CV

Robert A. Paauwe — Curriculum Vitae

Design Lead • Design Strategist • Senior UX/UI Designer

Hi, I'm Robert! I'm an experienced design lead with a strong focus on teambuilding, stakeholder management, and complex problem solving. Domains I've worked in include pharma, energy, healthcare, finance, and government. My background in design and entrepreneurship helps me identify key opportunities to improve the user's experience, add business value, and finding the right balance between costs and benefits.
 
I have strong focus on UX/UI, teambuilding, stakeholder management, and product development. I am driven, methodical, a sponge for new knowledge, a real team player, and not afraid to venture into the unknown.
 
  • Experience in large corporates as well as startups.
  • Focus on design strategy & creating measurable impact.
  • Specialized in digital product design, from concept to implementation.
  • Extensive knowledge of software development, roadmaps and product management.
  • Lead for product teams (both design and development).

About

Day of birth:
October 2, 1987

Nationality:
Dutch

Residence:
Apeldoorn, The Netherlands

Pronouns:
He/Him

Languages:
Dutch, English, German

Other interests:
Illustration, hiking, videogames, playing guitar, robotics, woodworking, prototyping

Portrait of Robert A. Paauwe

Skills & Tools

UX / UI

  • Figma
  • Sketch
  • Adobe XD
  • Invision
  • Zeplin

Design

  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe Premiere
  • HTML / CSS

Code / Prototyping

  • Python
  • JavaScript / P5.js
  • Arduino / Processing
  • R
  • Git

3D / CAD

  • AutoCAD
  • SolidWorks
  • Rhinoceros
  • Maya

Experience

Design Lead - Insurance

Rabobank • Full-time

Utrecht, The Netherlands

Jun 2021— Present 

Design Lead — Insurance & Pension

Rabobank • Full-time

Utrecht, The Netherlands

Jun 2021 — Present

As a design lead at Rabobank, I'm responsible for the design team working on all insurance (verzekeren) customer journeys within the Rabobank Design Chapter. As the design lead, I am responsible for the team, design quality, improving existing journeys, and developing new journeys.

Design Lead — Digital Platform Consumers (interim)

Rabobank • Interim/Full-time

Utrecht, The Netherlands

Feb 2023 — Jul 2023

Interim role during maternity leave of a colleague. I was responsible for the design team working on the digital design & experience in the Rabobank app for consumers. Topics included app-navigation, insights, transaction timeline, and onboarding. 

Senior UX/UI Designer

RMDY Creative • Full-time

Antwerp, Belgium

Feb 2020 — May  2021 

At RMDY, I am a senior UX/UI consultant that focuses on conceptual and technological design of digital products. From idea to implementation with additional technical expertise in product management, roadmaps, and software development (Python, JavaScript, Node.js). Besides designing great user-experiences, I plan and manage feasible technical roadmaps towards successful implementation.

Senior UX/UI Designer

VDAB • Contract

Brussels, Belgium

Feb 2021 — May 2021

For VDAB (contracted under RMDY), I worked on education (Opleidingen, Vind een Opleiding) of the main website, as well as on internal tools for consultants. My responsibilities included designs in Figma, creating HTML/CSS mockups, and managing stakeholders.
 

Product Lead

Johnson & Johnson • Contract

US / Belgium

Sep 2020 — Dec 2020

Within J&J, I was responsible as product & UX lead for a React webapp that supported the collection, cleaning, and submission of data to an operational database. Within this short project, my key responsibilities were determining the (technical) roadmap & UX, management of the backlog in JIRA, and leading the product team. Other tasks included determining the tech stack, updating the designs based on user feedback, managing different stakeholders, and the management, documentation, and testing of the webapp implementation.

Senior UX/UI Designer

Atrias • Contract

Brussels, Belgium

Feb 2020 — Nov 2020

My responsibilities at Atrias are developing their first design system and preparing the organization to include design & design thinking in future projects. The Atrias design system includes guidelines and component documentation, a new Figma library and a React package for Atrias to kickstart new projects. In parallel to the design system, I redesigned the Atrias public website (go-live September 2020).

