Streetspotr / Own venture

Bringing market research

to the digital age
Problem
Incorrect pricing, out-of-stocks, inadequate product facings, and
planogram non-compliance are costing brands and retailers
billions in lost revenue opportunities every year. Traditional market
research methods are too expensive and too slow to discover poor
retail execution.

Solution
We've created an app and web platform which utilizes a multi-
national crowd to collect data quick and cost efficient directly from
the Point of Sale.

Using our real-time dashboard, brands and retailers gain instant

visibility to their products on the shelf and the ability to affect
promotions whilst they are running so they can increase their sales,
take corrective action instantly and satisfy their shoppers.

Founded as first-mover in 2011 by Dear Friend Founder Werner,

Streetspotr has been Europe's leading provider in data collection
and opinion research directly at the Point of Sale. By now, more
than 600.000 shoppers in 25 countries provide feedback via
More at dearfriend.digital
their smartphones.
 • Within Top50 grossing apps in germany since 2010
• Featured as App of the Week in 13 countries
• Honored at the 2010 App Developer Conference

miCal / Own venture

The calendar app everyone

was looking for
Problem
Back in 2010, the calendar shipped with iOS lacked in functionality and
usability, especially if you had to deal with a lot of events and
reminders. There simply was no clear overview about todays events,
tasks or birthdays.

Solution
We developed a calendar app that helps users to organize schedules and
events with a variety of missing functions and features and outstanding
usability. The app is based on the integrated calendar database and
therefore seamlessly integrated into iOS.

miCal provides a clear and detailed overview based on day, week, month
or year level and a dashboard page to reflect your upcoming events,
birthdays or tasks.

With miCal you can navigate through your calendars and quickly, easily
add events and tasks thanks to predefined settings and simple controls.
Standard settings like repeating events and reminders/alarms are just a
tap away. And powerful special settings are also available, without
sacrificing comfort or control.
More at dearfriend.digital
ITONICS / Ideation module

A better user experience to

create better ideas
Problem
ITONICS is a platform for strategic innovation management used for
example by Cisco, Siemens or Intel. The team was building a new
module for idea generation and already had a system with a ton of
options to customise idea challenges. But with this many options it was
also difficult to balance configurability with usability and clarity.

Solution
We accompanied ITONICS during the entire product process and
worked very closely with product management, project management
and development.

Over the course of four months - including six full-day workshops - we

showed the team how to uncover the most important user needs and
translate them into actionable user stories while focusing on the most
valuable features. Topics ranged from information architecture all the
way to wireframes and prototypes.

In the end ITONICS not only got a product that is highly customizable
while also being strikingly simple, but the team also learned a product
development process to use for future projects.
More at dearfriend.digital
CareFusion (BD) / Monitoring Dashboard

Enabling remote support for

devices in hospitals
Problem
CareFusion (now part of Vyaire Medical) is a manufacturer for
pulmonetic systems that are deployed in hospitals worldwide.
Customer support was limited as technicians did not have access to vital
information like system configurations, software versions or runtime
information. This often resulted in guiding untrained personnel via
phone to physically access machines and their software.

Solution
After analyzing the status-quo and defining a shared vision with the
stakeholders, an iterative and incremental process was employed to
refine requirements for a prototype.

Due to the large scope and potential longevity of the project, a solid
technological architecture was key. The final stack included MongoDB,
Node.js and GraphQL on the server and React/Redux on the frontend.
The components were packaged and deployed in a custom installer.

The result was a usable and production-ready prototype that showed

the possibilities of remote support as well as aspects of predicitve
maintenance.
Freelance project by Jonas
Datev / Digital annual report concept

Rethinking the annual report

with the user first
Problem
Germany’s leading service provider for tax, accountant and attorneys
wanted a concept for a truely digital annual report, which would
underline their digital expertise. But what could this channel offer that
a mere PDF Version which was uploaded somewhere couldn’t?

Solution
Working closely with the corporate publishing unit, two main interests
for annual reports where identified - get information about the
companies strategic development and crunching numbers.

The strategic part was upgraded with executive summaries, guided

video tours for a more engaging and personal experience and comfort
functions like a strong search, highlighting and bookmarking. For more
efficient number-chrunching, features like interactive comparisons of
key figures and customizable charts and reports were created.

With a tight connection to the print pipeline and editorial systems there
was very little additional investment for content management and the
whole system could be used as an annual report platform for the years
to come.
Project by Dom while at Publicis Pixelpark
MTU / Onsite Energy Relaunch

Leading B2B into the

responsive era
Problem
In 2012 MTU needed a relaunch for their Onsite Energy branch, a classic
B2B-only website. At that time, mobile usage was on the rise and while
many B2C sites started to embrace the “mobile first”-mantra, B2B,
especially in Germany, lacked the literal responsiveness to adapt to their
customers changing habits.

Solution
The traditional waterfall process did not seem feasable in a mobile-first,
responsive environment, which was still emerging and not at all
industry standard. From the get go, Design and Development closely
worked together, facilitating interdisciplinary ideation and knowledge-
sharing, thinking in reusable modules rather than one-off screens.

Now common practice, the tight integration of Development in the

creative phase of the process helped both sides grasp responsive
concepts and patterns.

The result was one of the first major fully responsive B2B websites in
germany, that shaped the mindset of designers, developers and clients
to put the user first, regardless of which device they use.
Project by Jonas while at Publicis Pixelpark
kicker Sportmagazin / Sportdata CMS

Simplifying the handling of

terabytes of sportsdata
Problem
The kicker Sportmagazine has one of Europe’s largest sports databases.
But the CMS used to manage these amounts of data grew convoluted
over the years and was far from easy to use. Especially newly hired
editors found it difficult to wrap their head around how to work with it.

Solution
A new custom CMS was developed completely inhouse to perfectly meet
the needs of the data editorial department.

The focus was on simplification and a more logical information

architecture. The main navigation for example was reduced from 10
input fields to just one unified search field with smart suggestions. The
main interactions with data elements got their own context menu or
could be opened for additional functionality.

The editors constantly tested the new system in development and

achieved their tasks much faster and with more confidence.

For easier further development, a robust design system and pattern

library was implemented so developers can implement new features
Project by Dom while at Olympia Verlag
faster and with very little product design involvement.