Designersđ¤alk #41 with Ajinkya Bhagwat ( Design & Product at CRED)| PHASE 4]
Date: 25th July 2021
Ajinkya is working at CRED #designmafia as a Designer (CRED is a company that doesnât believe in categorising its designers). In this talk, he has shared his opinions regarding:
1ď¸âŁ design information requires before starting any project;
2ď¸âŁ discovering the needs of the users;
3ď¸âŁ deal with imposter syndrome &, etc;
Q1. Hi Ajinkya, nice to meet you. Letâs start with a short background story. How did you get started in design?
I am someone who is very curious to learn and have always been like that. I went to an army school and for a very long time wanted to join the Indian army.
After realising that Army was not something that I would have liked to do I explored a lot of different things. I ended up going to Fine arts college and discovered that there was something called âdesignâ and I started designing in Flash ( when flash was a thing ).
Slowly I figured out that making and building products were something that intrigued me a lot.
I loved making beautiful UI but I also loved exploring the business behind what goes on in actually building a product that can impact millions of lives and thatâs how I ended up becoming a Product Designer.
Q2: Whatâre the things new designers should learn before working for the fintech or eCommerce industry?
I donât think designers should learn anything specific to the domain. That will be handled once they start working in their respective org.
What they should learn is, to understand human psychology and how to craft user journeys.
They should be open to new challenges and flexible enough to adapt to any given circumstance. Apart from this having a good command on visual design will always help you achieve the goals you want in any given org or domain you join.
Q3: What design information does the designer need before the project beginning?
- Before starting any project/work/feature, the designer should totally understand the purpose of what he is trying to build.
- The designer should have the utmost clarity in what problem he is trying to solve and if that aligns with how the org is functioning.
- A designer should understand what and how the orgâs user base functions and go about their daily life and how your project makes their experience better.
Q4: How to deal with imposter syndrome as a designer?
If you google Imposter syndrome, you will find that:
it is present in people who are good at what they do and thatâs why they always feel like they can do better.
It's a sign of strength and never being satisfied with yourself which in return pushes you to become a better designer or person in general.
But if you feel it's bothering you a lot, then always remember that you are on your own track and your only competition yourself. Give yourself time to grow and become more confident.
Q5: What do design recruiters look for? What factors do they judge you on?
- More than anything recruiters look for what all experience you have had.
- How you have contributed to a project and what ownership and grit you have shown. Someone who is hardworking can have 3 years of experience in 1.
- The number and scope of the projects you have done matter a lot.
- Other than that itâs always nice to meet and work with people who are open to learning and have a desire to prove themselves.
Q6: How do you discover the needs of your users?
It highly depends on what problem are you trying to solve for the user.
Another key factor in this what is the business trying to achieve with its user base. Then you do user research and try to get to a point where the business goals are being met but at the same time, you are making your userâs life better.
Design is all about finding the right balance between the business goals and improving the user experience.
Q7: Would you want to share a few tips with folks out there who want to join as an intern or UI/UX or as a product designer at CRED?
Having great UI skills are an absolute must for CRED. At CRED, we believe that designing and crafting experiences is a work of art.
It's a very design-oriented company and everyone in the company believes that every screen needs to be pixel perfect. So we have really high standards in terms of visual design and you must match that if you would like to work with us.
Other than that if you are hardworking and curious to learn new things, we are a chill bunch of people to work with and you can always reach out to any of us to start up a conversation.
Q8: Designers Talk: Wrap Up round(One word or Choice-based)
- Design in one word: Passion
- A product that inspires you: Airbnb
- Favorite design blog/publication: https://sidebar.io/
- Favorite gadget: iPhone
- Dribbble or Behance or Medium: Dribbble
- LinkedIn or Twitter or Instagram: Instagram
- DesignersTalk in one word: Exciting
- Favorite Design Series/Video/Movie: Abstract on Netflix.
- Love to Design(Website or App): App
- Favorite Design System: Carbon by IBM.
- Android or iOS: iOS
- XD/Figma/Sketch/Invision Studio or any other tool: Principle
- Taking Design Inspiration From: Apps
- Go-To Tool for you as a designer: Sketch
- Design Hero: Jony Ive
HOSTED BY: designer.akash
The motto for this DesignersTalk is to âBridge the gap between Experienced Designers and New Designersâ.
Why text-based? Because itâs 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 donât 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 timeâŚ
Akash âď¸đ
Thank you for reading till the end!
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