Who am I? How do I work? How did I get here?
When I was about 10 years old, I told my parents that I wanted to create meaningful things. Meaningful meant three things to me: it had to be functional, beautiful and especially, desirable. If only I'd known that I'd discovered the sweet spot of product design so early in life. 😅
Fast forward my entire life, I started with a passion for building physical products and I began studying Industrial Design - this helped me a lot to understand all the factors and implications that must be considered when building a new product. After a year, I've moved rapidly on the digital side and I began to create interfaces for these physical products. I became more interested in human-computer interaction. Since then, I've been focused on digital product design, with a particular emphasis on user experience (UX).
*the process*
For a while,
Delft Design Guide
was 'my bible' 📖 - of course, alongside
The Design of Everyday things
, which I highly recommend to anyone.
After that, I started iterating on my own process. UX Research was instrumental in this process. It's such a unique domain that I could go on and on about it for weeks. I'm more flexible in my process these days, but I still follow some guidelines in my work.
A snippet of my process (the research part)If you want to understand more my process, you can see the process diagram
here
(it's a Miro board). If you're not convinced, let me put here some more screenshots. It's huge - but it's the full version, with all the methods.
*the UX process* - Nope, it's not visible on mobile unless you click on it to see it fullsize in MiroA holistic view of who I am (professionally)
I consider myself quite well-rounded 🧐 . I like to say that I do Product Strategy and UX/UI Design - it's a thin line between those two disciplines, and it's intentional.
+ I do design for 7 years. 'till 2016 as a freelancer (from idea to launch). After that, I've worked with/at/for various companies.
+ 4 years ago I've started to develop an interest in business. I co-founded two startups 🚀
(this one
, and
this one)
, got UE financing for one of them, and learned lots of things the hard way: from marketing to branding, to providers and revenue streams.
+ HCI is an important factor in my work. Sometimes I also write papers 📝 about what I research. In 2019
I've published a paper at DIS
(A level conference) and presented it in San Diego. I'm always keeping an eye on the academia world.
+ I am actively involved in education ✒️. I am an associate professor at
USV
, where I teach about UX/UI and the collaboration between designers and engineers. Last year I've started to
organize events and workshops
to raise awareness on subjects where information is not that accessible or popular in the local community. My focus is to raise awareness on topics as ethics, AI/ML design, digital sustainability and soft skills development.
+ In the past 2 years I've coached people who wanted to transition from various disciplines to product design 🤟. I believe in a culture of shared knowledge, and because of that, I started working on setting up a guide for how to do start doing UX/UI and a mentoring program. Meanwhile, you can talk to me or read my reviews from my mentees on ADPList.
+ I know HTML and CSS 🖥 . I have a very deep understanding of UI development. I don't code, but I have experience with visual scripting.
+ sometimes I 3D model and 3D print stuff. I also 3d modelled my house 🏠 so I can freshen it up in real life and iterate in the digital one. Random stuff: I've 3D modelled once a pair of shoes.
+ In 2019 I've been chosen by The Next Web and Accenture as one of the top 500
most talented under-26s the in the digital scene in The Netherlands 💪.
Schedule a meeting with me and let's talk about [insert subject]My values, in short
Knowledge sharing, transparency, punctuality, honesty and dedication.
When it's about work or things that I create, I care to be: meaningful, ethical, sustainable, reliable and traceable.
Alexandra - the person when not working
Well, first of all - thanks for your patience. I talk a lot and I also write a lot. However, if you're still reading this, here are some random facts about me:
• I got a cat 😺 called Luna 🌒. She's a bit fat but she's really cute.
• Not very modest, but I think I'm funny 😝
• I love to travel. My next destination: Tokyo, Japan. 🍣
• I bike. I bike. I bike. 🚴
• You can easily buy me with good food 🍲. I love trying food from different parts of the world.