This is the second part of our conversation with Mayank Sharma who is Design Manager and Design Lead at Nansen.

What is more, Mayank is experienced in UX and UI design for decentralized finance apps and many many more. He is also interested in Web3, fintech and blockchain. He explains why he thinks going to university is better than boostcamps.

If you want to find out more about him and what he’s passionate about (cryptocurrencies, money investing apps and blockchains 💸), GO CHECK OUT THE FIRST EPISODE!   

Check us out on LinkedIn.

In this episode, our guest is Mayank Sharma who is Design Manager and Design Lead at Nansen.

What is more, Mayank is experienced in UX and UI design for decentralized finance apps and many many more. He is also interested in Web3, fintech and blockchain. He explains why he thinks going to university is better than boostcamps.

If you want to find out more about him and what he’s passionate about (cryptocurrencies, money investing apps and blockchains), GO CHECK IT OUT!

The talk was so great we decided to divide it into two parts. Stay tuned for the second part.

Our guest this time is Valentina Velarde - Senior UX-UI Designer & Human from Bolivia, who is currently living in Barcelona and reached the European market. An expert in crafting digital products, working in tech, and also an aspiring front-end developer. She studied Graphic Design and Visual Communication at Universidad Católica Boliviana and spent over 8 years expanding her knowledge and strengthening her skills. But now she could not wait to describe to us the possibilities and the obstacles that you can encounter on your way to becoming a worldwide graphic designer.

Valentina is describing her own way that she had to go through to become an expert in graphic design. The UX-UI design is not a piece of cake, especially at the very beginning. Valentina is fully aware of it and tells us the story of her first steps in this field.

In the episode you will find information about: The situation of designers in Bolivia | South America vs Europe - differences in the design market | Cooperation between designers – how does it look like and how it should look like? | Do you need coding skills in design? | How did she start her adventure? | Where does she get her inspiration from?

& more!!

In this episode, our guest is Johan Gradin - Product Manager / Design lead at Fairlo. Who is he? 

Experienced graphic designer with strong skills in brand identity, visual communication, print, packaging, user-friendly web solutions, user experience as well as project development. He has the experience, in big as well as small projects with high demands on quality design and extensive experience in leading processes from idea to finished product. He has a strong commitment to creating beautiful and sustainable design solutions for the customer.

A very interesting guest, a very interesting conversation!

In the episode, you will find answers to questions such as: What characteristics a good brand designer should have? Should the tools define the designer or should the designer define the tools? Rebranding in the fashion industry - what you should know? Is mathematical education useful in the work of a graphic designer? & more!

We invite you to the first episode of our podcast with the new host, CEO of Elite Crew - Marek Wrzosowski!

In this episode, our guest is Marilia Maz - Senior Designer, Art director and freelancer. Marilia comes from Greece but has been working in London for several years. Marilia has over 10 years of experience in design. She specializes in brand strategy design. In 2017, she founded her own company, The Big Maze which is the Design & Strategy Lab building impactful brands & digital experiences.

Is London a good place for freelance designers? What does a freelancer job in London look like? What opportunities and challenges you would face in London? Are new trends starting in London? During our talk, you will learn first-hand info from Marilia Maz, a freelance designer working in London.

In this episode we will also talk about: Why visual communication is the most powerful? What is brand strategy design? What is the work of a brand strategy designer? Who should the brand strategy designer work with on a daily basis? Is research important in designers' work? What is glamping tourism? 

& more!

In this episode, you will listen to a very interesting conversation with Somayeh Ranjbar - Senior Service Designer at Personio. She is a UX Researcher and Service Designer with over 10 years of experience in research and strategic design. As she says about her role, it is a combination of 3 disciplines: Mixed Research Methods, Service Design and UX Design.

In this episode we will talk about: Opportunities for entrepreneur refugees. Inclusion in tech, how design can leverage that? Tech vs. social impact-driven companies - what's the difference? What service design looks like in the meta world? What will research look like in the "new world"? How can designers fully utilize research? Are openness and resilience the traits of a good designer?& more!

This time we had the pleasure to host Katharina Seeger - Creative Director and member of the management team at Edenspiekermann. She's a true generalist, strategic thinker and team player, fascinated by human behaviour and constantly curious about humans. Katharina has extensive experience working as a designer in various industries. When asked which industry was the most enjoyable to work with, she replied that she couldn't answer this question. Why? To find out, we invite you to listen to the newest episode of World Designer! In this episode you will also learn: 

How has the industry of Electric Vehicles changed over the years? What is it like to work in a design agency? Design thinking - is it overrated? How yoga can help you maintain a healthy work-life relationship?

