Sergey Valiukh
Talking with User Interface & User Experience Designers
I’m a User Interface Designer currently working in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine.
When your friends or parents ask to you what job do you do, how do you answer?
I usually compare my job to a confectionery factory. My job is to give a unique flavor to a mostly standard set of buttons, lists, fonts and other interface stuff, mixing them with my “confectionery” tools. And as every confectioner’s, my task is to make the sweetest cake or candy possible, that would strike the gourmands’ fancy and make them want more and more sweets, until they become happy full of sweet joy.
What is your background, how did you train?
The best way to outdo yourself and to train is constantly watch the new trends, make a lot of hand drawings, make paper prototypes, think of new features, experiment with materials and of course make animation! Designers need animation to understand tiny and barely notable but ultra-important details, which sometimes are what the project destiny rests upon.
What the web can do to make this world a better place? How did the web improve your life( if it did)?
I think the Internet is the best invention in the history of mankind (after the wheel and diapers). Modern Internet opens the whole world to everyone and can change a life. Of course it’s overloaded with informational junk, but having basic skills each of us can become a famous designer, writer, movie star — without even going outside. And this is wonderful, as the Internet gives a chance to find yourself, to work and to contact with other users and especially with people who cannot change their dislocation for one or another reason. The Internet makes boarders disappear.
Can you show us three examples of interface that in your opinion improved human life?
In my opinion the only interface that has indeed improved and changed people’s lives was the iOS 1.0 interface. Of course a lot has changed since its presentation, but the world of mobile and not only mobile interfaces became different and acquired absolutely new guidelines and stereotypes.
On quora.com, time ago there was a long discussion in answer to the question “what is the most intuitive interface ever created?”; according to Felipe Rocha it is the nipple, in your opinion instead? (http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-intuitive-interfaces-ever-created)
In my opinion, the most intuitive interface is the one Tetris has.
How is your work day type?
Due to my life circumstances unfortunately I can’t say I have a typical work day or daily routine. Every day I need to solve various problems so I must be either at a constant dialog with a client or involved in a team work, or, on the contrary, a quiet and detailed work in my office all alone. So, every day I come to the studio, check my email, reply to some letters, check the homework (if there is any) of my employees, plan the daily or weekly workflow, caress the studio cat and then dive into the comfortable routine of mouse clicking and keyboard patter. Sometimes my work is interrupted by a table football match or two, if I need to clear my mind.
What is the most stimulating and challenging project you have accomplished?
The most exiting project in my career was an app for Australian bomb technicians “Explosive engineering”. It was my first serious job offer, and after that from a green freelancer with hardly any experience I turned into an interface designer with my own taste and personal style. This was the first project where I started experimenting and solving difficult problems not only with the help of Photoshop, but also through paper, pencils, paints and even 3D-modeling software. This very work put me to Dribbble top for the first time.
What is, among the existing digital services, the one you wanted to do?
My dream is to move on from designing interfaces for social networks and online shops to making interfaces for complicated industrial software and applications used in machine building, space industry and medicine. I’ve recently had a chance to deal with this kind of work and it fascinated me. For the first time I realized that it’s much more interesting to work on interfaces which include a part of scientific work, which are very specialized, complicated, focused on moving forward to a fantastic future, where, for example, engineers will be able to control a nuclear facility from their mobile devices very similar to our iPads or iPhones.
Many designers commit the mistake of starting a project directly from Photoshop, is there a perfect design method? What is your approach to the creative process?
As for me, I start designing from a pencil and some paper. A designer’s mind starts working only when he works along with his hand — and it’s better to have a pencil in this hand, not a mouse. Photoshop is like bricks and plaster at a building site. But before making a brick wall you need to make a project on paper. So basically the design is divided into three major stages:
- sketching (starting the search of first concepts for the main screens on paper, which then becomes detailed wireframes construction performed in Photoshop)
- prototyping
- the interface design itself (in a way, coloring the prepared patterns, adding some unique forms and transactions)
The “design” is an important part of our analogic life. What is the role of the designer in our digital life?
