Mar Kevin Cayabyab is a designer who has worked in different industries such as enterprise software, consumer goods, entertainment, banking, and most recently financial technology. He has been a freelancer, in-house designer for multinational companies, consultant for local startups, and co-founder of a startup. He also sells iMessage stickers, graphic shirts, and game assets.
Specialties: Product Design, UX Design, Visual Design, Data Analysis and Visualisation, Market Analysis and Research, Marketing, Front-end Development
Website: pixeptional.com
- Tell us something about yourself or anything that people doesn’t know yet about you.
- I’m a sinker. I sink … literally. It’s hard for me to float.
- I consume around 3 hours of podcasts per day
- I run multiple “side hustles”
- How did you start working as a UX Designer?
- What does your workspace look like?
- What tools or devices are you using when working on a project?
- Why did you decide to become a UX designer?
- Where do you find ideas or inspiration for your work these days?
- What project are you working on now?
- Share one or two projects that you are proud of and how you made it
- What do you do to step outside your comfort zone?
- Who’s your design hero or someone you look up to? Why? What works did you like?
- What’s it like working as a Senior UX designer?
- What are the challenges that you are facing & how do you overcome them?
- What can you tell those people who are doubtful of learning or exploring their skills as a professional?
- What skills does one need to have to survive in the creative industry?
- What advice can you give to people who aspire to become a UX Designer?
- How can people reach you?
I kind of grew into the role organically. I had no intent of specifically becoming a “UX designer” and was never trained in UX academically. I started working as a developer, doing web and mobile screens while developing server side code at the same time. Because of the nature of the projects and my design inclinations, I was always being tapped into doing front-end development. Designing, to me, has always been intertwined with development. I was part of the UX Labs Team in Hewlett-Packard, designing concepts, creating working prototypes, and if the project requires, coding. At the time, “UX” as a concept, while attractive, was murky at best. I left HP and got hired as a UX Generalist, pioneering the marketing team of Reed Elsevier in the Philippines.
This was the time I was able to start conducting personal research and testing, applying certain methodologies, trying different techniques and tools, and more importantly changing my mindset about design in general. The team and the management had goals set (sign ups, clicks, downloads, etc.), but I had all the freedom to decide what to do and how to do it. I did multi-variant testing on micro-sites, had heat map and interaction tracking enabled, tracked the conversion rates, and my new designs were always backed by data of the previous ones. No one asked me to do these activities, it wasn’t a part of the job description, but learning and seeing results made the job more invigorating.
Nothing special and nothing constant. I have no set work desk design or structure. I’ll fix my desk only to be messy again. I’m messy and I thrive in the mess… I think.
I always have a (dirty) sketch pad. As for specific tools and software, it depends on the project and the audience I’m working with. If I’m working with a Product Manager, I use Axure or Invision to demonstrate the concept. If I need to create an end to end flow, and paper is not enough but high fidelity mockups are too much, I use Balsamiq. If I’m working with Sales, mockups done in Illustrator with some bullets in PowerPoint do the trick. If I need to turn over design assets to Developers, I use couple of online tools to cover different sizes. I use Brackets as my editor, Mixpanel and GA for most of my analytics needs.
Having answered the 2nd question, I guess the more apt follow up for me would be why I stayed as a UX Designer. Note that I’m answering this at a time that I’m already a “Product Manager” in title. I stayed as UX Designer (or Product Designer, as I prefer to be called) because to me it has become more than a job – I now see it as an opportunity to help. I like the idea of design being the catalyst for businesses to thrive because customers enjoy their product. I like the idea of helping people by designing things that would improve the quality of their experience – even the quality of their life if at all possible. That is not to say that I am always able to help through my designs, but it does mean I will always make it a goal while designing or improving a product.
These days I’m more focused on spotting needs than looking for inspiration. Lately, I’ve been on utility apps design-spree and it wouldn’t have been possible if I did not actively look out for needs. I find that I am able to do more meaningful (sometimes profitable) and more self-satisfying work when I start looking out for needs. I find that looking for inspiration helps me with projects that are mostly conceptual or graphics focused, but not so much in coming up with solutions to a certain problem.
I’m designing a personal management app – something that my company can add to the suite of products that we already have. I have started conceptualising tools that will help my personal design workflow that hopefully can help other designers (hint: swatches related). I also have concepts for an app that will assist the user in memorising long-form texts – Bible verses (or chapter) as a starter. I always have a backlog of things that I can work on.
The first micro-site that I made for Reed Elsevier had heat mapping on it. I remember being so happy seeing the heat map overlay the first time after a week’s worth of gathering data. It was also the time that I found out that our users/audience are not clicking links that are not labeled “Click Here.” I then changed some older micro-sites to have the same format of links and engagement did increase.
When I have an idea, I try to execute it as fast as I can – fast enough that I won’t have time to discourage myself in starting it. In starting my first business, I was already deep into it before I realised that I was already way out of my comfort zone. Talking to irate customers, handling finances, marketing – these are the things that I normally wouldn’t choose to do. But since I was moving fast in trying things out, I was able to put myself in the environment where the only logical step is to grow and define a “new normal.”
No one comes to mind when I think of Design Hero. But people that I would consider hero that helped me in the way I think about design and business in general would be Tim Ferris and Noah Kagan. I learned that creating a business and design go hand in hand, parallel even. You have to create something that people would love to use or have, something that would add value to them.
Being Senior UX designer in relation to Junior UX designers, I have no idea. I’ve worked with a lot of designers (e.g. prints, 3d, web, apps, video, etc.), but never had a UX designer (at least, of how I think of the role). In my current work, I have a say in the table. I am able to contribute in decisions that not only would affect user experience but also the business in general. I am able to steer the product to a certain direction. As a younger designer, I didn’t have that luxury or responsibility.
I’m assuming this question is still related to the previous one. The challenge is that you need to grow, both personally and with the business. If you are 2, 3, or more years in the product or company, you can’t stay the same and solve new problems with the same skill level that you had when you started. I try to address this by being more involved and intentional in helping the company – thinking of new product ideas, finding ways to optimise existing products, learning more about the industry, studying competitors, finding out what’s new in the space etc.
Find the cause of your doubt. Do not be afraid to test things out. Surprise yourself at times. Experience things for yourself. No one started as an expert. In learning, like a lot of things in life, you only need to know and do the next step. And when you’re done with that step, you’ll figure out the next and the next one after that – other successes come from other successes.
You need to learn how to learn. Trends they come and go. Best practices will not always be the best practices. Design principles while lasting might not be applicable to your context. You need to learn how to learn so you can adapt to change.
Focus on the the needs. Get better in asking questions. Don’t be afraid to test and fail. Try not to get caught up in the methodologies or tools. New techniques will come up every now and then, know that not everything applies to you or your context. As a user-centric designer, learn to be mindful of the business. Good business will allow you to have more opportunities do good things for your users – things that are beyond their screens. Lastly, start applying. Don’t think that you need to know everything about UX design before you start becoming a UX designer – I know this because I don’t know a lot of things.
You can find me on LinkedIn. If you’re in Makati CBD area, I’m almost always available for coffee or milk tea 🙂