Designing for the new generation of luxury kitchen appiances.
My Responsibilities
- Develop and execute design concepts for user interfaces and interactions in the luxury home appliances sector.
- Expert on steering visual design direction and assets for new user interfaces.
- Creating AI generated visuals using Adobe Firefly and Midjourney.
- Build and manage digital design systems using Figma.
- Develop and document brand design guidelines using Frontify.
- Convert design concepts into sketches, wireframes, and prototypes.
- Coordinate with development and product teams throughout the project lifecycle, delivering detailed hand-off documentation.
- Present design updates and decisions clearly to stakeholders.
- Align designs with market trends, and summarize insights.
- Manage and collaborate with external agencies on design and UI assets.
- Conduct usability testing and translate insights into design proposals.
Skills & Knowledge
- Extensive knowledge working with UX/UI and design tools like: Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, Miro, etc.
- Experience with usability testing, design thinking, HCD, UX/UI Methodologies and design management
- Willingness to take on all responsibilities with a high motivation, positive attitude, working on multiple tasks under tight deadlines.
- Team oriented person with strong collaboration and communication skills
- Present design related decisions to Stakeholders utilizing strong verbal and written communication skills
- Proficient with Microsoft Office tools
Shaping the UI & Interaction
Together with a small UX/UI team of three, I had the opportunity to be involved from the very beginning in creating Thermador’s new user interface generation, playing a key role in shaping its visual identity and integrating new user interaction flows that are now seen as unique brand identifiers. My contributions were especially focused on designing the UI for the distinctive interaction model, the iconic standby screen, keypad, main menu and dish mode visuals, and running mode behavior.
Prototying and Testing
Part of our work involved not only designing but also creating wireframes and low-, mid-, and high-fidelity prototypes to conduct usability tests, where we had the chance to speak directly with end consumers to assess whether the concepts were user-friendly, efficient, appealing, and enjoyable to navigate. We also evaluated feasibility on a weekly basis with developers based on requirements and presented these concepts to key stakeholders and management in monthly sprint reviews.
Asset Creation & Management
A major responsibility in my current role has been developoing visual concepts for our new UI Design Language, including the creation of iconography, illustration and photography assets. For several of these, I introduced the use of AI technology to streamline and enhance asset creation developing high-quality designs, which have been successfully adopted. I developed and presented initial concepts, tested them with end-consumers, created detailed briefings, and collaborated closely with external agencies to bring these ideas to life. I also took charge of building and maintaining comprehensive asset libraries in Figma and Frontify. Additionally, another task was to translate this new design language into structured style guides to ensure consistency across the brand.
Building the Brand Hub
I’m thrilled to be leading the creation of our first brand hub alongside a colleague from the marketing team! Our goal is to tackle a key challenge: previously, different departments have developed design assets independently, resulting in inconsistencies across our design language. As a strong advocate for cohesive branding, I was excited to take on this project. The brand hub will serve as a centralized website where all departments involved in design—such as App Development, Marketing, and Design—can access and share assets, style guides, and unified guidelines. This initiative is set to bring everyone onto the same page, streamlining our brand’s visual identity like never before!
My Learnings
Managing different Stakeholder expectations:
Working on big projects in a big multi-brand company naturally means working with a lot of different stakeholders from different departments such as Marketing, Business, Strategy, and Engineerings. Therefore being faces with different opinions and expectations is a common as it can be overwhelming. Ultimately, empathy and the right mindset are key. Realizing that people are just trying to do their job as good as they can, and trying to understand their needs.
Navigating with limited resources:
When time, workforce and budget are limited, it feels difficult to do your job to the fullest. I learned to focus on the goal, as the way how to achieve it can vary. Sometimes goals can still be achieved with different tools and methods that you wouldn’t have expected. For example, we needed Design assets for a User Interface but the budget was limited. So I started to look into different options and landed on the idea to use generative AI which turned out to produce the same quality of assets, with 1/5 of the cost, and even was faster, more efficient and easier to replicate for future assets.
Working with technical constraints:
Working on kitchen appliances, and since you’re working with an embedded Hardware, you are much more limited in your creativity – at least that’s what is feels like. For example, we wanted to implement a video animation but were told that this would cause memory issues. This meant I had to come up with a concept that can be coded with usually does not allow for a lot of freedom. To still create a 3D effect, I proposed having different flat layers, moving adobe each other to still create a visually stunning effect.
Managing complexity and maintaining consistency:
When projects start to grow in size, and I started to use various different tools to create our assets, maintaining consistency across all these platform was a challenge. For example, we used Miro for Workshops, Figma for the design system, Wiki for documentation. Therefore I started the initiative to develop Styleguides on Frontify which is a single source of truth, helping to break down the essential rules and finding what you’re looking for quickly.
Handling frequent Changes & delayed decisions:
Working with different Stakeholders means making constant changes which ultimately can delay decision making, feeling like you’re stuck in a project and not seeing the progress I hoped for. We handled that by streamlining our decisions, having monthly stakeholder review where everyone can share their feedback and it can be validated right away. Staying transparent to all stakeholders is the key to make aligned decisions.