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VoltSafe Blog Team – November 26, 2024
Andrew Yang dreamed about playing basketball professionally, but when the long awaited growth spurt did not arrive, Andrew turned to his interest in learning about human behavior and habits. He enrolled in the Cognitive Science program at UBC, a program which combines psychology with computer science. While focusing on the computer science aspect of the program, he stumbled into UX design after taking a job at UBC maintaining a website for the engineering department.
Back then UX (User Experience) and UI (User Interface) were not well known in the tech industry. As part of the project, the school wanted to learn how their students navigated around the engineering website and their purpose for visiting the site.
His experience working on the engineering department website project for UBC led him to his eventual career as a UX/UI designer. Andrew believes that the core of UX design is to figure out how to bring technology to the user and get them to interact with it in a simple and effective way. He points to Apple Vision Pro’s function of opening and closing windows with your fingers as an example of efficient and simple design.
Andrew discovered that understanding who your user base is and how to integrate their habits into your product is a big part of the job. If you want customers to use your product, first it needs to be simple to use. Especially these days, with the vast number of apps and games available to download or purchase. If customers can’t figure out how to use an app or navigate through a game within a minute, they will move on quickly to the next thing. The goal is to capture and hold the users attention. This is why UX/UI design has evolved into becoming an important part of app building and game design.
For companies and brands, design creation for their products should begin with understanding who their potential customers will be and how they will use their product. Same goes for brands looking to attract the user base away from their competition. Andrew shares that it would be beneficial for these companies to find out what their competitor’s customers don’t like about their product and improve on those specific features.
This is what Andrew finds the most interesting about UX design-problem solving. It is also what attracted him to working at VoltSafe. He had previously worked on software design and VoltSafe provided him with the opportunity to work on software that integrates with hardware.
Andrew took over the role of UX design at VoltSafe, appreciating the fact that he could come in and build on an existing design rather than coming up with a design from scratch. He enjoys working on the improvements and enhancements to the UX and UI that will optimize the product. He points out that proper documentation is key when it comes to transferring projects or sharing design projects within a team. He echoes the sentiment that VoltSafe Embedded Software engineer Adrian Scillato holds dear, which is that proper documentation helps you solve problems quickly and helps others easily pick up where you may leave off on a design or project.
Andrew revealed that he interacts with about 20 apps in a day and keeps tabs on the latest UX/ UI news and information coming out of the industry. Growing headlines in the news about the fast pace in which AI has been evolving have many concerned about losing their jobs. Andrew feels that as far as UX design is concerned, AI can assist UX designers with productivity such as screen generation, creating menus or buttons. Since the goal of the UX designer is to come up with a solution to a unique design problem, Andrew does not feel that he will lose his job to AI one day. He also shares that UX design is not limited to the digital world but is something that exists everywhere around us. Andrew points to the train system in Japan as a good example of UX design. It is easy for passengers to navigate their way around because of the thought put into the design of the system. Everything from colour-coded route maps to knowing how much fare you will pay to your destination before you purchase a ticket.
Andrew sees his career as a UX /UI designer evolving with AI and has an interest in getting involved in policy making around the use of AI. In fact, he mentioned that he was attending an event after work that would bring together lawmakers and members of the tech industry to debate the use of AI and how it will affect individual rights.
Aside from following developments in AI, Andrew likes playing golf, pickleball and badminton. He also enjoys astronomy and painting with watercolors. Don’t be surprised if you see his work in a gallery one day worth thousands of dollars. Andrew believes that with the growing popularity of the use of AI, human generated art will rise in value. He is on to something because even with the advancements in deep fake videos, AI generated movies and art, AI cannot replicate an original Banksy and the nuances that come with his work. AI also won’t be able to replicate an original Andrew Yang creation whether it be a website or a painting.
If you would like to join Andrew and the rest of the VoltSafe team as we strive to create simple, safe and smart products that are changing the way the world connects to power, check out our careers page.
About VoltSafe Inc.
VoltSafe Inc. is changing the way people connect to power. Headquartered in Vancouver, BC, the Canadian tech startup has reinvented the electrical plug by eliminating prongs, adding magnets and an “electrical fingerprint”. Using patented technology, VoltSafe has created the world’s safest, simplest, and smartest plug design since electricity came into homes more than 140 years ago. The company’s product pipeline includes magnetic plug replacement solutions for household, commercial, industrial, marine, electric and autonomous vehicles, emergency services, data centres and more.