Everything in my life is a journey, including the road to Projects to Products. My passion for creating value with design has been building slowly since high school.
President’s Address at Business Celebration Night 2013 — I presented my work to the school’s business community!
Back then I resented creativity. I was about science and math and my future was in engineering, what did I need art for? But really the creativity was always there. In high school, I was a super volunteer involved in many clubs and associations. My journey starts here, not with a display of creativity, but with a realization of what was needed. As a senior at Campbell Collegiate, I was eager to make change and establish my legacy. As the 2nd President of Campbell’s shiny new Business Club, I wanted to do so by create connections between the students and business folk from around Saskatchewan. However, halfway through the year I realized that only in our second year, such a lofty goal was unattainable. Lasting connections need to be made organically and over time. This is how I learned to look at the real problem.
The entrance of FourthDimensionInc. where I first learned to be a developer
Throughout my first year at University, I slowly became more interested in software. The next summer I got a job at Fourth Dimension, my cousin’s Digital Marketing Agency, to build an Ionic web app and teach me what it means to be a developer. Fourth Dimension has a UI Developer and upon meeting him I was intrigued that he was a specialist — he only knew how to style webpages. It was so strange to me that he earned a living knowing only one thing, he didn’t understand any of the JavaScript I had written. I remember asking my cousin, who told me that specialists have a premium, being able to do everything well may not be as valuable as being able to do one thing the best. He explained to me that UI Design can be a lot of work, and for a Digital Marketing Agency it is very important to have someone who is the best. There is a premium for design, and clients pay for it.
Since working at Forth Dimension, I learned a lot about software applications and finally began to understand why design is so important. But not the same design as the UI Developer, a new definition that combines solving the real problem and making it look and feel good for the user. Good design isn’t just art, like I thought back in high school, apps with design create great experiences for their users and creates value because in order for the application to be valuable, it needs to be designed for it’s users. Users will love an application if it’s usable, works and looks well.
It took me by surprise when design ended up being the thing I became passionate about considering I resented creativity just a few years ago. Of course the definition of design changed a little, but I really really want to create valuable experiences for the people of the world.
Unveiling the all new ArjunKalburgi.com, with a renewed focus on design and creating value. See my portfolio, Instagram and life blog and stay updated here for the story of using design to make projects into products.