Musings of a Rafter…
First impressions and beyond of joining a design & innovation consultancy
Row row row your raft…I began a new inning at Moonraft this month, located at umm.. the intersection of art, design and technology. For starters, this place has the essentials of design culture in my opinion: vibrant & casual atmosphere with friendly folks, good bit of daylight and nearby parks for an occasional stroll (luxury from an average Bangalorean perspective!).
As the name goes, rafting is a team sport versus a solo act. I like the term rafter. Apart from the coolness factor, it doesn’t tie you down to a particular role and has a metaphor of fitting into different shoes as the situation demands, to keep the raft on course. I got to test the waters as a rafter by being pulled in to give inputs for a client proposal on my very first day. It might be one of those defaults of an agency culture, but I could sense the benefit of having a multidisciplinary team (designers, technologists, researchers, sales, marketing — you name it) under one roof and most importantly…easily accessible.
Design has always been a subject close to my heart. While I don’t consider myself as an authority in the design (UX) industry , having been in this profession for a while gives me the right to make an opinion, which might be original or a perspective on someone else’s perspective. So I won’t be surprised if reading this leaves you with a feeling ‘Wait.. I think I have read this somewhere….’. My intent here is to start a conversation more than anything else.
The quest for inner peace…
While every profession has its own rewards, there’s a sense of fulfilment that goes beyond the transactional level in any creative profession. In UX, I feel it is the ability to empathise with people and the intent to create something useful in the process. But making the intent into reality is usually a long bumpy ride, often ending up with flat tires on the way. There are plenty of reasons for flat tires, a discussion I’ll keep for another day.
The good news is that UX has crossed the phase where the client needs to be convinced about its value, be it explaining concepts like usability, human-centric experience, responsive etc., in today’s age all this is given. With design standards being defined (e.g. material design), tools simplified (Sketch, Invision, Zeplin) and availability of standardised templates (sketch app resources), the designer can focus better on the problem at hand. With search becoming more powerful, one no longer has to think about navigating hierarchies of information. Does this imply that the creativity is dead? Too early to say.
The challenge will be moving the experiences beyond the screen, connecting them in a way that it makes sense.
I see an an opportunity, but…
No doubt, parallel influences in the form of technology disruptions will present opportunities for UX in the future. But as designers, I feel it has become more important to play the devil’s advocate in trying to figure out if we are solving the right business problems for the right audience. It is challenging to break the perception of looking at a designer as a doer versus a thinker. When I say thinker, it could mean different things. It could be from a business angle, for which designers are not formally trained. Even when you become the thinker, it is quite challenging to maintain the balance of looking at the big picture without losing track of the details. These are grey areas that I enjoy in the design profession and to which I’m seeking answers. Do let know your thoughts, if you have reached this far.
