Dilek Kraus-Yasar

What is your company and job title?

‍I‘m working as a UX Design consultant for Keen design. It's a UX Design agency where the HQ is based in Utrecht, which stepped into the German market two years ago. We are growing fast - which is an exciting process to be part of!

I recently started to work on a project with a bank and support the team to level up their product.

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Where are you based as a UX/UI designer?

🏡  Our team started small and since we work as consultants, we usually work with the client in their office. Most of our actual clients are based in Frankfurt; but, similar to many places right now, everyone is working remotely.

Frankfurt is also well-known as the financial district of Germany, and you might not fall in love at first sight, but once you get involved you'll discover its charme. It's a very international city which I really appreciate.

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What led you into UX/UI design?

🎢  I have a strong background in graphic design, and when I have been charged to design the UI of a web-to-print solution for our customer magazine, I recognized that making things just beautiful is not enough for me anymore. Don‘t get me wrong, I still love beautiful designs, but, I felt the need to dig deeper and serve the user in every aspect of interaction with a (digital) product. I wanted to understand first and act based on insights. While attending these meetings for this mentioned product, there have been a lot of eye-openers! 🎯

Besides this gut feeling which I could not ignore anymore, I was eager to learn and broaden skill set in general. So, pivoting to UX Design was a logical switch for me.

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Why are you a UX/UI designer?

💡 Making digital products accessible for people and helping them reach their goals within an application and thus helping to solve their problem is a pleasant feeling, don‘t you think?

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What does a typical day look like for you?

☕️ But first coffee! Served with self made pastry or bread and a cup of Americano, please!

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What is your current desk setup?

Our office is a DIY project. Pretty cool.

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Here is my desk area 👇

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And your Workstation setup across devices?

I follow the most-used-apps logic here. Nothing special. Devices: iPad Pro, iPhone Xs and Macbook Pro.

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What work are you most proud of?

Level up was my project with Careerfoundry. It's a mentorship platform for advice seeking professionals. It marks my career switch from graphic design to UX design and was such an intense experience to study besides work, family and daily duties. I'm very proud of myself for not quitting halfway.

Which Product recently blew your socks off?

Nor a digital product neither recently, but since I discovered this, all my friends wanted one too. So, it's a desirable and useful product for us because of its utility and usability: the bottle tool. It pumps out the air of a (wine) bottle in seconds! 😄

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What challenges do you face as a UX/UI Designer?

One of the most challenging part is the vindication of the work we are doing as UX /UI designers. The UX maturity in Germany is still low. It happens more often that design terms are used interchangeably. A lot of companies are expecting the UX Designer being a Visual Designer and Developer as well. I hope that UX Design will be regarded as an essential part of product development in general.

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What tunes do you listen to whilst designing?

🎧  Music with less lyrics help me focusing. So, for designing I prefer Lauer, Tycho, Ry X and Niels Frahm. Here is my Memorisely Mix Tape, which is a nice mix with music I also like to listen.

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Three suggestions for budding designers?

1. Always have a reason for your (professional) design decisions. It will help your clients understand your work better.
2. Don't overthink (easier said than done, I know…). We don't have to reinvent the wheel.
3. An element has no functionality in your layout? Leave it out.

Extra: Don't spend too much time on Dribble comparing your work 😉. You'll find designs that are just eye-candy and won't have value at all.