Five to inspire with Aya Demler
Product Designer @ Duolingo
Who are you?
I was born and raised in New York City to Japanese and German parents. Much of my childhood revolved around my parent’s piano business, Beethoven Pianos. They had a warehouse and a storefront full of the colossal instruments, and a workforce comprised of quirky musicians and craftsmen. I was surrounded by all the activity involved in rebuilding and selling pianos. I watched piano plates dangling from ceilings while being spray painted gold. I watched hand carvers produce elaborate piano legs to match the ornateness of historic trends. I watched tuners poke needles into the felt hammers to soften its material to create the perfect sound on contact.
Being brought up in this environment should of probably inspired me to become a pianist, but instead, it led me to attend Carnegie Mellon’s design program with a particular interest in industrial design. While I was there, however, I was introduced to graphic design and ultimately chose that path. I took on an additional major in HCI to learn more about digital interactions. And through internships and class projects, I ended growing into the role of a product designer. Now I work as a Product Designer at Duolingo in Pittsburgh, PA.
Whats a typical day in Aya ‘s life like?
The most consistent thing about my day is my lack of consistency. I wake up at varying times, but stroll into the office around 11:00 am, give or take. I know that sounds pretty late, but there is a good group of fellow Duos that are night owls like myself. Once I get into work, I usually check my email, my calendar, slack and occasionally my RSS reader Feedly.
Then I start designing. I design mostly in Sketch, mocking up several iterations of whatever it is I’m working on. When I hit a wall, I’ll browse some UI libraries, Dribble, or Material Design guidelines. When a design gets close to final, I will most likely prototype it in Principle. Once I have an interaction or flow saved in a video or gif form, I’ll post it to Wake for all the designers at Duolingo to see.
Wake is a tool that is core to the Duolingo design team. We use it for the following: 1. to get approval from our CEO or lead designers. 2. to keep a record of our iterations and decision making and 3. to keep up to date with what other designers are working on. Even if something gets finalized at someone’s desk or in a meeting, a designer will post on Wake a brief description and the final work explaining what was concluded offline. This way, all the designers can observe across teams why something was approved and what decisions were made to get to that point. It serves as a continuous learning tool for all of us.
Another way I get feedback is directly bringing work in front of someone. We’ll discuss it, maybe pair design at my desk a little, working directly in the Sketch or Principle file together.
I’ll also have intermittent conversations with developers and managers as well. This can range from pointing out small UI tweaks that need to be made on an outgoing build, or asking n00b-y questions about how something would work on a technical level.
After work, I will usually go to the gym, boulder/rock climb, or go to a boxing class. This keeps me healthy since I hoverboard around the office, and I never stand at my desk even though I have the option to do so. When I get home, I’ll watch a few youtube videos, shower, play a few games on my phone, snapchat profusely, read a little bit on my kindle, get a news briefing from my Amazon Echo, and then sleep.
How would you define good design?
This is such a tough question, but I never liked the answer, ‘good design is about solving a problem’, I feel as though that answer applies to almost every profession out there. I think good design is the ability to deliberately construct experiences that delights and satisfies people.
The role of the designer is to consistently make that satisfaction and delight occur for whoever is engaging with whatever it is they are engaging with. Maybe its because it allows a person to make mocks faster and more efficiently than ever before, or maybe its the tactile arch to the grip that makes someone hold something better, or maybe its because that rainbow vomit filter fosters inside jokes amongst friends. But at the core of it all, its about creating that moment or those continuous moments of satisfaction that feel special, useful and in some form or another, delightful.
That’s not to say that good design can’t be utilitarian or educational, because it certainly can. Wouldn’t you agree that Paper is more delightful to use than a .txt file?
Perhaps I’m stripping good design into something thats too simple or superficial, but I can’t think of any other reason for what makes good design distinguishable from bad design; it’s just that secret sauce that subconsciously or evenly consciously satisfies its user.
Share something you’d really like to do — but haven’t done yet. What’s keeping you from doing it?
Since my mother is Japanese, I’d like to live in Japan and work there as a designer at some point in my career. I’d prefer to do this sooner rather than later so that I might have the chance to be mentored abroad. I’ve always admired Japanese design for its simplicity, its serenity, its multi-layer packaging, and so much more. Being able to design in another language would also be particularly compelling, an experience I think a designer would be lucky to have. The added bonus of working in Japan would be to brush up and improve my Japanese, which has grown quite rusty over the years.
The biggest factor that’s holding me back is finding a design job in Japan. Ideally, I would like to start by working for an English speaking company because I don’t think my level of Japanese would allow me to function in a workplace. But maybe I need to be thrust into an environment that forces me to use my Japanese, all the time.
How do you imagine your life as a designer 10 years from now will be?
I would love not to be designing for screens in 10 years. And I’d also imagine there would be tools that would allow me to work remotely from any place I wanted, without missing out on the collaborative and person to person engagement one feels at an office space. I guess what I mean is that I’d expect a virtual workplace that doesn’t sacrifice the collaborative nature of design. This way I could be nomadic and live in exotic locations while still being able to work on teams and develop cool things.
People and/or designers that inspire you? (personally and professionally)
Jane Yoon — an amazing friend, illustrator, designer and a patient/thoughtful thinker
So-Hee Woo — the most tenacious and hard working designer/videographer/director who will always be true to her voice through this increasingly commercialized and trendy world
Taylor Rogalski — I like to think of him as my philosophical design friend
John Maeda — He is the secret sauce
