Into the Cogniverse with Andrei Urse
On growing a UX community in Romania, making the design process more visible, and learning by doing
Andrei-Sergiu Urse is a senior user experience designer from Softvision, part of Cognizant Digital Business. He is Romanian and lives in Bucharest, Romania.
Let’s take off, shall we? Could you maybe introduce yourself?
I’m Andrei, from Romania in Bucharest, and have been working at Softvision for 2,5 years. Always on the same project, actually. I’ve been working in the design field — UX, specifically — for about 6 years, and almost 10 years, maybe more than that, as an official designer. I did stuff in my childhood before I officially studied design.
How did you start being a designer then?
Well, that’s a funny story: when I was in the 7th grade, there was the video game called Pro Evolution Soccer, a FIFA rival. We were a bunch of guys that customised the game. Somebody made the stadiums in some kind of 3D program. Somebody did the t-shirts. Don’t laugh: I was designing the faces of the players to look as natural as possible. That’s very important to do; you got to recognise them!
I don’t know how old I was; maybe 14 or something? It was my first interaction with design. After that I explored Photoshop more and more, trying to become an intermediate user, which resulted in websites when I was at high school and graphic designs when I was at university.
So how did you end up deciding for UX design?
I started as a graphic designer, working full time. But then I moved to product design for the biggest travel agency in Romania — a bit like Booking.com. They had, and still have, a platform where you can book tickets, train rides, city breaks, or extended holidays. There I saw the opportunity to move to UX, because e-commerce conversion is important and UX offers a lot of techniques to improve it. So, I leveraged the fact that the team was design-oriented.
It was a smooth transition. Not a very fast one, actually, because I was at the very beginning, and so I had to learn a lot by doing. That happened in 2014, 6 years ago.
What is UX design for you?
Well, it’s funny because it’s called UX design — user experience design — but actually a lot of parties are involved. The stakeholders you’re working for should have a good experience as well. If they don’t understand the value that UX methods bring to their business, they won’t want it, that’s a fact. Nobody wants to waste time on something they don’t understand.
That’s why I think about UX as an involvement of everybody in the process. You don’t stay in the corner and design experiences. That doesn’t happen. It’s extremely important to involve the client; it’s their business, and they want to be in control and feel safe about what you’re doing. Because your work is invisible, and it’s hard to make it visible. It sounds strange, but this involvement of all parties means everything for a good experience.
So how do you tackle that then? How do you make design more visible?
Well, that’s a good question. A hard one, because I learned it the hard way. UX is a new thing in Romania. We have the opportunity to take things from zero, and to build a good base. But it implies a lot of communication, and that’s the key. Being vocal, being honest, being as open as possible with your clients. Not just telling them “Man, you need to do research on this project!”
Just because design sprints are trendy, it doesn’t mean that it will fit your client’s business. That’s hard to accept as a designer, because you want to try all the new methods that appear on the internet. That’s natural, but as a designer you need to stop that urge and understand what stakeholders truly need.
Being open, being transparent and explaining things, being articulate in front of stakeholders gives them the confidence that you know what you’re doing and that you will be of value to their business.
What makes designing in Romania unique compared to other countries?
Well, I don’t think it’s unique per se, but we have the opportunity to make things right. There are lots of things that need to happen to grow the maturity of UX design. It means to build communities that help to spread the word of UX across the country.
Also, you need to keep people who are interested in building the teams inside the companies, because growing those teams grows the companies’ maturity. Then, companies as a whole create UX-focused energy, and that’s how you build a good base.
But that’s hard to do! I think it’s best to expect that you will fail. Because you will fail — probably. It’s more important to learn what we’re doing wrong as a community than trying to make it a perfect process.
The maturity of UX in Romania has changed a lot over the last few years. Communities are growing, and lots of events are happening. People want to make things better and want to share their knowledge, which is super nice. It’s the whole point of those communities: sharing what you know.
What role do you take in these communities?
First, I was a participant in various events, and I explored how and why things were done, how they failed, what wasn’t working. But in February, I presented a deck with one of my former colleagues at Softvision. We presented what we called the ‘research loop’ — a process of doing research inside of a company — and some short stories, such as how research started in the twenties at a factory in Chicago. For over 10 years they had tried with experiments to improve the production. But experimenting with the intensity of the lights in the factory revealed an interesting fact: people act differently when they are being observed. That’s awesome.
