Interview with Ihor Shadko

I guess my mother is the one who unintentionally dropped the spark all the way back to my childhood. She is an architect and I remember all these sketches laying around. I used to grab a pencil and draw over all these lines and shapes. Years after I decided to become an auto designer, I adored cars as any boy but this idea is still buried in dozens of car sketches inside my table. And this is good because the human interfaces development is the right thing which keeps me fascinated for already almost 8 years. I started as a freelancer then got to an auto company where I maintained their e-e-commerce websites. After this were some agencies where I honed my skills before I’ve started to work on particular digital products.

Well, consistency, clarity and delight are the main things I pursue.My design process usually includes:1) Initial kick-off meetings (Why we do this? Who is it for?)2) Reiteration on business requirements.3 Research (Analysis of existing products; Investigation of the user base)4) Creation of personas & use cases.5) Ideation.6) Prototyping.7) Testing.8) Design.9) Delivery.10) Testing.

It’s simple! The constant challenges I face when I to try to understand what a user thinks trying to accomplish a certain task, make me excited and a right delivered solution really makes me happy. I’m really happy and almost never get bored because I adore what I do.

First of all, as I mentioned above, I think my mother’s work. Next will be my integral love of typography and human behavior analysis. I always was wondering why people do things this way and how can I help them to make it more efficient.

In the nearest future, I want to start work on a big design system and devote myself to data visualization for business. I think shaping this knowledge I can lead a design department on a new position soon.

Be curious and empathetic but strong and persuasive. Be confident leaders in their spheres. Communication skills are extremely important, it's all about design. You must explain your design clearly and solve any problem keeping your mind sharp.

I’d say for me, consistency and striving to become better is the key. You should learn from your mistakes and even better on mistakes of others. And of course work hard but still have fun, we’re living our lives after all. I do not want anyone to shift their lifework Balance to much :)

- Coffy- Morning brainstorm.- Work on planned tasks- Lunch and talks with colleges- Reading some inspirational resources- You will not believe, work again.- Dinner- Study of new programs practices and design methodologies.- Good night.

Well, each day I read some articles from different websites such as UXpin, Medium, Muzli, and others. But I’d say there is only one trend you constantly need to follow: be clean and clear. Trends change every year these factors remain.

I think most designers know and follow the 10 principles which define a good design introduced by Dieter Rams:According to Dieter Rams, good design:1.Is innovative2.Makes a product useful3.Is aesthetic4.Makes a product understandable5.Is unobtrusive6.Is honest7.Is long-lasting8.Is thorough down to the last detail9.Is environmentally friendly10.Involves as little design as possible

Being honest it’s never ready :) it can be ready for an iteration but after this you have A/B testings, new features, and urgent improvements. I there is a good proverb: If you think that your design is 100% good to go, you are already too late with the product.

It’s a really tough question. I’d say it’s Dil Mil, a south Asian dating app. It might be far not the most complex project but it’s my favorite since it solves the real tangible problem: helps to unite human hearts. Really, there are several couples pre-week, reaching us and telling: we found love through the app. I'm really happy for them.

For sure it’s forever Dieter Rams. The genius of clean and functional design.

Like anyone who lives a modern lifestyle I’m obsessed with technologies, especially I have a certain impact on its development. With all these, I try to reach the golden balance between the tech and nature, try to hike, cycle and network with people outside of my occupation as well. Also, I adore dogs and hope I will have one soon.

I think the ability to listen and respect someones different opinion is very important for designers as well as the ability to persuade backed by researcher and data. I try to help anyone in my team even if it’s not my responsibilities and this approach benefits. The same I expect from, my coworkers, and employees. Be honest, kind and willing to help.

Of course, I often help to young designers with advice when they reach me on socials. I try to help them to find themselves, with education or technics. I also have in planes to develop something, volunteering. For instance help with the development of the street signs design code in my hometown to help tourists and even locals to navigate easier.

I’d like to thank A’Design Award for the nomination, I think the competition helps designers to challenge themselves, showcase their works to a wider group of people and fight the fear of critique. This is especially important for designers since designers do their work for others.

I work in Ukrainian IT company which specializing in design and development, and also with different product companies on a freelance basis.

First of all, it is emotion. Design it is mean of achieving a result by people, design it's the biggest part of my life.

It is the smell of the fresh coffee in the morning, slick metal surface, symmetry, and asymmetry. Words, colors, and sounds.

I adore mobile apps because most of the content is consumed through mobile devices. Also, I'm interested in wearable electronics, virtual reality, and any interfaces from the tangible or the digital world.

I guess I won't be original if I choose the Dieter Rams works. He is an indisputable genius of the 20th century, whose 10 rules of the good design will influence the nest generation of designers, as well. Also, I like Gleb Kuznetsov's works whose approach in mobile design seems to me fresh and innovative.