A great number of analog mechanisms were transformed into digital applications which also need to be user friendly and recognizable, for them not to be rejected by all users, starting with schoolchildren and ending with a retired person who has never worked with such type of software.
Do you believe it is important for a designer to have a deep knowledge of matters as User Experience, Interaction Design, Product Design, and Front-end development?
I suppose a designer should have deep knowledge of User Experience, Interaction Design, Product Design as these are the basic things that form their profession. Without a correct UX-projecting the design would be impossible, as UX is the base of the product and if it is designed badly, the product will be destroyed. Interaction Design gives a chance to follow the logic of screen transactions and all the elements interaction, the model won’t work without some additional testing, you need to make experiments. Product Design is important for understanding what is now popular at the market. There are some defined fashion trends and you need to follow them. As for Front-end development, you would need only basic knowledge here, not to confuse the client with your final design.
In which way do you make a difference between User Interface and user experience?
UX projecting stage requires some rough, sketch-style schematic look of all the screens, implying that it can be often changed in the search of a better result. UI-projecting is the final stage of design, during which the sketches acquire their colors, small cute features, animation and compositional philosophy without changing any fuctional structure.
What is your relationship with the developers? There are people that have a relationship of continuous confrontation and other of deep friendship, where do you collocate with respect to this question?
I am lucky, as the developers I work with are my friends, so they don’t hesitate to criticize me and in return I am not afraid of being rather stubborn in defending some of me ideas.There must always be a compromise between designers and developers, but I also think that applications often become unique and unforgettable mostly because of their design. That’s why developers need from time to time struggle to find the way of implementing another crazy design idea.
How do you think that your career and job will evolve in the next 5 years?
That’s a difficult question ;) Two years ago I didn’t know I was going to become an interface designer and have my own studio… What can happen in five years? Maybe aliens will visit our planet, bringing us “eternal flame” and we won’t need Internet, cars and neither will we need anything from our lives in the past.
A famous quotation of David Carson (noted American graphic designer) says: “Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does”.
Will the User Interface Design save the world, before, at the same time, or after the graphic design?
UI design becomes very interwoven with graphical design. Sometimes looking at a website or an application you see not just a screen with a set of fields and buttons, but a work of art — a mix of video effects, music, painting, composition and drawing. An this symbiosis of different artistic forms gave birth to new typological units in the Internet, unusual websites for world history studies, or, foe example, galleries or libraries websites. So I do agree with David Carson’s words.
What do you think about Dribbble? Is it a good way to get a job? What’s the best way to find a job as designer?
Dribbble is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. In has deeply changed my life and the lives of thousands other designers. This is indeed the best employment office for designers. Wanna be a freelancer? You are welcome! Wanna work for Google or Facebook? No problems! Just prove that you are the best and that you can cope with the task. Dribble gives a chance to novices to improve their skills and understand what is good and what is not. And at the same time it gives an opportunity for self-expression and competition with design stars. Dribbble is part of my life.
What book would you advice to a Junior Designer?
There are many wonderful books on design in various languages. As long as I am from Eastern Europe, I can advise a great book for junior designers — Vlad V. Golovach, “User interface design. The art of washing an elephant” (Влад В. Головач Дизайн пользовательского интерфейса. Искусство мыть слона) I am sure it exists in English.
Always as far as advices: what tools for the design? What tools for the projects management ?
For design I use Photoshop, After Effects, 3d Max + V-ray, Cinema 4d, Illustrator, for management: Trello, Jira, BaseCamp.
Dribbble : https://dribbble.com/SergeyValiukh
FRONTIERSX November 12–13th, 2015, Milan, Italy
As the meeting point of design, technology and everything interactive, this year we’ll dive deep through innovation and disruption in Banking, Health and Retail industries.
