Devanta Ebison
Devanta Ebison is Senior UX Designer at Hero Digital where he creates digital experience for one of the world’s largest tech companies. A passionate designer with years of experience, Devanta uses research, data, and thoughtful design to create delightful products that scale. He is also the founder of Halftime Academy, an online design school and friendly resource helping creatives confidently learn UI/UX design and grow professionally.
Hi Devanta! Tell us about yourself - how did you get to where you are today? When did you know you wanted to pursue design as a career?
My journey to where I’m at today has been full of trial and error. To make a long story short, I’ve been interested in art from a young age. Drawing was one of my favorite pastimes as a kid. If you had asked my 10-year-old self what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would’ve told you “a comic book artist.” That was until my high school teacher had the senior class take an aptitude test. That’s when I discovered that jobs like “Graphic Designer” were a thing. From there, I started exploring Graphic Design further. Somewhere throughout that process, I stumbled across UI/UX Design, and the rest was history. The more I learned about the world of design, the more curious I got. I was hooked. That’s when I knew I wanted to pursue a career in design.
Devanta Ebison
How would you describe your design style and how has it changed over time?
My style is mainly influenced by editorial design and swiss-style design. As of lately, I’ve been leaning more into minimal style design by taking a “less is more” approach in my work. I love the way Leonardo Da Vinci put it; “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
What is your design process like?
Like most creatives, my design process is nonlinear and a total mess. My process typically changes a bit depending on the needs of the project and my team. Generally speaking, my process can be boiled down to three stages: Understanding & Research, Concept & Prototyping, and Feedback & Iterations.
Understanding & Research: In this phase of the project, I’m asking a ton of questions to understand the business objectives and the user problems. If necessary, I’ll do an audit to understand what’s currently working well and what isn’t working. I’ll also try to get my hands on qualitative or quantitative data that could help influence the design solution. Lastly, I may perform a benchmarking analysis to understand how other companies solve a similar problem.
Concepting & Prototyping: After I have a solid understanding of the problem we’re trying to solve, I start exploring possible design solutions. I’ll also create an interactive prototype to help test the UX strategy if needed.
Feedback & Iterations: This is the phase that I usually spend the bulk of my time. Here, I’m making revisions based on feedback from my creative team, cross-functional partners, and/or users.
In addition to your work at Hero Digital, you are also the founder of Halftime Academy. Tell us about Halftime Academy - why did you create Halftime Academy and what can someone expect to find there?
I created Halftime Academy as a way to give back to the design community. My goal is for HTA to become a friendly resource to help creatives confidently learn UI/UX design, grow professionally, and get inspired. Designers can expect to find content on UI/UX Design, freelancing, and the wider world of design.
Are there any tools or resources you use regularly in your work?
Figma: Used for all things design – i.e. brainstorming, wireframing, designing UI’s, outlining user flows, etc.
Spotify: Depending on the task at hand, I’m either listening to some chill lofi beats, rap, R&B, or a podcast.
Analog by Ugmonk: This is one of my favorite tools to plan and prioritize my daily tasks. I also use it to capture any random one-off tasks that come up throughout the day.
Apple Notes + iPad and Apple Pencil: Used to capture meeting notes and any personal or work-related thoughts.
Twitter: Used to keep up with the design community, share works-in-progress, things I’m learning, and helpful resources.
What’s one of your favorite projects that you’ve worked on so far? What would be your dream project?
As far as my professional work goes, I’ve been working under an NDA for over a year now. Throughout this time, I’ve had the opportunity to lead the UX efforts on some pretty rewarding projects for a global tech brand. Unfortunately, that’s about all I can say without getting into legal trouble.
On the flip side, regarding my personal work, I’ve been teaching myself Blender for the past two months. For my latest project, I decided to try my hand at modeling my home office space. I’m really proud of how it turned out.
I’m a huge fan of amusement parks, so my dream project would be to lead the UX strategy and art direction for an amusement park app with an unlimited budget and resources to create the best experience possible.
What advice would you give to new designers just starting out?
I have two pieces of advice for new designers:
1) Detach yourself from your work and ask for feedback regularly. Getting design feedback from people you trust is one of the fastest ways to improve your work.
2) Learn how to communicate your ideas. There will always be a high demand for designers who know how to present their work, rationale, and thought process.
When you look to the future, what are you most excited about right now in the world of design?
I think emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, voice interfaces, virtual reality, and augmented reality will become more accessible and commonly used in the near future. This technology opens up a whole new way for people to interact with products. To me, that’s very exciting.
Thank you for sharing with us Devanta! To view more of Devanta’s work, visit his website, check out his shots on Dribbble, and visit Halftime Academy.
Devanta was nominated by Dribbble. All art courtesy of Devanta Ebison.