Akanksha Kevalramani graduated from UCSD in 2018. She majored in Computer Science and got a minor in design. She currently works as a UX designer in the Visual Experience & Design Systems team at ServiceNow.
Read our conversation down below to see what she has been up to!
How did you get into design?
As a Computer Science major, the most obvious career path for me was software engineering. However, instead of following the most obvious choice, I wanted to find a niche in Computer Science that I was most passionate about, and so I tried a variety of different classes as part of my CS electives. One of my electives, CSE 170 — Intro to Human Computer Interaction, sparked my interest the most. It was the first time I was introduced to design as a way of thinking and solving problems, and not merely a way of making things look pretty.
After a little self reflection in my junior year, I realized that I’ve always been a designer. I taught myself how to design and develop websites in middle school; I was a graphic designer for a fashion magazine at UCSD; some of my favorite hobbies like photography and fashion were also visually creative fields. All of a sudden, the obvious choice for me was no longer software engineering, it was design. I realized that designing for digital products must be my ideal career path because it allowed me to combine my love for technology with my love for visually beautiful experiences. It allowed me to use my analytical problem solving skills while also allowing me to use my visual creativity.
What does your typical day look like?
As a designer on the design system team, the only consistent part of my day is my morning coffee. Everything else is dependent on the stage of the product cycle we’re at. If we’re in the planning phase, I’m in a lot of meetings and breakout sessions with other designers and product managers where we try to figure out what needs to be worked on for the next release. Once we have our assignments and timelines figured out, a typical day for me consists of a lot more heads-down work at my desk and regular check-ins with the team. Once the designs are delivered and the product is in development, a typical day then consists of checking in and supporting the developers by answering any questions they may have. We also call this our “down-time,” when we work on additional tasks such as writing documentation, until the next planning phase happens and the cycle repeats.
What’s the biggest difference in designing at a company versus at school?
I think this is dependent on what type of company you work at. Although everybody is familiar with the main stages of the design process, some companies either prefer not to or are unable to give equal importance to each stage. Hence, due to factors such as the size of the company, budget, product release cycles, and access to users, each company has a slightly different design process. From my experience of working in a big company like ServiceNow, roles are a lot more siloed and focused. Unlike a startup where a UX designer might get to perform the entire design process to solve a problem, a designer at ServiceNow might focus just on research or just on visual design.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
I think the best piece of advice I’ve received is that “you have to pick your battles.” As a young professional, I was very enthusiastic about wanting to solve every single problem I observed. However, I learned that things move slowly at a large company, and fixing problems like “adjusting an icon that’s misaligned with the text” can’t always be prioritized, because there’s thousands of users that have bigger pain points than icon misalignment.
Where do you find inspiration?
Depending on what I’m working on, I look for inspiration in different places and in different ways. When I’m stuck on a problem or a piece of visual design, what helps me the most is talking to my teammates about the problem. Sometimes simply talking things out aloud makes you process information in a way that makes everything click, and sometimes I just like to see how they think and how they might solve the problem. Besides that, I use the typical resources for inspiration like Dribbble, Pinterest, etc.
Tell us about a project you are most proud of.
This past year, I got to work on redesigning the product documentation website for ServiceNow. As a designer on the visual experience team, my work usually tends to focus on the later part of the design process, i.e. interaction and high-fidelity prototypes. However, I was the only designer for this project, and so I got to do a little bit of everything — information architecture, usability testing, wireframing and high fidelity prototypes — which was really exciting for me.
What was one thing that you learned from UCSD which helped you in your post undergrad life?
I think having the knowledge of the entire design process, which was taught in most of the DSGN classes, was quite necessary for me to succeed in my job. However, I think that is the type of knowledge that you could gain online or through books as well, and so the most valuable thing that I think I got out of UCSD were my people skills. Working in team projects for classes and different organizations on campus allowed me to learn how to communicate well with different personalities. It helped me learn how to voice my opinions, and how to effectively talk about my work and my ideas.
Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Whether you’re a senior looking for jobs with no internship experience or a junior who still can’t decide on a major, it’s okay! Life is not a race, so don’t stress about following some imaginary timeline set by our society. We’re all walking our own unique paths and on our own timelines; just keep going forward and know that things always work out!
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Have a story you want to share? Click here to be featured next!
