Interview with Wahyu Rifo Prakoso

Wahyu Rifo Prakoso ("WRP") interviewed on Wednesday, 19 June.

How did you become a designer?

WRP : It started from my hobby of drawing since middle school, then I began to learn how to edit and manipulate photos from a computer. This makes me focus on pursuing this field by continuing my study at a vocational high school in the multimedia study program, majoring in information technology at college. And finally, I decided to pursue my career as a UI/UX designer to date. Will I always be a designer? In my opinion, this will follow the developments & needs of the future, even in our daily lives we can be said to be "designers" in our own lives.

Which emotions do you feel when designing?

WRP : I feel a lot of emotions when I design but the most I feel are enthusiasm and inner excitement.

What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?

WRP : Besides Creativity, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Problem-solving are some of the most crucial skills for designers. Personal Branding and Marketing skills are also needed as a sales value for a designer.

What is your growth path? What are your future plans? What is your dream design project?

WRP : My dream design project is to be able to design something that can be truly useful for many people and can have an impact on their lives (Increasing the life's quality of the people).

What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?

WRP : Uncertainty and change will always exist in every line of life, and as designers, the way we respond to this is to continue learning, persevering, and adapting to existing developments and changes. This is indeed very challenging, but if we are able to get through it, we can be called a winner.

You are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists and architects?

WRP : The best practice in anything, including in the world of design, is to learn from mistakes and adapt them to improve our standards in the future so that we can be even better. and also learn from other people and our competitors, competing healthily is also very important. Following existing standards is also a wise choice.

How do you keep up with latest design trends? To what extent do design trends matter?

WRP : Based on my experience, It depends on every project that I've worked on. Sometimes I follow new design trends for the project which is felt to have to follow existing design trends in order to get the attention of users, On the other hand, the originality of design style provides authenticity to the project that will be produced later. whatever that is the good design is one that remains over time.

How do you know if a product or project is well designed? How do you define good design?

WRP : Based on my experience as a UI/UX Designer, From the technical aspects the design is created based on standardization and complete documentation, making it easier for the team to maintain the design, and seen from the results, a good design gets a good response from users, which means it works as it should and can become a metric for the product or project itself.

How do you decide if your design is ready?

WRP : When the project/product itself is successful helps people to achieve more.

What is your biggest design work?

WRP : When I designed for social media application (mobile-based application) that based on a user interest model. Because of this is related to a variety of users where they will find each other who have the same interests as the community. Which makes a lot of features in that application. besides that, this is also quite challenging as it requires a balance between business goals and needs that are relatable to users.

Who is your favourite designer?

WRP : Steve Jobs. because of his visionary and evolutionary thinking.

What positive experiences you had when you attend the A’ Design Award?

WRP : 1. International Recognition 2. Massive media engagement 3. Networking opportunity. Actually, there are so many more that could be included in the list. However, in my opinion, these three things above can represent the benefits obtained from winning a big award event. Design awards and competitions would be contribute to my next career journey as a designer through winner benefits they have provided. In my opinion, participating in an event like this is also relevant for the development of a designer's career path because their competition system is designed in such a way as to present standard methods and professional judges who are competent in their field. I feel honored and an immense joy when I am the Designer of the Day.

Wahyu Rifo Prakoso Profile