Aiming for a human touch

Rahul Bhosale taught himself motion design, with a little help from the internet, and today he’s making good use of those skills as Senior Interaction Designer with Disney + Hotstar, one of India’s most popular online video streaming platforms

What, in your opinion, is the most crucial part of designing an application?

RB: Designing is simple; what’s critical is to understand the problem to the best of your ability. The most crucial part of any design job is to understand the problem to its core, be it an illustration for an ‘empty state’ or a tiny wave animation for the chat screen when the other person is typing. Once you know the core problem it’s just child’s play to solve it. Half-understood is half-baked.

How did your cultural background impact your design language?

RB: I grew up in Kolhapur, a town in Maharashtra, where the culture is very bold yet the roots are artistic. Kolhapur has produced many great artists and continues to nurture the best talent in the fields of music, drama, dance and fine arts. Drawing and art was the only thing I was good at.
I have many cultural influences and have developed my tastes over the years from travelling and observing tiny details.
My mom had a huge role in shaping my career – she is very particular about hygiene and cleanliness and taught me the art of organizing things. The organization plays a huge role as far as any design is concerned – it’s the spacing that matters. I’m grateful to have worked with some great minds; my mentors and colleagues were so encouraging, warm and friendly and that created a healthy and competitive.

What would you advise young designers pursuing interaction design?

RB: I believe learning is the most important skill in this new age. Design changes so quickly, there’s no way to stay up-to-date without continuously learning every single day, experimenting with new tools and trying out new techniques to further grow. To become an interaction designer, you need to hone your observation skills till you die. Interaction design is an interface between a product and a human touch. Observing human behavior, how people behave and react to certain things
is important.

Purchase Designindia 126 here. Read the digital copy of Designindia on Magzter, or POOL App which you can download from AppStore, Google Play.