How I Became A Designer — Part I
My first, hands-on experience using a personal computer started when my dad called 911. I was nagging my dad so much about buying a personal computer that he turned it into an emergency situation. All jokes aside, he did call 911 to ask the operator for the customer service phone number for Dell Computers. Yes, you would be right to assume that the phone conversation was a rather unpleasant exchange between my dad and the operator. My memory is a little hazy since this happened about 18 years ago, but as I recall, my dad actually managed to get the Dell customer service phone number by the end of that “emergency” phone call.
Yellow Pages: 0
Dad: 1
When we first landed in America (fresh off the plane) in 2000, we observed that the only way to find contact information is by going through the Yellow Pages. Not the website, but the actual, physical book. If you’re too young to know, this massive book is printed on yellow, recycled paper — which is where I imagine the title “Yellow Pages” came from. I still vividly remember how my fingers would turn black from the ink after searching through numerous pages in the directory. Can you imagine that doing a quick search could leave a physical impression on your body?
I’m not sure what we were doing that was incorrect, or if it was the lack of proper organization on Yellow Pages, but we could not find the contact information for Dell Computers. So, my dad had to think outside the box (or should I say outside the book?) in order to find what he was looking for.
As a 12-year-old, I was full of sheer excitement when we finally got the Dell Dimension 3000 delivered to our apartment. I even sniffed the cardboard boxes as my dad opened them. “Technology…that’s what it smells like”, I thought.
As usual, the computer came with several bloatware like Norton AntiVirus, Internet Explorer and Dell Games, as well as important CDs like Microsoft products, drivers and utilities, and Windows XP reinstallation discs. As I was installing Microsoft Office, one of the discs labeled “Microsoft Picture It” specifically stood out to me. I installed it and it didn’t take me too long to understand its features and capabilities. Before you know it, I was scanning our old family photos, swapping heads, cloning facial features, removing backgrounds, adding text, etc. Amidst my excitement, I forgot to eat dinner that night.
Realizing My Passion, And Nurturing It
An easy way to find your passion is through the process of elimination. Start by looking at the areas that you are not passionate about. Personally, I knew that I was not interested in science, engineering, math, literature, philosophy, economics, anthropology, etc. I admire these subjects, and have great respect for them, but ultimately, they were not my cup of tea when it comes to my career. By eliminating these subjects, I was left with the Creative Arts. Beyond the result of my elimination process, visual expression was something I felt confident about.
I know I mentioned that science isn’t my cup of tea, but I am a big nerd when it comes to learning about how the universe works. For instance, I find the Brian Greene documentaries about quantum physics extremely fascinating. And who doesn’t love Neil deGrasse Tyson? Stephen Hawking’s The Universe in a Nutshell is a classic.
As a child I was always drawn to creative activities, and I’m sure every child is, but I naturally took things a step further. You could say I was doing a PhD in “Making Stuff” as a kid. Before buying the Dell computer, before the digital era, I loved to make things with my hands when I was growing up in Bangladesh. I enjoyed playing in the sand and dirt, making castles and building my own world. I remember reading comic books, and then asking my grandfather to purchase tracing paper so I could draw my own comic strips. I was also into superheroes. I remember making my own Spiderman costume out of a pair of blue pajamas and red socks that I owned. #cosplay1995
Technology also played a big part in realizing my passion, even if it was mostly through video games. I remember getting my first Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) when we moved from Bangladesh to Qatar, and it changed my life. The amount of fun I had playing Mario, Contra, Galaga and Duck Hunt was out of this world. Then we moved to the US and my dad bought me a Game Boy Color. This time I stopped eating and sleeping because of how religiously I was devoted to Pokémon Crystal. I believe the exposure to video games actually helped me get comfortable with digital design quickly.
The highlights of my childhood memories laid the foundation for discovering that visual art was my primary form of self-expression. I could take that further by translating my thoughts into a digital realm, and learn creative languages. Only consciously thinking through these stages of my personal journey, I was able to understand, and therefore, recognize that level of deep immersion as passion.
So my advice to anyone searching for their passion is to:
1) Pay attention to yourself.
2) Focus and measure Confidence.
3) Embrace your journey and have fun.
I nurtured my passion by learning every tool I could get my hands on. After Microsoft Picture It, I moved on to Photoshop CS2. The learning curve was frustrating at the time, but my friends encouraged me to take on the challenge. I recognized that Photoshop had more powerful capabilities, which made me more curious to find out how I could learn everything. After researching online tutorials, I was finally getting the hang of it. However, I still felt like I was barely scratching the surface. A lot of features were still unfamiliar to me.
As I took design courses during my undergrad at the Rochester Institute of Technology, I truly understood the depth of Photoshop and all of the Adobe children (Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, InDesign, After Effects). I used these digital tools to complete more intensive projects and combined different programs in order to achieve a level of polish in my work. Finally, it felt like I was in control of these tools, and not the other way around.
Discovering UX/UI Design
My background as a first generation immigrant further defined my career as what it is today. Coming from a low income family, I knew that a career as a painter wasn’t going to cut it. My salary expectations were already set from day one when my parents would constantly suggest that I become either a doctor or an engineer (like my dad), or better yet, why not both? However, as I spent more time learning how to use my digital utility belt, I began to discover and appreciate the functional nature of my work.
I realized that being creative for me, had to be grounded in practical, real world problems and solutions. My passion for being creative evolved into becoming more about problem solving. Leveraging technology then became my chosen path for the manifestation of my creativity.
Towards the end of undergrad, I started to see a gap in how people use technology. The discipline that builds the bridge to connect that gap is defined as user interface design. The final evolution of my childhood passion resulted in becoming the builder of that bridge. I was happy with the direction towards which my passion was continuously growing. Most importantly, I was able to identify it, and narrow it down to a profession I truly enjoyed — user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design.
I had a decent grip on the UI aspect of my career, however, the thought process behind the UX portion was still shrouded in mystery, and I realized that was completely fine.
Your career will continue to grow as you gain more experience by exposing yourself to different companies and challenge yourself by working on different projects, which is a fundamental aspect of developing domain knowledge. As a result, you will develop deeper insight, which will help unfold the aspects of your career that were previously unknown to you.
For me, as I went about working with various design teams and mentors, I discovered new and fascinating layers of user experience. What started out as mysterious, and unfamiliar was beginning to make sense. More interestingly, I was able to get a holistic view of how both UI and UX come together in creating a product from its inception to its delivery.
Stay tuned for How I Became A Designer — Part II
