About Serena Westra
Playful by nature and entrepreneurial at heart, Serena Westra is a Global Strategic Experience Designer at IKEA in Amsterdam. She is passionate about creating digital solutions that make life better for people and the planet. Operating at the intersection of business and design, she turns ideas into meaningful experiences that actually work, with a sprinkle of storytelling on top.
At IKEA, she’s closely involved in IKEA’s second-hand peer-to-peer marketplace. Before joining IKEA, Serena worked as (service) designer at several design agencies across multiple industries. Serena is an international speaker and loves to bring people together and nerd out on design topics.
Vision on UX
I see that the role of designer is shifting from hands-on producer, towards art director and strategist. AI is getting better every day at producing content, but AI can only bring us so far: experts are needed to select the right content, ask critical questions, and find the solution that is just right. It takes a trained eye and an open, generalist mindset.
Moreover, I see that we need to look beyond desirability. Solutions have a better chance of success when you combine desirability with feasibility and viability. We need to provide the right data to our stakeholders to make good business decisions. To do this, we need to test as soon as possible, experiment, and debunk assumptions.
