The need for customization, the increase in online activities and technologies such as virtual reality and 3D printing have prompted designers to leverage user-centric data for better product development. Skills such as research, prototyping, and testing make a designer.
A meager rental period during the pandemic did not affect the demand for design professionals. The world has gone virtual and organizations are hiring user experience analysts, UI / UX designers, graphic designers, and design application consultants, among others. Few of the new job profiles emerging in design include user research, digital product designer, information architect, usability analyst, voice interface designer, strategy strategist. design and creative technologist.
Tingbin Tang is an award-winning designer, serial entrepreneur and global design educator, with over two decades of design experience across continents. As the new dean of the School of Design at Pearl Academy, he shares his unique perspective.
“Design education is about researching target consumers, applying creativity to solve problems, creating prototypes and testing them as a solution. Design is a horizontal field, which requires students to acquire many skills. Besides technical knowledge, a designer should know the psychology of the market. More than a product, a designer deals with mass markets. Making functional products, in all categories, is the key aspect of design today, â€says Tang, a global design educator.
A misconception about the field of design is that it is all about technology. “The job of a designer is to understand human emotions and transcend them into products that help solve a problem,†shares Tang.
Manvendra Shukul, CEO and co-founder of Lakshya, a game art creation company, says that today an increasing number of students realize the need to study design.
“Indian parents are pushing children towards engineering. But, with technology and artificial intelligence (AI) at the forefront, an irreplaceable skill today is creativity. A designer needs a combination of future-ready skills, including compassion, to develop winning strategies for consumers, â€says Shukul.
Yashu Maitreyi, a web designer, believes that there is no right or wrong in designing. “My parents pushed me to become an engineer, but web design is a passion. After a few years as an engineer, I took a part-time course to understand the basics of design and acquired skills that I feel are important for personal and professional growth.
Maitreyi is happy with his decision to follow his passion and become a designer, as his current salary is competitive and he has the opportunity to be professionally creative.
A technology-driven era is forcing companies to offer impressive salaries to graduate and post-graduate design students, which makes the field attractive. Design is presumed to be one of the professions least likely to be affected by automation, continuing to evolve into a hybrid industry seen as technical and creative, Tang adds.
