Design Journeys 101: A Rendezvous with Shivani Kanaskar
Meet Shivani Kanaskar, UX/UI Designer at Monsoonfish. She joined the Monsoonfish Team nearly 18 months ago and has been a part of numerous projects in varied domains. Shivani sits down with us for a quick conversation, where she talks about her career journey thus far, what intrigues her in the design world, how she keeps work and her other interests steady, and what she looks forward to.
Q: Tell us a bit about yourself that we don’t already know about. While you’re at it, tell us what piqued your interest in design and building a career in this field.
Shivani: Though I hail from a technical background, I always wanted to be in an art or creative firm. It was the year 2017 and I was at IIT Bombay TechFest. A robotics hackathon was happening, and we were supposed to design a website on robots within a stipulated amount of time. That’s the moment I realised design was my thing. And since then, I am learning new tricks and hacks about design every day. :)
Q: How has the Monsoonfish journey been so far? What are your key learnings? Any project in particular that you really enjoyed working on?
Shivani: The journey has been good so far. We have an incredible team at Monsoonfish and I got to learn many things from my colleagues and peers. In terms of a project-related happy moment, there was this small quiz game app which I designed along with one of my colleagues. It turned out a lot better than we imagined and we even got the design approval on the same day. It feels good to create better experiences for people and get appreciated for it.
Q: Did COVID-19 change the way you work? How have you adapted to the situation?
Shivani: The greatest thing to have come out of this crisis is that a lot of employers have embraced flexibility, especially when it comes to working from home and having virtual teams. And it wasn’t totally impossible as we all thought it was. There have been productivity gains as well, from not having to shuttle and getting to work from wherever you want.
Q: As a UX/UI Designer, what are the major challenges that you tackle daily?
Shivani: As designers, whatever we create becomes a part of someone’s life. This could be good or bad and we should be fully aware of the fact. It’s a wonderful opportunity to create products that bring a change in people’s lives but at the same time, it’s a pretty huge responsibility too!
Q: What are your sources of inspiration, especially since being a designer involves truckloads of creativity?
Shivani: Pinterest is a great platform to pull out design references and mood boards for new design languages and brand styles.
Q: Give us insights into your style of work. Is there a process that you follow when it comes to designing interfaces or user journeys?
Shivani: Having a good understanding and a solid base in visual and web design is very important. There are some key principles that every designer needs to get familiar with :
- Colour
- Pick three-part series on colour theory.
- Understanding what colour vocabulary is and the psychology of colours.
2. Grid Layouts
- Understanding what grid systems are and how they can be applied to your design.
3. Tonality and Composition
- Balancing compositional, symmetrical, and asymmetrical designs.
4. Typography
- Identifying better web types is very important to create a good visual experience.
5. Building Hierarchy
- Managing contrast to organize and chunk information, build a hierarchy, and create focus.
Q: Any particular design trend or principle that you hold in high regard?
Shivani: Muted colours and Minimalism are two of the top trends right now. Any website that indulges muted colours, soft shades and hues have a cleaner look when compared with one that features bold colours. Also, they make for a soothing visual experience; something most customers want to see. Minimalism has been a top design trend for a long time now. Apple.com is a perfect example of minimalism used right. Minimalism is going to shoot in significance as the customers interact via smaller screens.
Q: Mention a few brands whose design styles you’re proud to refer to as favourites.
Shivani: Apple.com has always been my favourite. The way they utilise white space is in such a manner that customers can see clearly and their products are always sparse. Another one I love is cfnapa.com. Their website looks super organised and classy.
Q: Lastly, what are you up to when you aren’t working? Any side-gigs or interests that you’re currently pursuing?
Shivani: In my spare time, I paint quite a bit. Before the pandemic, I enjoyed attending art/museum exhibitions. I also create doodles sometimes. Other than that, I love travelling and exploring new and unseen places. :)
With a vibrant team of 40+ designers, Monsoonfish specializes in Product Strategy, Design, UX and UI. Team Monsoonfish works on various mobile applications, web applications, software, applications, and websites across multiple domains where they’ve added value in terms of user-relevant product features, seamless user experience (UX) design, and stunning graphic (UI) design.
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