A senior Digital Product Designer, who codes

Brief

Since 2017 I have been a close collaborator at the LEGO Group, working with over 5 departments. My focus has been on digitizing internal workflows and tools, as well as concepting and designing new customer-facing experiences. While I am proud of this long partnership, I am currently unable to share further information due to strict non-disclosure agreements.

Brief

Co-coders initially began as a physical community of women eager to learn coding. When they approached us with the vision of creating Denmark's first female-centric coding platform as a web app, we were enthusiastic to assist. However, with their release date just weeks away, we needed to devise efficient workflows for a rapid development and delivery process. By eliminating meetings and embracing asynchronous communication, we successfully designed their web app in just five days.

Key Take Away

Eliminating meetings and adopting asynchronous work strategies can significantly enhance productivity in the right contexts. It allowed us to accelerate our progress and dedicate more time to design rather than being tied up in meetings. Additionally, it empowered the Co-Coders team to provide clearer, more detailed, and well-thought-out feedback. They no longer needed to generate feedback on the spot during video calls or meetings; instead, they could thoroughly review the delivered material before offering their insights.

My Role

I served as the lead designer and project manager for this initiative. In my role, I led the design efforts, established priorities, maintained communication with the Co-Coders team, and ensured that we could deliver within our five day timeframe.

Process

Before commencing the project, we, in collaboration with the Co-Coders team, established a list of priorities. Throughout the day, we tackled various tasks and shared video updates with the Co-Coders team by day's end. They, in turn, provided feedback in the evening, ensuring that we could start each morning with momentum. Given our tight deadline of just five days for the web app design, we opted for well-tested standard UX patterns, focusing on creating an approachable and user-friendly UI. We developed a flexible color system with gradients for larger surfaces and complemented it with bold buttons and cards to infuse personality into the user experience.

Team

• Runi Baldvinsson - Project Manager & Lead Digital Designer
• Sofie Grønberg - UX/UI

Brief

Mediehusene Midtjylland faced a customer decline issue as their readership aged, struggling to attract new and younger subscribers to their platform. Their digital experiences was neglected and missed a lot of the modern functionalities a younger readership expects. We worked on a total redesign of the user experience of their main news outlets, their native app, their onboarding and payment flows. We also worked closely with the internal team to concept and launch 5+ niche microsites to test new businessmodels and reach new readership.

Key Take Away

Working with Mediehusene Midtjylland proved to me the significance of stakeholder management and internal buy-in when undertaking large-scale organizational digitalization projects. Aligning different teams within an organization can be challenging, but by treating it as one of our primary objectives and using asynchronous video updates, written meeting minutes, and workshops, we were able to cover substantial ground while keeping key stakeholders informed.

My Role

I took charge of the overall UX and UI design, leading the project with workshops and user tests to ensure a seamless and user-centric experience.

Process

To contextualize the local newspapers, we conducted extensive user research in the surrounding areas to understand news consumption habits. This research formed the foundation for all future design efforts. We redesigned their online newspaper, launched 5+ local MVP micro online newspapers, and rebuilt their app from scratch. Mediehusene Midtjylland is still on their digital journey, working diligently to launch all of these efforts and embrace their digital transformation.

Team

• Runi Baldvinsson - Project Manager & Lead Digital Designer
• Ari Marteinsson - User Research
• Niels Konrad Bisgaard - UX/UI
• Melanie Nissen - UX/UI
• Martyna Buje - Illustrations

Brief

The WhiteAway Group identified an untapped market opportunity and aimed to leverage their existing infrastructure and logistics to introduce a new service product – Denmark's first full-service washer and dryer subscription startup. To validate their business idea, they wanted to expose their new service to a large user base. They had the perfect plan how to do that: Launching on Black Friday. The challenge was that Black Friday was only four weeks away. We teamed up with a handful of skilled engineers and managed to create a mini brand, design a eCommerce store complete with custom flows for handling the users’ old machines and launched the product just days before Black Friday. The service gained a lot of traction and continues to operate successfully today.

Key Take Away

Alignment of expectations played a pivotal role in this process. Establishing a shared vision of the final product was essential for fostering effective communication and working towards a common goal. Our close collaboration with the internal WhiteAway team, coupled with a high degree of autonomy, allowed us to move fast and make crucial decisions on the go. This exceptional teamwork was the driving force behind bringing the project to life.

My Role

I led the project, overseeing communication and scoping with both the internal WhiteAway team and the external development team, while also being a part of the design execution.

Process

Drawing upon the WhiteAway group's market expertise, we, along with the internal team, easily sketched a rough wireframe for the entire site. Leveraging user behavior insights from their other sites, we could efficiently incorporate proven patterns with a high likelihood of success. With this foundational knowledge, we crafted a mini brand identity aimed at conveying a fresh and trustworthy image. In partnership with their internal content team, we focused on creating a straightforward and intuitive understanding of their product. Development had to start early to ensure enough time for testing and bug fixing, which meant we had to be very structured to determining which components were ready for development, while remaining open to rapid decision-making when dealing with edge cases.

Team

• Runi Baldvinsson - Project Manager & Lead Digital Designer
• Rene Sørensen - Branding
• Sofie Grønberg - UX/UI

Brief

LoveFuel approached us with an AI assistant designed to enhance romantic relationships, but they were facing usability issues. User testing revealed a steep learning curve to unlock the product's full potential. Our task was to simplify the user experience and make the app more intuitive for a non-technical user base. What initially appeared as a straightforward assignment ultimately led us to redesign the app's core user flows while preserving the depth of its features.

Key Take Away

My experience working with LoveFuel encouraged me to ask a lot of seemingly 'stupid' questions and why’s. This approach accelerated the process and really underscored the importance of not being afraid to look stupid and ask the obvious questions. Often, significant value can come from these seemingly mundane questions, especially as complexity and features become more prominent.

My Role

I served as the lead designer and project manager for this initiative. In my role, I led the design efforts, established priorities, maintained communication with the LoveFuel team, and ensured that we adhered to our budget and timelines.

Process

To gain a comprehensive understanding of LoveFuel's product and its competitive landscape, we installed the app on our phones alongside several of its major competitors. This allowed us to analyze how other companies approached common UX patterns in the relationship market. We meticulously mapped out the functions and flows of various apps, deconstructing LoveFuel's features to assess their complexity. Subsequently, we created different wireframes and collaborated with the LoveFuel team to develop and test our new designs with their users, even while they were still a work in progress. This iterative approach enabled us to make informed decisions rapidly. As a result, we successfully redesigned the entire app, a move that secured them additional funding just a month later.

Team

• Runi Baldvinsson - Project Manager & Lead Digital Designer
• Sofie Grønberg - UX/UI design

Brief

I had the privilege of participating in a rapid prototyping assignment for IKEA, where our mission was to create quick conceptual prototypes exploring new business ventures that could leverage IKEA's existing logistics and infrastructure. We presented a range of 'proof of experience' concepts designed for internal use.Due to NDA’s I can’t share further information.