Martijn van de Zuidwind

A designer doing sites, apps & such

Mail
for inquiries

LinkedIn
for that connect

Work

Gys

Restaurant Gys approached me with a fairly simple question: can you fix some overlapping website buttons customers use to make table reservations?

After a couple of drinks (non-alcoholic of course!) and a strategy session, we found a more interesting problem: a lot of guests assume the restaurant is a lunchroom. While Gys does serve lunch, they open at 10:00 and close at 21:30. I like to eat lunch at random times, but that's definitely not lunchtime in my book. Gijs Werschkull, owner of the restaurant, agreed with me that we should explore the problem further.

I came up with a concept: in the morning the crew is ready to pour you a coffee to-go. In the afternoon there is plenty of space to work or relax with friends. Time for a drink after work? Eating out with the whole family? Gys is there for you, at any time of day.

When proposing the concept as a question, the crew is able to explore answers inside the restaurant: how might we let guests come into contact with different experiences throughout the day?

We set out to answer that question through a renewed identity, visual language, website, print and social media assets.

We translated the concept to a new visual language and integrated it into the ux: what you see is determined by the time of day.

A photograph of the inside of the restaurant. A drawn on arrow points at the shape of the window.

A nice little detail: the windowing in the restaurant has the same shape as the sunrise we use in the visual language. The old logo is still present though. Reminder to self: snap the exact same picture with the new logo. Maybe no arrow? I mean, it's pretty obvious, right?

An example article on the new website. It shows a title, header image and starting paragraph.

Gys’ crew is able to use the new site as a fully featured marketing channel for cross medial campaigns: visitors are able to digest useful content to learn about the restaurant or pick up a new recipe, they can order food or book a table and catch up on the latest news on other marketing channels like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Spotify.

Six cut off Instagram Stories showing a diverse set of imagery and text promoting experiences at the restaurant.

The crew is able to express the new visual language and concept in a multitude of ways on social media platforms.

Two portrait oriented illustrations next to each other. The first image shows a person and a dog on a surf board paddling in a giant cocktail. The second image is a person laying on a giant slice of lemon in orange water.

And look what illustrator Sjoerd van Leeuwen did with the concept for the gift cards the restaurant can sell. I wish it wasn't so cold outside. These drawings help a bit.

A phone dislaying the new site. The active page is the menu, on which a first menu item is visible: scrambled eggs. Above the item sits a row of buttons with labels like 'breakfast', 'lunch', 'high tea' that bring the user to that group of menu items on the page.

Starting to see a pattern in my mobile navigation designs? Heh. Pattern. Sorry, designer jokes.

Client

Gys


Development

Jori Regter


Design

Identity

Prototyping

Iconography

Visual design

Visual language

Interaction design


Content

UX copy

Social media assets


Process & strategy

Concept

UX strategy

Brand strategy

Content strategy

Project management

Digital strategy consultation


Print

Gift cards by Sjoerd van Leeuwen

Beer label

Collection cards

Menu w/ Nick Lutgerhorst


Extra shout out

Nick Lutgerhorst for some help with the logo

Smaller bits

Eurofiber – 2021

A collection of components designed for the new Eurofiber.

Eurofiber has been a provider of industry-leading digital infrastructure since 2000. Together with the crew at iO, I redesigned their site.

An animation showing the mobile menu opening up to reveal a multitude of links to solution and product pages. At the end of the animation, the menu is closed with a button on the bottom of the phone screen to form a loop.

Eurofiber has many products, which I wanted to present elegantly. No hamburger buttons. Through the new mobile menu, users are able to quickly orient around their many offerings.

An animation showing an overly large cursor moving inside the the frame to click on a card.

I see you looking at that cursor, thinking, "it can't be that big, right?". And you're correct about that. It's fake. But the funnel supporting different sized organisations isn't.

Kapitaal — 2020

Thumbnail showing Kapitaal's homepage.

They said Helvetica, black and white. We gave them Helvetica, black and white.

Thumbnail showing the navigation for Kapitaal's website.

Through information architecture, we kept the navigation structure simple as pie. Or hamburger, in this case. Sorry, designer jokes.

Video showing a button changing labels while it moves down. First label: book table. Second label: Really. You should book. Third label: Are you gonna book a table or what? Fourth label: JEEz Louis. HOW MUCH CONVINCING DO YOU NEED?

Scrolling through pages that contain buttons makes labels act funny. Because, why not be a bit forceful about booking a screen printing table?

It is always fun to pretend to work with Ramon & Carlien.
Project with Carlien Peijsel & Ramon Goedvree. Development by Rik Frieling.

No Seat at the table — 2020

Thumbnail showing a title card explaining No Seat at the Table.

No Seat at the Table is an online platform to exchange stories of gentrification, the housing crisis and the need for spatial justice.

The original bird illustration is created by Rajab Eryigit.

Thumbnail showing the opening animation for the website.

