This is malte and I do things

How to enhance the user experience of the world's first solar car across 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 who joined the company later.
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. As an automotive engineer with a university degree focused on ergonomics, I brought my expertise to polish the existing screens and to push for the user's voice to be heard in new features.
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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.
The idea of a solar-powered car lives on.

The market is fragmented, and major US-based players such as Visa, Mastercard, or PayPal are on their way to an oligopoly.
What might a pan-European customer-to-business and customer-to-customer 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 the European Payments Initiative.
A skilled team at ustwo and I worked on an app prototype for several months – you might want to think of it as a very stretched design sprint.
During that time, we conducted three iterative rounds of research. We began with a focus group session in Sweden to identify needs and challenges. During development, we then conducted two further rounds of qualitative UX research in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Spain. My responsibility was to hire local facilitators, interpreters and translators for the relevant native languages; prepare discussion guides, stimuli and video call infrastructure; analyse insights; and provide overall consulting on UX topics.

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

Furthermore, after the initial launch of Wero at the German Sparkassen and Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken end of 2024, I ensured both banking groups followed the design principles set by EPI in their online banking apps.
(Assignment by Everybody Go)

Germany's civil service has a poor reputation, largely due to past missed digitalisation opportunities. The DigitalService supports federal ministries and authorities in changing that, with the help of software developers, transformation managers, and user experience experts.

I spent five months with DigitalService tackling two projects:

NeuRIS (short for "Neues Rechtsinformationssystem") by the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection is an Open Data service offering a legal database (federal laws, changes in federal law, verdicts of federal courts), including an API.
I interviewed third-party software developers, members of the Open Data community, and researchers about their expectations and use of the API, and how to enhance both the API itself and its documentation.

KIPITZ (abbreviation of "KI-Portal des ITZBund") by the Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation is a platform to use (Open Source) Large Language Models (LLM) and AI applications for internal usecases in ministries and agencies. Because of the system's enclosure, all processed data stays local.
My task was to collect experience reports and evaluations of civil servants on how and when they use AI applications. I also supported the UX designer in creating a holistic framework for a KIPITZ redesign.

ScreensStudio, a benchmarking platform for professionals in the automotive industry with extensive coverage of infotainment systems, is seeking answers about who its users are and how to improve the user experience and reduce attrition.

During my time with Lightyear (see above), I had the pleasure of using ScreensStudio for the first time and thought, "This is immensely useful!"
So when UX247 approached me to see if I would be interested in collaborating with them, I did not hesitate!
Qualitative interviews with former and current users in DE, FR, IT, the UK, and the US provided insights into why and how they use the platform, as well as the challenges they face with their employers' procurement. While I could not help with the financial aspects, I was able to identify user groups and common behaviours. These findings informed 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 completing the evaluation, I presented the results at a UX and company strategy workshop at Screens' offices 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 basis for 7 months, working on classic UX design, research and strategy.
Our common goal was to enhance the user experience in the online sales funnel by providing the most important information, keeping the application as sleek as possible, and gathering as much detail as needed. We conducted a series of qualitative interviews to gain insights into prospective buyers' needs and knowledge, drafted alternative user flows and started a process of continuous user research.

An app that has been in development 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 in daily business, together with an 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 communication between the agency and the client went smoothly – 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 that comes to mind when you think of eBay's offerings.
After they sold their German subsidiary, the clear market leader in classifieds in Germany, Kleinanzeigen, eBay wants to get back into the C2C business.

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, and to validate early hypotheses and success criteria for their shopping behaviour.

The German telecommunications giant Telekom is clearly interested in making its 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 understand how they would approach the provider and what their opinion was of such modes of communication. This included groups of people with disabilities who had difficulty using screens, e.g. due to very limited eyesight. The result was a list of recommendations for the development team.

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

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

Online and 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 modern banking app could look like.

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

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

To distinguish it 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 manicures to massages to complete makeovers.
When the portal was in open beta, I facilitated a friends & family test to gather feedback on both booking and salon experiences to recommend changes for the final product.

Update: Unfortunately, they shut down the service in June 2021 – I guess the costs of salon curation, including photo shoots, were too high, but who knows.

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

Together with its partners, soli-members and donors, Potsdam-based SV Babelsberg 03 turns publicly against them.
The campaign "Nazis raus aus den Stadien!" began in response to a judgment by the Northeast German Football Federation (NOFV). It ignored anti-Semitic and folk-inciting songs sung in the guest block of the Karl Liebknecht stadium during a home match, whereas the call "Nazi pigs out!" noted by a visitor 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 across Germany and Europe, fan clubs and organisations expressed their support, and worldwide magazines such as the Washington Post and the New York Times reported on the incident.
From this arose a movement through which many other clubs from all leagues positioned themselves against right-wing extremism and hate in sports facilities – including Bundesliga clubs such as Werder Bremen, Borussia Dortmund, 1. FC Köln and 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.