Having to explain to anyone the role of a Designer has come a long way in the past 14 years of my professional time. From being the designer who enters the process at the last stage of a project (Logo/Branding/Visual Design) — to now becoming part of the first few brains to lead a project has been the result of a steady design-led process. Design is more than what you see (Visual Design) — it’s creating what you (as an end-user) experience with all your senses. It took a few projects and years to put this to the test and the results backing me up, helped me gain momentum as a consultant.

I was bitten by the startup-bug in early 2013. Between 2013 and 2015, I played a leading role in multiple unique ideas ranging from renting expensive art to selling freshly picked teas & coffee online. The journey for each was short and sweet in retrospect, and in many ways and eye-opener to various challenges and aspects of a business.

Globally, UX Is an emerging practice. There is much to be learned and discovered — and hence to share across the globe. UX itself is always contextualized to the customer — be it anywhere. The tools of UX — Research, Visual Design or Development — are common globally and shared across countries and continents. Putting them to optimum and efficient use requires knowledge of the end-user and their demographics.

A designer who takes ownership, a realist who sees ideas through production, is an entrepreneur in many ways. As the designer, you often need to take ownership similar to be able to command bold decisions and create innovative solutions. Often, not being the primary stakeholder or business owner — the designer plays an important role unseen to others. I prefer the less seen yet important role that focusses on thinking & doing, each being as important as the other. To me, the ‘Designer’ plays a more important role within. Having tried my hand at many ideas, I now have a very critical approach for self-initiated projects and often play the role of the Devil’s Advocate while evaluating an idea.

Watching it grow has been the most memorable experience. From a community of around 250 in 2016 to around 1700 attendees in 2019 (that’s just the number of paid guests at the Bangalore & Singapore events, there are 15x of those who engage via multiple ways, including meetups, social media, our newsletter) the scale of growth was an eye-opener.