Ryan Hwang
Ryan is an established product design leader with 15+ years of experience building transformative brands and digital products for cutting-edge companies like IBM, Frog Design, Samsung, and Verizon/Yahoo. He prides himself on driving business goals through high-level and tactical strategies, cross-functional collaboration, and meticulous design process and implementation. As a UX/UI leader and collaborator, Ryan has a keen ability to work across diverse company stakeholders by expounding concepts into concrete visual depictions.
With a love for all things aesthetically pleasing, Ryan is most often found attending museums and taking classes on furniture and lighting design in his spare time. He currently resides in Chelsea, New York.
To learn more about him here.
Interview: Ryan Hwang, Principal Interaction Designer at Verizon
By Angela Tai
As a leader in the product design and tech space, how do you stay current?
Hmm, that's an excellent question, how do I stay current... one of the reasons for studying design is (that) our industry promotes learning new topics. With each new project, designers must familiarize themselves with content and subject matter to effectively strategize and produce designs. Great designers never stop seeking out information to satisfy their curiosities. I enjoy observing my surroundings and connecting how I think and feel about them. I capture little moments, movements, sounds, objects, and whatever piques my interest and store them in my memory bank. I'm always reading about anything and everything, later, some forgotten and some retained. All these gathered experiences and information make me a well-rounded person, and I think that's how I stay current. Not sure if I've answered your question (smile).
You transitioned from traditional/print design to digital. What was that like?
All designs, regardless of the media like print or digital, share core design elements (line, shape, space, size, value, color, and texture) and design principles (balance, proportion, emphasis, variety, movement, rhythm, and harmony). Designers need to skillfully employ these building blocks to communicate with their intended audience. Majoring in visual communications and having prior interaction and editorial experiences eased my transition from traditional to digital. Most of all, working on magazines prepared me to quickly grasp the workings of content strategy and organization, information architecture, affordance, user experience and feedback, and, of course, kickass design layouts.
How do you stay productive during Covid-19 quarantine?
We're all figuring this out, we have no previous experiences to compare with. Ever since Governor Cuomo mandated non-essential workers to stay home, our lives changed quickly in a matter of days, if not hours. The uncertainties in a historic time of pandemic crisis is stress-inducing.To stay productived during the lock-down, I need to manage my stress. Let me tell you, I AM STRESSED. Thankfully, I realized that taking care of plants relaxes me every morning. Why does finding small buds and sprouts fill me with such joy?
What advice do you have for someone who's thinking about getting into UX/UI and product design?
My advice to those exploring UX/UI and product design profession is to ask yourself why. Take time and ask themselves, 'Why do I want to get into UX/UI and product design? Come up with all possible and HONEST reasons why. What gets uncovered will help to identify the next steps.
Three favorite things about your profession.
New topics to learn about
Interactions with interesting people
Maturing and evolving field of digital design
Best discovery of 2020 so far.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire