Common sense is not so common

I’ve been designing mobile apps and websites for 15+ years, for everyone from garage startups to large corporations like T-Mobile and Vodafone.

My biggest strength is understanding problems in a broad context. I don’t really care about the job title. In reality, I am usually the one who works across departments, bridges them, and molds the role based on what the product needs. I have a background in finance, business, tech and design – and I know you need the full picture to be able to solve problems.

Because to me, design is problem solving. The drawing, wireframing and pixel-pushing are just a tiny part. I’m a fan of Hammock Driven Development, an inspiring (and funny!) talk by Rich Hickey, the creator of the Clojure programming language. Despite the title, I think it’s really about design and problem solving: understanding a problem and giving yourself time to think before jumping into a solution. Everyone should watch it.

I’m a big fan of Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines and a big believer in not reinventing the wheel. These guidelines answer a huge number of app design questions, yet they’re surprisingly often unknown or ignored. In fact, I’m such a big fan that I’ve made an overview of how they’ve evolved over the years.

And I prototype heavily: from quick Figma flows to fully functional prototypes in code that run directly on a device, pull real data, and use real features like the camera, microphone or gyroscope – whatever is needed. Real prototypes mean real testing, and far fewer expensive surprises later. I am glad that, with the arrival of AI, everybody can now benefit from it too. My prototyping in the AI era has shifted – it’s not about simple prototypes for user testing; it’s about finding and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, inventing completely new workflows and forms of human–machine interaction.