For this site, we created some fancy shmancy intro animations and different ways to discover stories of gentrification.

Thumbnail showing a mobile map-view.

Do you see that? No hamburger menu! On a mobile screen? No way. Just. Wow!

Thumbnail showing Minem pointing at a monitor that displays the website.

I like to take the time with clients to nail down certain steps in the design process. Minem and I are going through a review here.

Project with Minem Sezgin. Development by Rik Frieling.

Eneco — 2018

Thumbnail showing multiple designs for the Eneco app.

The Eneco app enables consumers to influence their energy bill by offering data on their power usage.

A general menu in the Eneco app

During my time we utilised click data, interviews and surveys to simplify the interface and user flows. We improved the menu through a card sort.

Thumbnail showing a close up of a stepper and a feedback message.

By following the Jobs to be Done model, we focused most of the redesigned interactions around the goals users have.

Thumbnail showing part of the sprint team during a usability test.

We also realised a bigger shake-up of the app through a design sprint.

Project with Dept & Eneco.

HR Projectadvies — 2018

As an interim project manager Erik Jan helps large corporates go through organizational changes. The renewed site expresses who he is: an expert with an approach that connects people.

Thumbnail showing an illustrated character drawing a checkbox.

We rewrote and restructured Erik Jan's previous website using a priority guide. We also used the guide to build wireframes. Not that that's related to this guy.

Thumbnail showing 4 combined illustrations.

When in doubt, add more illustrations. In this case, we created some abstract ones related to typical HR practices and skills.

Nick, chilling on the a museum floor.

I couldn't find a photo of Nick and me working on this project, so here's a photo of Nick in Voorlinden.
Project with Erik Jan van Dalen. Design & development with Nick Lutgerhorst.

Info

Martijn, looking straight into the camera.
Martijn, but now he's staring at paintings.
Also Martijn.
Also, also Martijn.
Also, also, also Martijn.
Also Martijn, but still no visible face.

I'm Martijn, a digital designer from Utrecht (NL) with around 10 years of professional experience.

While I focus on tinkering with interfaces and designing for curiosity, I appreciate being involved in branding as well. 

I like to think about friction in interaction design. 

Technology is an instrument meant to help us, which means it shouldn’t intrude when we don’t need it. By thoughtfully adding small amounts of friction to well-considered places, I believe that we can strike the right balance between maximising usability and maintaining an appropriate distance.

Another way I’d like to look at design is that it is a way of making the technology we use feel considerate, warm and natural. While this isn’t technology’s default state, I believe that we should use design to give us back some of that warmth. 

This means we should be focused on anticipating and solving a user’s problems before they ever have them. Ideally, a tool should be so intuitive and caring that we forget that it’s technology at all. It should just be there when it’s needed, and absent when it’s not.


Currently

Digital product designer at Parta – a method & platform for decision-making processes

Freelance designer – helping out friends, design studios and organisations

Guest lecturer at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences – Communication and Media Design


Previously

Lecturer at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences – Communication and Media Design's specialisation 'Human Centered Design'

Digital designer at iO

UX designer at Hike One

UX designer through secondment at SchaalX

Designer at Studio Airport


Collaboration is essential to create relevant work. In my freelance practice, I experiment with different approaches of collaboration, be it with clients, specialists in related fields and designers new to the game.

I’ve developed a strong interest in socially driven projects by being involved in ones such as restaurant Syr and Parta. It's also why I started lecturing at Communication & Multimedia Design in Utrecht. Are you working on a socially driven project? I’m always open to learn more. ☻


Some clients I worked for

University of the Arts Utrecht

Dutch Ministry of Culture, Education and Science

Into the Great Wide Open

Amsterdam Art Council

Sportbedrijf Rotterdam

Emergence Magazine

White Ribbon UK

Restaurant Syr

Zware Jongens

Greenpeace

Kapitaal

Pfizer

eBay


Main skills

Interaction design

Digital branding

Visual design


Also fine at

Concept development

Project management

Design education

Usability testing

Design Thinking

Design systems

Workshopping

User research

Iconography

Prototyping

UX writing

Kanban

Scrum

Agile

GTD


I play around in

Final Cut Pro X

Affinity’s suite

Adobe’s suite

Keynote

Sketch

Things

Notion

Figma

Miro

Jira

Office (with a face like this: 😤)


Mentions

It's Nice That – Tom Heerschop

Commarts – Tom Heerschop

Volkskrant – Syr

DUIC – Syr

NU – Syr

European Design Award – Amsterdamse Kunstraad

Honorable Mention – Amsterdamse Kunstraad

Honorable Mention – Tom Heerschop

Honorable Mention – Go Short

Honorable Mention – Inspire

DesignRush – Ruff


For inquiries

Mail me


If you’re into PDFs

Curriculum Vitae


Development by

Eurico Sá Fernandes and Jori Regter


Shout out to

Nikita Kuijpers. She shot the photo of me giving a talk.