Suneet Suthan
Digital Transformations — Creative Lead at SapientNitro, Bangalore
Suneet has 10 years of professional experience in the field of User Experience Design. He has worked extensively in creating digital experiences for brands worldwide. A Mechanical Engineer and Industrial Designer by academia, Suneet has been part of large design teams, and also led teams of Information Architects, Art Directors and Copy Writers to create digital transformations both in the domestic and international market. Suneet is dedicated and focused about his work. Design happened accidentally to him. On the other side of the wall, he is a trained Indian Classical Dancer.
“Design is not just about sketching and making your solution look viscerally appealing, there’s more to it. And just because you have a good design it doesn’t mean that the design will sell on its own. One needs to sell their designs with incredible amount of passion than what they had while designing the solution.”
What do you do?
I live the life of a User Experience Designer. I started my journey way back in 2006. I currently work as a Creative Lead for Digital Transformations and User Experience Design Strategist at SapientNitro. I have been with SapientNitro for 3.5+ years, and I have been working all this while creating digital experiences that goes beyond solving functional requirements.
Can you tell us about the path you took to get where you are now?
My journey in this exciting domain of User Experience Design started way back during my B.Tech Mechanical Engineering days. I was in my last year of the program at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) when a senior at the department introduced me to Industrial Design. Apparently this person was also my senior at my high school in Oman. I knew I did not want to do the conventional stuff, for most people after their B.Tech end up doing an M.Tech, MBA or get into a job. I knew the B.Tech. was not enough for me, and I couldn’t imagine myself working in a factory 9–5 making CAD models and engineering drawings. Given that era and given the nature of our society, design was never seen with the importance as it is today. I was groomed to believe that engineering is the ultimate king and that is where the world is headed — all of us should take up a job either in Medical or Engineering, else one wouldn’t survive.
My senior at college introduced me to world of design, CEED and NID/IIT. I took the Common Entrance Examination for Design (CEED) conducted by the IITs. I landed in one of the exam halls at IIT Madras in the summer of 2003 to give the written examination. With my palette of pencils, sketch pens and with my thinking hat on, I tackled all the questions in the paper. I returned back to Kochi and for the rest of the semester I focused on preparing for my final year project and final semester exams. I was extremely anxious about the CEED ranking and I was pretty overjoyed when my All India Rank stood at 104. Following the rank announcement I applied for the design course at IIT Delhi. I was competing with seasoned Architects, a few experienced engineering professionals, and many newbies to get a seat out of a total of 15 at IDDC (Instrument Design Development Centre). It was indeed a moment of pride when I got the offer letter many days after the interview. I spend about 2 years of my life in Delhi and the IIT campus. It was these 2 years that gave me the much needed exposure to design.
Sometime in 2004 a few of my seniors were placed in usability / interaction design companies. This was a welcome change in the history of our placement for most of time people flocked towards product design consultancies. My academia in Industrial Design gave me the foundation for design and I started my preparation to get into the domain of usability. I saw a huge opportunity in this field of usability, and after my course completion at IIT I applied to Human Factors International (HFI) where a few of my seniors were working. After passing a design test I got a job at HFI as a Human Factors Specialist. My life at HFI gave me the much needed exposure to user centered design, interaction design. I spend a good 5 years with HFI to understand the craft and the business of design. In the meanwhile I also attended a Management Program from IIM Calcutta. This program helped me in building a business perspective to my design thinking.
My journey in HFI has been really special, it provided me a good amount of exposure in research methodologies, crafting strategy, creating detailed designs, teaching psychology grads about design and learning from them about psychology. It was extremely important for me to diversify my design portfolio and get a larger industry exposure and then I decided to move on to work with a product-based company. After a while I realised that my hunger for user experience design was not being met, and I decided to move on and work with a digital agency — SapientNitro.
My journey going forward will be aimed at creating memorable experiences across various channels, mentoring new comers, coaching design enthusiasts and consulting brands on creating impactful user experiences.
How do you stay up to date with trends in the field of UX and in the industry you are in?
I subscribe to various design company’s newsletters and this gives me a good bunch of information on the domain and latest happenings in the industry. I also have subscriptions to Interaction Design Foundation, Safari Books, and Lynda. I follow the works of people at Coroflot, awwwards.com. Apart from the digital channels, we have regular design connects at our workplace. We end up talking about new stuff happening in the domain, share our experiences and lessons from the past, we talk about things we can inspire from new digital experiences. I follow numerous design groups on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Top 5 applications or tools that you use as part of work.
I believe that every designer should keep honing their craft and continuously practice their art irrespective of their career stage. Coming from an Information Architect background, I have always looked for opportunities where I can wireframe irrespective of my role on the project. For wireframing I use InDesign, Omnigraffle and Visio. In the past I have used PowerPoint to make wireframes. But in the last few years, I use PowerPoint mainly for making presentations — to communicate design strategy, designs concepts, talk about action plans, etc. I use the Notes app available on my MacBook Pro and iPhone. I love this one a lot. It helps me make notes very quickly. I am a big fan of Chrome browser. I have installed that on my iPhone as well.
What does your workspace look like?
Desk Essentials: Generally I have my MacBook Pro, Spike Buster, Messenger Bag /Backpack, bottle of H2O. I stack my lunch box to the side. Every other mess is either in the chest drawer or beneath the table!
What does your typical day look like? How do you structure it?
