A digital product designer at Razorpay & physical product designer at Fleck.co.in a lifestyle brand he has co-founded, Nishant Chauhan enjoys travelling & gets a rush out of the most calming activity, Calligraphy. When not doing any of the above, he is found talking about or making coffee.
When did the idea of a career transition to UX come up?
It started some time before I cleared my last CA exams, I started to visualise how my life was going to be. I didn’t like what I was seeing and I started exploring what else was out there. I thought of myself as someone with an analytical bend of mind & I initially evaluated things in a similar domain, like becoming an analyst. A friend introduced me to a bunch of young entrepreneurs who presented an opportunity to explore design with their startup and that’s how things kicked off. While my education didn’t help me in the core skills part of may job as a designer, the label itself did bring a certain amount of weight to my words.
What were some of the struggles that you faced during or after your transition to UX?
Personally, by switching to UX overnight I had disrupted the lives of people close to me. This created an internal pressure of ‘doing something’ to live up to their expectations. Getting rid of that emotional debt was something that took me some time. Professionally, the struggle to convince people to trust me with the experience of their product instead of the finance has been too real at times. I have found myself in the position where instead of telling why a design decision makes sense I am explaining why they should listed to an outsider on this.
What would be your message to people looking to transition to UX with zero design background?
I have found design to be a very open space, where people focus on your positives over your shortcomings. Try to understand what value you bring to the table and focus on how you can communicate that to others. While most organisations are looking for generalists, you can only make a mark if your portfolio reflects where you excel.