Our next guest is Basim Al-Baker UX Researcher at Dance. In this episode, we learn about Basims's story and how he became a designer. We talk about the need of seeking criticism and feedback in order to grow.

Basim explains why good design should be connected with emotions. But we also talk about the problems big businesses create. On the other hand, we talk about solving the problem with mortality and what are the things we can do together.

Later we talk about our mental health levels and why we shouldn't compare ourselves to others, be it in personal or professional life. It's better to take inspiration from other people and compare ourselves to ourselves.

Our guests are Nick and Gray the founders of Decibels. They share with us the story of Decibels, where the idea came from, what Decibels are and how this project can completely change the hearing aid category.

In this episode, you will learn not only about design but also about hearing technology. Nick and Gray explain why designing hearing technology is difficult and the things they have to keep in mind when working on Decibels. After talking about Decibels we jump into the qualities of good design. Gray tells us how you can develop your intuition as a designer and Nick tells us about conversations with users.

Marek asks them about timeless design. Is it even possible to make hardware design timeless? Another topic is minimalism vs maximalism and our impressions of what is modern. We learn why we should understand the craft of one another and the qualities that make great team players.

https://www.decibels.so/ 

Our guest is Gloria Biberger a designer and consultant who takes a holistic and a systemic view of innovation and transformation.

In this interview, we learn about organizational design, what it is and why Gloria focuses on it. Gloria shares how people can learn it and what's the greatest thing about this discipline. Another aspect we touch on is the relationship between organizational and service design. The problem we talk about is the splitting up of society. Is there a way to bring people together with design?

We learn more about the scalability of design. Another topic is the importance of having designers in the company as they are the people that can transform the whole organization. We talk also about empowering people and facilitating the design process.

In the end, Gloria tells us about the gift of asking questions and why not knowing something is a strength.

Our guest is Jesper Svenning a Danish UX designer and researcher. 

In this interview we learn how a mentor can help you grow. Jesper shares his story of how he became a freelance designer and then compares the freelance design scene in the US and Europe.

After that we learn about the 3 things you have to keep in mind if you want to work as a freelance designer. As freelancing isn't the right choice for everyone. Jesper tells us about his research experience and why he loves working with developers. He also explains why you have to sometimes feel uncomfortable when testing a product.

Another topic is the influence of design on our lives. Does working as a designer relate to being better as a human? 

Jesper shares his controversial thoughts about testing, brainstorming and forcing creativity. We also learn about the boring aspects of design work that many people forget. In the end, Jesper tells us about the problem with the distribution of wealth and some things we can do to deal with it.

https://www.hotairindustries.com/ 

Our guest is Péter Balázs Polgár, the lead product designer at Krisp. Peter tells us about Krisp and how they use software to make online meetings easier. 

We learn why designers and developers have to teach one another to understand each other's goals. Peter tells us also about the things you have to keep in mind when managing a design team and why it's important to create spaces for creative work.  

We touch also on the topic of humility and why ego is often the enemy. Another topic we tackle is the closing of coal mines. At the end Péter shares his advice with people who want to be design managers.  

You can find Peter on:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterbalazspolgar/ 

His website: https://polgarp.com/ 

Our guest on the 10th episode of World Designer is Martina Pagura, a Product Design Manager at Koa Health . Together with Martina, we talk about the project she is working on, a project that will make mental health support accessible for millions thanks to technology.

We talk about the mental health problem and how design is applied to solve it. Martina tells us about user-centricity and we ask her if good design is always user-centered. You will learn the importance of balance between logic and craziness as a designer. Sometimes you have to think outside the box and channel yourself to be tactical, other times you should let out the beast and come up with crazy ideas to change things.

Martina tells us why the most beautiful thing about design is also the most worrisome one and the responsibility that design and development teams have. At the end of the episode, Martina explains why you need a hobby if your job requires creativity and why you have to stay curious and hungry to learn design.

Martina on LinkedIn 

https://www.martinapagura.com/ 

Our guest is Feild Craddock, an Interaction Designer specializing in interactive hardware that shares his experience with us. Feild tells about problems with politics and how a few people can have too much power. He explains the hardest part about designing physical products and the differences between the design of software and physical products.

We learn about bodystorming and how designing for Augmented Reality looks like. He tells us why designers and developers should share terminology and why developers have to ask more questions. Later Feild shares with us his thoughts about brainstorming. He tells us also why he is learning to build software and how it relates to being a designer.

