A day in the life of Level Level – Tackling design dilemma’s with Andrée.

Of course we would love to see this tile for sale at Xenos, but you can’t have it all. A job with us, on the other hand, you can! What is life like at Level Level? In more serious language: what is it like to work with us?

Dealing with guidelines in the most creative way and making designs as accessible as possible. These are two of the many things which please Andrée most in her work as a Digital Designer at Level Level!

What is it like for you to work as a digital designer at Level Level? Can you put all of your creativity in it?

Yes, very much! I think we as designers have a lot of freedom in a project. Of course, we do have to take a client’s request into account. But because our discipline is dealt with at the beginning of a project, we have a lot of say in the conceptual and strategic part. This is the best part; I actually see it as a blank canvas in which your skill ‘creation’ as a designer is best expressed!

You’ve recorded an online course on accessible design for The A11Y Collective. Great! How do you make sure your design is accessible?

That’s right! The course “Accessible design, the basics” for the A11Y Collective. How I do that is, something I also mention in this online course, to start at the beginning. Accessible design is really a mindset that you have to teach yourself. It’s not a trick you can apply afterwards. Well, maybe you can, but it will cost you unnecessary effort and is a huge waste of your time. For me, the challenge really lies in dealing with guidelines in a creative way. On the other hand, it doesn’t differ that much from getting a briefing from a client; you then also have to deal with requests that you have to take into account. That’s also how I see accessible design, but then as a fixed element in every project. I think it’s a great challenge to create a visually strong website that can be used by everyone!

How do you start from scratch with a design for a new client?

That of course differs from project to project and it depends on what the client’s request is exactly. Personally, I like to broaden first. Then I try to absorb as much information as possible and gain inspiration. On the web, but also physically if possible. Besides wandering around the usual suspects (Dribbble, Behance, Pinterest etc.), I also keep a list of websites that inspire me or where I like a certain interaction. Every other month we also have an inspiration session with our design team, which aims to keep the quality of our work as high as possible and to investigate new things.

Of course, I also get a lot of information from creative sessions that we do with the client. For example, in one session we can be working on positioning the company, but in another session we are very focused on the user by making a customer journey together. I try to include all the information in this phase. In the end, the trick is to use all that information and inspiration to make the entirety smaller again and to pick out the right things. If you don’t do this, you risk ‘getting lost’ in all the information you have!

What would you like to develop further within Level Level in your role as a designer?

I think it is very important that digital accessibility is better understood by designers. Of course, as designers at Level Level, we have been working on this for some time now. Both in our own projects and with setting up The A11Y Collective. With The A11Y Collective we want to contribute to making the web more accessible. We want to make developers, designers, content writers, website owners (actually everyone!) more aware of what web accessibility means and how to take this into account. We see, for example, that web accessibility is still not treated as a subject at the Hogeschool. And that’s a shame. I am happy to be able to contribute to sharing this knowledge as a designer and hope to do so even more in the future. 

In addition, I think that this cliché is more than true; you’re never done learning. Even though I have been working in the profession for quite a few years since graduating. This is a profession in which you never stop learning, which is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much! ✨