Mitul Iyengar, Product Designer | Spotify Design

I used to be fortunate to be uncovered to the world of design and its potentialities at a really younger age by my mother, who studied industrial design and human components engineering design within the ’80s. 

What excites me most about design is its capacity to be relevant in almost each context or scenario to make one thing higher for somebody, in a small or massive manner. (As evidenced by certainly one of my favourite podcasts, 99% Invisible). It offers me the liberty to discover each the artistic and analytical components of myself.

As a part of a brand new crew within the Royalties and Reporting product space throughout the Finance enterprise unit, my work at present entails taking complicated information (principally monetary in nature), understanding what data is most related and vital to our customers, and discovering methods to visualise it to assist them make sense of the numbers.

1. External Monitor: Also generally known as the Apple of my eye (pun at all times meant). Found after lots of Craigslist scouting. It has began to really feel like an extension of my physique.

2. [Not-quite-rubber] Lego duck: Got this throughout a Lego workshop on the Design Matters convention final 12 months. He’s an excellent listener.

3. Plant: To stare at fondly, whereas taking a break from my display screen.

4. Mouse pad: I received this years in the past in India. It .has a print of a tribal Indian artwork type (Warli) on it that jogs my memory of house.

5. Ceramic mug: For the various cups of espresso I do know I shouldn’t be ingesting a day.

6. Post-its: Can’t go wherever with out them. I take advantage of them for to-do lists, fast thought sketches, and/or notes-to-self.

7. Stationary: A barely embarrassing assortment of stationary, strategically tucked away behind my laptop computer 🙂

At a previous job, I labored on designing merchandise and experiences for a variety of various industries, the place I’d go in with little to no subject material experience, and need to dive into the problem-space head first. 

One such challenge within the healthcare trade concerned leveraging lots of complicated information and metrics, that included an ML mannequin being constructed by my information science colleague. My problem was to take this information that I used to be not conversant in, and discover methods to make it insightful to our finish customers. The strategy of fixing this was an enchanting (and in the end very enjoyable) collaboration between design and information science, the place we mapped every metric to the important thing query a consumer can be attempting to reply, and recognized relationships between varied metrics in an effort to floor actionable insights. 

As somebody who’s at all times searching for methods to collaborate each inside my self-discipline and out of doors it, this course of was a testomony to the worth of cross-functional collaboration, which is one thing I proceed to attempt for at Spotify as effectively.

Mona Chalabi

For her capacity to inform highly effective tales by simplified visuals. Through her hand-drawn information visualizations, she highlights vital points and makes complicated data accessible to a really large viewers, together with “her least-informed readers”. 

Frank Lloyd Wright 

As the founding father of natural structure, his philosophy showcases the worth of understanding and respecting the context you’re designing in, and the individuals who shall be utilizing the areas you create. 

Guy Raz

For his curiosity, empathy, and knack for storytelling. As a journalist and host of certainly one of my favourite podcasts How I Built This, he has a seemingly easy manner of making belief together with his interviewees and going past the surface-level solutions.

An enormous shoutout to all the nice mentors I’ve been so fortunate to study from, and with out whom I wouldn’t be half the designer I’m at this time. 

• Read: Ruined by Design by Mike Monteiro, for a actuality examine; Sprint by Jake Knapp, for a trusty framework for (nearly) each downside; The Business Value of Design by McKinsey Design, for a research that explores what design is price.

• Listen: 99% invisible by Roman Mars; Hidden Brain by Shankar Vedantam; Designer & Designer by Brian Fling and Joe Alterio

• Act: Donate in case you can, educate your self, signal petitions. 

Sometimes I draw, different instances I dye. If you’re searching for a quarantine interest, observe @stillherestilllife and draw alongside each week!