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In this episode of Aedge, Deepa Srinivasan, the Design Director at Kickdrum, converses with Sakshi Sipani, a young designer at Clearly Blue, and Madhavi Nadig, the CTO of Adeptic Creative Labs. It is an open conversation where they explore how design is integral to building good products, the interactions between designers and various stakeholders, and how engineering teams and designers collaborate to deliver great products and user experiences. Deepa also shares many tips for young designers.User research is very important to build good user experiencesDeepa advises Sakshi to share unfinished designs with stakeholders, as early as possible, to get better feedbackStudies show that people hesitate to ask for major changes when they think the design is “finished”Ideally, designers should be involved at every stage of the product development life cycleBy considering engineers’ inputs early in the design process, designers can ensure that their design has a feasible implementationIt’s best if designers work closely with engineering teams and build products iterativelyDeepa’s mentor pushes her to understand other people’s mindsetsAs a designer, it’s very important to try and get into somebody else’s shoes to get their perspectiveThe way a design appears to a 25-year-old may not be the same to someone older or with poorer eyesightOne example of gaining a new design perspective is to switch to using only keyboard shortcuts for a few daysDesigning with keyboard shortcuts in mind could help voice enabled interfaces as wellDeepa suggests discussing designs with different people, even if they don’t fit the user personasThough designers typically frown upon “Hallway Testing”, Deepa finds it usefulAt IBM, during a hackathon style event, Deepa teamed up with folks from the IoT team and built a product to monitor daily water consumptionAs the team unpacked the complicated problem, they realised how many stakeholders were involved, including secondary stakeholders like apartment associationsDeepa believes it’s important for designers to be able to listen to a different point of viewBiases are unavoidable, but try to check yourself every time you speakListen, understand and empathise with the points of view of the end-users, developers, stakeholders and the businessEmpathy is very important for designersWith so many points of view to consider, designer needs to learn to navigate and negotiate their pathTo stay updated on changes in the design world, develop the habit of reading every dayPodcasts help you learn from designers around the world, even if it’s not something you’re currently working onIn order to not get outdated, expose yourself to new ideas via reading, podcasts, meetupsDeepa periodically does courses with the Interaction Design Foundation to stay updated and attends their meetupsWhen ideas stop flowing, it’s good to take a break, do something you enjoy and let your subconscious come up with a new ideaWhen an idea strikes her in the middle of the night, Deepa wakes up and jots it down immediatelyIf you’re stuck with a problem, find out how others have solved itTo avoid getting biased majorly, make sure to look for different points of view.Deepa has over 20 years of experience in the field of user experience design. As a designer, she helps companies find solutions to their problems and turn ideas into tangible products. In her previous avatars, Deepa worked in online advertising, designed the user experience for various products and even ran her own design studio for a few years. Now, she works as the Design Director at Kickdrum. Deepa also has several hobbies, painting being her favourite. She paints in watercolour and acrylic.This podcast is brought to you by Adeptic Creative Labs with support from the team at Clearly Blue Digital.Write to us at podcasts@adepticlabs.com.Follow us on LinkedIn at Adeptic Creative Labs and Clearly Blue Digital.