Can you tell us about your journey as a designer and what inspired you to pursue a career in design?

Believe it or not, I actually had my first smartphone when I finished SS3, my parents were THAT strict, lol. It was a Tecno smartphone, I can’t remember the model. I was immediately opened up to a new world of technology which I was not familiar with. I was astonished as to how it worked and always had thoughts like “How was this designed?”, “Who makes these cool animations, interactions, etc.” This led me to tinker with my device (if you remember the days of flashing custom ROMs on Android devices, changing and editing the boot animations, etc.). I did this with each new device I got, to the point I bought a new device and flashed a custom ROM the exact same day. The device boot looped, it was an interesting learning curve.

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Fast forward a bit, my parents got me a laptop when I was admitted into the University of Benin to study Computer Science because I wanted to learn more about softwares and how they are built (although my Dad wanted me in Engineering, but I get strong head). In 200L, I stumbled upon Andrew Kramer from Video CoPilot and his videos on creating animations with After Effects. I also did some banner designs and Illustrations with Adobe Illustrator and also tried character animations and rigging with After Effects. All these became the foundation of how I am able to use multiple tools in my design career today.

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In 300L, I went for my IT training at a computer training institute. I learned HTML, CSS, Javascript, Java, and a bit of Python. I decided to carry on with Java, and it was all fun until I got to the OOP part. I ran!  It was during my IT period I found out about something called UI/UX design. I decided to try it out by starting with the 100 days Daily UI Challenge. It was during the challenge I found my passion was in UI/UX design. How I noticed this was the feeling that I had any time I opened Adobe XD was the exact feeling I experienced when I got my first Android smartphone and was completely in awe of how it worked. That feeling alone got me out of bed everyday to design something. Now, it’s sapa : ).

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How do you balance creativity and practicality in your design work?

Not going to deny it, back when I started, I designed without the thought of how it would work in the real world. But as I got more experienced, and worked on numerous projects, I learned that you should know who you are designing for, and know the solution you are trying to provide will be easily understood by them. Talking with the developers and looking at technological constraints should be a must for every creative. But that does not mean you should completely throw creativity out the window because of practicality. Being able to strike a balance between the two separates the average designers from the great ones.

If you walk through my Dribbble profile, from older posts to recent ones, you would see a visual representation of this.

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How do you approach designing for diverse audiences and ensure inclusivity in your work?

Understanding the audience I am designing for by carrying out extensive research on who they are, what they do, and what they need. Adhering to various design principles and best practices. Making sure the designs pass accessibility standards and use language that speaks to the needs of those being designed for. Making sure the designs are easily adaptable and flexible (Apple is a great example of this).

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Can you talk about a design challenge you faced and how you overcame it?

I can’t really pinpoint one exactly that I have faced because each project comes with its own challenge(s). But what I can say helped me in general is to gain more clarity on two things: what are we trying to solve, and what is the expected outcome? This can only be achieved by constant communication with your team, asking for directions when needed, this was an issue I faced before I joined my current company. I had to actively ask questions, and request a quick sync with whoever I am working on the project with.

Another thing that has helped me is just taking a walk, doing something else to get my mind off the project, and then coming back with a fresh set of eyes.

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Can you discuss the role of collaboration in your design process and how you work with other team members to bring a project to life?

Collaboration is important. I think Collaboration and Communication go hand-in-hand and are soft skills every designer needs to learn. Yes, you learn it.  I started learning UI/UX design on my own and did not have anyone to put me through some stuff I did not understand. This ended up affecting me when I joined a German design agency back in 2021. I worked on my task, designed what I thought was the “right” thing, barely asked for help and clarity, and sent it to the team. It affected my output until I left the company. When I joined my current company, one thing I was focused on improving was my collaboration skill, and this has in turn improved my overall performance and output.

How I did this (with the help of my company and Pod) was through bi-weekly meetings with the Design Manager - Monday, to get insights on what to work on and what to look forward to at the end of the week. Thursday, to check in on project progress and give feedback. And other days in between, I drop async updates on our Slack channels. A part of these updates could be asking questions about certain challenges faced, dropping some references regarding the current project being worked on, feedback sessions for developers, etc.

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Can you share a design project that pushed your skills and helped you grow as a designer?

When I first joined my current company, I was to work on a project for a popular Fortune 500  company. I, alongside a coworker, worked closely with some top members of their design team. It pushed the boundaries of what I knew and tested my abilities on numerous levels. I can’t say in detail what was done but it was a really interesting learning curve and I was glad to be a part of it. It leveled up not just my skills and design output, but also the design expectations of the whole company.

One major thing I learned while working on the project was that storytelling - how you present your ideas, is really really important.

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How do you measure the impact of your design work and gauge its success?

Working in an agency, I would say measuring the success of a project is a bit different as in some cases we may not be in charge of the whole product life cycle as some clients may want to build their own internal product team after project completion, or some want to raise funding. But I would say the project is successful, if all the client's objectives set at the beginning of the project are met and they are satisfied with the outcome and deliverables, they give a good Net Promoter Score, refer other prospective clients, etc.

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Can you talk about a design project you’re particularly proud of and why?

Worked on two projects with my current company and what made me proud was that in the first one, the client loved it so much that they immediately referred to another client, and mentioned that their idea was captured “perfectly”. The second one is still ongoing but I still have to mention that I am really proud of the solutions that we have come up with for certain challenges we faced so far, though I can’t talk much about it. I am really proud to do work for some big companies and proud that I get the opportunity to step up my design game.

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What’s your advice to people that want to start a career in design?

I would normally say passion but now I would say consistency and discipline over passion. Whatever you are doing, be diligent about it. Show up every day, even if not 100%, but show up anyway. That extra effort you put in really makes you stand out at the end.

Also, when you want to start out, do your research, and get an understanding of the design space - find and reach out to people who are vocal about design, who talk and provide resources on job opportunities. And lastly, when you reach out to them, do not start with just a “Hey” or “Hi”. Clearly state why you are reaching out to them, and what you would love to get out of the conversation.

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What would you do differently if you had to start design all over?

Dropped out of university as it was a waste of time. Lol, I am kidding, my parents would have killed me. But for real, I would have done nothing different, maybe start earlier. Anyway, I am really grateful for how far I have come and excited to see where I would go from here.

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You can follow Ema.Ike here where he shares design tips and resources.

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