< hello world >
my name is jan schäfer, communication designer (fh) from ulm (that's where one of the world's tallest space ships is located). welcome to my portfolio. feel free to reach out and contact me.
< concept >
concept is important. is it? no! ideas are important! but ideas are lost and compromised without a proper concept. so let's protect those fantastic ideas by providing them with evaluation, planning, design thinking methods, a concept that fits them or let's just run into the unknown with them and see how far it goes. every project has its individual concept approach. sometimes its let's do this! sometimes its lets think about how to do it, how to not do it or maybe we'll come across some new ideas. either way: developing a concept is crucial for every project. selecting the right tools and workflows is key. concept isn't important but concepting is!
< / project management methods, lead experience >
< ux design >
the challenge of good ux design is to become invisible. so users can go 'what are they (ux-designers) even working on all day? it does what it does.' all this testing, the design sprints, the overthinking of use cases - just to remain unnoticed? yes! does this website have a good ux design? no, because it wants to be seen.
< / prototyping tools, design thinking methods, ui design >
< development >
for most people it's hard to understand how satisfying developing software can be. especially coding is often referred to as something very abstract and hard to understand. yet developing requires very basic resilient techniques when you face a challenge: try it on your own, google (or ecosia) it, seek through online forums (thanks, stack overflow), talk to a friend about it, ignore red errors, try something unlikely, refresh, refresh, refresh, post on an online forum (thanks, stack overflow), explain the problem to a rubber duck, have a coffee, turn off and on again, read specialist literature and if none of this works: have a break and start over. always be consistent and learn from your mistakes ;
< / webtechnologies (mostly frontend, hybrid apps and webxr), game engines (unity3d and unreal engine), native mobile apps (android & ios) >
< technology >
i'm a fan of new technolgies. my diploma work was an augmented reality application for android (in 2014- when it was still generally mispronounced). when i first entered the vr powerwall during my studies it hit me so hard, i havent recovered yet. when it comes to technology i can't help but imagine all the opportunities. all those possibilities still to discover. implementing apps, experiences for ar/vr/mr, implementing digital products, being everywhere at once, making experiences beyond physical boundaries... what a time to be alive. but i also learned that technology always needs explanation and purpose. nobody bought centripetal force until bikes came along.
< / mobile, web, ar/vr/mr >
< want to see some work examples? >
most projects belong to customers, so if you want to see examples please contact me and tell me what you are interested in.
< professional background >
< 01|2020 >
xr consultant
< 11|2018 >
xr dev
< / 12|2019 >
< 09|2016 >
project leader ar applications
< / 10|2018 >
< 09|2015 >
web developer
< / 08|2016 >
< 03|2014 >
interaction designer
< / 08|2015 >
< 03|2012 >
new media lecturer - design patterns, object oriented programming
< / 02|2014 >
< 02|2009 >
diploma (fh) communication design -new media
< / 02|2012 >
< 01|2009 >
software dev
free agent
< / 03|2014 >