We asked some alumni to tell us a bit more about their experience with our programme; in particular, we are curios to know how MAInD help them become the professionals they are today and what they recommend to our new students.
This week we asked Shiran Hirshberg, who attended the programme in 18/19.
Where are you currently working?
I work as a UX designer at Starmind in Zurich. My role is to create, improve and design user journeys, including the right information architecture. In particular, I build data-driven design systems and flows.
How did the MAInD program help you become a professional Interaction Designer?
The MAInD program includes a lot of various workshops, from programming and designing physical and digital products to even basic electrical engineering. What is more interesting is the connection between them, creating an online and offline product. In the program, you get the main ideas and understanding of each field, which gives a solid ground to start any new project you have in mind.
What is the key lesson your learnt from our program which still accompanies you in your professional career?
Since I already had experience in UI and UX fields before starting the program, I was eager to gain other skills in new design areas. Most beneficial for me were the front-end programming projects, where I deepened my understanding of creating animated SVG with Javascript. This gave me basic ground to explore animation tools that I am using today while designing for online products.
Which project of yours did you enjoy and inspire you the most?
I mostly enjoyed working on the thesis, guided by Fabio Franchino. I'm passionate about creating animations for interfaces. I love the process of research, getting inspiration and creating something from scratch. I've been animating micro-interactions before, mostly using After Effects, and during the thesis project I had the chance to try out several other applications, one of them is Principle. For example, a message component is the main way of interaction I have with users, in addition to push notifications. Therefore, it is important for me to create this component fun and interactive and today I design animations with Principle.
You can find more projects created during my master degree in my portfolio.