Aljaž Vindiš's work includes designing solutions in the areas of IoT and digital twins, infographics and data visualisation, cartography and spatial orientation, and contextual research. His work to date has resulted in numerous business successes, excellent user feedback and professional recognition in the fields of design, journalism and statistics. He has helped over 10 companies launch new products and has been involved in the creation of 3 internationally successful teams. He has mentored over 20 individuals on their career path. He has delivered over 50 lectures, workshops and trainings.
Hi Aljaž. Your journey so far has been very eventful. From letters, to statistics, to digital products, to managing and setting up design teams. Where did it start and what brought you to this point?
All my life I have been in contact with both poles: the technical and the humanistic. For example, I came to the ALUO design studies from a secondary computer school. I have therefore always seen the opportunities for work and the higher value of my contribution in contact with the fields you mention.
In the search for my (final?) mission, I left myself a fairly free path, and tried what I could. At one time I would have called it a lack of focus, but today I am grateful for these experiences. They have made my approach more holistic. They help me to understand and motivate a broader spectrum of people when managing teams.
How would you describe what you are doing today? What is your (chosen) title?
Oh, that's the hardest question. (laughs)
If you ask me for my professional title, I like to describe myself as a designer/technologist. I specialise in digital products, especially those with a large amount of data or a high level of complexity: IoT solutions, analytics tools, cloud platforms, and so on. For this reason, I mainly work in the B2B segment, namely in foreign markets.
Today, I find myself mainly in the team role of principal designer, or product manager. Over the years, it has become clear that I help teams more with what to build than how to build it. Character-wise, I've always aspired to that, so it motivates me. I am actively developing myself further in this direction.
Can you show us a project that is one of your favourites? What was your role?
The best known is certainly Dnevnik, where I was head of the graphics and data desk. The weekly column "Objectively" was the first of its kind in the region. I must admit that I feel warmly welcomed when I talk to members of current initiatives at SURS, OPSI, the Tracker, and others. They often point to the example of Dnevnik as one of their role models, motivators.
Picture left: Sources of wealth of the richest people on Earth, source: vindis.io Image right: Templates of corrupt activities for the two largest public procurement contracts in Slovenia, source: vindis.ioBut the point is elsewhere. The media is a highly stressful environment, the deadlines are relentless. You are held accountable by your name, and readers notice even the smallest mistakes. The suspiciousness of journalistic colleagues is a professional quality. All of this means that you are forced to abandon traditional notions of the role and work of a designer. Start building from 0.
Without that experience, I would not be where I am today: both in terms of the complex, data-rich products I specialise in and in terms of my approach to work and team building. An example is my almost 5-year internship at 3fs, where, with a lot of internal collaboration, we fully integrated design into the development processes. The result is cutting-edge solutions such as the Kolektor Digital robot interface.
Figure: New process design after review with Kolektor employees, source: vindis.ioYou have also spent a lot of time setting up and managing planning teams. What is your experience? Where do you see the biggest challenges - both for designers and for companies that set out to build a design team?
This was not necessarily my goal, but a necessity. I like to work on longer initiatives that gradually build multi-faceted success stories. Whether it's the introduction of alternative journalistic practices in Dnevnik, or modern design methods in 3fs, such initiatives soon run into an obstacle: you.
Without the involvement of other designers, often from other areas of expertise, the initiative can no longer move forward. But it requires a mandate, and a financial investment. And if you want to receive these two (either from management or from outside) you have to start acting and communicating differently as an individual.
The challenges are mostly in this last point. Designers feel uncomfortable in a more business-like, managerial role; they resort to craftsmanship. Business leaders, on the other hand, see hiring a crafts designer, perhaps several of them, as integrating design into their business.
It is clear that you need a link: a design leader, of which there are few in Slovenia. After all, these few expect a proper mandate for their participation and compensation commensurate with their skills and experience. Are we willing to give them that?
We are involved in teams with product managers, developers and others. We often feel that we don't speak the same language. What can we do ourselves to be better understood and to increase the perception of our work?
You can take my course to get started. (laughs)
No, seriously, why repeat all the mistakes when we have already made them for you. It has never been so convenient and, last but not least, advantageous to get the knowledge to improve the terms of cooperation and increase your value in advance.
But it is mainly that we lack empathy and patience with our colleagues. Which is funny, because we have plenty of that for the users we love to defend. But what if we think of our colleagues as users and ourselves as the service they use?
Users have problems. They are looking for resources to solve them. These represent value to them. The more effective the remedy, the higher its value. If, when they use it, they are also treated with kindness, forgiveness of mistakes, ... they will come back, even recommend it. See where I'm going?
What do you think is the most important skill for designers and why?
Members of the development team at 3fs once told me what they envied about designers: that we have the ability to communicate clearly, in a structured and, above all, visual way. A good prototype could easily overwhelm any presentation, or demos of unfinished code. This can alienate the designers from the rest of the team, or become a channel for their empowerment.
What advice would you give to young designers at the start of their journey?
Craftsmanship skills are definitely a prerequisite for working in a certain environment. But they are relatively unimportant in the bigger picture. Why? Tools change, methods change. On top of that, real work almost never works according to the textbook examples given in professional articles.
The attitude with which you approach your work will be key to your success. That you are a learner. To be adaptable. Listening to other disciplines and working together to find solutions. You take literature as ideas and recommendations, not commandments. You can judge when to persevere and when to give in. You value impact, not products.
