Arunima Mishra

So I have 6 years of experience in design. I started as a graphic designer. Then, after 2 years of graphic designing, I switched to UI UX. And currently, I'm working as a senior UI UX with PBIT. It's an. And there I am responsible for UX research, wireframing, and creating prototypes and final design and improving it after feedbacks as well. So, that is it. And before joining PBIT, I was freelancing for almost 2 years. There, I worked with domains like health tech. And I worked on a very interesting project for lawyers called SmartLawyer. Then there was an event management app as well. And I worked with another tech company. And before that, I was working with a design studio named Urban Stop where I did my internship and worked as a full-time employee as well. So in this 6 years, I have worked with so many domains. I have upskilled myself a lot, and 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.

Balancing design decisions with business requirements was hard. When I started my design career, I was unsure what the rules were, like others were doing, and I couldn't figure it out. But with time, I learned that you have to find the middle ground. As a designer, you'll always put the user first, but you also have to take care of the business needs of the company you're working for. Finding that middle ground was all I needed to find equilibrium and make proper design decisions. So, before taking design decisions, I take stakeholder interviews as much as possible to stay aligned with stakeholders' needs, including business requirements. And during user research, I keep in mind stakeholders' requirements and business requirements. According to that, I find the middle ground and then start making final design decisions. That's how I've been doing, and it's been quite helpful. There's one more thing I want to mention about business requirements. There's a problem on the user side, and that's why the business is there. So I have to keep in mind that the business is there to solve users' problems. They're not there to create more problems. Keeping this in mind makes it easier to align with business requirements.

So, how do you ensure your designs are accessible to all users? When you start designing, you always have in mind that accessibility is one of the main UX principles you keep in mind. Like, it provides inclusivity. Right? But, yeah, after creating wireframes, I make a prototype. I start gathering feedback from the team first. If the team is doing well, then I send the prototypes to the focus group we have created, like, including all the users we are targeting. So, after doing usability testing, I get to know if there are any issues with the design or if it's accessible to all. I need to gather the feedback and make any necessary changes. I do those changes. And, after, based on that feedback, I create a final design, which again goes through usability testing. And I keep myself in the loop so that I don't leave anything behind, ensuring the design will be accessible to all users. And UX is all about accessibility. So yeah.

Describe the time when you had to adapt your design due to technical constraints. When I'm currently working, I realized that the idea came to me, it was like, "Oh, you have to design for MVP." So, obviously, I knew there were lots of technical constraints. It was a very early stage startup, going into the tech part, very new. They were just experimenting with it. So, there were lots of technical constraints, like, we couldn't use heavy designs because of technical constraints. And there was a time where I wanted to use a lot of features, because, as a designer, we want to explore. So, I wanted to make the app look bit interesting because it was very simple at first. I wanted to add some 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 a middle ground. Right? So I came up with a few animations, which wouldn't be that tech-heavy. But, it would make the app look more interesting. So, that was the way I had to adapt my design. I had to sacrifice my creative side and think about the business perspective. And, that's all.

We do it all the time. It's been 6 years in the design industry. So we do it on a daily basis, especially to stakeholders who aren't from a design background, to clients who don't understand design at all. So I can explain it. I can, and there's a process to it where you don't use typical design jargon and you explain it through storytelling. Because storytelling is something anyone can understand. Right? So I make a storyboard where I explain things, and I try as much as possible not to use design-related technical terms so that it will be easy for them to understand. Right? And it will be easy for people to see. I always keep in mind that they're there because they're interested in the solution. They're not there because they're forced to. Okay? So, you're both interested. I want to explain it to you, and you want to know it. So the first thing I do is I don't use technical terms. The second thing I do is I make a storyboard. I do storytelling. And the third thing, if storytelling doesn't work, I do a presentation, a proper page, just how this isn't going to help us in terms of business prosperity with this client and how this thing's going to make an impact. So, yeah, that's how I explain complex UI/UX concepts to someone who isn't a designer.

