UX is for Life – Konrad Baumann

von | Aug. 6, 2025 | Education, UX Strategy

The Value of UX

The Value of UX with Konrad Baumann

Konrad has been teaching UX for more than 10 years, and he believes it’s a job that will stay important for a lifetime — even in the age of AI. He sees UX as a way to help businesses grow, help users stay safe and happy, and even help save lives, especially in critical areas like healthcare or transport. But UX is more than just work: it connects people, creates joy, builds trust, and brings value in every part of life — from branding to teamwork. That’s why he loves teaching it. For him, UX is not just a profession — it’s a way to improve the world, every single day.

Key sentence: UX brings value to people, companies, and society — and it’s a skill for life.

About the expert

Konrad Baumann
Konrad Baumann

Professor @ FH JOANNEUM

Since 2000 I am a full-time teaching staff member, meanwhile in the position of Senior Lecturer, at FH Joanneum University of Applied Science in Graz, Austria. I have been awarded the job title Professor (FH).
At FH Joanneum’s Institute of Design and Communication, I regularly offer seminars in the field of User Experience Design and Usability Testing within the study programs of Information Design (BA) and Interaction Design (MA).
Besides that and not regularly I have been lecturing in User Experience Design at Danube University in Krems, Austria, and at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria.
Since 2000 I have been a supervisor for around 100 students in their bachelor’s and/or master’s theses, and establish connections between students or graduates and industry that often led to successful career paths for graduates, mainly in the field of UX/UI design.
Before my academic career I worked in industry with Mikron Identification Gratkorn (meanwhile NXP), Philips Semiconductors, and Philips Consumer Communications (meanwhile Sagem) in Vienna, Austria, as product manager for user interface design and usability engineering.
I am co-author of two books:
K. Baumann & B. Thomas „User Interface Design for Electronic Appliances“, Taylor & Francis 2001.
K. Baumann & H. Lanz „Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstellen elektronischer Geraete“, Springer 1998.
I was project leader of the perception lab „VisionSpace“ that was established at FH Joanneum within a funded research project in 2004.
I hold a PhD from Vienna University of Technology and a master’s degree in Telematics Engineering from Graz University of Technology. My dissertation „How Designers Teach“ focuses on methods of design education which is still one of my main research interests.
I have been a board member at the International Institute for Information Design www.iiid.net
My fields of interest, research, and teaching include user experience design, interaction design, usability engineering, usability testing, didactics of design, and international academic exchange programs.