ULF SCHROETER
Designing to add value, connect people, drive change and innovate
Nationality: German & Australian Citizenship
I am a designer / visual storyteller with over 25 years’ experience and deeply believe great design is not just about how things look but rather how well they function. Applying any kind of design – regardless of whether it is for a service, process or product – is always a collaborative process, centred around us, humans, and driven by purpose. It is about understanding the people we’re designing for and designing with, what they value and what they care about. It is about creating great experiences by providing practical solutions to real problems.
Collaboration / full-time / project work across customer/user experience, problem-solving, digital product design (ui, ux, research), visual storytelling and brand alignment, design systems, exploration of generative ai
Work where I’m part of a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to purpose based, lasting and meaningful outcomes, work that drives change and creates value for people. Work where my skills as an Experience Designer & Visual Storyteller help to foster design; design as a process and method, design as a language and design as an output and outcome. Work, where my endlessly curious mind is allowed to wander, where venturing into uncharted territories is seen as an opportunity to try something new – and where potential is nurtured, where collaboration means not only listening to others but also being heard. Work where I can make people smile and laugh along the way.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
TOBIAS Design
Sydney, Australia
May 2023 – October 2024 (17 months)
Senior Experience Designer / Visual Storyteller
TOBIAS uses human-centred design to help organisations create strategies, products and services that drive value and positive change. As one of their Senior Experience Designers, I have contributed to a range of high-impact projects, collaborating closely with clients such as a Federal Government Agency (a care sector project) and a major Australian finance provider, along with in-house teams, to deliver exceptional user experiences. My key responsibilities included:
- User Research:
Co-facilitated user interviews; use of journey and affinity mapping to gather insights, identify pain points, and define user archetypes. - Co-Design and Workshops:
Co-facilitated collaborative design sessions and workshops, leading to innovative concepts and establishing design principles. - Comparative Analysis:
Conducted desktop research to provide comparative analysis, ensuring alignment with industry trends and best practices. - Prototyping and Visual Communication:
Developed visual narrative walkthroughs and prototypes to effectively communicate ideas and concepts to stakeholders. - Branding and Design Systems:
Created tangible assets such as project-specific visual identities, mood boards, and design systems to support clear communication and storytelling. - Wireframing and Prototyping:
Designed wireframes and interactive prototypes for mobile and desktop platforms, supporting iterative usability testing and refining user interfaces.
By combining strategic insight with creative design, I contributed to delivering solutions that enhance user experiences, achieve organisational objectives, and ultimately create value, innovation and positive change.
Design System and Visual Identity Development
In addition to my client-facing work, I led a small team of designers to create a new visual identity for Tobias. This involved developing a comprehensive design system that is currently being implemented, starting with a new website (work in progress). A key focus of the website’s development is accessibility, ensuring that it meets inclusive design standards and is usable by people of all abilities. The design system aims to unify Tobias’ brand presence and streamline future design efforts across all platforms.
Sydney, Australia
October 2009 – Present (15 years)
As a strategically thinking experience designer with a human-first approach I design and innovate to enhance experiences. I help create engaging communication – web applications, websites, mobile apps, user interfaces, and brochures. I establish design systems and style guides. I align brands in different mediums and help to bring projects to fruition.
Over the past 15 years, I have had the pleasure of working on numerous projects with wonderful people from diverse organisations and industries. These projects have included work with ‘NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service’ and ‘Destination NSW – VIVID Sydney’, NGOs like ‘Settlement Services International’ and ‘ChildFund Australia,’ health and well-being providers such as ‘BaptistCare NSW’ and ‘The Australian Childhood Trauma Group’, anticancer and wound healing pharmaceutical developer ‘QBiotics,’ compliance platform startup ‘iComply’, and industry leaders like Cochlear and Medtronic. Please see my website for further examples including detailed analyses of select projects in the Case Studies section.
Highlights have included:
Childfund Australia
By partnering with agency NoiseBirds and their client, Childfund Australia, we improved their donor payment experience, transforming it into a user-friendly, step-by-step process. We segmented the previously lengthy form into logical sections, starting with easy-to-select donation options, followed by contact details, and diverse payment methods including Credit Card, PayPal, and Direct Debit. Enhancements included a clear progress indicator, a unified UI across all forms, and distinct visual cues for form states (default, focus, mandatory). Improved error messaging and feedback throughout the payment steps were implemented to guide donors smoothly to a thoughtful ‘Thank you’ message and further engagement options. This overhaul not only made the process more intuitive but also ensured optimal functionality across various screen sizes, significantly improving overall user engagement.