Advisory Board Member - AAL Guardian

AAL • Freelance

Sep 2020 — Mar 2023

The AAL GUARDIAN advisory board meets several times each year to reflect on progress, milestones, and next steps for the European program Active Assisted Living (AAL) project GUARDIAN. The project consists of a cloud platform that connects a social robot companion and caregiver apps to support home care nurses and helps seniors to maintain independence in their own homes.

Lead designer, product owner & co-founder

Tinybots • Full-time

Rotterdam / Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Oct 2015 — Sept 2019

At Tinybots, we developed Tessa; a small social robot that supports people with dementia and people with other cognitive impairments. As one of the co-founders of Tinybots, I have been involved with the company from day one. My primary role was leading the product team and managing the roadmap. Other core tasks include interaction and design of the robot, as well as designing UX and the UI of the accompanying app.

Visiting Lecturer

Glasgow School of Art • Contract

Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

Oct 2011 — Sep 2017

I designed and taught a course on interaction design and prototyping using Arduino for second year B.Sc. design students. The course taught students how to design different interactions and learn how to prototype and program using Arduino. The 1-week course was part of the standard design curriculum at GSoA.

Education

M.Sc. Design for Interaction

Delft University of Technology

2009-2012, Delft, The Netherlands

B.Sc. Industrial Design Engineering

Windesheim, University of Applied Sciences

2004-2008, Zwolle, The Netherlands

HAVO Natuur & Techniek

Windesheim, University of Applied Sciences

1999-2004, Raalte, The Netherlands

Selected presentations

Design thinking, social technology & robotics: Tessa

Invited speaker on behalf of This Happened! #13

2018, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Interaction design & prototyping with Arduino

Invited teacher for workshops on behalf of the Glasgow School of Art

2011-2017, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

Tessa: the social robot that is all about people

Invited speaker on behalf of the Dutch Embassy in Brazil for Hospitalar 2017

2017, São Paulo, Brazil

Designing for dementia

Invited speaker on behalf of the Embassy of Health during the Dutch Design Week 2017

2017, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Scaling up robotics and domotica for active and assisted living

Invited speaker by ZonMW for eHealthweek 2016, awarded top speaker

2016, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The science & fiction of designing robots

Invited speaker for Creative Mornings Turin 2015

2015, Turin, Italy
Photo of Robert A. Paauwe presenting at a conference. The robot Tessa is on screen behind him

Selected publications

Minimal Requirements of Realism in Social Robots — Designing for Patients With Acquired Brain Injury

R.A. Paauwe, J.F. Hoorn, E.A. Konijn, D.V. Keyson. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

2015, Seoul, South Korea

Designing Robot Embodiments for Social Interaction: Affordances Topple Realism and Aesthetics

R.A. Paauwe, J.F. Hoorn, E.A. Konijn, D.V. Keyson. International Journal of Social Robotics 7-5

2015

Fake It or Make It? Tools and Toys for Prototyping Connected Products

R.A. Paauwe, D. de Roeck. Cover story of CRISP Magazine #3

2014

Interweaving Digitality in the Fabric of Design

D. de Roeck, A. Standaert, R.A. Paauwe, S. Verwulgen, C. Baelus, P.J. Stappers. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education

2012

Teaching Interaction Designers to Sketch in Software

R.A. Paauwe, W.A. Aprile, A. van der Helm. Proceedings of Edulearn 12

2012

Selected awards

  • Winner Monuta-Sprout Challenge: 100 ideeën over afscheid
  • Top speaker & session eHealthweek 2016
  • Startup winner NRC Live IoT Forum
  • Winner Rotterdamse Startersprijs 2016
  • Best poster award 2015, GSSS Graduate School
  • Exhibited designs at the Torino Eataly festival 2010 and at the London Metropolitan University