Heiko Sacher
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Kailua-Kona, HI, United States
Toptal member since April 25, 2017
Heiko has more than two decades of experience with planning, managing, and executing UX designs for industry leaders like Apple, Motorola, Google, and Skype/Microsoft. His mobile user interfaces, messaging experiences, and immersive media interactions have shipped in millions of phones, tablets, and apps. Heiko is the co-founder of Studio Resilience, a design lab that creates digital art exploring humans' impact on our natural environment, offering hope through imagination, play, and action.
Portfolio
Sea Level Check | Citizen Science AR
Skype | Mobile Clients
Feedc | Connecting People and Places
Google | Android OS Design
DOC | Digital Optimized Care
Motorola | Smart Texting
Experience
- UX Prototyping - 20 years
- User Experience (UX) - 20 years
- Product Design - 20 years
- UX Strategy - 20 years
- User Interface (UI) - 20 years
- Sketch - 7 years
- InVision - 6 years
- Figma - 3 years
Tools
- Sketch
- InVision
Work Experience
Co-founder
Studio Resilience
- Co-founded Studio Resilience, a design lab that creates digital art, exploring humans' impact on our natural environment, offering hope through imagination, play, and action.
- Collaborated in developing Reef Hero Game, which brings to life the struggles that coral reefs face worldwide. It leverages the immersive qualities of a 3D game to make the consequential effects we have on this underwater ecosystem tangible.
- Cooperated in the Sea Level Check App design, which combines scientific projections with AR and live video to show how future sea levels may impact us on a personal or community level. It captures and shares what you see in a video loop.
- Collaborated in developing the Smog Selfie App, which generates AR face masks that show how bad the air pollution level is wherever you go. It lets you post a selfie to tell your friends how air quality affects your life.
Owner
Sacher Design
- Provided design services for experience strategy, concept definition, and design execution to clients.
- Created a complete app experience for Feedc, a social network centered around places on different scales, such as my city, country, world, etc.
- Translated real-world patterns of user roles and information flow in a clinic into a system experience. Conducted this on behalf of DOC, a medical startup that streamlines doctor-patient communication by using familiar social messaging patterns.
- Worked closely with the Workato founders on rapid iterations to get from a bare-bones proof-of-concept to a competitive product experience. Created the foundation for UI architecture and design language of Workato's automation platform.
Principal Design Manager
Skype
- Managed Skype's mobile design studios located in London, Palo Alto, and Redmond. Delivered coherent, signature experiences across phone and tablet apps used worldwide for millions of Skype calls.
- Set the direction for the designs of new mobile features, such as picture messaging, group video calls, and chat redesign.
- Led the efforts for Skype’s first release of their signature video calling experience in the browser.
Senior Android Designer
- Acted as the interaction design lead for Honeycomb's core operating system experiences, the first Android release tailored for tablets.
- Delivered the new or reframed solutions for overall navigation, home screen, app launcher, notification system, and text input.
- Collaborated with all stakeholders from product, engineering, and research to drive quick design decision-making.
Principal Design Manager
Motorola
- Created and evangelized UX strategies for location-based services, predictive text input, and voice recognition.
- Directed the consumer research and design teams while collaborating with senior-level business, engineering, and marketing partners.
- Led the experience development of iTap 6.0, an intelligent input solution included in Motorola’s phone shipping worldwide.
UX Design Principal
Point Forward
- Directed Point Forward's consulting in interactive product and service design. Developed and managed client accounts in Asia, Europe, and North America.
- Planned and executed the international ethnographic studies, design development, and usability evaluations. Included France Telecom and Ericsson as clients.
- Developed the first prototype systems for social networking and media with Ericsson Research.
Director of Interaction Design
GVO, Inc.
- Managed a multidisciplinary studio consisting of anthropologists and designers focusing on qualitative research and advanced user experience development for mobile devices, smart appliances, and complex web apps.
- Worked for clients that included Ericsson, Invensys, Creative, and Sun Microsystems.
- Designed the first multimedia messaging applications for Ericsson research.
Interaction Designer
Apple, Inc.
- Developed award-winning design concepts for early communication appliances at Apple's Advanced Technology Group, featuring unified experience principles across product design and software interface.
- Studied user behaviors and novel input interaction approaches in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan while at Apple's Singapore research center.
- Led the UX and visual design of Apple's Advanced Chinese Input Suite—the world's first integrated speech and pen input system for Chinese.
Education
Fulbright Scholar in Industrial Design
San Jose State University - San Jose, CA, USA
Master's Degree in Product Design
Hochschule für Gestaltung - Offenbach, Germany
Skills
Tools
Sketch, InVision, Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Apple Keynote, Origami
Languages
Visual Design Language
Platforms
iOS, Android, MacOS, Figma, Windows
Other
Prototyping, Management, Design Reviews, UX Strategy, Usability, UX Testing, iOS UI Design, Mobile UI, UX Architecture, Apps, Microinteraction Design, Concept Development, Design Management, Rich Media, Video Calling, Messaging, UX Prototyping, Digital Storyboards, High-fidelity Mockups, Experience Strategy, User Experience (UX), Design Leadership, Information Architecture (IA), User Flows, Conceptual Design, Interaction Design (IxD), Expert Reviews, Screenflows, Screen Design, Device Interaction, Mobile UX, iOS App Design, UX Research, Product Design, User Interviews, Wireframing, UI Design, Design Systems, UX Review, Augmented Reality (AR), Immersive Experiences, User Interface (UI), Mobile App Design, Mentorship & Coaching, Design Strategy, Android Design Guidelines, Intelligent Character Recognition, SaaS Design, Responsive UI, Social Networks, Android App Design, UX Documentation, Web UI, Medical Software, Layout, Web UX, Adobe UX, iOS UX Design, UX Design, Smart Devices, UI Research, Ethnographic Studies, Speech Recognition, Internationalization
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