When creating a design that can be easily implemented by the development team, I consider their expertise and knowledge from the front-end side. They can handle tasks like adding a button or header with ease. To ensure a smooth implementation process, I typically discuss the design requirements with the developers directly. This open communication helps them understand the design intent and enables them to create the desired features. In this case, I usually mention the design requirements within the design platform itself, such as Figma. This approach allows the developers to understand the design and create the necessary features without needing a comprehensive design document.

I stay updated with the continuous evolution in UX design by reading lots of UX magazines and media blogs on medium. Like, I follow UI Breakfast, a magazine, and I'm an active part of the UX subreddit and Twitter group, and then there's a Slack group for designers. And, I follow popular people who have made an impact and are still trying to make an impact in this design industry on LinkedIn, and I go through their posts daily. Like, I scroll, and I read books during weekends because that's when I get time to give a proper concentration to books. I read books, and I'm still hooked. I'm reading it for the third time, the book "Hooked". And I keep myself updated with new blogs, new trends, these ways. Whenever I get more time, let's say, on holiday, I go to Behance, and I copy designs because, you know, sometimes all we need is a difference. So I sit and copy designs for, like, literally small details. That's how I stay updated with UX design trends and tools. I mentioned I'm part of lots of WhatsApp groups where we act as a community, and we discuss and debate about design trends and tools. Yeah, that's one way I stay updated with the continuous evolution.

I conduct user research effectively by following these steps. So, I first do my side of research first, which includes secondary research, like whatever available on the Internet, whatever available in Google Scholar. I read research papers thoroughly, then create a literature review out of it so that I can present it to the stakeholders or select product managers or whoever I'm working for. After creating the literature review, I conduct stakeholder interviews to get their thoughts clearly before jumping into the primary research part. Then for the primary research, I identify the need of the hour. If the need is to conduct proper user research, I do face-to-face interviews or virtual interviews. I also have experience shadowing users and have done journaling. It depends on the constraints, including time constraints, which step I take to conduct user research. If time is less and the deadline is near, we go for secondary research or service research. If we have time and it's a very new idea, then we conduct proper primary research, going to the ground and doing the exercises.

Designing a user experience for a feature-rich application while ensuring minimal cognitive load is a process that requires prioritization. The first step is to identify the essential features, the desirable features, and the optional features. I will then prioritize the essential features, followed by the desirable features, and finally the optional features. This segregation allows me to focus on the most critical features first. I will take the essential features (p0) and assess their impact on the user experience. I will evaluate how much impact each feature has, how much it will cost, and how much it will benefit the user. If the initial assessment is successful, I will add a task to the platform and conduct user research. If user research is already available, I will review it and proceed with creating two different design styles for A/B testing. A/B testing is an essential step in this process, as it helps determine which design is more effective. After conducting A/B testing, we will know which design to acquire and implement. Finally, we can create the final design based on the results of all testing, including usability testing. If usability testing is successful, we will know that the feature is ready to be implemented. Prioritization and impact assessment are key factors in this process. If a feature has a minimal impact, it may be acceptable to implement it. However, the decision to implement a feature ultimately depends on the assessment of its impact and the user experience.

Have you had any experience with AB testing, and can you give an example? Yes. I have experience with AB testing. It was for a service, actually. For the current organization I am working for, we wanted to decide between a feature and a different service. So we created both things. We first created it as a feature. And for the second part, we created it as a service. We then did the AB testing, and we found that we should launch it as a different service itself because people needed it. So, that's how we created the AB testing. It was about the rise in price. The rice price is a thing for exporters who continuously search for the exact 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. Before, rice price was a different service, which is live right now, and we are receiving very good feedback about it. Before our Rise Price was a service, it was just a part of an export costing tool, which is a different service. People who used to go there to see the export costing would also see the rice prices, but now they can see the rice prices as a separate service. Like, people are there who don't want to do export costing; they just want to know the rice price. So it was a very good decision. From a business point of view, it was really good too because Rise Price is a different plan and export costing is a different plan.

To design a user interface that needs to adapt to various screen sizes and devices, I first need to determine if a redesign is necessary to accommodate different screen sizes and devices. If so, I will follow a responsive design approach. This involves creating a grid system to structure the layout and ensure that the design remains flexible and adaptable across various screen sizes and devices.