Arunima Mishra

So I, uh, I have 6 years of experience in design. I started as a graphic designer. Uh, then after 2 years of doing graphic designing, I switched to UI UX. And currently, I'm working as a senior UI UX with p double I t. It's an. And there I am responsible for UX research, wireframing, and, uh, creating prototypes and final design and improving it after feedbacks as well. So, yeah, that is it. And before joining PWIP, I was freelancing for almost 2 years. There, I worked, uh, with domains like, uh, health tech. Uh, and 1, uh, there was a very interesting project I worked on. It was for lawyers called SmartLawyer. Then there was 1 event management app as well. And I worked with 1 more tech. And, yeah, before that, I was working with a studio design studio named Urban Stop where I did my intern and worked as a full timer as well. Yeah. So in this 6 years, I I have worked with so many domains. I have upskilled myself a lot, and, uh, my UI part was always strong because I come from a graphic design background. But with all these years of experience, I think I have good UX knowledge now too.

So, uh, balancing, uh, design decisions on like, with business requirements, uh, was hard. Like, when I started this, uh, design career, I was like, uh, I mean, what is the rule, like, others are doing, and I'm not able to figure it out. Right? But, uh, with time, I got to know you have to find the middle ground. Like, uh, you, as a designer, will always put the you just first, but you have to, uh, take care of the business needs of the company you are working for. So finding that middle ground was all I needed to find the equilibrium and take the design decisions properly. So what I do, I, uh, before taking design decisions, I, uh, I take stakeholder interviews as much as possible to stay aligned with the stakeholders' needs, like the business requirements as well. And while when I create use like, when I do user research, I keep in mind, like, what was the stakeholders' requirements? What is the business requirements? So according to that, I find the middle ground and then start taking final, uh, uh, design decisions. That's how I have been doing, and it has been quite, quite helpful. And, uh, there's 1 more thing I want to mention about the business requirements. Uh, there was a problem, you know, from the, uh, user side. That's why the business is there. So I have to keep in mind that the business is there to solve users' problems. They are not there to create more problems. Right? So taking the design mission, like, keeping the thoughts in mind makes it more easier to align with the business requirements. Yes.

Okay. So, uh, how do you ensure your designs are accessible to all users? When I, uh, start designing, I always have in mind, like, it should be like, accessibility is 1 of the main UX principle I keep in. Like, it provides inclusivity. Right? Uh, but, yeah, after creating wireframes, I make a prototype. I start gathering feedbacks, uh, from, uh, the team first. If the team is doing well, then I send the prototypes to the focus group we have created, uh, like, including all the users, like, we are targeting. Uh, so after clear you know, doing that usability testing, I get to know, like, uh, if there are any issues with the design or or is accessible to all, you just have to gathering the feedback. III need to make any changes. I do those changes. And, uh, after, uh, based on those feedback, uh, I create a final design, which again goes for, uh, you know, uh, usability testing. And I keep myself in the loop so that I if something I am leaving behind, I'll keep myself in the loop so that the design will be accessible to all users. And UX is all about accessibility. So yeah.

Okay. Uh, describe the time when you had to adapt your design due to, uh, technical constraints. Okay. Uh, when I'm currently working, uh, is, uh, the when the idea came to me, it was like, oh, you have to design, uh, for MVP. Okay. So, obviously, I knew there are lots of technical constraints. Uh, it's a very early stage. It was a very early stage startup. Like, no, I won't say early stage. It was like a mid stage startup, but they were going into, uh, you know, tech part, like, product part of it, like, very new. They were just experimenting about it. So, uh, there were lots of, uh, technical constraints, like, uh, we can't use, uh, you know, heavy designs of because we had technical constraints. And there was a time where I wanted to use a a lots of, you know, let's say, because, you know, as a designer, we want to explore. Right? So, uh, I wanted to, uh, make the app look bit interesting because uh, it was very simple at first. So I wanted to add some of those cool animations and all. So I discussed with our chief technical officer, but he said, no. We can't afford that at this point. So I came up with, like, okay. Again, the middle ground. Right? So I came up with, like, few animations, like, which won't be that that tech heavy. But, uh, uh, yeah, it will look make the app look more interesting. So, yeah, that was the way I had to adapt my design. I had to sacrifice my law, like, my creativity, uh, side and think about the business perspective. And, yeah, that's all.

