You are UX designer who likes to be updated about the latest news in your field? Then you are in the right place! Our team has decided to interview experienced UX creators about design challenges they meet daily. Moreover each of them has a Youtube Channel where they share their experience and skills. We hope these short talks will inspire you and will help to find new sources of useful information! Enjoy!
We are excited to introduce you Vytautas Alechnavicius form UK. He is an experienced product design lead and manager. His Youtube channel is called VAEXPERIENCE.
What defines a good design in your opinion?
Good design is always holistic and meaningful. The days when a designer would solve problems by designing an app in isolation are long gone. It almost doesn’t matter how human centred, viable or feasible the solution is. Good design must consider other touch-points, products and services in the overarching customer journey as a whole. And so to produce exceptional results a designer must go beyond ‘pushing pixels’ and ensure that multitude of dependencies (past, present and the future) are considered too.
What are the most common challenges you face while working in a design field? The more senior I’ve gotten the more commercial and people issues I had to deal with. Rarely do designers talk about them as those challenges tend to be unique to specific organisations, cultures, clients, teams, partnerships and other parties. To name a few that I think most designers can relate to: overcoming difficult situations, personal agendas, educating stakeholders about the true value of UX, achieving alignment and many more.
What is your favorite project you’ve ever done and why?
My favourite projects are also some of the most challenging ones my team had to overcome. I like the projects that unite design specialists with other guilds of tech, stakeholders and subject matter experts forming a brand new One Team. Also projects that drastically improve customer experiences and go beyond delivering optimal usability. The perfect example is the project Bus Open Data Digital Service for GOV.UK and Department for Transport which my team at KPMG Solutions & Digital worked on most recently. I couldn’t be prouder of what we achieved by putting users first and delivering meaningful experiences.
Would you share 3 habit recommendations you think are crucial for success?
I’ve found Nassim Taleb’s addition by subtraction approach (via negativa) most effective when it comes to creating space for better habits. Because it’s almost impossible to add new things to our already cluttered lives, focusing on subtracting things that don’t contribute to success is more effective. Subtraction also clears space to add the actions that help you develop. As for the specific habits, I think nothing beats Benjamin Franklin’s big 3s: “Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man.” Always in that order.
Find out more about Vytautas Alechnavicius’s work at his official website: https://blog.vaexperience.com/work/
