design with focus on the user.
about me
Hi, I’m Roman van Maaren. A 25-years-old designer born and raised in Dordrecht, the Netherlands.
My interests have been in the field of digital design for more than 10 years now, professionally for over 3 years.
Design is more than just my work, it’s my passion. I spend a lot of my free time on keeping up with current trends and new products. Staying on top of the market at all times!
skills
Digital Design – UX design – UI design – Front End development – Animation – Internet & social media marketing – Concepting – Illustration
tools
Adobe Illustrator – Adobe XD – Sketch – Adobe Photoshop – HTML – CSS – CMS (WordPress, Joomla) – After Effects – InDesign
interests
Artificial Intelligence – Virtual and Artificial Reality – Digital and product trends – Blockchain
My work
Bylder
An all-in-one home improvement platform
the project
Bylder is a new startup focused on bringing everything you might need for home improvement in one place. They contacted me for a full design for the beta version of their platform to attract investors and future customers. This included pages for information, a tool to let users plan their own home-improvement and an online shop.
An innovating design was needed to fit with their vision of the future.
role
My role for Bylder.com was full visual and UX designer. Together with Bylder I worked on finding the best possible solution in the time we had.
Next to my tasks as a designer I helped the team with concepting and coming up with new and innovating ideas to help get Bylder at the top of the market.
duration
This project took about two months. I worked on the full visual design at their office in Vught.
Making it fit perfectly
Before we could get started on finding solutions I had to know who the ideal customer would be. Bylder already had the research done on their target audience. I worked together with them to see how we could translate this into an online environment.
The biggest challenge was getting across the platform to new users, making sure they would see the problems that Bylder was solving. This is why I started with a focus on the landing page, letting this set the mood for the whole project.
With the goal of bringing across the platform in mind, I began finding the key points to get across to the users. Making sure to keep the core values of both the platform and users in mind.
What makes Bylder stand out from other players in the market? How do we makes sure we offer the best experience? These are just a few of the questions I needed to work out before getting to designing. Only after getting these written out and discussed with others I could move on to the sketches.
Setting up the landing page
With all the goals set out I began sketching ideas for the landing page on paper, keeping in mind the possibilities in development on short term. This allowed me to get an idea of how the final product would end up.
The sketches formed the base for the wireframes. These gave a clear impression of the layout, focusing on keeping the concept clear. Making sure that every part of the platform got attention. Fitted for both desktop and mobile devices.
By keeping every section as short as possible we got to a landing page it that contained everything without telling so much that users would lose track.
Without using too much visual expression, the wireframes for the landing page gave us a good sense for where we were headed to.
Getting the whole picture
With the wireframes for the landing page set I could move on to the rest of the website. Starting with sketches and wireframes for the home-improvement tool that lets users set up their own project in a clear and fast way. Moving to wireframes for the online shop after.
By communicating my choices as much as possible I managed to design a platform that solved all problems that Bylder set out to achieve to fix,
Moving to visuals
The next thing I had to work on was a style guide for Bylder and its platform. Making Bylder seem both professional and approachable.
These were later translated into a visual design for a landing page. Letting this set the base for the whole website.
I personally added comments for the developers to all pages. Making the task of coding as easy as possible for the developers and at the same time preventing as many errors as possible.
By setting up a style guide we made sure that Bylder wouldn’t just be a random collection of different tools, but fit in with the users perfectly. Bringing together all products into one neat package.
The result:
Even though this project had to be finished in a relatively short span of time, I still managed to get everything done above expectations. Bylder turned into a project that both me and the client can be proud of.
Dentalair
A growing Dutch dental depot
the project
Dentalair Consumables hired me after they launched their new website. They needed someone to oversee the webshop and make sure that it would become up to industry standards.
It was clear that their current database with products had become clouded over the years. They needed help getting everything in order, setting the way for the future.
role
I was responsible for both overseeing and assisting in clearing up their database, concepting for new and current functions, a full UX & visual redesign and giving support to customers of the webshop. Giving a fresh new look to the webshop that was both functional as pleasing to look at, without costing too much in development.
duration
This project took about 10 months. I was one of the people in charge of the webshop which I worked on at their office in Dordrecht.
Finding the way
The challenge for this project was getting all their current product data in order. Making sure that from now on their catalog would be in top shape.
Over the years the Dentalair webshop had been filled with products that their customers needed. With nobody around to oversee this process they ended up with a catalog that was full of products, making it harder for customers to find what they needed.
Dentalair, a big player in the dental market for over 30 years, had a good understanding of their customer needs but needed help bringing this into the online space. I was asked to think of creative solutions for this problem. At the same time being one of the main contacts for colleagues and customers.
Cleaning up
For more than five years they’ve been using Accountview, an administration program that tracks all product, order and customer data. The problem was that there was no set process for adding products to this system. Causing a lot of unclarity and problems when searching through their database.
After some discussions, I worked together with my colleagues to set up a work instruction for making new articles. I used this instruction to see if I could find a way to fix most of the current problems and obscurities. By using different formulas I was able to fix a lot of those problems.
Displaying the data
With the website they launched before hiring me they made almost no progress on the field of UX or design in general. I wanted to change this and began sketching out improvements and new functions.
All of this was done with a close connection to my colleagues, most of them in the business for over 5 years, This gave me a clear idea of the needs for the customers.
Getting visual
With the current website in mind I began designing the wireframes and visuals for the changes that needed to be made to the webshop. The top priority being that customers could find everything as easy and fast as possible.
The result ended in a webshop layout that was a simple as possible. At first sight, showing only the parts that were needed for a placing simple order. Allowing customers to order in only a few clicks, without searching for buttons.
A clear style guide helped to keep everything together. Making functions that were important as obvious as possible.
More than just a webshop
My redesign went further than just the current functions. I made a full visual design for a tool that allowed customers to find cheaper alternatives to products and a tool that helped representatives keep up with clients easier than ever. These tools will be going into development soon.
The result:
Dentalair is set to be one of, if not the biggest player on the market in the near future. Now they will have a website that shows this position, assisting their customers better than ever before.
Marie Cecile Thijs
A photography website with personality
the project
Marie Cécile Thijs, originally a lawyer, decided more than fifteen years ago to follow her love for the camera. She is specialised in staged photography. She contacted me for a new website that would show of her work in a way that would be just as original and artistic as her work.
Next to the frontend of the website she also needed a back-office in which she could keep stock of her work.
role
For this project I did everything from design to development in close collaboration with Marie Cecile Thijs. Building the website on top of WordPress to allow for easy additions and changes to the content.
duration
This project took about two months. I worked on the full design plus development of the website.
A digital exposition
Marie Cecile Thijs wanted a new fresh look for an upcoming exposition. In two months I set up a fully functional website with a CMS system behind it. A result to be proud of.
Due to the short timespan I used WordPress plugins to add a lot of new function to the website, which I edited so they fit this project perfectly.
The result:
A website that speaks for itself. Being both faster and much more unique than her old website.
View the website live at: mariececilethijs.com
Contact
I’m always available for any questions or just a casual chat. Hope to hear from you soon!
This is where you’ll find me:
Email: Roman@rvm.jaazo.nl
Phone: +31(0) 6 37 59 63 84