Stéphanie Walter
Lead UX Designer at Maltem
Stéphanie is a Senior User Researcher and Product Designer based in Luxembourg. She builds user-centred, inclusive and accessible products and services for a wide range of clients in various industries. Over the past decade, she's had the privilege of working in banking, finance, automative, healthcare, press and travel. Her objective is to deliver successful projects : all the way from strategy to the final product. As a Google Dev expert, shares her passion for UX all around the world. Stéphanie has taken this beyond her successful blog and conferences. She also teaches classes in universities. You can follow her on social media for qualitative curated UX design content.
How did you get to become an expert in your key topics?
I have a background in web design, UI design and foreign languages. I started working as a UI design for mobile apps intern in Germany, then got hired full time. I started sharing my knowledge in blog posts at the same period. The blog content grew, I started giving also conferences on the topic of design and design/dev relationships. After a few years I came back to work for an agency in France, then as a research assistant in Luxembourg and as a UX Designer and consultant. All the way through my career, I always shared what I learned in my different jobs but also through reading, attention conferences, etc. I organically grew my network the last 10 years by just being myself and sharing quality content.
What topic areas are you most passionate about?
I am mostly passionate at anything related to Design, UX research and Design Strategy. I also closely follow new HTML and CSS specs (and some browser APIs) to know what awesome new things we can build into our websites to enhance our user’s experience.
Which influencers influence you within those key topics?
Erika Hall, Leah Buley, Carinne Lallemand, Paul Boag, Joel Marsh, Steve Krug, Jakob Nielsen, David Dylan Thomas, Joe Leech, Jared Sppol, Aarron Walter, Susan M. Weinschenk, Barry Schwartz, Debbie Levitts, Lisa Maria Marquis, Abby Covert, Mark Boulton, Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Eric A. Meyer, Mike Monteiro, All Kholmatova, Karen McGrane, Darren Hood, Vivanne Castillo, Yichen Hen, Tatiana Mac, Laura Klein, Amélie Boucher.
Outside of key topics, who else influences you?
Ethan Marcotte, Stephen Hay, Lara Hogan, Rachel Nabors, Val Head, Rachel Andrew, Jen Simmons, Clarissa Peterson, Stephanie Rieger, Brad Frost, Jeremy Keith, Cassie Evans, Mia Miriam, Mina Markham, Jenn Looper, Leonie Watson.
How would you describe your offline influence?
I share a lot of curated content on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn and mastodon). Every week I have a newsletter where I put all the best resources of the week: inspiration, articles, tools, videos, podcasts. Everything that can help people grow in the design and tech industry. I write a lot about my work, strategy and design on my blog (in I also share a lot in conferences talks and meet-ups (remotely at the moment but I used to travel a lot). I also host webinar sessions with smaller groups where we do workshops to help them get better on different design topics. I also participate in online podcasts. Last but not least I offer private mentoring sessions to design practitioners and teach in different universities (remotely) around Europe (and soon in the USA). I also participate as a mentor in Google Students club, to teach students about design.
What’s your best source of information for getting ahead of a story? What resource do you use to stay ahead of the trend?
If a brand wanted to work with you, which activities would you be most interested in collaborating on?
What brands have you worked with?
International: BMW, Microsoft, Google, Orange, EIB (Europe Investment Bank), Societe General, Nordika Travel, etc. Luxembourgish: BIL, Luxair, Université de Luxembourg, Luxtrust. French: Université de Strasbourg, Gereso, Les Echos, Leboncoin, INSA school.
Which non-paid activities would you be keen to take part in if the opportunity raised your profile or delivered value to your audience?
I would be keen to provide a quote for content or news article, share or create a social post, speak at an event, podcast or a webinar. I am also interested in video content if it is an interview. I would also be open to write a product review but the product needs to be in the line of my blog (tech product I could use on a daily basis as a designer, design product, digital product that is used by designers).
What are your passions outside of work?
What would be the best way for a brand to contact you?
Via my website.