Pantea Arabshahi

I am always trying to push myself forward and also sometimes others to make sure we do a great job. It is also important for me to form good relationships with people I work with and more importantly, the people I live with.

I am a User Experience Lead Designer at Franka Emika GmbH. My main tasks are to do user experience studies, robots’ software usability tests and create user interface design system, sometimes I also do some other design projects to support my team. Also, two friends and I founded the start-up company Mupixa. Mupixa is a platform that provides usability testing tools, analytic features and tools to UX designers, UI designers, developers and any company who program and design apps and web products.

The practical experiences at Macromedia have proven to be extremely helpful for me. I had the chance to work with different partner companies on different practical projects, which prepared me well for my career. Besides the practical side, the theories also played an important role in helping me gain a high level of academic knowledge.

During my studies, I had the chance to work on projects related to digital transformation. I worked on a project with FAZ which was about creating a new concept for a smart app. The second project was with Bosch Security Systems about IoT research wherein we conducted a user experience study on connected devices by applying design research methods. The goal was to develop innovative concepts and solutions for future homes. I learned a lot from each project, but my experience with Bosch ST stands out. It involved many user studies, team work and brainstorming. Also, because our project was chosen as one of the best projects by Bosch ST that year, I got the opportunity to write my thesis there as well, which was a wonderful experience.

After I earned my bachelor’s in Graphic Design in Tehran, I worked as a designer in an international advertising agency for four years. Digitalisation and digital media was quickly growing around that time. I became keen on learning about the media world and digitalisation. One of my colleagues introduced Macromedia to me and now I’m in Munich. I would definitely recommend Macromedia to anyone who wants to learn in a creative and international atmosphere and open up new opportunities for themselves.

Honestly, at the beginning, the whole education system was a complete shock to me. Everything was so different but in a good way. When I understood the concept of the education system at Macromedia, everything that I learned, every lecture and projects turned into my favourite moments. My class was very international, therefore, it was a great opportunity to learn about different cultures. Our trip to Italy in the last semester with Professor Faust was remarkable – not only because we had the chance to travel together but we also learned a lot about teamwork.

We were a small group which was great because our professors could provide us with individual guidance. Especially, for the master thesis, this was very helpful. On the other hand, because we were a small group, we did not get the chance to work with different people and different teams. I am still in contact with some of my classmates.

Openness to change is very important to me both personally and professionally. Coming to Munich was a huge change for me to begin with. Every moment at Macromedia and my German class, I experienced rich diversity and got along well with everyone. Discovering the world of digitalisation in a dynamic atmosphere was a great experience. Especially, learning about design thinking inspired me a lot and helped me expand my horizons.

Keep calm! Be open to change and prepare to experiment and learn.

I want to dig deeper to understand and discover my abilities and be confident about what I really want to do. One of the goals or dreams I have is to launch my own Startup in the near future.