Seven questions to our UX Designer, Annika

Get to know Annika Gromig (UX Designer, Cologne office), written by Katharina Schlüter

While doing her master studies, Annika found her way to Avenga and started in March 2016 as a working student in our Cologne UX team. After dedicating herself to the topic “Interfaces in the Insurance Industry” as part of her master’s thesis, she finally got started – as a Junior UX Designer. Time for a short interview – time for seven questions to our Avenga colleague!

Annika, what are you currently working on?

The conception and layouts for an insurance platform for business customers, a project I’ve been working on for a relatively long time. In the beginning, it was about finding out what the target group, i.e. insurance brokers and end customers, actually expect from the platform. This involved a lot of research and, of course, you have to gain an understanding of what our client wants and imagines. Besides the research, I start by scribbling my ideas from hand to paper. Then I continue with wireframes and layouts up to prototypes – I prefer to do everything in Sketch.

What’s nice about the UX Team is that we regularly get together and discuss our designs. This way you get very constructive feedback from the other UXers.

Why don’t you tell us about a task that you particularly enjoyed?

Well, I remember the last usability test. Together with our team of consultants, I developed the test concept, conducted interviews and contributed to the evaluation. During the test, we had real users as test persons who gave us a lot of valuable feedback: Their opinions on the design, functionality and product, and what information they need when using it.

With the usability test, we wanted to find out how the product is perceived, what is intuitively usable and what not. There are situations where you think: “It’s obvious that you have to click on the button to move on”… but for the user it’s not so obvious – such a test helps enormously. We have been able to implement a lot of things directly, some things, though, have still to be done.

What does Avenga stand for?

Our very balanced and professional working atmosphere, the super nice and familiar contact with each other – this is Avenga. The nice conversation at the lunch table is as much a part of it as the battle at the table football. You get honest feedback from us. In the UX team, we have an exchange with our Berlin colleagues once a week, discuss together, or meet at a team event. Recently, we girls were at the Web Summit in Lisbon. With a very varied program, where we learned a lot about the latest trends and innovations in the industry.

What tools and applications should definitely not be missing on your Mac?

Sketch, for wireframes and layouts. Other than that, I don’t have that much exotic stuff installed. I need my mail program and many different browsers to test if the display is working properly. Slack shouldn’t be missing, we use it to communicate in the team. The Adobe products are also on my Mac. I don’t actually need much more.

Your tips for a tasty lunch break near the office?

We have the good old Vitaminoase around the corner. The medium salad with free bread to go is actually always the choice if you don’t have much time or don’t want to sit down in a restaurant. I can also recommend sushi at Sweet Sushi.