Designer Spotlight: Travis Pinnick
This posting expresses the views and opinions of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Yext and its affiliates, employees, officers, directors or representatives.
To showcase our designers, we occasionally put a Yexter in the limelight. Today’s teammate is Travis Pinnick, Lead UX Designer with Yext’s Product team in New York City. Strap in and enjoy the read!
What were you doing before joining Yext?
Just before Yext I was working on enterprise HR software, but before that I was doing UX Design for mostly small to medium sized brand marketing and analytics products focused on audience engagement and retail execution. I’ve worked on net-new SaaS products and products that were the same as others in their space where feature-parity with competitors was our focus. Despite Yext’s size it still feels like a startup culture, and the problems we’re solving serve a similar purpose but for larger clients.
What is it about Yext that makes you love your job?
Yext’s product values are easy to convey to external people who aren’t familiar with Yext. I get excited about designing elegant solutions with obvious client and user value. The way Yext’s platform features are cleanly compiled, synchronously deployed across multiple platforms, and can power multiple things at once from a central source of truth makes my job and purpose that much clearer.
Any advice for up and coming creatives?
I spent the better part of my early career thinking there was a right way to design something — like there was a holy grail of design patterns I had to seek and find. But what I’ve learned over the years is there are a million different ways to solve a design problem based on the priorities. I didn’t appreciate the multiple solution approach until later in my career.
I would also tell new designers not to get married to the idea that trends are worth following. A trendy solution might be the right one depending on the situation, but don’t be afraid to shirk trends in favor of designing what’s going to deliver on an outcome.
I think of design as the intersection of science and creativity. I would advise designers who are like-minded to listen to your gut and try an instinct idea even though the qualitative user research might suggest it’s not the right approach. You’d be surprised at where following that instinct will lead you.
How would you describe your signature design style?
Minimalist / Architectural
What’s your next area for personal development?
I’d like to get more exposure and regular involvement with product development. I love having a voice during the shaping of product strategy and decision making. Whether that be as an advisor, influencer, or whatever — not necessarily as a career shift. I just think that having a room full of smart people from multiple disciplines all focused on the same challenge makes for a better outcome.
What is one of your design pet peeves?
The trend of people adding emoji characters to page banners / headline sections. I see it a lot on candidate portfolio sites — maybe it’s a Webflow template they’re all using? I think it’s meant to be playful but just looks unprofessional to me.
Who do you admire professionally?
Elon Musk and Iggy Pop — both of these individuals are provocative and persevered in the face of detractors when their ideas and output were unpopular. I admire that professional tenacity.
What’s the last thing that made you say “wow”?
I’m not a gamer at all, but there was an app I rediscovered on my phone recently called Monument Valley that came out in 2014 and still holds up as one of the most beautiful puzzle games ever made. It’s the perfect combination of artistic talent and visual delight. The scenes are immersively beautiful and their interactions were ahead of their time.
Where do we go to learn more about Travis?
Any final shout-outs or things you want to share with our readers?
I love product design because at its core it’s about problem solving, finding solutions to real-word business problems while creating utility for users. Most of the job is exploration and ideation, and I always like meeting new people who find that appealing.
