Where I come from

2014 – today

UX / Product design professional

Freelance

This is what I do now, and I love it. Take a look at my list of clients and projects.

2014

Director User Experience

USEEDS°

Small but top notch UX Design consultancy (by now merged with digital strategy consultancy diffferent).

I was responsible for a team of about 5 UX designers, did some pitch and client project work and ran interviews & workshops to reposition the agency brand.

2009 – 2013

Creative Director UX

Aperto

One of Berlin’s largest digital agencies (by now IBM iX).

As Creative Director UX, I led the agency's UX designer team (up to 20 people).

I did a lot of agency pitches and developed solutions for clients like

  • SOS Childrens Villages Germany – website and donation process redesign

  • Deutsche See (fresh fish B2C retailer) – Website redesign

  • Siemens Household Appliances – Digital strategy

  • Continental AG – Redesign of corporate websites ecosystem

  • TUI – Travel booking portal redesign

  • Die Johanniter (humanitarion organisation) – website redesign

2003 – 2009

Senior Information Architect / Conceptual Designer

Aperto

I mainly worked for our Government Clients team. Some of the larger projects:

  • Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Auswärtiges Amt) – Redesign of ministry portal and worldwide embassy websites

  • Federal Ministry of Interior (Bundesministerium des Innern) – Redesign of ministry portal, various campaign websites

  • Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge) – Redesign of their information and services portal, and a new info portal for refugees

  • Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) – Redesign of intranet sites

  • German Customs Agency (Zoll) – Redesign of their information and services portal

  • Government of the Land Baden-Württemberg – Redesign of the land’s official web portal

2001 – 2003

Information Architect / Conceptual Designer

Leonhardt Multimedia

The lead online design agency of Robert Bosch GmbH at that time. Here's where I started to get into Usability and Information Architecture. Yay!

My main achievement was the redesign of the Bosch Career Portal.

2001

Online Editor / Project Manager

Planet Internet

A large Dutch Telco provider attempting to set foot on the German market.

I wrote and published many of their web portal’s news contents and devised various microsites with raffles and creativity contests. My uncoolest job so far.

2000

Online Editor / Portal Product Manager

yoolia

An ambitious Berlin startup of the dotcom era, whose personalized e-commerce offers portal was way too ahead of its time to survive. But boy, did we learn a lot.

I wrote and published most of the contents for the portal. I also did my first redesign concept when they switched to a new shop system.

1998-2000

Freelance Online Editor

Compuserve

The second largest internet access provider worldwide back then, after AOL.

I wrote and published articles for their web portal. Here’s where I got into the just emerging digital industry, and learned HMTL.

1999

University degree in historical sciences and french language/literature (Staatsexamen)

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

This may not sound like the typical educational background for a UX designer. But the heuristic rigor of the humanities has proven valuable to my work as a designer time and time again.