I suppose it was an e-commerce website for an automobile plant. Surprisingly, after 7 years it is still in work but definitely needs to be improved.

I love meaningful animation that nowadays helps significantly improve user experience if do not abuse it. Regarding platforms and technologies, I do not have any particular preference. Technologies are going to change, but the good design, unlikely.

When I see that I'm solving a real problem of real people around me.

Definitely marketing, and user research understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through. Also, user testing during an implementation process.

I feel immersed and cheerful during the developing process, even when I'm getting tired. I adore my work.

I definitely feel proud when I solved someone's issue and people use my products.

Keeping your user's needs over anything else. Solving of a real problem, or providing a better service than existing, and warm care on people who chose or might choose your product.

An ability to perform a task, easily and quickly through a certain interface.

To bring the harmony to people into this busy and running ahead world.

Well, taking into account that the most aspects related to the user interface will be automated by the artificial intelligence, the main task for designers in the foreseeable future is to analyze data and to adjust work between machines and humans.

The best exhibition for me is to see in a bus a person using my product and getting positive emotions.

I watch a diverse bunch, of creative podcasts with an inspiration from different design fields, not being limited by only user interaction. It might be https://muz.li/ , https://dribbble.com/, https://www.behance.net/ , https://medium.com/ etc.

I put an accent on simplicity and convenience. Nowadays it's impossible to navigate through some websites and they still win some awards due to the "wow effect" but people usually have no time to figure out how it works, they live their busy life. So clean and simple design is a paramount task for me.

I live in Ukraine, and obviously, my cultural heritage and national mentality have some small influence on my work. But I often travel and see the world from different sides, work with foreign customers and study a future market. Thus I would not say that my roots can have some other influence on me besides a positive.

I immerse myself in a task completely, study the culture which stands behind a company. Research its' users, and competitors. It's very important to evaluate everything before the first pixel drops into Sketch, or the first line of code meets Github.

Well, it depends on the size of a company, its location, and allocated on design funds. It's good if it's possible to find a good designer nearby, if no it takes some time to understand how a freelance designer suit to your business. I'm currently writing an article on this topic.

If briefly there are:
1. Getting of a technical task and research.
2. Wireframing and prototyping.
3. Preliminary testing.
4. Preparation of mockups for development.
5. Testing of a real product.

1. Pencil
2. Paper.
3. Notepad.
4. Imac
5. Flovers in a pot.

1. Early morning. Bicycle journey to my office.
2. Morning meeting.
3. Work on a set of sprint tasks.
4. Short ride around the district.
5. Learning and reading of news.

Yes. Don't jump too much ahead. Being young I had a bad habit do not finish affairs completely. Fortunately, I have got rid of it a long time ago.
So, tips:
1. Be consistent.
2. pay attention to details.
3. Work on one task at one time.
4. learn permanently.
5. Do not forget to have fun.

Positive side - you're changing the world.
Negative side, sometimes due to the creative process you're getting yourself exhausted. In this case, take a vacation, go somewhere far ago. Explore a new culture.

Do not do a design for designing, do it for people.

Being curious, public, keep deadlines, learn new constantly.

Oh, there are an enormous amount of them. Some of them I already counted. The most useful tools currently are Sketch, Zeplin, Flinto, Brackets, After effect, Photoshop, Invision.

Yes, it's true. I work with a timer on my phone to give my eyes and mind some rest

It's a very vague question. Sure, it depends on a complexity and volume of a particular project. I guess, from 1 month, to even several years.

It's fun. Probably, people start to ask me to explain some terms such as UX, GUI, wireframe, etc.

It is 1.5 years project - document turnover dashboard, for a huge metal holding company. It was very challenging, despite a couple of designers working on it.

VISA, DataGroup, Unison bank, KAZ Minerals, Mycelium, Unitel and many others. Mostly those are big enterprise companies.

This one is the most interesting and hard. Forming of a list with user needs, technical and business requirements. It's always challenging. You're like a lawyer who is standing for the rights of all users, business and developers.

I'm eager to learn more in the business sphere and open my own startup soon.

I usually do design on my own, but sometimes short terms or difficulties require work of a team, so this is also always an interesting experience. One plus, you can always share and absorb knowledge.

Yes, sure, but unfortunately, it is still too early to speak about this exciting project.

I'm pretty social. So you can find me everywhere.
The easiest way to write me an email.
igor.shadko@gmail.com
Or Linkedin.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/igorshadko/
Also, I am on Dribbble and Behance
https://dribbble.com/Shadko
https://www.behance.net/igor_shadko

I hope next time, thank you.