WIE UI/UX Designing

Design and Engineering are two closely attuned disciplines. On the 3rd Sunday of September 2020, WiE-IEEE S.P.I.T. organized a webinar on ‘UI/UX Designing’. A highly engaging and interactive session with Rahul Goradia (product designer at Zomato), as the speaker.

After a short welcome and introduction by the host, Mr. Goradia started with his presentation shedding light on what exactly is UX and how can someone get into UX design. Beginning with what exactly the field of design entails and it’s basics he specified that Design isn’t all about visual graphics as seen in apps and on websites but its principles are also applied in the minor aspects of our daily lives; be it a zoo map or constructing a shortcut route. UX (User Experience) Design is a part of this larger domain and it covers the process of creating simple, useful, and usable things based on factors like user behavior, business goals, understanding anthropology, and information.

Mr. Goradia suggested all newbies to start reading and researching, what design is. Doing one’s own research will help them to get a high-level understanding of the topic. He also recommended two of his favorite books to provide the attendees with a kickstart, ‘The Design of Everyday Things’ by Don Norman and ‘Steal like an Artist’ by Austin Kleon.

In the speaker’s expert advice one mustn’t forget that the skills as a designer are more important than the tools/medium used to create the final product and to have a clear starting point is always an advantage. So to help out the presentees Mr. Goradia guided everyone, to begin with learning more about the basics of design.

For those aiming to define themselves in this subject, Mr. Goradia advised the following: “It’s a great practice to surround oneself with design, and one can begin by watching and copying others and then move towards drawing inspiration from various sources (like from nature: termed as biomimicry)”. Softwares like Figma. Adobe Xd, Sketch are the best options for any beginners. “You should never stop exploring new design processes and tools to find the ones you feel most comfortable with”, added Mr. Goradia.

Giving a few examples of various designs he emphasized the importance of being part of online communities and having your own portfolios, for which sites like Behance, Dribbble, and Awwwards were recommended by him. For building one’s portfolio he advised everyone to start with a sample project and get feedback.

“It is extremely important to approach people who’ll give constructive feedback; don’t be afraid of hearing it and always believe in yourself while working towards betterment”, said Mr. Goradia.

A vote of appreciation followed a short and energetic interaction between the speaker and the participants, thus concluding the event.

“The team was really happy as the webinar managed to get a good participation at a short notice and it helped the participants understand UI/UX in detail from an experienced person of the industry”,said Trusha Talati, Chairperson of WIE-SPIT.