Our IoT Heroes: Lukas Liese - UX Designer

What were your main reasons and motivations to join Security and Safety Things?

During my studies, before I joined Security and Safety Things, I have always been attracted by challenges outside my personal comfort zone. Here, for example, I am dealing with an industry I could not identify with in the first place: the security industry is partially rather traditional. Guiding this industry into the world of IoT is an exciting experience, and every day I learn a little more about what it takes to provide security companies with real added value.

What are the central values in your working environment?

What makes working here so special is the open communication within the company, even though my team is growing every day. We work together on an equal footing, everyone has an open ear for others. There is a culture of openness that offers plenty of room for ideas and individual development. All these elements create a sense of togetherness, driven by our vision to take the security industry to the next level in IoT.

“Every day I learn a little more about what it takes to provide security companies with real added value.”

What superhero power can you draw on when you need it?

As a UX designer I need to understand and analyse the problems and needs of our target audience to build processes and use cases that best meet their requirements. This role takes the ability to put yourself in the user's shoes. This is where my ability to empathise helps me a lot. By the way, empathy is also the key to great teamwork. Maybe that's why many of my colleagues have this superhero power too.

What are the most interesting topics you will work on here at Security and Safety Things and what will be the hardest tasks to solve?

UX design is not primarily about creating beautiful user interfaces. First and foremost I try to understand our users and their needs. This is the only way we can create a user experience that perfectly meets the expectations of an innovative product. Since we have different target groups the challenge is to meet many different requirements. Our marketplace for security camera apps, for example, must work for developers who market your products as well as for integrators who embed these apps into solutions for their customers. Each group consists of people with different requirements. That makes things complex.

“There is a culture of openness that offers plenty of room for ideas and individual development.”

What do you see as the main trends in IoT in a business context and from your perspective as a UX designer?

More and more security cameras will be connected and communicate independently in the IoT. This is already happening and is technologically not a witchcraft. The challenge will be to harness the growing amount of data generated in the IoT. Big Data itself has no advantage, it has to be transformed into knowledge for IoT to create real added value. This applies to all new applications in IoT. Only the added value creates acceptance and trust of the users in the new technologies. As a UX designer, I want to make it as easy as possible for users to achieve this added value.

Lukas, thank you very much for the chat and the opportunity to get to know you better.