Most importantly, Feild shares his thoughts about sketching and why we should do it more often. We also talk about the emotional connection between products and users, should a good design always form that connection? In the end, Feild shares his tips with aspiring interaction designers.

You can find Feild at:

https://www.feild.work/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/feild/

John Ferreira is an educator, creator of Killer Interactions and a great Product Designer who knows a lot about UI. 

In this episode of World Designer he tells us about the problem with media and fake news, he shares the story of how he created Media Sifter to fight this problem. We learn how experience as a photographer relates to being a designer and also the most important thing he learned when working in the gaming industry. 

John explains why designers should learn to code to a degree, how it will change the quality of work and affect mutual understanding. We talk also about consolidated creativity and why all mailing applications look the same. 

Moreover, John shares with us his analogy between finding the source of a river and defining problems to be solved. We learn also a little bit about his course "Killer Interactions", if you want to learn how to build beautiful Pixel Perfect User Interfaces, that's the place to go. He tells us about the components good UI is made of and why colors are still a misunderstood topic. He gives also actionable tips on reverse engineering things and the learnings that come from it.

John's Twitter - https://twitter.com/johnfferreira?lang=en

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnfwferreira/

Killer Interactions - https://www.killerinteractions.com/

Together with Martin Mershroth we talked about the differences between B2B and B2C products, we learn about the decisions he made to grow as a designer. 

Martin told us how his career as a designer started in a small village in Germany. We talk about designing for VUI (Voice user interfaces) and the exciting things connected with it. Another topic we tackle is the ability to operate on different heights, Martin explains what it is and how important this ability is for every designer.

He shares also his thoughts on open-sourcing design and the good things it can bring to the whole community. We talk also about asymmetries in societies and the significance of this problem in today's world. In the end, Martin shares a few tips with people who are at the start of their design careers.

https://majroth.com/

https://www.figma.com/@martin 

This podcast is brought to you by: Elite Crew 

Our guest is Ane Eline Sorensen, the founder of The Great Caribbean Barrier, owner of issun studio and a great designer who is an agent of resilient expansion. Together with Ane we talk about the importance of creative leadership. Eline tells us her story, how she changed her career to make the world a better place. We talk about collaboration across silos to find solutions to every problem. There are problems in the world that everyone needs to work on. Another topic we cover is the relationship between generalists and specialists, why they need each other and how together they can change the world. Eline tells us why we should question the status quo and how important it is to find your tribe to grow as a designer and as a person.

Together with Anders Hojmose we talk about many many things, one of the first topics is design in Education. Anders is the Head of UX at EF Education First, thanks to that he knows a lot about the challenges that design has to solve when it comes to teaching people. 

We talk about the problems that the pandemic caused and how it affects the quality of design, but we also discuss the new challenges that new technologies create. Anders explains why T-shaped designers are needed and the importance of having expertise in a given niche. As a follow-up he explains why we have to take courses and "get our hands dirty" in order to learn. 

Anders site: https://www.hojmo.se/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hojmose/ 

Elite Crew: https://www.elitecrew.io/ 

Key points:

Favorite sector - Education - [3:15]

Finding the sweet spot between technology and peer to peer learning - [5:00]

Challenge in front of us - [8:30]

Designers without developers - [16:15]

Engage developers early on in the design process - [19:00]

Solve problems first - [22:10]

Working from home and the quality - [25:30]

Intuition vs research - [30:15]

T-shaped designer - [34:50]

Skills required to be a good designer - [39:40]

In this episode of "The App Designer" we talk with Sven Neitzel the CEO of Looc.io, a vision test app that will help you take care of your eyes with vision tests that you can do at home. Sven tells us about his journey from a graphic designer throughout UX design up to becoming a CEO of a tech company. We learn why it's important to stay flexible and always learn new skills to be a good designer. 

We learn about the design challenges they faced during the development of their app. We also talk about the importance of typography, one of the most under- and over- rated things in design.

Sven tells us about the magic of iterations in digital design and when is the right time to focus on the details. At the end we learn Sven's thoughts on the direction design is headed in the coming years. 

Healthcare is one of the most important sectors in our society and Designers are already making an impact on how people experience health care services. In this episode of The App Designer, Felicjan Rybka talks with Abi Golestanian about the impact design can have on this sector and how healthcare support can look like in the coming years. Abi tells us about the consequences of design and what it means to be a designer in today’s society. We also talk about sustainability in relation to energy usage. At the end of this episode you will learn why it's important to have an open mind to be a great designer.