10 years of UX&I: Growing together, celebrating together

A gallery walk through history

The celebration took place in the spacious courtyard of the UX&I office in Düsseldorf. The path to the office spaces led through a “Gallery Walk,” inviting guests on a journey through the past ten years. Various milestones were showcased in large-format displays along the hallways, such as the first small living-room office, a visit from Jared Spool, Don Norman wearing his “Not the User” T-shirt, and many, many client successes, including the first UX department at METRO and at One Data, as well as Provinzial, which brought an idea to market within 12 weeks.

“My personal highlight in UXI’s history was definitely the 16 remote Design Sprints we pulled off with a large organization over the course of 8 weeks. Suddenly, the pandemic hit, and we had to switch everything over to remote work super fast. It felt just like a hackathon. Somehow, it was clear: ‘We can do this! Even with the makeshift resources we had at our disposal.’ We learned an enormous amount, and in the end, we were all just really proud.” – Markus Brendel, Senior UX consultant at UX&I.

Gratitude and pride

In their speech, UX&I’s Managing Directors, Patrick Oselka and Tobias Schlei, expressed their deep gratitude to clients, freelancers, partners such as codecentric, and, last but not least, to the “UXIs,” the employees of UX&I.

“We held our very first summer party right here where we’re standing today. Despite all the changes over the past 10 years, one thing has remained the same: I see many faces here today that were with us back then. I see many partners here who were with us back then, and I see many clients with whom we celebrate successes together, both then and now. It’s a privilege to have been able to work with such extraordinary people for so many years.” – Tobias Schlei, Managing Director of UX&I.

“Tobias and I met in college. We quickly realized that we complemented each other perfectly, and even back then we were already nailing projects here and there. But somehow, amid all the ad banners, communication design, and marketing campaigns, we never found the real value for users. We needed to create something of our own… and that was 10 years ago now.” – Patrick Oselka, Managing Director of UX&I.

Keynote speech by Mirko Novakovic

At the same time, the evening also offered an opportunity to look toward the future. Mirko Novakovic, founder of Instana and a long-time partner of UX&I, provided inspiration and food for thought with his keynote address. He began by analyzing current market trends. Mirko emphasized a shift from “blue ocean” markets, where new products exist without competition, to “red ocean” markets, which are characterized by intense competition. He explained that in the past, simple MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) were sufficient to attract early adopters, but this is no longer possible today due to the high level of competition. He noted that an excellent user experience is now crucial for success in highly competitive markets. As an example, he cited Slack, which stands out from other similar tools thanks to its superior UX, even though there are no major technical differences. He emphasized that successful products like Figma were developed over many years before being released to customers in order to deliver an outstanding UX. At their own company, they also prioritize an outstanding UX. Mirko believes that UX experts are crucial and that a low developer-to-UX-expert ratio improves product quality.

Mirko praised the collaboration with UX&I and the successes they’ve achieved with UX-driven projects. He emphasized that UX should not be viewed as a commodity, but rather as expert knowledge. He issued a warning regarding remote work, which could negatively impact human interaction and, consequently, UX. In closing, he expressed his hope for continued successful collaboration and thanked the team for their hard work and their contribution to organizing the evening.

Not the User & Co.: Shared knowledge is the most valuable knowledge

Knowledge sharing is always a priority at UX&I, and it also had its own vibrant, prominent place during the celebration. For example, our UX Mantra Board made another appearance. Just as at UXcamp Europe, people shared guiding principles that define UX thinking and guide them in their day-to-day work.

Here’s to the next 10

The evening made one thing clear: A lot has happened over the past 10 years, and many successes were made possible thanks to the close and trusting collaboration with our clients and business partners. And it’s not just nice to work together; sometimes we also get to pat each other on the back and celebrate together, away from our laptop screens. The discussions and the keynote presentation reaffirmed our resolve: There are plenty of reasons to look to the future with optimism; we’re already planning the 20th-anniversary celebration!