What led you into design?
When I was 10, my school friend and I created a magazine about our bunny plushies. We took our characters on adventures through comic strips and short stories. I absolutely loved it. This is where my design journey began...
Since then, I've evolved through the field of design. I started off as a designer/developer hybrid, designing and coding up design systems, layouts, and fun interactions. As I advanced in my career, I naturally shifted my focus to product design. I’m deeply curious about people and how to best meet their needs through design. Then balance usability and expression to create experiences that delight people.
I love how design enables me to tap into a range of skills. I also code and do photography. I often use my cross-disciplinary background to help my clients and collaborators move faster, stay aligned, and elevate products and experiences.
My life in 5 countries inspired my interest in inclusive design too! Adapting to different cultures and learning languages made me wonder, why do people do what they do? How’s their behaviour shaped by their environment? Inclusive design is integral to my design process today, including designing for accessibility, well-being, and belonging.
What does a typical day look like?
Usually, I start my day with warm coffee and morning stretches. I either work from home or in a co-working space. I like to create to-do lists at the start of my day to plan my work. Have some focus time, and check in with my team or clients.
I've started new routines. I often take walks to get inspired, looking at graffiti, unexpected patterns – whatever catches my eye. It always fills me with energy. Another routine is Pomodoro timers. Without them, I’d get sucked into a design matrix! They've increased my productivity.
After work, I often catch a jazz gig or visit a local record shop. I recently got into collecting records, which has been a huge source of inspiration for me.
What's your workstation setup?
Where do you go to get inspired?
Mobbin and Are.na are great resources for design inspiration: from UI patterns, and intriguing design problems, to brand expression.
Additionally, I draw lots of inspiration from photography. Alongside design, I take portraits.
I've done commercials, editorials, and portraits for clients. What I love about photography is showing people in their real light. Creating a space where they can be their authentic selves. Also, helping other creatives express their artistic vision has been a major inspiration behind my work in both photography and design (more on my design projects later in the article). I've really enjoyed shooting with artists, ballet dancers, actors, and musicians so far, excited to see what's next!
I've been reflecting on the intersections between design and photography, and I believe there's a lot of common ground. One thing that the disciplines share is building trust. In design, this can look like building rapport with your research participants. In photography, you build trust with subjects. Both are a massive team effort. Plus, inclusivity is an integral part of my process across design and photography. This involves paying close attention to representation and telling stories in a way that's relatable and authentic.
I would encourage anyone to explore beyond their disciplines. See what you find! It might inspire you to draw connections in new ways.
What product have you recently seen that made you think this is great design?
Are.na. I love how it celebrates your content through its stripped-back visual language. You can easily see what other boards your saved content appears in. This is such a good way to discover new content and connect with people, encouraging explorability. Love the attention to detail, including its modular interface which feels scalable and is just a joy to interact with.
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Playfulness on By Line. Feeling stuck? spin the wheel and get an article picked out for you. Want to customise the UI? select a theme.
What pieces of work are you most proud of?
SuperHi Plus helps creators bring their dream content to life with funding, mentorship, and tools. I led the design for the marketing site, designed the journeys, and co-shaped the brand. This was during my time as Senior Product Designer at SuperHi. I love how the program centres on collaboration, accessibility, and creators' needs. People from all walks of life applied. Across continents, age groups, career trajectories, and more. 11 creators then joined our first cohort to launch their content!
The identity plays with shapes and interactions that allude to connectivity. SuperHi Plus is about SuperHi plus you.
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Bounties is a job board by SuperHi where creatives can find work. It leverages Web3 to enable transparent and accountable partnerships between clients and creatives. My role included leading the end-to-end product design, UI, creating the design system, and supporting our strategic goals through design. I also initiated user research to uncover what our users truly need. The insight helped us to create a product that centres people and introduces Web3 concepts to newcomers using accessible language. Openness and transparency are key principles that guided my design process.
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Cards for Humanity is an online tool we created at Idean/frog design to promote inclusive thinking. It presents completely random cards to challenge your subconscious bias. It started out as a passion project and went viral. I led the project, designed the online tool, and wrote some front-end code to get it launched. Big shoutout to everyone involved ♥ it truly was a team effort.
I'm proud of its positive impact. We helped people design more inclusively, including Figma, teachers, and gamers. We didn't expect our audience to be this diverse! We saw this as a sign of success, as our goal was to encourage people to step outside of their bubble.
We've launched a Figma plug-in and localisation to make it even more accessible. If you would like to learn more, see our interview with Figma here. We delve into how we brought the online tool to life, and I talk more about my design process and why inclusive design matters.
What design challenges do you face at your company?
One of the challenges I've come across is alignment. It's important as it affects the shape of deliverables and timelines. Be it client work or in cross-functional teams.
To help us stay aligned as a team and enable collaboration, I ask questions. For example, what problem are we solving, what's the why behind it? How do we know this is the right problem to solve? What are the user needs and strategic goals?
Asking these questions helps me create design work that solves the problem at hand and is cost-effective from a business perspective. It connects the team too.
What music do you listen to while designing?
Any advice for ambitious designers?
Be curious. Solve various design problems across industries, audiences, and geographies. See what fulfils you.
Challenge your thinking. Is crossing disciplines something you'd be interested in? Just to illustrate, consider how photography, code, or your pottery class could help you push your creativity. It might be the start of many things to come!
Anything you want to promote or plug?
If you're curious about my work, check out evatkautz.com. If you'd like to say hello, drop me a line.
I have some exciting news coming up! If you would like to connect, here are my socials: LinkedIn, read.cv, and Instagram.
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