Designers🎤alk #18 with Ankita Agrawal(UX Designer III at Google) | PHASE 2

Date: November 29, 2020

It’s always great to have people in the design community who are very passionate about design and at the same time make everyone aware about the design. Ankita is exactly doing the same thing by sharing her experience to help other young designers. She previously worked with IT giants like Amazon, Make My Trip, etc and currently working as a UX Designer III at Google

Q1. What’s the best thing about your journey as a designer that motivates you to be a great designer?

The sheer magnitude of difference that a small change can create in people’s lives has always fuelled my passion and efforts to be a good designer.

I started my journey with designing spaces where my boundary was set within four walls and to a limited number of people. But UX Design opened a world of opportunities for me where I could make a difference to the lives of billions in one go. That to me is a huge motivation to always keep doing better.

Q2: How’s your experience (expectations/environment/etc) working for big giants like Google, Amazon?

Working for companies like Google and Amazon is an experience which is a league apart. You get to work with some of the best talents in the industry and contribute in making decisions that can impact the lives of billions of users.

While all of this may sound very exciting, it also leads to a lot of self-mounted pressure of always doing the right thing. Working in a large organization is not only about growing as a designer but also as an individual.

You learn so many life skills like making relationships, navigating crises, the art of negotiation, working in a team, how to communicate effectively and the list goes on. But the most important thing that a large organization can teach you is — How to drive your own career.

It doesn’t matter at what level or designation you join, you are expected to be a self-starter and have some bit of leadership qualities to drive things on your own.

Q3: Why do young designers easily get carried away with the dribbble shots as they are in a myth that “design = visual design” only? How can we look up into dribbble shots?

There are a lot of myths which exist in the field of UX Design in which one of the most popular one is UX Design = UI Design. And while fanning this myth, people have made Dribbble an Instagram of portfolios where everyone is trying to hoard likes and followers.

This happens also because the interface of Dribbble is such that it encourages you to upload “shots” which in itself explains that you are essentially showcasing the best version of your solution. So there is very little space to talk about your process, your challenges, or how you arrived at the solution.

I am not against dribbble but I would suggest you take all those “redesigns” of the famous product with a pinch of salt. Those redesigns may not account for the user data, the business goals, the limitations, or the challenges of a product.

Q4: What’re the must-have ingredients that you want in a UI/UX designer’s portfolio that can impress you?

1. The process that makes sense — I want to see the process of how someone arrived at a solution and it should add up. Many times you come across projects which have a process but it looks like the solution came before the process.
2. The challenges faced — What are the challenges you faced and how did you combat them
3. Variety and diversity — Not every project is the same with respect to timeline, goals, process. It’s important for me to understand how a person approaches a project with tight timelines or a project which is more business-oriented.

Q5: Can you share the skills that companies(you’ve worked on/ or working on) look for to hire a UI/UX designer?

Saying that every company looks for the value you bring to the table would hold somewhat true for any position, but for designers, it becomes all the more important because each designer sees and solves the problem differently. While the underlying principle of the design process is the same, every company looks for your approach and process to arriving at the solution. But this is more like a meta-skill, there are many more things a company will look for.

From my experience of working with different companies, I can say that a startup will look for a more knows-it-all sort of person who understands interaction and visual design equally. Who also knows research and can conduct one when need be.

Whereas a bigger company which has more defined roles will look at someone who apart from the core skills, has leadership qualities, is a good team player and a collaborator

Q6: What are the things we have to keep in mind before applying as well as appearing for internships/Jobs as a UI/UX designer?

To the extent of sounding cliche, I would say first understand your strengths. Don’t just get carried away by the name of the company. Refer to the job description of the role you are applying for and evaluate yourself if you fit there.

I often get requests from people who want to apply for a job that requires ‘X’ years of experience and they add up all of their 2 months, 5 months, internship experience along with any non-relevant experience and say — But I have ‘X’ years experience. My suggestion to all those people would be, don’t just add up your experience to somehow reach that ‘X’. That ‘X’ is not just a checkbox which you need to tick, it also denotes a lot more skills which are expected from you because of that many years of experience.

The other important thing to note when you apply is to understand how a company and the work you do there is going to add value to your long term career goal. You would want the company to not just add to your resume but also to your portfolio.

Q7: What’s the best recipe for creating a perfect UI/UX case study for a designer who’s having 0–2 years of experience?

The easiest way to articulate your case study would be to define — What, who, and How.

• What stands for the problem, you need to first define what is the problem.
• Then comes who, define who is your user.
• And the last is how — How do you know it’s a problem.

Once you define these three things and then showcase your solution, it gives a more holistic understanding of your design decisions and your thought process as a designer.

Q8: How can we educate people about Design and taking Design as a career option especially students who don’t know about this field?

Design is a field of passion and intent. You can only be a designer if you want to become one. With the growing technology and our entire world moving digital, Design is no more an unexplored or alien field of study.

There is so much information, resources, and ways to learn about design that it’s more of a mindset change that is required. More than the students, the parents need to be educated about design as a career option and this will only happen when schools start taking initiatives of educating both parents and students about career options beyond engineering and medicine.

Thank you 🙏 Ankita💚⁣⁣⁣ for giving your precious time
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HOSTED BY: designer.akash

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The motto for this DesignersTalk is to “Bridge the gap between Industry Standard Designers and New Designers”.

Why text-based? Because it’s precise, to-the-point opinions and it also gives freedom to those designers who want to share but not comfortable in front of the camera and who don’t want to give their too much time but still wanted to contribute.

If you like it, please follow this publication and share it with the design community and help them to learn from the experience of the great designers without investing your and their tooooo much time…

Akash ✍️💚