We do it all the time. Like, it's, uh, it has been 6 years of, you know, in design, uh, industry. So we do it on a daily basis, especially to the stakeholders who are not from the design background, to those clients who doesn't understand design at all. So I can. Yes. I can. Uh, and there is a process to it where you don't use, you know, typical design jagrons and you, uh, explain it to for this, I do I don't know how other designers approach, but I do storytelling. Because storytelling is a thing anyone can understand. Right? Uh, so I make a storyboard where I explain things, uh, and I try as much as possible not to use, uh, design related, like, technical terms so that it will be easy for them to understand. Right? And it will be easy for the people, like see, the I always keep in mind they are there because they are interested in the solution. They are not there because they like, you know, they're not there because they are forced to. Okay? So, like, you both are interested. I want to explain it to them, and they want to know it. So the first thing I do, as I said, I don't use uh, technical term. The second thing I do is I make a storyboard. I do storytelling. And the third thing, the storytelling even don't work, I do a presentation, a proper page, just how this this isn't gonna, uh, help us in terms of, you know, business prosperity with this client and how this thing's gonna make impact. So, yeah, that's how I explain complex UI UX concept to somebody who is not a designer.

What is your approach to creating a design that can be easily implemented by the development team? So I if it's a very easy to implement by the development because they are developers. They have been doing it, and they have knowledge about, you know, uh, from the, you know, front end side. They can do few things like just a button, probably adding a button. Or it's, uh, you know, adding a header. They can do it easily. Right? So what I do I used to do mostly as I'm mentioning it on the Figma only. So that's how the developers used to understand. But where I am working currently, the developers are. So I had I I talk with them. Like, you know, I just, uh, I I communicate with them properly. It's it's this easy. We don't have to, you know, create a whole design for it. You can just do it by, you know, using this this this this thing. So the way I used to just mention it on Figma itself. Like, whatever the platform we are using for design.

How do you stay updated with the continuous evolution in UX design? So, uh, it's like a a thing for me now. Uh, I read lots of magazine UX magazines and, uh, lots of, you know, uh, media blogs on medium. Like, I follow the whenever I do breakfast, I read UI breakfast, like, like, the magazine, and I am a part of, like, active part of UX subreddit and Twitter group, and then there is Slack. There is a group for designers on Slack. And, uh, yeah, I follow popular people, like those who have put an impact and still trying to put an impact in this design industry on LinkedIn and go through their post daily on a daily basis. Like, I scroll, and I, uh, I read books during weekends because I that's when only I get time to, you know, give a proper concentration to books. Uh, I read books. Uh, I'm in the list still hooked. I am, uh, like, reading it for the 3rd time, I guess, the book hooked. And I keep myself updated with, uh, new blogs, new trends, uh, these ways. And I, uh, whenever I get even more time, let's say, I get a holiday. So I what I do is I just simply go to more bin, and I copy designs because, you know, difference is all we need sometimes. So I sit and I copy for, like, design, like, literally from small small details. So that's how I stay updated with the UX design trends and tools. I mentioned I I am part of lots of WhatsApp groups as well where we, you know, act as a community, and we discuss. We debate about design trends and tools. Yeah. That is 1 of the way I stay updated with the continuous evolution.

What steps do you take to conduct user research effectively? So whenever a new idea or new concept comes to me, I do my side of research first. Like, the secondary research, whatever available on the Internet, whatever available in Google Scholar. So I read research paper thoroughly, then I create a literature review out of it so that I can present it to the stakeholder or select product manager or whoever I'm working for. So after creating the literature review, I conduct a stakeholder interview so that I get to know their thoughts clearly before jumping into the primary research part. Then for the primary research, I see what's the need of the hour. Like, uh, if, uh, sometimes we as a you usually, we conduct service service on we take, like, uh, currently, where I am working, the first thing we did was survey. We have Instagram. Uh, like, we're very active on Instagram and Facebook. There, we conducted polls. Yeah. Uh, but if the, uh, you know, need of the hour is you, like, proper doing user research, like, uh, so there we do face to face interviews. Or if that's not the case, we do virtual interviews. And III guess not that much, but, yeah, I have shadowed too. I have shadowed users, and I have drawn I have the journaling too. So, yeah, it depends it depends which step I con like, I don't know, I take to conduct user research. So it, like, depends on the constraints as well as time constraint. The time is, you know, less. Like, the deadline is near. We can't conduct primary user research. So there we go for service. If we have time and it's just a, uh, you know, very new idea, then we conduct proper primary research, probably going to the, uh, you know, ground and doing the exercises. And to be honest, that's the favorite part of me where we, uh, talk to users, like, put ourselves in users who's to, you know, ask those questions and all. Yeah.

