Q & A with Dora, our Product Designer

I particularly enjoy working with Dora and I think she has a lot of interesting insights. So, it was only natural to share her opinions with you in a simple Q & A format.

Enjoy!

1. Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you got into product design?

Product and UX/UI designers come from a lot of backgrounds, but mine was both in graphics and development. I’ve been designing for around 15 years, dabbling in everything from animations to designing board games and digital art. I’ve transitioned into basic website development as a hobby and then studied informatics but continued designing. Those two things merged, and product design just felt like a natural direction for me. My development education helps me understand how products are built, which makes it easier to collaborate with developers and streamline the process of building the product. I bring my systematic thinking to my design process. I’ve also partly studied business, which gives me a good grasp of market dynamics and user needs. I think a good blend of skills is essential for designing products that are not only beautiful but also technically feasible and strategically aligned with business goals.

2. What do you enjoy most about being a product designer?

Getting to create a finished product out of someone's idea and seeing people use it is definitely the most rewarding part of it. But I also love collaborating with people with different skills and learning more about how they work.

3. Can you walk us through your design process from concept to final product, on a high level?

Every project is different, but the double diamond method is my basic approach. Discover, define, develop, deliver. First, I sit down with our client and someone from our development and product team for the initial meeting. The more we can find out about their idea, their ideal user, their existing solutions, the better. Then we do domain research and set the plan for more stakeholder interviews with assumption mapping and discuss the business model. We do competitive analysis and user research to validate assumptions and set up “jobs to be done”. We do basic user journeys for the AS IS and TO BE states, to see where users have pain points and how we can help with that. We do feature list and prioritization throughout the process, but this is when it’s usually defined and confirmed. If the project consists of redesigning existing solution, we do UX analysis to uncover the problems.

Then comes the sketching, wireframing and the presentation of ideas. We iterate on selected parts of the product, look for feedback and then settle on one solution, after which comes the high-fidelity design. We prepare the UI kit or foundation for the design system, create screens and flows, illustrations, animations, then handoff the design to clients and development and act as a support for the implementation. The entire process from sketching to handoff is repeated for another chunk of features, and so on, according to the prioritization. After the product launch, depending on the project, we collect data on how to improve the product.

4. What are some of the biggest challenges you face in product design, and how do you overcome them?

One of the biggest challenges is balancing user needs with business goals, as well as interpreting your ideas to the clients. I prioritize transparency and collaboration with them and try to have research foundation for every decision.

Collaboration with your team is also important as understanding each other's work can be challenging.

5. How do you approach user research, and why is it important in your product design process?

I find that user research can sometimes be over-generalized, leading to insights that aren't specific enough to be actionable, just for the sake of doing user research. We often mix up our methods of user research, so there isn’t one specific approach. We do general research, to get the picture, find out pain point etc. And then we try to get access to real users, not just random people who fit the profile of specific user type. Even if it is just a small number of people, it’s important how you ask the questions and how you interpret their answers.

6. What role does collaboration play in your process, and how do you ensure effective teamwork?

Collaboration is crucial when creating a good product. There needs to be open and clear communication and alignment. We regularly have check-ins where we explain what we are doing, what we have done and why. Cross-functional team where everyone understands the others' purpose in the project is very important, and so is fostering an open environment where everyone can be heard. The same goes for communication with our clients as well. We adapt to how involved the clients want to be and how they want to communicate.

7. How do you keep up with the latest trends and technologies in product design?

Keeping up with the product design can be challenging, but it’s the nature the industry. I mostly stay updated by following designers and design blogs, attending local and international conferences and talks, and reading design books. We also have internal talks to discuss what we have learned from every project, what’s new in the industry, which books we’ve read and what we experimented on. Knowledge sharing is very important to us, even outside of the team.

8. What tools and software do you find indispensable in your work?

Figma is my go to design tool. We do product discovery in it, wireframing, do our designs, handoff our design to clients and to our developers. It is the easiest way for us to collaborate and be transparent.

Then we complete our projects with the addition of Adobe Creative Suite for illustrations and animations, coupled with Lottie for fast animation rendering.

Internally we use Jira for project management, but we’ve also adapted to clients when necessary. We used Trello a couple of times to collaborate with clients in tasks assignment, bug reporting etc...

9. What are some common misconceptions people have about product design?

I think the most common one is that design is solely about aesthetics. There are a lot of technical, user and business aspects that make up the product. Understanding user problems, how specific users would interact with the product, how the product sells - it is all very important. Another misconception is that design is a solo endeavor when, in fact, it requires extensive collaboration and iteration.

10. How do you incorporate user feedback into your process?

Depending on the project, we gather feedback through usability testing, interviews and tracking user interactions with live products, which allows iterative improvements.

11. Can you share your thoughts on the future of product design and where the industry is heading?

It’s certainly very exciting. AI has caused quite a stir in the industry and a lot of people want to get on board with it. Product designers will have to adjust to what AI brings to the table and create more personalized and engaging experiences for the users. From the perspective of AI tools used by product designers, it will certainly automate some tasks and allow us to focus on more important aspects of the design process. There’s also a growing emphasis on the accessibility of the products, as well as push towards it by the regulatory bodies. I’ve seen a lot of accessibility initiatives by the industry professionals, which I’m very glad to see. There certainly needs to be more spotlight on it.

12. What impact do you hope your work has on users and the market?

Anything that solves problems and helps better people’s lives is great to work on. I want my designs to enable users to perform tasks more efficiently and effectively. Market wise, I do hope the products we launch help promote the creation of more intuitive and enjoyable products.

Have any questions?

Feel free to contact us using the form below!