This is malte and I do things

How to enhance the user experience of the world's first solar car on any digital interface.

I joined the Dutch solar car startup Lightyear for four months on an interim basis (shout-out to Tom Harle) to cover for a new colleague that joined the company at a later date.
My assignment was to support the UX/UI team working on the in-car interfaces, the instrument cluster and the in-vehicle infotainment display in the middle console. Being an automotive engineer by university degree with a focus in ergonomics I brought in my expertise to polish the existing screens as well as pushing towards getting the user's voice heard for new features.
As of 2023 the company managed to get the quite expensive 250.000€ Lightyear 0 off the production line but had to declare bankruptcy shortly after. All hopes are now with the Lightyear 2 that may rise like the phoenix from the ashes. (Update mid 2024: It doesn't look like this will happen...)

The market is scattered and major US-based players like Visa, Mastercard or PayPal are on their way to an oligopoly.
What might a customer-to-business and customer-to-customer pan-European payment solution look like that you can use no matter where you are on the continent?

The answer: A digital service built in Europe for Europeans, led by a consortium of European banks called European Payments Initiative.
A skilled team at ustwo and I worked on an app prototype for several months – you might want to think of a very stretched design sprint.
During that time we did three iterative rounds of research. A focus group session in Sweden to identify needs and challenges in the beginning. Then during development we did two more rounds of qualitative UX research in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Spain. My responsibility was to hire local facilitators, interpreters and translators for the respective native languages; preparation of discussion guides, stimulus and video call infrastructure; analysis of insights and overall consulting on UX topics.

Update: In the summer of 2024 the result of this prototype will be launched as WERO.

ScreensStudio, a benchmarking platform for professionals in the automotive industry with an extensive coverage of infotainment systems looking for answers on who their users actually are and how to improve the user experience + reduce attrition.

In my time with Lightyear (see above) I had the pleasure using ScreensStudio for the first time and thought "this is immensely useful!". So when UX247 approached me if I would be interested in collaborating with them I did not hesitate to do so!
Qualitative interviews with former and existing users in DE, FR, IT, the UK and the US gave me insights on why and how they use the platform and struggles with their employers procurement. While I could not help with the financial aspects I was able to identify user groups and common behaviours. Those lead to the creation of a clickable prototype of a revamped interface draft. In a second round of interviews I validated the assumptions and design choices.
After finishing the evaluation I presented the results within the framework of an UX and company strategy workshop in Stuttgart (see photo).

Raise interest and drive more potential customers into an online application funnel for an all-in-one solar package from LichtBlick, Germany's largest sustainable energy provider.

I joined a small product design team on an interim base for 7 months with tasks in classic UX design, research and strategy. Our common goal was to enhance the user experience within the online sales funnel by providing the most important information and keeping the application as sleek as possible while getting as much details as needed. We went through a series of qualitative interviews to gain insights on prospective buyers' needs and knowledge, drafted alternative user flows and started a process of continuous user research.

An app that has been in the works for several years needs an overhaul (new corporate identity) and new features.

Another interim assignment, another project with the fabulous bunch of people at ustwo. The team I joined has been working on a lease car companion app (Click here for more info) for Alphabet (not the Google one but the BMW owned) and I stayed for 11 months.
During my time I worked on strategic topics to enhance the user experience throughout the customer journey in workshops and daily business together with a all-remote design team of up to 4 colleagues across several time zones.
Also because the client team resides in Munich I made sure that the communication between agency and client went smooth – sometimes chats in the same local language can lower barriers better than anything else, right?

Shopping for items and services in your local area might not be the first thing when you think of eBay's offerings.
After they sold their German subsidiary and clear market leader in classifieds in Germany, (eBay) Kleinanzeigen, eBay wants to get back into the business of C2C transactions.

UX247 and I set up two focus group sessions at eBay's campus near Berlin to discuss the challenges and needs users face when shopping locally as well as validating early hypotheses and success criteria on their shopping behaviour.

The German telecommunication giant Telekom is obviously interested in making their products as accessible as possible. The newly introduced customer service chatbot "Frag Magenta" should be no exception.

I supported a team for a few months working on AI and chatbot topics in customer support. I conducted several rounds of user interviews to figure out how they would approach the provider and what their opinion is on such modes of communication. That included groups of people with disabilities that have difficulties using screens, e.g. due to very limited eyesight. The result was a list of recommendations to the development team.

The Haas Mediengruppe, a publisher of local newspapers in the Rhine-Neckar region of Germany, approached Edenspiekermann in 2019 in order to find out who their readers actually are – and more importantly: How they consume news online.

As part of the overall digital strategy I came in for the part of user research to identify the frequent readers and what they are interested in, both in a quantitative open-for-all online survey as well as in interviews with selected newspaper subscribers using the publication-shared website "Morgenweb" and/or their app.
All of the collected insights and learnings ended up in distinctive reader's profiles (like a persona but not a persona) that laid the foundations for building the next iteration of "Morgenweb".

Online/neo banks disrupted one of the oldest businesses in the capitalist world. Of course this didn't go unnoticed at Germany's biggest banking group Sparkasse. They wanted to know what a new and modern banking app could look like.

It's not a small task – especially when your stereotypical customer is mostly non-tech savvy. To validify that the new app draft could be used by everyone digital product studio MAD brought me into play. In the lab of Sparkassen Finanzportal in Berlin, now S-Communication Services, we put Figma prototypes through its paces. I prepared, facilitated and analysed the interviews.

The retail chain Douglas didn't want to leave the field clear for risen online services like Treatwell to miss out on bringing in their expertise in beauty.

To distinguish them from other booking services Douglas thought it would be a good idea to build a similar but heavily curated web portal for booking beauty appointments from manicure over massages to complete makeovers.
When the portal was in an open beta stage I facilitated a friends & family test to ask participants for both their booking and salon experience to recommend changes for the final product.
Unfortunately they shut down the service in June 2021 – I guess the costs for salon curation including photoshoots was too expensive but who knows.

Nazis, racists and other discriminating agitators shouldn't be or feel welcome inside football stadiums.

Together with its partners, soli-members and donors, Potsdam-based SV Babelsberg 03 turns publicly against them.
The begin of the campaign "Nazis raus aus den Stadien!" was in consequence of a judgment of the Northeast German Football Federation (NOFV). It ignored the anti-Semitic and folk-inciting songs in the guest block of the Karl Liebknecht stadium to a home match, whereas the call "Nazi pigs out!" a visitor noted in the home area was recorded in the later judgment of the sports court.
A huge wave of solidarity struck the "Kiezverein" from Potsdam-Babelsberg. In numerous stadiums, throughout Germany and Europe, fan clubs and organisations expressed their support, world-wide magazines, such as the Washington Post or New York Times reported on the incident.
From this arose a movement through which many other clubs of all leagues positioned against right-wing extremism and hate in sports facilities – including Bundesliga clubs like Werder Bremen, Borussia Dortmund, 1. FC Köln or second tier club FC St. Pauli.
With the long-term campaign "Nazis out of the stadiums" the association wants to support interesting projects and smaller clubs in the fight against the "right".
In 2022 freelance frontend developer Mathies Schneider and I set up a dedicated website.