Interaction Design Ideas (IxDEAS)

Interaction Design Ideas (IxDEAS) is the Independent PracticeofNarayan Gopalan. Striving to create engaging experiences for clients across the world.

After working for companies such as The Brand Union, Human Factors International and Adobe, Narayan has established himself as an independent consultant specializing in Interaction Design. He has assisted startups and large corporates globally in the creation of new digital services and products.

Narayan is a trained and certified Design Sprint Master.

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Interaction Design Ideas (IxDEAS) is the Independent PracticeofNarayan Gopalan. Striving to create engaging experiences for clients across the world.

Narayan is a trained and certified Design Sprint Master.

Co-Founder of India's largest Design-in-Tech conference.

DesignUp started with the idea of raising the design agenda within tech companies and tech-led businesses. To make tech, businesses, products and services thoughtful, human and humane, by Design.

DesignUp has conducted over 10 events across Asia.

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4 Years and 4x Growth

From 200+ attendees in 2016 to ~3000 attendees in it's most recent event, the community has grown rapidly. Managing queries, logistics, speaker-travel and desserts were done by a small team that worked swiftly and efficiently.

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“When you walk into DesignUp, it looks like a design conference in Europe or North America. The questions you get from the audience are sophisticated.”

Khoi Vinh
Former Design Director at NewYork Times, and now Principal Designer, Adobe

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Ticket Sales & Management

With over 5000 tickets and over 2000 add-ons sold, DesignUp's custom built ticketing platform provided an easy and swift checkout process, while allowing control over ticket types and pricing.

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“The Gold standard of Design Events in India."

Akshay Kothari
Former VP of Products, LinkedIn India & 2017 Keynote Speaker at DesignUp

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Managing Sponsors & Partners

Recurring and new sponsors coming on board each year - required new contracts, terms and management.

DesignUp has conducted over 10 events across Asia.

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DesignUpCo-Founder of India's largest Design-in-Tech conference.

DesignUp started with the idea of raising the design agenda within tech companies and tech-led businesses. To make tech, businesses, products and services thoughtful, human and humane, by Design.

DesignUp has conducted over 10 events across Asia.

Visit DesignUp.io 2019 Recap Film

Work

Projects, Sprints and Professional Engagements.

Does big data have a history?

Big data promises an intellectual revolution, but it also brings us back to the fundamental questions at the heart of the human sciences. This Sawyer Seminar approaches such questions through the prism of three long-standing means of Ordering and gathering information:

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Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Combining Education & Entertainment

Socialswag is a new age platform that will enable consumers to connect with - celebrities, influencers, bloggers and other inspirational individuals, through personal interactions and learning forums.

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A new Digital experience for community healthcare

Swasti designs, delivers and supports solutions for the health and wellbeing of the poor. Swasti was envisioned as an organisation to transform the lives of the marginalised communities by ensuring their access to quality healthcare.

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Digital Transformative Livelihoods Solutions

Building Wealth and Resilience of Small Producers and Vulnerable Communities through Transformative Livelihoods Solutions.

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Photo by Gaurav Pikale on Unsplash

Designing a Festival for designers

Part of the challenge as co-founder of DesignUp was to create a consistent standard in visual language and caring about every application from a lanyard to the stage.

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Branding a sporting facility for the next generation

The Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence (CSE) is India’s finest integrated multi-sport complex, built to encourage sports at every level.

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Designing Luxury amidst wilderness

Machaan - Lodges & Resorts - is based in interior Karnataka, India offering guests luxurious experiences close to nature.

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Photo by Kunal Shinde on Unsplash

Extracts from an Interview with Association of Designers of India (ADI)

Your journey from visual design, branding, web and interaction design has been a long one. What were some challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?

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.

Being creative is largely about having the courage to fail repeatedly. Could you give an example from your own experiences of a project that failed? What went wrong, and what did you learn/take away from that experience?

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.

Is UX design largely a globalized practice or has it been contextualized in India? How so?

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.

As a designer and ‘serial entrepreneur’, has it been easy or difficult to merge the two roles? Do you have a personal preference for either role?

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.

What was one memorable experience in bringing together the Indian design community for DesignUp?

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.