That’s how I tried to share my knowledge and be part of the community. It was outstanding to have almost 70 attendees in the audience; I encourage everybody to do that. It’s a good exercise, because it trains you how to decide what information you’re going to present and what not. It sounds easy, but it’s super hard.
What would you describe as your specialty?
Oh, I’m not special in any way. I mean, everybody has their own style, everybody has their own way of doing things. That’s awesome, because everybody can fit in different contexts. And that makes everybody special in their own way. Maybe you’re a good fit for a project with a discovery phase; someone else is maybe more interested in research or in UI. In this way we can share our different perspectives and we can learn from each other.
Then, what is a context that you feel very comfortable in?
I encourage people who are at the beginning of their design journey to explore things, because you don’t yet know exactly what you like. Maybe you prefer UI, or maybe you like graphic design better. Reading about it is not enough; you learn about your role in the design field by trying things. When I started as a graphic designer, I also explored HTML/CSS and a bit of JavaScript. Then I started with UI and UX, and I think after all of these years I understood that research is my thing. And within research I’m still exploring.
What are the things outside of your work that you like to do, that you take inspiration from?
Breaks. Breaks from what you do. That’s a must if you want to stay creative and want to stay focused on something. It maybe sounds weird as I’m basically saying that you should stop with design for a day, or maybe two, or even a week! But going outside, not thinking about design for half an hour or an hour, riding your bike, doing what you love in terms of hobbies: that’s something that fuels your creativity. You need to do something that basically puts your mind in another state. And when you come back, you see things with fresh eyes.
What do you do during those breaks?
I love playing pool; it has been my passion from the beginning of my childhood. But my biggest passion is traveling. I’ve started traveling alone, even though I was afraid at the start to be alone in a big, foreign city. But I tried it, and I liked it.
I love music as well, which keeps me focused on my work. I can’t imagine my life without music, especially rock music. I’m passionate about combining my travels with concerts abroad. I’ve seen Metallica and Slipknot, and Ozzy Osbourne in Prague. I was about to see Rammstein and Aerosmith this year in July, but, you know, things happened — this pandemic is a curse for me.
Talking about passions, is there a cause that you strongly care about?
I’m struggling with the amount of cars that are in Bucharest. I hate it. It has only just started to transform into a city more friendly for pedestrians, bikers and alternative transport. Bucharest has a good landscape without mountains, so in theory it’s really easy to ride the bike and use alternative transport methods. But the infrastructure is not yet there, and we’re struggling with that compared to other cities where the bicycle is the main transport method, like Copenhagen or Amsterdam.
This topic is something I’m trying to be involved in and to spread the word about, like “Hey, cycling is a good thing!” and “Our climate is really good for riding the bike.” I’m trying to use the car as little as possible and to take the transport system to go to work. I take an Uber when I really need a car, which is still better than using my personal car.
Also, I try to be an example by talking with friends and sharing my experience on Facebook groups about using alternative methods to the car — that’s something we all can do. It’s very small-scale, but it’s something. You’re spreading the word.
What do you think design can do in changing or improving this?
A lot! I was in Chicago last year, trying to park my rented car. There were some signposts that I didn’t understand. Am I allowed to park here, or not? What time am I allowed to park? When would they tow away my car? It was so complicated. Design can have a lot of influence here by simply informing people that they can use alternative methods of transport since parking is limited. Design does not always have to be visual; it’s more about words, where visuals help the words to make sense.
What one question would you like to ask the next creative that we interview?
I’m interested in which books changed their daily perspective, because it has happened to me. I think everybody has something that changed their way of thinking.
So what’s your favourite book?
What’s my favourite book? Oh, that’s hard. One of the last books I’ve read was The Handbook of Usability Testing”. But there were a lot of books in the past that taught me a lot. For example, Articulating Design Decisions is an awesome book. Or one that is not really UX-related: What Every Body is Saying by Joe Navarro, a former FBI guy. He talks about non-verbal language, which helps a lot in interviews and in the discovery phase of a project, where you see how your client reacts and you learn how to uncover their feelings.
About
Into the Cogniverse dreams of a workplace where people feel a sense of human connectedness across the globe. We share the unique stories of individuals to build and strengthen relationships between Cognizant creatives, wherever they may be located. We bridge distances, stimulate curiosity, and facilitate discovery.
Want to tell your story?
If you’re a Cognizant colleague active in the creative industry, we love to hear from you! Get in touch with Annegret Bönemann or Lennart Overkamp. We’re aiming for a roster of interviewees as diverse and dispersed as possible.
