Who am I and what is UX, UI and Product Design?
Hello, world. I am Mrittick Choudhury, and I am a product designer.
In normal words - I basically design digital 'products' such as websites, software, apps and sometimes even games (hence, 'product' designer).
In making these things, one needs to lay out how a product is going to behave like - from start to finish (i.e., the user experience or 'UX') and then the visuals that take care of the actually medium and ways for the user to enable interact and use the product (i.e., the user interface or 'UI').
Thus, product designers are also known as UX & UI Designers in many instances.
Sounds pretty cool right? Well, it's basically a combination of a bit of everything - a little bit of art here, a touch of code there (not always, I'm a no-code person anyway...so far :P) and lots of research there - for you need to know for whom you are making the product for, to have the maximum yield (which is known as UX Research and is the first step in Product Design).
If you'd like to know just about product design, UX and UI; you may skip the next section (which basically elaborates my journey so far) and learn more from here. You may also watch my YouTube video on this very topic here.
My journey began almost a decade ago when I was only around ten years old and I would be fiddling with Microsoft PowerPoint (wait...what?) most of the times. We got our first computer right when I was born. We even had an internet connection, making us among the firsts in the city to have that. That was already a lot for being in a humble middle-class family in Bengal honestly, with Windows 98 Second Edition and the the ginormous 256MB of RAM, maybe 8GB of HDD and an Intel Pentium 4 processor. My dad gifted the game of 'Age of Empires - Gold Edition', which became my first game to ever play. I can say, it played a big part in shaping the curious, innovative little bunch of braincells I got there - maybe not a lot but enough to get by :P
Well though, welcome, vaporwave nostalgia.
It was 2006 and we got our first Windows XP computer - but I wanted Windows 7. But nope, cash crunch. That was the time I would do something very weird - make a total replica of the Windows 7 OS (later, Windows 8)...in PowerPoint on my cute little Windows XP computer.
You are definitely perplexed at this moment.
You see, I basically lived and worked through the urge of making better product design and having its experiences without even realising it. I was too young, yes, but now that I think about it. I would see tons of screenshots and videos of the new OSes that I may never have (atleast not soon back then) abnd I would make its UX and the UI with fully-interactive components and animations; all in PowerPoint. Not to mention, I also tweaked some aspects that I felt made the experience better.
Probably my first bunch of UX & UI case studies, done unknowingly yet I did, that I may never dare to put in my CV haha. But it's a nice experience to talk of during my interviews for sure :)
Fast forward to 2014 and I started to get heavily influenced and inspired to make music. I got my first record-label signing (and even a job) at a German label. It was after some time that I had realised I needed to market my brand well and I needed to learn some basic graphic design and marketing skills.
At that record label, I bettered their branding, did their social-media management, made plenty of creatives and cover arts. Eventually, I was promoted to the label manager and chief-A&R, along with also working on redesigning their websites, making all the video and live content, and public relations.
Fast forward a few more years and I realised during my undergrad-years that I am really good at visual design. After a few internships on digital marketing and graphic design, and a job at a studio, I got into the largest digital marketing platform of the eastern zone of our country. There, I worked as the lead creative artist - making graphics, banners, posters, brochures, videos and whatnot. Tons of clients and organisations. And then, they needed a website refresh and an app. That was the concrete turning point into product design.
I didn't really know what I was getting onto...but my instincts said that I have been doing this for years now (maybe you would feel that about me too, given that what you've just read hereinabove). It didn't take me long that I created my first complete app-prototype and website-redesign. And boy, did they like it at once! (See here and here if you're looking for those).
I also launched a magazine-brand with my partner called Renaissance Digital, and it was a very good project for the year of 2020, where we created and finished 4 entire magazines by ourselves. Have a look at it here!
Ever since, I started to seriously follow product design and learn from courses, videos and personal experiences. I begun freelancing, worked with companies, and even landed my first full-time job as a UX & UI Designer in my final days at university. As of now, I am pursuing scholarship-aided courses in product design (UX and UI), data-science, front-end developing and 3D-design from various notable platforms.
Presently, I aim to complete all that, share my experiences on YouTube and the blog (I am also on Medium, here) then pursue my MS in HCI (human-computer interaction) and computer science, from USA. Furthermore, I would like to contribute my abilities in the designing of the digital experiences of future infrastructure and finally, work on my grand research project, which is ofcourse, a secret as of now ;)
I wish to share a lot with all of you, my readers and followers. You may follow along me by following me on platforms where I share my other aspects of my life. As I spoke earlier, I also make music, which you can check here. I also love to travel and share the experiences through my vlogs and photography, which you can see here. Finally, if you are moved by these and willing to support me, you can always do that by following me on my channels, which are listed below -
2. Instagram (films, vlogs & photography)
3. Instagram (personal & design)
Thank you so much for being here and I wish you a very good day. More stuff on the way, God bless <3