Today, our limelight is on Akinwunmi Olaniyi, a product designer in the creative services team. Niyi started designing products about 3 years ago and has designed some mobile applications, websites, and assisted several brands to improve their user experience. You can find Niyi on Twitter & Instagram.

Let’s meet Niyi
My name is Akinwunmi Olaniyi, I am a Product Designer. I enjoy dancing, listening to music, making new friends, eating and sleeping. I started Product Design as a career fully about 3 years ago, and since then, I have designed some mobile applications, websites, and generally assisted brands to improve their user experience.
What does design mean to you?
Design is problem-solving, it’s creating solutions that make people’s lives easier.
What led you into design?
My desire to create solutions and solve problems, to know how and why things worked the way they do. I have always wondered; when you click a button or perform a simple action in a flow- what happens, where does it go, what is behind the button that makes the action even work? For me, it has always been about the 2 Ws and H (What, Why and How).

What does your typical workday look like?
Well, since this is Lagos, Nigeria, the city where ‘no one ever sleeps’, I’d say, up at 5/6am, ready for 7 am departure, get to work and clock in at 9am, say my prayer before any work begins, read my emails, respond to the ones I have to, then straight into Figma to begin designing. Along the line, lunch comes, I have a nice meal, watch some inspirational videos about human-centered design, designing for everyday things/people, Figma tutorials on latest trends, read medium, dribble, go around the office and crack up some colleagues and do this every day, Monday to Friday on repeat.
How do you make sure your design meets the objective(s) of the brief given by your stakeholders?
I read the brief, try to understand the primary and secondary objectives which in this case would be the functional and business goals. It could also mean, what problems are we trying to solve here. As a product designer, you must remember, you are a thinker, somewhat a psychologist — in that you must think through the process of design, interaction, flow, feedback, basically become the user. This is not a copy and paste work, you are not a painter. I work closely with the product owner and members of my team, together we work through the issues.
What is your design process?
So basically, I have coined my own acronym that helps me remember and guide my design process. I call it URADLA which stands for Understanding the problem- I see a lot of designers just jump into solutions, and yes I am guilty sometimes too, but many times with design, you do not just give the people what you think they want, you have to understand what works for them and how it works for them, always remember the user. Research, I go to dribbble.com, awwward.com, behance.com, medium.com, google.com, to get inspiration as well as see current trends. Research helps you solve a problem faster. Analyze, I check if the proposed solution is workable with my personas. Design, now I do a sketch and do the real flow — wireframes and prototyping come in. Launch, I do a test launch, get feedback, make corrections and adjustments before I analyze again.
What challenges do you face at work as a designer?
Hmmm, wow, I would say working with people who do not understand that design is not just pretty graphics, colors, fonts, buttons, etc. or how you manage spaces in an app or website, it is a real-life problem-solving career. I like to collaborate a lot. When product managers/owners come with requests, sometimes as little as changing the color of a button, I give it a second look to understand the real problem. Sometimes, it turns out an entire redesign is needed. Like I always tell my partners, do not come to me with a solution in your head, come to me with a problem and we can solve it together.
What’s your workstation setup?
My system, in this case, a Mac (they never fail me), with my design software. my earphones with music mix by Dj consequence, water for hydration, snacks to always chew on, and my space. I work better, faster when I have fewer people or no one around me.

What do you think design would evolve in the future?
I think design will be much more understood, people will understand the ‘what’ and ‘why’. That way, they would ask fewer questions and figure out things quicker.
How do you collaborate with other members of the design team to achieve your goals?
Figma already has a real-time collaboration feature, so my team members can see my work, product managers can see design progress, updates, etc. by just having access to a link. Where necessary, we have a sprint to understand ourselves better.
How do you keep yourself updated on all the latest design trends?
I read design articles on sites I have already mentioned, I watch lots of YouTube videos, I copy and practice new designs and trends.
What is your favorite quote?
‘Many are called, few are chosen’ -Matthew 22:14

