‘Design’ is such a common word used in our daily life which can be defined in many ways. ‘Courses of action aimed at changing existing solutions into preferred ones’ is one of them as suggested by Herbert Simon in his book The Sciences of the Artificial. In layman’s terms it’s a perfect blend of art and science for ‘problem solving’. It’s about creating a difference in the world that we are living in.
When we see an attractive poster or a beautiful product we say “it’s well designed”. But gone are the days where design is only about aesthetics of a product. As the popular quote by Steve Jobs, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.“. Well designed products even become a part of your life, that you won’t be able to differentiate it. From a safety pin to a smartphone, a button in your clothing to a car that you use, everything around us is designed. Don Norman in his book The Design of Everyday Things says – “Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible.”
Form exploration concepts for a hospital kiosk
Experience Design
As the field of design evolves, it branches out to different domains like product design, transportation design, animation design, communication design, etc,. One such interesting field is the area of ‘human-computer interaction’. Even though there are some differences, terms like User Experience Design, Interaction Design, UI/UX Design all points to the same domain. With the increased use of digital products, it becomes very important to focus on how users use a device or an application and constantly improving it to give them a better experience. Apple is one such organization which realized this long back, and that is one of the prominent reasons for their predominance in the market as well.
UX Design vs. UI Design
The role of a User Experience (UX) Designer is to understand the problem thoroughly, to conceptualize and propose a solution, working closely with the development team and finally redesigning the deployed digital product based on the feedback of users. It is an iterative process which is centered on the user. There are frameworks by which this process can be done, of which Design Thinking is the most popular, ever since David Kelley of IDEO adopted it for business purposes.
The design thinking framework
A UI Designer on the other hand, is responsible for the visual language of the design, and effectiveness of the communication between the digital interface and the user. Or in simple terms we can classify them as back-end and front-end designers (But for a good design output, it is always recommended to have an understanding of both ends). Also, coding knowledge for a UI/UX designer is not a prerequisite, but it will help you to build better products.
Key Soft Skills
Here, in the User Centered Design (UCD) process, the user is the king, and how well you can understand the user is the key to your success as a designer. Apart from the technical requirements, a UI/UX Designer is expected to have the following soft skills like curiosity, empathy, observation, communication and collaboration. Even though sketching skills are good to have for effective communication, it is not a prerequisite. More than drawing skills, thinking ability and spontaneity are the key areas to focus on.
Design Education in India
While many of the experts in the industry do not have a degree in design, it’s more of a personal choice to go for it or not. But studying in a good university will anyway fetch you more opportunities and exposure to connect with industry. Unlike other fields, design education is purely focussed on the practical aspects, which means the courses will be more project oriented than a usual theory class.
In India, colleges like National Institute of Design(NID), few IITs (IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Kanpur) and IISc Bangalore offer 4 year Bachelors in Design (B.Des), 2 year Masters in Design (M.Des) and PhD programs. Admission to NID is through NID Exam and to IITs and IISc is through CEED(Common Entrance Examination for Design), conducted every year. Colleges like IIIT Jabalpur, SPA Delhi, and a few private institutions also have a design program where they admit students through CEED and other exams.
Check their website for more details.
NID : https://admissions.nid.edu/NIDA2020/Default.aspx
CEED : http://www.ceed.iitb.ac.in/2021/
(Last date of online registration for CEED2021 is October 10,2020)
Opportunities
Most of the organizations across the globe now have a design team or are in the process of setting up one. It is no more the responsibility of a developer to create interfaces, but there is a dedicated design team which consists of specialists in UX research, UX Design, UI Design and so on. In the age of information, it is no doubt that the need for digital products will be ever expanding, so is the opportunity of a digital product designer.
References
1. Design of Everyday Things, Donald A. Norman
2. https://lesley.edu/article/critical-ux-skills
3. https://designthinking.ideo.com/
Author
Amalkrishna P S
M.Des in Industrial Design
Department of Design, IIT Delhi
Studied B.Tech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Government Engineering College, Thrissur. Currently pursuing Masters in Design at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. Works in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
Email id : ps.amalkrishna@gmail.com
Portfolio : https://www.amalkrishna.com/
