Thank you!

I would first like to thank my thesis advisors Prof. Jens Döring and Prof. Hartmut Bohnacker. The doors to both offices were always open whenever I ran into a trouble spot or had a question about my research or writing. Hartmut and Jens consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but steered me in the right the direction whenever they thought I needed it.

I would also like to thank the experts who were involved in the interviews for this research project: Prof. Gottfried Zimmermann (Stuttgart Media University), Philip Battin (Senior Design Strategist at Google), Wolfram Nagel (Author of MSUX), Claudio Guglieri (Design Director at Microsoft), Jeff Gothelf (Author of Lean UX), Ryan Lucas (Creator of Subform) and Dr. Daniel Sonntag (DKFI). Without their passionate participation and input, this thesis could not have been successfully conducted.

I would also like to acknowledge Larissa Schuppel and Jennifer Schneider as the second readers of this thesis, and I am gratefully indebted for their very valuable comments on this thesis and correction of my grammar mistakes.

Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my two grandmothers and to Jennifer Schneider for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Thank you!

— Sammy Schuckert