Priyanshi Mehra

Yes. So my name is Priyanshi Mehra. I am based out of Noida. I have done my graduation from in economics from Delhi University. I worked at KPMG as an analyst, after which I'd actually decided to switch my career into UI UX. Uh, so I worked at Surulever as a UI designer for a long time before I decided to basically move to another company, which was Netex, where I did contract employment. And at Netex, I was the only designer working there. So I was actually also taking care of a lot of aspects all the aspects of design, I would say, where I was taking care of design documentation, design system to developing user experiences to actually developing all the user interfaces and also was in very close interaction with cross functional teams and stakeholders to understand technological limitations, business needs, as well as user needs. I have also worked on a visualization tool called Grafana where I utilize my knowledge of HTML and CSS to basically create dashboards for the clients. And, yeah, that's been mostly my journey over the years.

Scenario where you have to balance a perfect user experience with technical constraints. Yes. Uh, this this is basically when we were working on a responsive design. So the requirement was, uh, basically to work on a responsive application, which was a classroom solution for a client. And the basic technical constraint that we felt here was that the time the deadline was very small. Like, we were supposed to launch within a month. And so we needed to make sure that all the designs for the 3 for all the devices, basically cross device, uh, were supposed to be actually similar so that the development time would be actually less, followed by also figuring out, um, design system that actually had the code base as well as had the the Figma design file that I could utilize and the code base that the front end developers could utilize to actually be able to work on design in a in such a way. So yeah. So that was one experience that we had to balance user experience with technical constraints. And I can say that for sure that the designs were actually highly appreciated and they came out pretty good.

When starting a new UI design. So, basically, my entire process would be something around where I am, uh, first setting a user flow at a place where I would also define the contents that each screen would have so that this gives a clear idea that, a, what the user flow would be like, also the number of screens that would be required. After that, I basically go ahead with wireframing. Now even before I enter UI design, my point is to actually decide on layouting, which the wireframing helps with, and then deciding the colors behind it, the colors and the typography. Now if it's a software that I'm working on, then obviously, we have a design system at a place where we have the colors determined and followed by we also have the components as well as the typography defined. So it's very easy to move from wireframe to design directly. However, if it's something where I'm working on, let's say, web design or something that's more smaller project, does not require a design system, My aim would be to after wireframing to actually determine the colors that you would be using and the typography and then dive into UI design. Before which also, I would do an entire mood boarding where I'll find references, do a little bit of research as to what people are you designing in the similar, uh, interfaces that in interfaces that are of the similar domain. And, yeah, using all that information, then I'll dive into UI designing.

Design aligns with user needs. So, again, uh, my major idea is always to interact a lot with the product manager. Because in my previous companies, my product manager used to have client interactions. So my basic understanding would be to be able to, a, either see if they were using any software before so that I know the experience that they have had and basics that. And using that as a basis, I work on new design for their software. Uh, second would be to understand if there is a new software that we're working on, what are the pain points that these clients are facing. So a lot of times, I would ask my product managers with a list of info with a with quite a list of information that I would ask the product manager to ask the clients, uh, where they where I could get insights about the pain points that they're facing or what content that they're actually looking forward to in the user interface. And basis that, I'll actually start working on the designs.

Of user testing in UX design. So a lot of times, basically, the the major understanding is that whatever I design, I'm not gonna be the user for it. Right? So the user base is gonna be very different and can be from a very technological background or geographical background. So their experience with the platform can be very different from what we anticipated it to be. So the whole point of user testing is to be able to, a, see that if the software is working properly and there are no bugs, second, if whatever we have created is actually something where users are able to understand or are they feeling stuck somewhere? So how can we improve that experience? And 3rd would be a part of a b testing. So if sometimes I work on 2 types of designs and I'm confused which would make more sense, the a b testing would be the way to go where where the users would be presented with the scene, and they can see which seems more convenient to them and everything because, again, at the end of the day, the users are gonna use our platform. We are just people creating it. So it's very important to understand this, that user testing is the ultimate goal of it's actually the most important aspect when you're creating something because you need to understand whether the users are actually being helped versus the software that you have created or not.

Explain how you have used analytics data in shaping design iterations. Uh, so, unfortunately, much of my experience hasn't been on using analytics data. So I can't really answer this question directly, but if, uh, I did have analytics data, I would be basically being able to see information like, I would say, the pinpoint like, the places where people are getting stuck at and improving that that area further, also being able to see where all people are actually able to navigate very easily. So knowing that, okay, this is something that we're gonna, you know, continue creating, and this is gonna be a part of our designs, for sure, to also be able to understand why people are dropping off if on a particular step and what can we do to improve it. So, yeah, like, the analytics database basically be used to be able to improve the designs, uh, in byte sizes, I would say, so that we are able to create a much, much better experience for the users.

