What led you into design?
When I was in high school I was always intrigued about the power of the image on movie, perfume and drink posters. How sight took the place of the other senses and created the necessity to have them no matter what. That's why I decided to study graphic design. Then everything made sense with the innovation of Apple products and all the creation of animated sites. Everything smelled of futurism at that time.
I had the opportunity to work since the first year of my career and it allowed me to learn not only the creation but also the production of design. All this experience contributed to my hunger to know more, to see design as something universal and to explore the world through design in all its expressions.
What does a typical day look like?
I get up every day at 7 am and practice yoga, then a bath and without fail a cup of coffee. While I drink my coffee I give myself about 15 minutes to read some design articles. My day starts at 9:00 with meeting reviews and tasks for the day. Then I have a daily meeting with my team. Depending on the day there are meetings for new projects, review of internal projects or sprints with our clients in different parts of the world at different times. It varies whether it's internal design or service design.
I usually finish at 6 o'clock, and then I try to clear my mind either by going for a walk, watching a movie or a series. I also try to distract myself by cooking something. Then around 11 pm I dedicate some time to my personal projects and I can stay there until 2 am.
What's your workstation setup?
Where do you go to get inspired?
Instagram has become a good resource to inspire me, as you can continuously discover many things thanks to other designers, or just search for the tag that interests you.
mobbin.design
bpando.org
bookmarks.design
designsystemtalks.com
I always keep a space to watch art, editorial design, documentaries and music. That space leads my mind to always find other solutions.
And when I'm too saturated a good sunset.
What product have you recently seen that made you think this is great design?
FigJam
These Figma guys are always challenging the big players and it's exciting. First they unseated Sketch and now they are doing it hard against Miro. I like that they understand the concept of collaboration to its fullest capacity. And with that they are taking design to the next level, where not only designers are involved but it is now easy to involve other professions in the design process.
I was just talking with a friend that in these times of pandemic we have had to learn to use several applications and usually designers have to jump from one place to another to show our work, but figjam is a very good option to centralize all of our work, so I think it's a very good option to centralize all our work.
What pieces of work are you most proud of?
I am proud of the work I have been doing with my team in my current company. Being responsible for the design evangelization process in a software company is not an easy task and it involves many aspects - from the human factor to the strategic factor for the following years.
I am creating a new UIX for each of the software interfaces, which involves finding solutions to complex navigation, configuration, and interaction problems, it is a very exciting job.
At the same time, I am creating a design system to make the software consistent and to implement a reference for anyone who wants to create a new feature. It will also save time in the implementation process and will contribute directly to reduce the training effort for new users.
I am also involved in the creation of a new concept of the look & feel of the product, which involves my participation in branding, customer experience, and marketing. And I am setting the basis for turning design into a service.
What design challenges do you face at your company?
Currently, our software is used by +100k people, in the most important automotive companies in Germany, and is expanding to international markets and industries, such as the pharmaceutical sector.
Just as a brief summary: When I arrived at the company I was faced with software designed by developers, so the first challenge was to make an inventory of the design debt created in 5 years. And then select the perfect strategy that would allow us to make changes that would not be risky for the current users, prioritizing the ongoing economic success of our product.
What music do you listen to while designing?
Any advice for ambitious designers?
We have entered a dynamic in the UX in which we advise to question every aspect with the question "why", but if we look at things from another perspective of how many products were created we should also not forget to ask "how", if we stop a little to think the "how" is first and is the one that has the power to create new things, the "why" is the one that allows us to analyze why our expectations are not happening.
Don't let the impostor syndrome stop you, we are in a time where the market has changed and there is a lot of noise on social networks, designers all the time selling to designers, which has become a very juicy market. And you may think that you are far from that level, but I tell you something: "some day not so long ago they also felt insecure and that what they were doing was not the right thing". Work harder on not creating autocomplots in your career.
And this advice is more to have faith in dreams "The world is as big or small as you want it to be". Don't let anyone tell you it's impossible, I've been lucky enough to work in other countries with different languages and if I think about it if I thought I listened to others I simply wouldn't be here.
Anything you want to promote or plug?
I'm currently working since last year on a personal project using UX methods for a futbol game.
So here is a sneak peak.
Let's stay in touch:
www.linkedin.com/in/loarri
www.instagram.com/loarri
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