# Elia Group Senior UX/UI designer for Elia Group and 50Hertz, working on internal and external tools using the Nova design system. From April 2025 to February 2026 I worked at Elia Group via Koda as a Senior UX/UI designer. Elia Group is a European transmission system operator that ensures secure high voltage electricity transmission and system balancing in Belgium (Elia Transmission Belgium) and northern and eastern Germany (50Hertz), supporting cross border trade and large scale renewable energy integration. My assignment was to contribute to several internal and external products at the same time, improving UX where needed, keeping UI coherent, and aligning with the Nova design system. ## Context Many of the tools I touched sit inside grid operations, planning, modelling and communication with market parties. Instead of a single product focus I stepped into multiple running projects at once. Each had its own scope, timelines and legacy setup. Other designers were typically focused on one or two initiatives. I moved between several in parallel. The tools ran on different platforms and used different versions or interpretations of Nova. Some screens still reflected older patterns, others mixed newer components, and there were custom solutions where the design system could have been applied more consistently. ## Challenge There was no flagship “broken” product. The challenge was the mix: several complex tools at different levels of maturity, each with its own UX issues and its own interpretation of Nova. Practically that meant: - multiple products and teams in parallel - a complex domain (electricity market and grid operations) - different tools and platforms with legacy implementations and various Nova versions - limited time per product for deep discovery while delivery kept going The work was about making flows and screens clearer and more consistent, while nudging tools closer to a shared design system. --- ## Role I worked as a Senior UX/UI designer embedded in several product teams and took the lead on design for a number of them. Rough split of my time: - ~50% detailed UI design in Figma - ~20% user flows and wireframes - ~20% Nova design system usage and component work - ~10% workshops and alignment across designers and teams I collaborated with a UX researcher, business analysts, product owners, other designers and the Nova team. The focus was to make flows understandable, interfaces predictable, and specifications clear enough for development to implement with minimal back and forth. On several projects I owned the design work: shaping the UI, adjusting UX where it was unclear, and keeping things close to Nova instead of introducing new one off patterns. --- ## Process The work unfolded in a few overlapping steps: 1. onboarding and learning the domain 2. contributing design fixes and improvements to running projects 3. new design work for key tools (internal messaging, grid model aligner, power factory to 15 minute MTU) 4. alignment with Nova and related component design 5. implementation support once designs moved into development Because of the complexity of the subject matter I relied on the UX researcher and domain experts to validate ideas. Advanced prototypes helped product owners, business analysts and developers see complete flows instead of isolated screens. Most of my time went into: - prototyping flows and interactions - small workshops and design critiques with designers and the Nova team - walking through design decisions with non design stakeholders - documenting patterns and edge cases for developers and designers --- ## Concrete work Some of the visible work across Elia and 50Hertz: - redesigned flow for the internal messaging system at 50Hertz - key screens for the grid model aligner - complete UI for the power factory to 15 minute MTU project - documentation that combined existing patterns into new component designs - contributions to the wireframing toolkit library in Figma to make early exploration and specifications more consistent A lot of this was about details: hierarchy, spacing, states and feedback, and making sure users always had a clear “what happens next”. --- ## Nova and design system Different tools implemented different parts of Nova. Some screens mixed patterns from various stages of the system’s evolution. Others had custom UI where Nova could have been reused. My contribution here was to: - map how patterns were used across tools - clarify behaviours of components in real flows - assemble existing patterns into new components where the flows required it - document usage so designers and developers could make more consistent choices This reduced the number of unique, one off solutions and brought several products closer to the system. --- ## Collaboration and effect The effect of this work showed up in small, steady improvements rather than big launches: - more consistent use of Nova patterns across the tools I worked on - clearer flows on key screens, with fewer “what do I click now” moments - improved UX on critical interactions, not only on happy paths - design details that were previously easy to overlook being handled more systematically - product owners and business analysts discussing design in terms of flows and patterns, not only individual screens Feedback reflected that. The UX researcher I worked with highlighted the detailed nature of the work, the speed of getting designs ready, and the smooth collaboration. One of the product teams mentioned they were happy with the delivered designs and how they fit into their existing tools. Overall it was steady, incremental design work in a high stakes environment: improving existing tools, designing new parts, and aligning everything with a design system that was still evolving.