UX and UI designer in the Cloud Design Team at Fabasoft
Hi, I’m Steffi and I’ve been working at Fabasoft as a UX and UI designer since 2014. Sounds interesting, you think? It is – very much so as a matter of fact. I’d love to tell you more about my job and what a typical day is like for me.
How I start my day
As an early riser, things already get going for me by around 5:30 a.m. A little after 6:00, I head out to the Fabasoft headquarters in Linz by public transport.
Once I get to the office, the first thing I do is to fix myself a morning cup of tea. Fabasoft might be known for its coffee culture, but tea drinkers don’t miss out either and have plenty of options to choose from. After that, it’s time for me to give my laptop some face time.
Mornings
We work using the Scrum approach in the software development teams at Fabasoft. Our sprint backlog displays exactly what needs to be done today and during the current sprint. That’s why I check my e-mail and the sprint backlog before picking up my work in Adobe Illustrator, which we use to develop our designs.
Around 8:30 a.m. – in non-COVID times – we go to the Fabateria to have breakfast together. Breakfast is something you definitely don’t want to miss at Fabasoft, both in terms of the yummy treats and the interesting discussions with your co-workers.
We have our daily scrum at 9:15 a.m., which is the team meeting we have every day to discuss what got accomplished the day before, where potential problems or questions might have arisen, and what today’s next steps are.
Our design processes begin with solution ideas, which usually start out more like scribbles and sketches that are then fine-tuned within the team before we convert them into high-fidelity prototypes. When working on the design – in conjunction with our accessibility expert – we make sure that we stick to the usability and accessibility guidelines, and in particular the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Level AA. A lot of the time our creations are use-case designs developed to provide solutions to customer needs. We present high-fidelity designs, not mockups. Our design processes always include multiple feedback loops, both internally within our group as well as with the development teams.
Somewhere in the course of the morning, I try to take at least half an hour to catch up on news and current trends in the field of web design. In the process, I consider the following questions: What’s new right now? Is it relevant and maybe even applicable to our product? What are others doing in this area and how are they doing it? Of course, not every trend is going to be viable in the long run, but given that I work in a very fast-paced industry, it’s critical to stay on top of the latest developments.
Lunch breaks
I usually spend my lunch break together with my team and a few other co-workers too, mostly in a small group of five or six people. We eat at one of the many restaurants close to the head office, but sometimes we go to places a little further away. I really enjoy the casual, light-hearted chatter and can start the second half of the day with plenty of vim and vigor.
Afternoons
I spend the afternoons developing the designs, incorporating feedback, or compiling concept documents for use during implementation.
Once we have discussed our designs internally within the team, we hold further coordination meetings that also include the product owners from the development teams that are involved. The product owners are there so that we can present the design ideas and drafts we created based on the customer requests.
On top of that, we also always hold a review meeting with our product owner at the end of every sprint. At the review meetings, we go through each story in the sprint and present the results again for approval by the product owner.
Time to call it a day!
My workday usually ends between 4:00 and 4:30 p.m. I typically end my evenings with a workout and a gaming session. In non-COVID times, I also like to go out for drinks after work with other people from the office. Feeling chill after another great day, I look forward to the next one, too.
