UISDC Interview: Designing beyond conventional interaction patterns and visual styles by Johny Vino

10 min readJul 20, 2019

Interaction design is a topic that designers can’t leave. The works on Dribbble not only have cool visions, but also solve one by one important problems which is the focus of designer Johny Vino. Interactive designer Johny Vino has famous customers, such as Zoho, Healthtap, Invision, SYP partners, Tekion, etc., and he also won many awards on Dribbble/Behance. Today, we asked him to talk to us about the design culture of India and the United States and how to improve their design skills.

Dribbble:https://dribbble.com/johnyvino

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnyvino/

UISDC:

You born in a small village in India and went to NewYork-a big city in the USA to learn interactive design, what do you think are the characteristics of the Indian education system and American art and design education?

Johny Vino:

While studying in a small village in India, Tamilnadu, Agapaikulam, I always taught people would be more talented in a town when I relocated; I realized that nothing was different. Then I moved to the city where I taught people would know many technologies and resourceful. But every place is the same. You can accomplish a lot, irrespective of where you are if you believe in yourself.

One of the significant changes in India is that I focus on craftsmanship and the attitude of the worker. In the U.S., I got a founding mindset, I feel it’s primarily thinking and solving a more significant problem. Very open to feedback and criticism.

You should be great at what you do at the start of your career. The benefit of being fantastic in craftsmanship is that everyone around the globe requires your skills to accomplish their dream.

But the drawback of this if you’re just good at craftsmanship over the time you’re going to be like a factory worker/slave. [Sorry, that’s true.].

But if you began thinking and solving the problem, it will assist you in following your dream of starting your own business, as well as learning soft skills such as how to speak, how to cooperate with the team how to present will surely support you in moving to a responsible position.

Specifically, the New York city with different people with different backgrounds, for instance, I have literally friends from all over the globe, so it’s fascinating to see and design different people for different cultures.

Both systems have advantages and disadvantages.

UISDC:

Your design is full of colors and vivid interactions. What unique attributes are endowed to you by the native Indian culture? And what did you learn after entering the “cosmic center” of New York?

Johny Vino:

Haha, that question I enjoy. In my design carrier, colors played a crucial role. India is beautiful, as you know, and we have a culture of events like Holli, silk dress crafting, and great food. So the combination of contrasting colors is in my blood. New York design, on the other hand, is a cleaner negative space and black.

Graceful I can merge both of the combinations and come with a colorful yet clean design. Also, over the years, I learn what color means to what type of people by posting online and getting feedback from different countries.

I am also grateful enough to do freelancing for multiple countries from China, Russia, India, the U.S., South America, which gives me an open-minded to explore different ways of using colors.

Mostly I grab color from my photographs.https://unsplash.com/@johnyvino

UISDC:

What makes you care so much about imperfection and difference? How do you pursue and balance this “difference”? To reach this point, what have you done in your daily design differently from other designers?

Johny Vino:

The hardest thing is how to find the style that makes you stand out. What makes a human so special is this imperfection, everybody in the world is so unique. Imagine a universe if everyone looks like his most boring thing ever.

There’s a fine line between simple, boring vs. simple, interesting.

I learned this from college days; I get bored doing the same thing again, I try to do something distinct every time. When you begin doing different things, individuals will originally be like this man has some issue, but it will become your favorable identity after a while.

Because perfection isn’t interesting when you see a perfect layout app, it feels like a bot and doesn’t feel emotional connection.

The secret is seeking inspiration from a non-digital world and believing of your intuition and following your heart rather than the current trend and some famous designer.

To develop something distinctive, you must continuously reverse every scenario in your lives. As many questions to you and to everyone like a small kid.

UISDC:

I heard that you are now learning interaction design. How has your design changed compared with the situation without systematic learning interaction? How has your knowledge of interaction design changed your works?

Johny Vino:

I believe I learned the opposite way of doing the open-ended creative job without any limitation, and then I learned the rules.

After school,

a. I realized that interaction design is not just about screen-based design; it can be anywhere; it can be an interaction between public space, interaction with objects, the interaction between people. How human beings interact with the world is interaction. We can apply the principle of interaction to anywhere, bringing delightful experience.

b. I always try to create something cool before I study interaction design. Now I’m attempting to create a cool also solve a user problem.

UISDC:

Nowadays, there is a lot of design software. What is the most commonly used software in your personal design, and why do you choose them? Some people tend to customize deeply based on their preferences. Do you do this? Why is that?

