creative person who loves designing especially digital next to print products. My interest always went far beyond making things look good, I want them to work well and feel satisfying and easy for users.
Thus for me UX/UI design was the perfect match between my technical and design skills, as well as the affinity to digital products and the desire to figure out how users need them to be. The role also fits my passion to never stop learning, to teach myself new skills and that I have often been described by others as solution finder.
And that’s by the way, why I joined Greenhouse Innovation Lab (recently renamed Team Innovation) where we are creating, prototyping and testing new ideas and products for RTL Deutschland.
I enrolled in the UX/UI Bootcamp in autumn with Marvin because it absolutely matched my goals for 2022. Next to getting a deeper understanding of the UX process and develop more practical routine I aim at having a repertoire of methods and being able to adequately select and apply individual methods in the process. Finally I’d like to dive deeper in Figma, as I’ve worked a lot with Sketch since 2016.
No other course involved all of those goals, but Memorisely’s UX/UI bootcamp did. And as I work fulltime I need something that is on the point, of high quality and guess what: supafast ⚡
I’m absolutely convinced of lifelong learning as I think that there are always things within we can and should grow. This means that I’m learning during the whole day in different ways:
In the morning from my son who teaches me to be patient, having fun and not to take things too serious – this is working absolutely fine with a morning coffee made by my partner who really got into coffeemaking very intense. Lucky me!
I also learn during my work day with my amazing team mates identifying relevant, innovative solutions that meet the users’ needs and bring them to life. And currently I learn in the evening with Memorisely that learning never stops, is a highly collaborative process and also great fun.
When I’m not part of a bootcamp I learn in the evening how important it is to take a breath and have some me time, like being in nature, doing sports or listening to very nice music, in order to have an energized start again the next day. Besides my daily routine I try to read a lot of books and talk as well as listen to successful people.
Since the pandemic I do almost only remote work and thus recently pimped my home office workspace to feel more comfortable. I work with many design tools, boards and all kind of messengers as well as office tools at the same time and to have more space for them, I chose the LG 34WN80C-B Curved UltraWide Screen
Because I also design a lot of apps, a stand for my test iPhone is essential so that I can mirror the designs live on the device. What I also really appreciate are my logi MX keys, with which I can switch between up to three devices, the small version is compatible with all operating systems.
But especially the lightning is very important to me when working. With the BenQ ScreenBar Plus, I can pleasantly illuminate my desk and monitor, dim the light, and adjust its color temperature appropriately. In addition, there is an indirect light and – honestly for the fun part 😄 – a customizable coloured light strip behind the screen
The only thing I'm not satisfied with yet, and for which I should take more time, is the cabling. What can I say, I like it neat. So tips are welcome 🤓 And maybe you will also find my little squared friend Tweety …
Well, this is easy: Figma, Notion and Slack are the three digital products I’m rocking through my worklife everyday. They absolutely make my life easier and mirror all processes I am involved in.
What I’d rather like to mention is a digital but more physical product that I adore – the Pioneer XDJ-1000MK2, a digital player which can replace the classic turntable. I have been a DJane for many years and still play electronic music.
I used vinyl records only for a long time because the haptic and analog sound experience was more fun for me than various techniques developed over the years to integrate the laptop into the set of turntables and mixer – with the aim of playing digital files because they are cheaper and not all tracks have been produced as vinyl. But the feel and the sound quality were not the same, the laptop moreover acted as a disruptive factor.
Therefore, I did not use these techniques, until this digital player was released. It didn’t had to be integrated as an additional technology, but completely replaced the turntable, without using a laptop. ****It can be set to simulate the feel of a real turntable, such as braking the speed by pushing the plate back. It can also play very high quality digital tracks such as FLAC or AIFF files, to ensure high sound quality.
The user experience was so positive for me because I also felt the fun that I had with a classic record player. I can also use both variants in parallel and thus combine the old with the new technology, which is even more fun.
As I’m a DJane since I’m 19 I love playing and listening electronic music! During the pandemic I especially enjoyed the Unity DJ Set by Tale of us, which you can find here. You also can enjoy my current Top Tracks below. I wouldn’t play them in that order of course, but I love them all like crazy ❤️