Never found a day to be typical but unique. Every day on a client project is a new day — new discussions, clients throwing curve balls, people throwing ideas, tantrums, and I am in midst of all these troubleshooting situations, brainstorming ideas, making whiteboard sketches, pulling up references and best practices, doing secondary research by the side, having long endless discussions all the way from the meeting room to the coffee shop on multiple topics. When I am off client projects, I make it a point to invest time in personal development and learn new things about the domain, network with my peers, run internal initiatives and contribute to the design community. I make a note of things to do, and ensure that I tick them off by the end of the day. I am well planned when it comes to client delivery. And there are times when I take things as they come up.
Why do you do what you do? What makes everything worth it?
As a person I like things around me to be categorized and neatly arranged be it my wardrobe, kitchen racks or the living room. Having a 5 year old forces me to arrange things almost every minute, and at the end I know that’s futile. With every chaos my kid creates, I create order and it gets into a vicious circle.
Circling this back to my approach to design and the artifacts I expect out of myself and my team, I highly appreciate people who comes with a well thought out, inspiring and workable solution, one who articulates well, and essentially one who has an innate passion for what they do. I highly admire people who does things rather than who just does the talking. In design, it is very important to talk and it is even more important to show, to do and ensure that they tie the doing with the talking.
I am completely okay if someone makes a mistake. I expect designers to stand up for themselves, speak for their ideas, and be confident. I am a person who looks for clarity of thoughts irrespective of the career stage. I encourage people to come with an in-depth thinking. I am a follower of those people who can craft a vision and are able to materialize the intangibles to tangible. I have a high regard for people who stand for their team through tough times. Sometimes, creating designs for clients aren’t about artifacts such as wireframes and comps. I believe there’s a lot more to do — inspiring designers, keeping them motivated, helping them articulate designs that aligns with business needs, help them see the big picture, and facilitate them to create details in the design. I also believe that design is a collaborative activity. And I encourage people from different functions to contribute so that the design strategy can be defined better and executed with a high level of tangibility.
What is the greatest piece of advice /wisdom you ever received?
I get advices every now and then. It’s easy for anyone to throw up an advice when we least need it. Many times I see that people do not have an understanding of the big picture and they are not immersed in the design process. And when things go wrong they are there to give advice. However, some people are really important to you and what they say has so much meaning and depth. All the more they give advice because they have the best intentions for you, they really need you to grow bigger and handle situations with utmost care. I have had a very good rapport with one of my ex-managers. He is by far one of the best persons I have got to work with. I recall this advice he gave when I was going though a tough time way back in 2014. I keep revisiting this advice each time I need to consume the chill pill —
“Sometimes,it is not important to aim for perfection. When the project does not allows us that liberty we need to adapt and provide what’s best possible within our reach. We might not have built a Taj Mahal, but still we would have built a building that works. Taj Mahal is in our mind, for others even that building you built with a group which we think are misfits is still a wonder!”
What advice would you give to a junior designer or someone aspiring to become a UX Designer?
Today one has access to a world of information on the domain, and there are many channels of connecting with industry leaders and experts. I highly recommend the new comers to “actually use” these channels, attend workshops, conferences to develop a holistic viewpoint about design. In addition it is very important to be humble and dedicate at least 5 years of their initial career in getting trained in the domain, learn as much as possible from various types of client projects — be it big, small, good and the bad ones. Stay focused. They have to be open to new challenges, new assignments, and make mistakes. The early stages are very important for any designer to identify their areas of strengths, weaknesses, interests and passion so that they will be able to make a better impact in rest of their career. They need to get their hands dirty and keep their earned design degrees and certifications off their heads. Make sure that they get learning opportunities. Once they get into senior roles, no one will be there to spoon-feed them. They should find an appropriate mentor who can guide them. One can find that mentor at their workplace in the form of their senior, manager, or maybe a peer. Having that mentor early on is priceless. I also recommend the new comers to develop a culture of learning, sharing and inspiring each other. At the end I strongly advocate people to celebrate their failures, as they would do to their successes, this is much needed to make their journey in this domain eventful.
Which phone do you use and what are your favorite mobile apps?
I started my smartphone journey with Nokia N91 (this one had hard keys and did cost me a bomb), and then moved to an Android 1.6 LG phone. I had a hard time using that phone and eventually grabbed an iPhone 4S during my visit to Dubai in 2012. I still use this phone, and eagerly look forward to an upgrade. I bought a Nexus 7 Tablet from Staples way back in 2012 December during my visit to Texas. And now that’s in pieces. Thanks to my little girl. I occasionally use my wife’s Samsung Tablet. On my iPhone, I have installed mostly utilitarian apps including HDFC and Citibank apps (I hardly use these), frequently use social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). I somehow dislike Facebook Messenger and I have literally stopped using Skype. Oh! this one was precious to me a few years back. I occasionally have an affair with bookmyshow, whatsapp, and YouTube apps.
What Indian website/app or service do you think is well designed and why?
I like cleartrip.com. The design is simple and high on efficiency. The e-commerce and real estate industries have helped raise the design bar such as commonfloor.com, pepperfry.com, urbanladder.com, flipkart.com, snapdeal.com, to name a few.
Who would you like to see featured on IndianUX’er?
A few people whom I met at various points in my UX career inspire me. These people are immensely passionate about design, highly dedicated and have been a great inspiration for me.
Mohammed Iqbal | UX Designer, LinkedIn
Mrinal Rai | Experience Design Strategist, SapientNitro
Sameer Dwivedi | Sr. Associate — Information Architect, SapientNitro
Sujit Shenoy | Sr. Associate — Information Architect, Sapient Nitro
Linkedin: https://in.linkedin.com/in/suneetsuthan
