Each day, everyone at Springworks comes into work with a true passion for building products and tools for the HR ecosystem. We are artists, innovators, achievers, and dreamers, with a one-track mind to fine-tune the products that we build. Through this series of posts, we showcase our team members, their roles, and what a typical day looks like for them. You can check all the posts here.
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Ashish Yadav joined Springworks in October 2020 as a Graphic Designing intern and then started working full-time as a UI Designer in February 2020. He comes with a unique skill set — 1.5 years of experience in software development. He spent this time in front-end development before switching over his focus towards UI designing.
Ashish lives in Lonavla, which is a hill station surrounded by green valleys in western India near Mumbai. Since it’s a very small place, he shared that there are only a couple of eateries and a supermarket there.
While Mumbai is busy getting flooded during the rains, Lonavala is at its scenic best with cloud-kissing cliffs and gushing waterfalls, he says.
Here’s the interview with this creative and curious member of Springworks.
Why did you decide to become a UI designer?
I started my career journey as a frontend developer working with a small startup in Mumbai. I used to write code for the user-side of the website and contribute to the designing as well. From there, my interest started developing in the realm of UI designing. After working in front-end development for 1.5 years, I decided to make a career switch.
From starting to explore ample online designing courses and learn from them, I became sure of wanting to become a designer, so I decided to leave my job, and set myself to square one.
After seeking opportunities for a few months, I finally got lucky to get a great opportunity at Springworks.
Here, I work as a UI designer for a couple of products- Trivia and EngageWith. My job is to make sure that every page and every step a user will experience in their interaction with the finished product will conform to the overall vision created by UX designers.
I create, improve and use wireframes, prototypes, style guides, user flows, and effectively communicate my interaction ideas using any of these methods.
What design trend can you not stand and why?
I think that would be neumorphism. It can be good to show on portfolios but it’s not practical. Also, the neumorphic UI consists of low contrast between different elements, which creates the accessibility problem.
What is your favorite part about your job?
To blend content and design together. To make that happen, I get to work collaboratively with the content strategists, designers, and marketers around a shared goal for the project and content, which I love the most.
Also, one of our products-Trivia’s revamp is in the process. The web pages are being updated. Since there were no components for web/mobile when it was launched initially, we’ve started to create components for all the designs. I’ve been working on this and loving it.
What keeps you motivated to work each day?
Learning keeps me motivated to work each day. Every day brings something new and different and that surprise is motivating to me. I like learning new things that I never encountered before.
Reflect back from day one to now. How have you evolved in your current job?
My designing and thinking have improved tenfold ever since I’ve started working here. I’ve always worked on the feedback I am given.
I believe that you represent yourself through your designs. Thus, I feel that I’ve become better at explaining things through my design.
Walk me through a day in the life of Ashish!
- Wake up at 6.30 am
- Go for running
- Have breakfast
- Check work emails and slack
- Check the Trello board
- Work on my own blog post
- Login to work at 10.15 am
- Sync-up with the team
- Attend Stand-up
- Have lunch
- Work from 2 pm to 5 pm
- Sit in the balcony
- Work till 7.30 pm
- Go for a walk
- Come back home at 8 pm
- Take rest
- Watch YouTube videos
- Have dinner
- Write/work on my designing skills
- Sleep at 11.30 pm
What are your hobbies outside of work?
I love to read fiction books and have my own blog where I write about all the technical aspects of designing. Also, I am a big fan of animated shows and anime.
I have a collection of Sidney Sheldon’s fiction novels(see picture) 🤩
What is the Springworks team like?
For one, I am glad that they gave me this wonderful opportunity to work on. I’ve learned a lot from my teammates here. The entire team of Springworks is great and always supportive of each other. You can ask anything, even if it’s a small doubt. You have all the freedom to convey your ideas and people are always open to feedback.
Secondly, I just love how working at Springworks helps me to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
