Niklas Schneider joins UX&I as a senior UX consultant

Niklas, back when UX design was still in its infancy, you were already at the forefront of the field. What drew you to UX back then?

User experience design was a completely new subject at Aachen University of Applied Sciences. It was taught by two professors as part of a series of seminars. After the first lecture, I knew that this was exactly my thing, because I’m a very analytical person. UX is less about subjective preferences and more about deduction, causality, and logic. I like that. The term “user experience” wasn’t very well known back then, and I had no idea whether I’d ever be able to make a living doing what I was studying. However, I was so passionate about the subject that I didn’t give it much thought.

After 17 years of professional experience, nothing in the world of UX can surprise you anymore, right?

Oh yes, there are always new challenges. While I used to focus more on information architecture as well as service and interaction design, today I’m more deeply involved with strategic and operational issues. One question has particularly preoccupied me in recent years: How do agile product teams get their ideas off the ground so that the end result truly matches what was envisioned at the outset? This might sound strange, but in my experience, successful agile collaboration between UX designers and developers is anything but a given in practice. This is often because both groups know very little about each other’s work processes.

What can be done to ensure that the process, from design to implementation, runs smoothly?

The most important thing is for all team members to understand that a successful product can only be created through effective collaboration between UX design and development.

For example, it’s sometimes difficult for non-designers to grasp that UX design is, at the end of the day, still a creative process that can’t necessarily be squeezed into the tight constraints of a sprint plan. Depending on the complexity of the problem, it can take a while before a good solution is on the table. Sometimes concepts just need time to ripen: just like fruit. After all, a green banana doesn’t ripen any faster just because I’ve firmly decided to eat it for breakfast tomorrow. 

Conversely, designers should also be able to understand how developers think and work. Developers have a deep understanding of what is and isn’t technically possible, and what is easy or difficult to implement. When UX designers tap into this knowledge, they can prioritize features much more effectively and make design decisions that lead to a more user-friendly and intuitive end product.

I find it very rewarding to provide support and raise awareness in this area. It brings me immense joy when teams discover for themselves how they can work together so that, in the end, the best possible solution, given the circumstances, sees the light of day.

Do you still see yourself as a UX designer?

I’ll certainly never completely shed the designer in me: I’m proud of those roots. But over the past 17 years, I’ve expanded my role and now see myself as a consultant. Through my experiences and the many environments in which I’ve worked, I’ve developed a much deeper understanding of what UX design entails and how it contributes to a good user experience. Building on this foundation, I can support clients in a whole new way.

My desire to share this experience and knowledge with others, and to continue learning myself in the areas of tools, technologies, and methods, led me to UX&I. Here, I’m more than “just” a service provider. I have a genuine mandate to solve a problem. This allows me, for example, to make arguments independently of corporate politics and engage with clients as an equal. And the sociocratic circle-based organization at UX&I enables me to grow professionally and personally in ways that wouldn’t be possible, for instance, in traditional agencies. 

In addition to your passion for great UX, there’s something else you’re really passionate about…

I’ll go ahead and admit it here: I’m a huge #comic fan. As an adult, people often laugh at you for that. But comics are much more than just colorful pictures. Comics are a serious medium that has developed not only its own grammar and vocabulary, but also very specific, unique ways of expression. UX designers, too, can still learn a lot from how comics work. The fantastic Scott McCloud has written a truly wonderful book on this topic, in which he gives readers an overview of the history, language, and forms of expression in comics, in the form of a continuous comic strip! I don’t think any other book has ever blown me away quite like this one. I highly recommend reading “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.”

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• Niklas Schneider’s expert profile