Cochlear Australia
I collaborated with Cochlear Australia to celebrate their 30-year anniversary by developing the website and mobile app for their ‘Sound of Life’ campaign. Cochlear provided an open brief, requesting ideas for visualizing and sharing ‘hearing discovery.’ My contributions included:
- Developing the overarching concept for the campaign
- Creating visual direction for the website and mobile app
- Designing user interfaces for both platforms
- Overseeing UX design and development processes.
BaptistCare Australia
For BaptistCare Australia, we developed ‘YouChoose’, an online onboarding tool that enabled customers to personalise their individual care plans. We started by translating YouChoose’s credo of “care as individual as You” into an online sign-up process that would provide customers with a seamless and enjoyable experience. To achieve this, we conducted brainstorming sessions, workshops, and idea and concept development, which allowed us to identify the key features and functionalities that would make YouChoose stand out. Other parts of the research included the user story phase, which involved developing personas to represent the target audience and identifying requirements and functionalities of the service. With this information, we proceeded with wireframes and prototypes, which allowed us to test the user experience and refine it based on feedback. We continued to refine and test the product until we were confident that we had created a user interface design that was intuitive, easy to use and provided a personalised and engaging experience for each customer. As a result of our efforts, YouChoose won both the Best consumer-friendly product or system and Overall winner at the ‘Information Technology in Aged Care (ITAC) 2016 awards’.
Other work and client examples:
- Settlement Services International (SSI) – Not-for-profit organisation (Annual report, marketing brochures)
- Qbiotics – Novel anticancer and wound healing pharmaceuticals (visual identity, UI, B2C website)
- Stelfonta – Cancer treatment for dogs (visual identity, UI, UX, B2C website, marketing campaigns)
- Intermind – Psychotherapist (visual identity, UI, B2C website)
- Sixty – Well-being platform (brand story, visual identity, UI, UX, web and mobile apps)
- Novel Health – Health Care Provider (brand story, visual identity, website)
- Friends of the Dalai Lama Australia – (visual identity, website)
- Caritas Australia – (microsites, educational materials)
- Kim Beach – Fitness app (UI, UX, iPhone app)
- PocketShrink – Diagnostic tools for mental health (brand story, visual identity, UI, UX, mobile apps, website)
Sydney, Australia
October 2003 – October 2009 (6 years)
Work and client examples:
- Beer Wine and Spirits – B2C website (UI, UX)
- Thomas Dux – B2C website (UI, UX)
- Woolworths Limited – Intranet (UI, UX)
- Woolworths Limited – Intranet mobile (UI, UX)
- Laing+Simmons, Real Estate – websites, micro-sites, marketing assets (design)
- Richard and Wrench, Real Estate – brand alignment, websites, mobile-sites (UI, UX)
- VIVID Sydney, Photomash – website (UI, UX)
Berlin, Germany
3 days per week (parallel to university)
1996 – 2001 (5 years)
Project management for smaller teams (up to 5), exhibition design for installations, trade shows and conferences including user interfaces for information terminals and websites.
Berlin, Germany
Full-time
1992 – 1996 (4 years)
Managing projects, client liaison, exhibition design and concept creation related to city development.
Berlin, Germany
Full-time
Jan 1991 – Jun 1992 (1 year 6 months)
I worked as a home carer for older and/or people in need in retirement homes and aged care facilities.
LICENCES & CERTIFICATIONS
Foundations in Design Thinking, IDEO U
2023
EDUCATION
Berlin University of the Arts
Strategic communication and planning (1996 – 2001)
Berlin, Germany
LANGUAGES
English
German
ANYTHING ELSE
Pro bono work
Redfern Jarjum College, Sydney
Creation, hosting and maintenance of their website
Ongoing
AI, Architecture, Children (2), Coffee (double shot flat white with oat milk), Curious Minds, Design, Friends, Gadgets, Hiking, Laughter, Listening, Music (deep house especially), My Wife, Photography, Rowing (indoor), Sub-atomic Building Blocks that mess up the concept of time, Surfing, Technologies, Tennis, The idea of doing woodwork, Trees
Attribution: my picture here was taken by Simon Tobias