Had to overhaul a design system. What was your process and what challenge did you face? So a time when I had to overhaul a design system would be when I had to create a customized component of, uh, I would say, the tooltip. So, yeah, we were using an design system. And, uh, in the tooltip, it was, uh, like, as you see, like, the tooltips are supposed to be something very specific. When you hover on a button, it just gives you some information about it. But here, what we actually required was that when you hover on it, you get an entire overview of a dashboard where you're getting the name of the dashboard and the various average, um, inputs that they are giving. And yeah. So this was one component that we actually had to break away from. So my process was basically to be able to use the tooltips, colors, basically, the design system's colors and everything that was in place, the typography in place, and create this component, and then add it as a part of the design system and inform the front end team so that they could also update their code base for the same component. So there weren't many challenges I faced there. The only challenge was to actually be able to interact with the front end team and be able to ensure that we are on the same page regarding the component because that's the entire point. Like, we need to work in collaboration. So, yeah, that was one time that I had to overhaul the design

Testing and adding new product ideas before full development. So, uh, what is the process for testing and validating new product ideas? So I would actually be able to the first thing I would actually do is that I would take this product ID, and I'll do a Google search effect to see that if people are you know, have created something in the similar domain or in the similar works in the similar area. And I would try to see the problem that they are solving, and basis that, I would take it back with me. I would do a bit of I would do a bit of research around it, take it back, and then be able to have discussions with my friend with with basically cross functional teams, some of our product managers, front end developer, back end developers, and be able to understand exactly what problem we are trying to solve and, um, ideate as much as we can as to what all problems that other platforms might not be solving that we can actually solve. So, yeah, that would be mostly my process around, uh, validating the new product ideas and before full development.

The solution you've implemented to address a complex user experience problem. So you should have implemented to address a complex user experience. So I think the one innovative solution that I would have implemented to address a very complex user problem would be to actually be able to create our so the platform that we are working on had multiple modules, and each module had, uh, were reda were basically redirecting so each module, well, they were separate entities, but they were interrelated to each other. So each of them relied on each other, but they were also can be used as separate end separate modules. Right? So this was a complex problem to me in the fact that how would you actually allow the user to, you know in case they want to jump from 1 module to the other module so that they they they don't feel that they're moving out of the place, but they also know that they are, you know, actually moving to a different module. So the whole point point was to actually keep the layout as similar as possible, keep the design system similar, and be able to keep everything in the multiple modules as familiar as possible so that the users know that even though they're jumping to a different tab by clicking a particular module, there they also have a, okay, at a glance, they can know that, no, they're still within our platform. It's just a different module. So I think designing it in a way that would ensure that familiarity was very interesting opportunity for me.

Leverage user personas in the design process. So I remember that, there was this one particular screen there was particular software application that we were working on at Soluble where the whole point was to create an HMI screen for people who are working on floor shop floor. So this actually, I made an entire list of questions that I then asked, uh, my product manager who then who actually had interacted with the client with the people who were working on the floor. Uh, so, basically, the questions were around what age group they are from, uh, further what all their expertise is, or basically how much technologically sound they are to an extent, like how long they work for and what all long time they stand and what would be the screen size that they're using. So based on this, I actually created a user persona that the people are in from the age of 30 to 40, that they are technologically quite sound. However, it's a task that they want to do as a secondary task because it's not their primary task, so the design needs to be in such a way that it does not take away from the client details, rather helps it complement it. So, yeah, that was the user persona that I used as a part of creating a design.

Approach to responsive design and the tools you have used for testing responsiveness. So, uh, the tools basic so my approach responsive design would be basically to actually, a, determine a design system. If we don't have time to create the design system from scratch, we would find it opens I would find a open source design system that has a very solid, uh, design file with all the required components followed by a good code source code file as well so that the front end developers also are able to use it well. Secondly, it would be, again, determining the colors. Uh, usually, we would we can use the colors that a design system is providing. Sometimes it can be also that it faces the brand requirement. We would change the colors within the design system. After that, I would basically, uh, then, uh, once the components and design system is at place, I would layout. Uh, I would start layouting it in the sense that I would create wireframes in a way that I would see that how each and every screen would look in case the design was quick fanned or not, and I basically use Figma. So since Figma has auto layout, so it's very convenient for me to actually create a design and set its conditions to fill container and be able to see that once it's, um, once the width of the frame is expanded, what is the how is the screen looking then? And if it's reduced, how is the screen looking then? So that's how I would approach the responsive designs. And the tools I've used is obviously Figma. I've also used Expo, which is the tool that I think that front end developers tend to use for testing their application on their phone. And yeah. So I've used this as