Explain the process of designing a user experience for a feature rich application which in, uh, while ensuring minimal cognitive load. Uh, the first thing I'll do is if it's a feature rich application, I'll, uh, I'll I'll prioritize things first. Like, what are the things we must do? What are the things that we should do? Then what are the things we can do later? This way, I I'll first segregate the task and the like, I'll segregate it, like, p 0, p 1, p 2, and I'll take the, uh, p 0 things first in my hand, like, uh, if, like and then I'll see how much impact it will, uh, create if we, uh, you know, if we add this feature or so how much impact is the feature is creating if it's already existing there? So looking at the impact, like, how much it's gonna cost us, how much it's gonna impact the user if they are so, uh, you know, so comfortable with the features. So that's the first thing I'll do. Then if, uh, everything goes really well, I'll add a task to the click like, you know, whatever platform we are segregating our task and all. And after doing that, after seeing how much impact it's gonna create, I'll, uh, start doing a small user research, probably. If the user research is already there, sometimes there are applications. Like, they already have done the user research. I'll go through it, then I'll create 2 different styles to 2 different features to, uh, do the a b testing because a b testing in this, uh, process helps really well. So after doing the AB testing, we'll know which thing we should acquire and do with that. Uh, mhmm. After that, we can create the final design depending on the result of every testing. And if you're not doing every testing, it's just 1 feature we and I, we can create usability testing. And if the usability testing goes really well, we know this is the feature we can take. Yeah. So it all depends on prioritizing, I think, uh, and the impact it gonna create. Like, if it's gonna create a very minimal impact, then it's okay. We can go ahead. It's it's all about creating taking those decision at that time.

Uh, have you had any experience with AB testing, and can you give an example? Uh, Yeah. I just was, like, talking in the previous question. Right? I have experience with AB testing. Uh, it it was, uh, for a feature, like, just not a feature. It was for a service, actually. Uh, for the current organization I am working, we want like, first, we wanted it to just to be a feature or a different service. So we created both the things. Like, we first, we launched it as not launched. We first, we created it with just like a feature. And, uh, for the second part, we created it to, like, a service. And we did the AB testing, and we got to know we should, uh, do it as a launch it as a different service itself because people need it. So, yeah, that's how we created the AB testing. I can go into more depth. It was about the rise price. So, uh, uh, should I yeah. I should explain. So the rice price, uh, is, like, a thing for the exporters who continuously search about like, you know, they want to know the exact price price. It helps them in their export business because rice price differs from state to state a lot. So for that, they need the exact rice price. So before rice price is a different service, which is live right now, and we are receiving very good feedback about it. Uh, before our Rise Price was a service, it was just a part of export costing tool, which is a different service. So people who used to go there and see the export costing, uh, to the like, while they were doing the export costing, they used to see the rice prices, but now they can see the rice prices, uh, like, different it's all different service. Like, people are there who doesn't want to do export costing. Like, they don't wanna calculate the costing. They just wanna know the rice price. So it was a very good decision. So it took a from business point of view, it was really good too because, you know, rise price is a different plan and export costing is a different plan.

Uh, explain how you design a user interface that needs to adapt to various, uh, screen sizes and devices. So for, uh, your user interface that needs to adapt to various skins and sizes and devices, I'll use this one's design, uh, where I'll make grids and all to, you know First, I actually need to know if the redesign needs to be done in, like, various screen sizes and devices. If it's the need of the hour, then I'll follow the responsive design style where I'll make grids to fix the design and all. Yes.