Designing the Invisible: How SKIDATA Creates Award-Winning Innovation
When great design feels effortless, it’s because a team of people has spent countless hours making it seamless. At SKIDATA, creativity, collaboration, and curiosity combine to produce technology that disappears into the background. Our Industrial Designer Danijela has been part of the design process for the highly awarded sMove gate from the beginning.
Award-Winning Ideas Start With Teamwork
SKIDATA recently received multiple global design awards for its product sMove, including well known Red Dot Award, the prestigious US-based IDEA Award and their special Jury Chair Choice Awards.
For the lead designer, the awards represent more than accolades:
“Design is more than just the visible part. The real achievement is that it works and that’s thanks to the team.”
sMove started as a wild, ambitious idea but it was only through constant collaboration with engineers, R&D specialists, and other stakeholders that the concept became reality. At SKIDATA, design doesn’t come at the end, it’s embedded from day one.
“An idea alone solves nothing. It only becomes valuable when it functions in reality.”
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A Culture that lets creativity breathe
Creativity thrives when people feel safe, supported, and included.
“You can only be creative when you feel you belong. When you’re not judged too quickly,” she says. “A bit of calmness creates room to experiment, to overshoot, and eventually to find the right solution.”
Belonging isn’t just about comfort it’s a catalyst for better ideas. In a team that encourages curiosity and openness, everyone’s thinking is amplified
The Challenge of reinventing something new
Developing sMove was unprecedented.
“There was nothing like it before. We had to invent many things simultaneously, making the system more and more complex until we realized we had to simplify it again.”
The process involved compliant mechanisms, cross-industry inspiration, early UX testing, and relentless prototyping. Halfway through, a significant part of the concept was verhauled, extending the timeline by, let’s say, a bit.
“The development process itself was almost more exciting than the launch.”
Innovation that works
At SKIDATA, innovation isn’t innovation if it doesn’t function perfectly.
“Innovation that doesn’t work is useless.”
Every idea is balanced with practicality. Inspiration comes from everywhere - even snow groomers in the case of sMove but every solution must enhance the user experience, not complicate it.
Designing from the source
A unique aspect of SKIDATA is how design is integrated directly into R&D. Unlike industries where design and engineering are siloed, here they collaborate from day one.
“Functionality is everything. Durability, reliability, longevity. That can limit design freedom, but it also pushes me to be more creative.”
The result is products that are not just beautiful, but intuitive, reliable, and seamless.
Advice for new team members
Her advice for anyone joining SKIDATA:
1. Be curious.
Explore the products, the history, and the people behind them.
2. Step outside your comfort zone.
Connect across departments and see how different teams work. “That’s where new ideas come from,” she says.
Seeing design in Action
The most rewarding moment comes when people use a product without even noticing it.
“That’s the goal. Access should feel natural. You shouldn’t have to think it should just work.”
Through UX testing and careful design, SKIDATA ensures technology adapts to people, not the other way around. The best products, she explains, are almost invisible: seamless, intuitive, and effortless.
SKIDATA’s design philosophy proves that innovation isn’t just about what you create, it’s about how you collaborate, the culture you build, and the seamless experiences you deliver to users.