Digital Product Designers are a bit like translators, from the business world to the digital one. They need to understand deeply the processes to create a product that matches with business objectives and user experience. They need to design something easy to understand and to use. So obviously they have a direct impact on project’s success and its range (big hit or medium one) or failure.
We wanted to talk with one of them, working for an elitist recruiting company, about his use of Textografo and how it helps to connect the dots with his stakeholders. That’s why we got in touch with Calin Balea, Digital Product Designer at Crossover, an Austin-based (Texas, USA) company which mission is to connect companies to the best talent from around the world and provide a seamless end-to-end solution for remote team management. Here, we share that interview with you:
Could you tell me a little about your company?
I currently work full-time as Digital Product Designer at Crossover – an outsourcing company that hires top talent from all over the world. On the side, I do art direction at Caligrafik Studios – a visual arts agency I launched during college as a passion project.
What is your job role?
I’m a generalist designer with a focus on UI and UX design. I take ideas and shape them into intuitive, elegant and meaningful digital products.
What are your goals and how Textografo helps you to reach them?
Part of my job is to bring clarity and vision to a project. Sometimes clients have a “fuzzy” idea of what their product should be. Before I start designing anything, I help define and perfect their vision. Textografo helps me quickly and painlessly layout the product vision, illustrate user flows, identify possible pitfalls and finally, get all involved parties on the same page.
Could you give an example of a diagram you have created with Textografo?
Here is a flowchart which describes the Job Application process: Click here to access the diagram
Tips! Click on Play button to display it step by step
What are the main pains of conventional diagramming tool?
Drawing and redrawing it… over and over.
When a project is in the early stages and I iterate with stakeholders, a mind map or flowchart can change dramatically, multiple times. Redrawing a huge flowchart is usually a pain and a big waste of time.
Why did you choose Textografo?
Because it’s the smartest and friendliest diagramming tool out there. Plain and simple 🙂
What feature(s) do you love in Textografo?
2 words: automation and collaboration.
First, I love the text editor and how everything is drawn automagically 🙂 Second, collaboration is essential at this stage. Being able to share and collaborate on the project file makes my job so much easier.
What can we improve?
The app is great for small to medium sized diagrams but for large ones, it could be better. Some nice features could be – full-screen text editor, refresh and draw diagram on request, scale circles and diamonds to fit text perfectly, multiple start points, click and drag nodes or lines for better spacing and readability and more… I’m a product designer 🙂 I’m never short on ideas.
Do you have some tips and tricks to share about how you use to create or communicate your diagram?
For creating diagrams, whenever the hierarchy starts getting more than 3-4 levels deep, click the circle next to the text label in the text editor, to focus on one branch at a time. It can become hard to manage and track if you’re creating a large flowchart and you’re staying at root level.
When it’s time to present your concept, sell it right – use the presentation mode in Textografo to take stakeholders through the flowchart slowly, one step at a time. If you just throw the entire chart in their face, they might feel overwhelmed and get fixated on the idea that your solution is too complicated before even having the chance to explain it.
French people (like me!) have a reputation for loving good food. So I have to ask you– What’s your favorite dish?
I’m a man of simple tastes. I enjoy a lot of foods but I usually can’t stop myself if there’s pizza or potato chips around.
What is your Whatsapp status today?
I must be getting old because I don’t really understand what that’s really for 😀 I do use whatsapp a lot but never posted a status… and probably never will.
Could you tell us one thing you are passionate about (professional or otherwise)?
Design, painting, chess, fitness & sports (basketball, calisthenics, swimming, and more)
