Nikkel Blaase is a digital product designer at Xing. He founded Design Made For You, one and a half years ago in order to do research on how to discover and build new digital products. Nikkel had always been attracted to creativity and technology and his designs are hidden in the products he has been working on. Users cannot see, but experience it.

I interviewed Nikkel via zipBoard to delve deeper into the product designer’s world. The interview focused on a range of topics including his experience working at Xing, professional journey, inspirations, design patterns, makings of a good portfolio ,the future of UI/UX world and more.

How did you decide to become a designer?

Nikkel: Honestly, I do not really remember if I had ever rationally decided to become a designer. However, I think I’ve always been attracted by art, creativity and technology, which might be one of the reasons I started a career in design.

Where do you look for inspiration for design patterns?

Nikkel: Design patterns are solutions cast in an interface. Before I even think of a solution, I start to deeply understand the problem that has to be solved. As soon as I know what problem I have to solve, I roughly sketch out some possible solutions, independently from any design patterns, UI guidelines or layout trends, and talk with users and colleagues about it to get feedback. Only then I look into our internal pattern library for proper solutions that meet my requirements. If there is nothing suitable available, I start to look for best practice examples that meet the requirements on various websites. For instance, Google’s Material Design Guidelines, Apple’s Human interface Guidelines, patterns.com and many more.

What should be the main focus of a designer while creating a design?

Nikkel: A designer’s main focus shifts depending on the task. When a designer is working on the graphical representation of the product — the user interface — the focus should be on crafting an interface that is simple, beautiful and easy to use. On the other hand, when a designer is working on improving the product, like adding a new feature, the focus should be on solving a real user problem the right way. Designers can take on various roles to make a product and it’s User Experience successful.

Can you tell us more about “Design Made For You”? What gave you the idea to start with it?

Nikkel: I founded the Design Made For You Studio about one and a half years ago in order to do research on how to discover and build new digital products. My goal has been to understand why most companies fail to build new innovative products, and to explore possible solutions that might prevent innovators from failing. To do that, I usually collaborate with other designers and product managers. One of the things we created, for instance, is the »Unstuck Map«. A tool that gives orientation during the fast and often messy product innovation process. At the moment I work together with Jan Milz, a lean product manager, on a new approach on how to do product discoveries.

Unstuck map : a tool to guide through a messy product innovation process

How do you collaborate with Developers?

Nikkel: First of all, I consider user experience design as the responsibility of the whole product team, not only the designer. This is why I think designers are also enablers for design. Usually, product becomes more successful when developers work with the user’s experience in mind. Besides that, I prefer to sit closely to the developers, so that we can easily discuss layouts and technical restrictions, or can make fast decisions. Communication is a key factor when it comes to collaboration with developers.

Design made for you : Discovery sprints

What according to you is the most significant part of a designer’s portfolio?

Nikkel: Apart from the fact that I’m not very good at maintaining my own personal portfolio, I think there are some things in a designer’s portfolio that are especially interesting: How does a designer work on complex tasks (the design process)? How does she solve problems (problem-solving abilities)? How did she validate the solution (Research skills)? Why did a project fail or succeed? (Analysis skills)

How is your Product Design experience at XING?

Nikkel: XING is special by the fact that it is a very big product organization. Building products at XING means to consider various dependencies to quite specialized teams, like our central UI pattern team. This is why I have to communicate with many stakeholders and teams, which is not always easy. On the other hand, a big product organization comes with some great benefits, like having a designated user insights team that enables others to do proper research and to test ideas and solutions.

Xing : the platform for business networking

Can you share some of your best work?

Nikkel: My best work is hidden in the products I’ve been working on. Users cannot see, but experience it. Whenever one of the products helps customers to make progress in achieving a specific task, I did good in terms of problem-solving. This is why I consider helping users to achieve their goals as my best work.

How do you do rapid prototyping with your team?

Nikkel: Depending on the state of the design process, I choose different prototyping methods. Normally, I start with quick paper prototypes to get a feeling and feedback on the solution in terms of information architecture and user flow. Later on I build high-fidelity prototypes to communicate the solution to stakeholders & the team, and get feedback from real users. Depending on the type of prototype, I use HTML/CSS, Invision, Facebook Origami or Principle as prototyping tools.

Rapid prototyping : start with quick paper prototypes

Share your professional journey

Nikkel: Long story short: I went to University and graduated in Creative Media at Middlesex University London and in Digital media at University of the Arts Bremen. During and after my study I worked as a freelancer for several years until I started as a designer at XING.

What do you think is the biggest UI/UX problem today or may be coming in the future?

Nikkel: I think that UX design faces a lot of problems today and needs to evolve in order to stay relevant in the future. Businesses need to understand that UX is not a service, but a profession that adds a lot of value to product development processes and strategic decisions. This is why designers must be measured by the success of a product from a user’s point of view (User KPI’s), rather than by the look & feel of the interface. Our craft might be separated into 2 UX areas where we make things look beautiful, simple & easy to use on the one hand side (User Interface Designers) and, on the other hand side, we aim to make the whole product successful (Product Designers).

“Building features is easy, building the right features for the right people is challenging”- Nikkel Blaase on Why product thinking is the next best thing in UX design

As a designer what social channels do you love to hang around?

Nikkel: I love the design community on Twitter. There are many smart people sharing a lot of valuable & relevant things. Also, some Facebook groups are very interesting, like the Origami, Sketch or Principle groups.

More from Nikkel

Nikkel is on twitter, also writes on medium . Link to some of his design work and writings can be found on his personal website. His pet project to solve problems in the design world can be accessed at Design made for you Studio website.

You will find more such interviews of product designers to know them and their work closely. Stay updated. :)

Blog source: https://blog.zipboard.co/the-design-life-of-a-product-designer-interview-with-nikkel-blaase-3ca8e81ff2ef