Interview with UX design trainee Pascal

What is UX design and why is it important in today's digital landscape

UX design stands for user experience design. This means that you try to design a digital product or website in such a way that the user feels comfortable when navigating it.

A user who enjoys using the website or product also has advantages for the company. Among other things, it leads to more purchases, improves the brand image and gives you a competitive advantage over competitors who do not yet rely so heavily on UX design. This is why it is so important for companies to take advantage of UX design, especially in this day and age when everything is becoming increasingly digitalized.

What skills and knowledge are required for a successful career

Since the word design is already in the title, this of course means that you need a certain affinity for aesthetics and design, even if this strictly speaking falls under the area of UI (user interface), which is also part of my training.

But UX design is more than just "sprucing up" a digital product or website. You also need analytical skills to analyze the user behavior of your target group, ideally with the help of surveys or usability tests, and to use this data to create an information structure that is as intuitive and understandable as possible. In other words, the ability to convey complex information in a visually simple way.

As a UX designer, you also work a lot with others. Be it other designers, developers or project managers, you should always have good communication skills and a willingness to work in a team.

UX and trio - why do they belong together for you?

The trio-group's slogan is "Creating Virtual Soul". That's exactly what trio is all about for me. We create user experiences here that have soul. We create this soul to a large extent through our UX design.

The highlight of your training so far?

This was definitely the DDX conference in Munich. This is an annual UX conference organized by Designdrives. Speakers from all over the world talk about exciting UX topics and present solutions to problems or food for thought. This year, there were speakers from IBM, BMW, Cisco and Microsoft, among others.

We went there together as the trio UX team. It was the first conference of its kind for me, so the impressions and inspiration I was able to gather there were very special. I was therefore able to take a lot away from the presentations for my training, but also for me as a person.

How can you develop as a UX designer after graduation?

I think the best way to improve as a UX designer and become a senior designer in the long run is to work on as many different projects as possible. At trio-group, I have a lot of opportunity to do that.

Networking and training, such as the DDX conference I mentioned earlier, are also a good way to develop yourself. There are also large online communities in the field of UX design where you can exchange ideas with other UX designers.

For me personally, my vocational school would also give me the opportunity to add a year on and do a media business management qualification. This degree is comparable to a bachelor's degree. I'm not sure yet whether I want to do this. I could also take the trainer aptitude test as part of this so that I could train people myself.