Johny Vino:

I began my career at the era of Photoshop, where we design each screen in a single Photoshop file, and each file will be 100 MB, and there’s no way we think about animation. Today we are graceful enough to have outstanding software we can use to bring thoughts from your head to the real world, on the mobile, in context, in front of people as quickly as possible.

The real way to select software is to consider which software helps bridge the gap between you and the developer. I use Principle for mac mostly because I’m working on the whole iOS app project. Therefore, generating values is close to Xcode coding values, making it super easy for engineers to turn your concept into a lifetime application.

Sometimes I use after-effects for the animation to export to JSON format using Lottie plugin. I have also used FramerX, Invision studio, Protopie. So pick the software based on your purpose.

UISDC:

Like India, China is a rapidly developing country. What do you know about China? Do you have any questions or words for Chinese designers?

Johny Vino:

My close friends in my school are from China; I understand little about society and food. I even know how to make the dumpling. Okay, let’s come to design. I always have an eye on Chinese apps. It’s pretty beautiful.

a. Focus on quality

Make timeless design, make conscious decisions about the design never leave your style at the same time thinking about how you can solve a worldwide problem that will help you to stand out when you apply for the job rather than just the making a simple app.

b. Presenting your work

The second thing is showing your work online; not only showing the design’s beauty but also trying to write in English and share your thinking process.

UISDC:

There are many rules/principles of interaction design, which ones do you pay special attention to? Why do you care? What impact have they had on your design? Can you share some examples?

Johny Vino:

There are core three principles involved in making an interaction.

I pay more attention to the humanization of design. Because this small little micro interaction honestly makes your app unforgettable produces happiness for the user.

I feel that interaction is like a design soul. It’s very different from just seeing a still image and film. The film more is immersive and gives a feeling in the same way that interaction adds to the user interface a layer of connection and feedback.

Examples:

UISDC:

I remember you said that to make a creative design, you need to be bold. How did you take risks to achieve your design goals?

Johny Vino:

Usually, humans don’t want to change, so if I design a fundamental pattern that already exists, there won’t be anyone to oppose your design. You’re not innovating something. You don’t have to try a reasonable person in your company; you have to be a person pushing a boundary and challenging existing patterns.

My technique is to create an interaction that gives people a way to start a discussion and provide me with feedback to create something unique and innovative.

That requires persistence, heart to embrace criticism, initially being bad, but in the long run, folks will honor your perspective and gut.

UISDC:

In this age of information explosion, how do you balance work, life, leisure, study, and personal projects?

Johny Vino:

I apply the design principle to life too.

I spent 80% time making 20% of consuming information

a. Organize yourself with a simple linear planning app. I write the three stuff I want to complete every day and schedule a day like a sprint of design. That gives me a positive feeling about myself.

b. Addiction is humans exceptional ability, for example, addiction to smoke and drink. I’ve always been addicted to designing. So my recommendation is to get some healthy addiction.

c. I design my month by listing all the mistakes I’ve made over the previous month, prioritizing what’s vital in life, why I live and what’s my aim, and then writing a one-month objective.

d. Giving design white space makes your design look clean. Likewise, don’t waste all your time working and cluttering your life. Take some time every day to have fun.

UISDC:

Any suggestions for designers who are learning design. Is there any good book or efficiency tool worth recommending?

Johny Vino:

I honestly don’t read design books at all. That’s just my preference. For example, if you want to ride a cycle, you have to ride first, then fall with scars, later try again and then drop, and finally, learn from your experience that you will never forget. But if someone gives you all the secret, you don’t get the same experience, and it won’t be interesting too.

I always attempt to learn from the failure and success of the actual product.

All of the information is available online for free. I’ve gathered some of the most excellent resources I’ve picked from hand over the previous five years so that I can share it with you：https://uxdesign.cc/ultimate-start-guide-for-beginner-ux-ui-designer-b848be089589

UISDC:

We are very interested in your office environment. Can you show us your working environment with pictures, the more, the better : ) Can you open Uisdc.com for us to take a picture of your workplace?

Johny Vino:

MacBook Pro and my Magic Mouse is my office. For me, the mouse is critical. I have no fancy table. I can work anywhere. I like to super minimal.

My philosophy is that you don’t have to look like a designer; you have to be a real designer.

My advice is to you, be human, be you don’t change your table for Instagram pose because it’s super imp-important to be real. I can show you some fancy sticky notes and whiteboarding hahaha from my school studio.