2016 was a strange year. A great year personally, a devastating one on the bigger picture. Along terror, fake news and the rise of right-wing activists it was hard to spot some positivity. Nevertheless, humanity also made some excellent steps forward.

Personally, the year started calmly with fewer projects than expected. I had the time to revamp my portfolio and connect with new clients. I was happy to find two great agencies from Berlin which provided me with new projects. I helped Mondon Design & Goldener Westen mainly with UX/UI design and WordPress development for smaller and bigger brands.

I was significantly involved in the re-design and development of the website for Stimmt, a Swiss consultancy. I designed the web interface for the globally recognized audio manufacturer Adam Audio. And I worked on the UX/UI for two main products of a globally represented „mobile ad tech“ company. Due to NDAs, I can’t get more specific here.

Apart from working, I found time for two lovely vacations in the Mediterranean sea. Sardinia and Mallorca are great islands plus reachable in almost no time from Germany. Both islands feature superb beaches with water as clear as in the Caribbean. Great food and sunny days helped me to refill my batteries.

As the year was packed with work and life, I missed to update my WordPress themes and provided lazy-to-no support. I guess I lost some users, but at least my Themes are free and still used by more than 30.000 people around the globe. Updates are planned.

As a consumer, I found joy in listening to audio books – especially Monster 1983 and the bio of Elon Musk. My TV highlights were Game of Thrones and Westworld. The first title was just epic this season, and the latter had some good philosophical dialogues. I also have seen Star Wars – Roque One in an IMAX which was probably the best cinematic experience this year. My game of the year was undoubtedly Uncharted 4. Naughty Dog delivered – again.

2017 is ahead, and I expect significant growth of complex tech infrastructure. As a designer and developer, my job will shift from just designing/developing to solving complex and holistic problems. I also expect that AI will start helping us along the way. Interesting times await.