Aesthetics matter when designing to solve problems
Our interview with Bhawin Jagad
We’ve brought you a minimalist photographer in the last interview so we thought we would follow suit with a designer who loves to keep things simple.
We were intrigued with how Bhawin couples his minimalist Instagram with Joan portfolio and whether this is brought over into his design work.
Bhawin is a self taught UI and UX designer from Mumbai and has now accumulated over half a decades worth of experience in design for numerous brands and start-ups. He is currently working on hellostyfi which you can check out later in the article. All designs shown are his.
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Firstly, your instagram feed is super aesthetically pleasing, how do you manage to keep it so clean?
I try to mix and match things and try to keep it monochrome with a little bit of pastle colour in it. Initially it took me a lot of time to figure out how to take the perfect knolling shot but after a lot of references and a lot of inferences I managed to build my own style of flat lays and knolling shot.
Aesthetics matter a lot to me and I am big time minimalist when it comes to certain peculiar things.
I love a lot of white space that makes the whole feed look good and helps you focus on a particular subject in the image. I have a specific OCD for minimalism and simple set of design.
We love that you’re a self taught designer, what made you want to learn UX/UI or have you always been interested but never got opportunities through education to go into it?
Initially I was working as a financial planner and then i dropped out of it, this was during the initial stages when Facebook and Twitter was introduced to the world. I got hooked on to their design culture and I thought of getting into UX/UI as a career. At that time app store and play store were also in their initial stages and there was a plenty of room for me to work on a lot of apps and website by myself. I managed to learn about the basics of UX and UI by myself through researching and reviewing a lot of websites and obviously youtube.
Once I completed a year in this field I thought of getting a degree under UX and UI hence I joined Ecole Intuit Labs in Mumbai and completed my 1 year PG in Digital Design which had everything covered in UX and UI. I still feel there is a lot to explore and learn in this field.
For me UX and UI is to solve the most difficult problems through design and interfaces as in the end ‘User is the King and Interface is the Queen.’
What advice would you give to someone wanting to learn UX/UI design?
Start with understanding the User Psychology, thats the most important thing in a user journey while designing anything. Then start with basic set of wireframes with pen and paper and try and test it out with atleast 10 users (Do not include family and friends).
Research, research and research. A lot ideas that you might get after the user testing will always help you shape the app/website in a better way atleast for the first stage for sure.
UI / UX is a very vast field and I have managed to take inspiration from various designers who upload amazing work on Behance and Dribbble. This inspiration can help you kickstart the designs and develop things on the go.
For first timers in this field I would suggest you learn the process of UX and UI under an experienced designer as they will give you their hands on experience of the product and help you shape your career in the right direction.
Choose the right mentor and get started.
What does a typical day for you look like?
First half — Design Sprints, Second half — Design Sprints, Next day — Design Sprints and User Testing. A lot of my day goes in referencing and researching on new concepts and design tools which will help my teams design process and speed up things.
Mostly I use Sketchapp and Photoshop to design interfaces. My macbook is loaded with a lot of sketch files!
If you could pick one design you’ve done that you’re most proud of, is it your first proper branded one which got you more involved in the industry or any that are passion projects?
https://www.behance.net/gallery/49176669/StyFi-Website-Design
https://dribbble.com/shots/3311369-StyFi-Website-2016
https://dribbble.com/shots/3311376-StyFi-Website-2016
6. What’s next for you, have you got any upcoming designs or plans we can look forward to?
I am currently working on a freelance app project related to cars. I will update it on my Behance and Dribbble profile soon. Also I am currently involved in the enhancing of the Styfi website and mobile app.
Next in pipeline is to simplify an ecommerce experience and help shop users access the right set of products at the right time and through the right source.
