One97 Provides a Platform for Design Talks; #DesignDay to Become a Monthly Affair

Monday August 20, 2012 , 3 min Read

UI is no longer about ease of discovery. It’s about pushing recommendations and suggestions to the user

Mentioned a designer during a discussion about global design standards. While developing a product, design has gained prominence and is now considered as important as the technology involved. UI and UX are the aspects being studies deeply and the benchmarks are rising every passing day. The question to be asked over here is that are we close to this in India? In an effort to foster the Design effort, One97,a pioneer of mobile internet services for consumers in India has launched #DesignDay, a meet scheduled to happen every month in the One97 office where startups, designers and developers are invited to come and discuss design.

The first DesignDay, more of an experiment was conducted on 17^th August and the meet which was supposed to end by 12.30PM stretched on till 3.30PM and some very important questions were raised. One97 has been at the forefront of the Design Revolution in India with product like Paytm and VideoPind being an example in evolutionary design. “The rate at which design improvements are made at Paytm is mind boggling. We take in feedback continuously and implement them almost instantly,” informs Rahul Saini, Head Product Design at One97. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the MD at One97 has always been adamant about putting design first and he along with Rahul at One97 would be driving the DesignDay effort. Milaap.org, iDubba and Braillist.com were some of the presenting companies and Nikhil Pahwa from Medianama, said, "this is one of the finest session that I have been to and I learnt a lot!"

The first meet wasn’t an open door one; a group of about 35 people who showed early interest in the idea and were involved with design were invited. One97 showcased some of the design principles and the best practices they’ve been following. Some of the participants found instant solutions to their queries and deep lengthy talks brought out some takeaways for both the people there and One97 as well. “Meets like these are very common in the US but a much needed step here in India. Design has been neglected for long enough and finally we’re seeing a new wave of enthusiasm and we want to do everything possible to enable this,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma. “The response we received was phenomenal and we’re really excited to do this better as we go on,” added Rahul.

This group will get bigger but will have a formal structure to it which has mainly been derived from the inputs given by the design enthusiasts present for the first meet. The discussion was not specific to any one aspect of design but more of a holistic approach wherein various areas of design can be interconnected and made sense out of. Stay tuned for more announcements and important design takeaways!

Website: One97

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