Professional Life of a UX Designer- Interview with Mathias Adam

Every UX designer is a problem solver

In my previous interview with Vytautas Alech, the Senior UX designer at KPMG London, he explained that how he has been performing the task of a problem solver as a UX designer.
To dig deeper into a UX designer’s life we continued interviewing more such UX professionals from various countries.

Mathias Adam is the head of design at Flat, an online music sheet edition application based out of France. Mathias is on a mission to improve every UX experience out there. With his 8 years of learning and experiences, Mathias has evolved immensely in building a great user experience for the users. He is currently working on multiple projects which can be viewed on his website.

We had a brief discussion with Mathias on his journey as a designer, his views on the future of Mobile UI/UX, his work experience at Flat, and much more.

Photo: Mathias Adam

What does it take to be a great UX designer?

Mathias: “You have to be patient and curious. Being a great UX designer is about understanding your product, your audience, and the problem that you have to solve. A good understanding of the big picture is absolutely needed to solve problems. Your main role is to be focussed on that your users feel your product and not just use it.”

The introduction on your website says, “I am on a mission to improve every user experience.” What measures do you take to improve it?

Mathias: “I take deep care of the experience a user has with a product. When I work on a product, every detail has its own importance. To me, the design is about details, a minor design detailing on a product can completely change the relation, the feeling between the user and the brand itself.”

How is your work experience at Flat?

Mathias: “Flat is an amazing journey in terms of Design. The mission of revolutionizing the way people can write music scores online, collaboratively, is huge. With the amazing team of developers here, anything is possible in terms of design. However, to be able to create a fantastic UX, we created a team with a great and powerful design vision.”

Flat Blog

You have worked with several startups as well as established companies. How is a startup design process different from a big company?

Mathias: “The process of startups and big companies I worked for, is somewhat similar. The only different thing was time. A big company, usually, you have more time and budget dedicated to research, AB testing, user testing, etc. In startups, you would work with rapid iterations to solve the problem. The reason behind such a difference is, a big company has an established brand so they can’t go wrong anywhere because they’ve put their name on the table.”

Where do you look up inspirational mobile design patterns?

Mathias: “I spend a lot of time on the app store to download apps and try to take inspiration from well-designed products. It is a good exercise for learning.”

Designing and Prototyping new designs for clients.

What are the challenges you face as a UX designer?

Mathias: “The most common challenge as a designer is having a pedagogic approach with the rest of your team, and educate them about design.”

Can you share some of your best Mobile designs?

Mathias: “It will be the next Flat IOS app, soon on Beta. Till then you can view my work on Dribbble.”

What is your approach to designing a perfect mobile app?

Mathias: “I think the perfect mobile app can be designed only through feedback and iterations as it’s the best way to fit with good design.”

What is the future of Mobile UI/UX?
Mathias: “It’s followed by the future of mobile itself. Our interaction with mobile is changing, this will change the experience of apps. For example, look at the conversational UX or the invisible interface of Amazon Alexa. With the evolution of mobile the app UI/UX will also evolve.”

Mathias can be found on Twitter and LinkedIn. To learn more about his past problem-solving projects you can visit his website.
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