Anannya Bhowmik’s interest lies in speculating problems from a holistic system-level lens to design a solution. She has a background in Service & Interaction Design and enjoys working with cross-cultural heterogeneous teams.
Currently Anannya is working with Frog, Bangalore, and has a formal education from NIFT & Politecnico di Milano.
How are you planning to celebrate Women’s Day this year?
I don’t have any specific plan as such. Probably I would serve breakfast at bed for my mother!
Would you say there is an under-representation of women in UI/UX design?
There is a good number of junior to mid-senior professionals. But, I can only spot an iota of influential top management women.
Where do all the ladies go?
What are some personality traits of women that make them better (or worse) UX designers?
It’s a proven scientific fact that women posses more empathy, that makes them a better designer. In my opinion, most of us are multitasker that also gives them an edge in this case.
Who are some design leaders (male or female) you look up to?
Maja Gruszynski (General Manager of frog India), Kara Pecknold (Executive Design Director at frog leading global sustainability initiative by frog), Ekta Jafri (Design Director IBM iX), Azmina Poddar (APAC – Design Studio Head BCG)
As a woman, what’s the greatest challenge you’ve had to face as a designer?
I would not say I have faced any challenge for being a “woman”. When I see unequal representation of female leaders in the industry, that turns my spirit down.
What, in your opinion, could we UI/UX designers do, as a relatively young and collaborative fraternity, to solve the problem of gender inequality?
Firstly, we (women) need to stop considering ourself “less” and even ignore the feeling of being a “victim”. We should (and we could) pull up each other to solve the problem of gender inequality.
Your message to young women looking to make their careers in UI/UX?
Master your craft but don’t stop there. Do more than that: blogging, speaking, workshops.
As a frog can say, “Make your mark”.
