Iranian startups don’t realize the role of user experience

Farshad Zolfaghari is the user experience designer of Microsoft. He has expertise in designing and coding. Here is the interview with Farshad Zolfaghari:

• Tell us about yourself and your experience.

I’m interface and user experience designer. I have moved to USA for two years and I work for Microsoft.

I began my work from designing and web coding. About 12 or 13 years ago I decided to learn 3D and game designing.

But after consulting with my teacher, I chose web designing. So I started from Photoshop and Illustrator courses.

In addition to them, I watched many learning films and could learn HTML and CSS coding. Then I develop my first website.

During this time, I faced with topics like Usability and Usability in web. I enjoyed solving users’ problems and easing use of interfaces. So I focused on learning these topics and using them in my designs.

After gaining new experiences, I began working on user experience design and usability.

• Tell us about your job and expertise.

Different people have different definitions for User experience. But in my opinion, UX Design means lining up users’ needs with business owners’ needs.

This job seems very easy but all business owners look for more earnings and users have different needs too.

UX designer should bring these two needs closer to each other so that both become satisfied. It is important to know that user experience is not just related to web or mobile apps. It exists in everything in our life.

• What are the differences between this job in Iran and USA?

I don’t have much information about UX in Iran, but I heard that more companies are paying attention to user experience. UX is completely different from UI.

It covers all the stages of a product. From idea to sample production, product test, design and product development, providing it to user, product support and etc.

Each team and company may employ different people for each part of the job based on its budget and the extent of work.

UX is very important in USA and big IT companies have large units and teams for UX. But there are also companies who know a little about this.

But the point is user experience plays an important role in production design and development in USA, therefore there is a tight competition in this field. If a company is unable to meet users’ needs appropriately, it would definitely fail.

• Does Iran reach to a good stage regarding UX design? What are the requirements?

I think Iran is in a relatively good situation and little by little people would get informed of UX. But it’s not enough. Conferences and workshops which are held can help in this regard.

I think teaching to UX work force is useful but business owners should also get informed of importance of user experience and its role on their success.

If we have an expert UX team in Iran but they are not allowed or trusted to use their knowledge, it would be worthless.

Business owners should trust them even if they fail. If we face a problem at first stages, for example a problem at Prototyping stage, we can reduce the loss more quickly. This is only one example of importance and power of user experience.

• How is startup situation in Iran?

I think now that there are many startups in Iran, they can use UX and progress more. It may happen that the budget is not enough but some people can do multiple jobs as well.

In USA we call them Unicorn. Like people who are designer and developer at the same time.