#73 - Notes on Money, Ads and Substack Challenges
Education Coffee is 2xWeekly Newsletter on People, Ideas and Culture.
In each edition of this newsletter, I will share some inspiring web resources that I have curated after hours of research to ensure that you have the best education coffee in your inbox. In upcoming editions, I will focus on sharing insights, notes and realizations that I gather from people, ideas, books, films and podcasts.
1. Learning from People
On Episode 33 of #LearningStories we chat with Aniket Varankar. Aniket is a User Experience (UX) Designer. He is a CUA certified UX designer with a natural inclination towards designing user friendly solutions to meet business goals keeping in mind the technical feasibilities.
Between 2007 to 2013, he completed a Bachelors of Science in Information Technology and a Masters of Computer Applications from India. He started his career as a .net developer with a Healthcare IT solutions firm in Mumbai but moved to the niche field of UX back in 2014. He recently completed 10 years in the field of UX design. His work on a day to day basis involves understanding customer and client requirements, refining the same, conducting user research, identifying market segments which lead to defining personae of relevant end users to plan an efficient design strategy. I spend 2 hours creating show notes and timestamps for each episode. I am sharing them for you here:
User Experience Design defines the experience a user would go through when interacting with a company, its services, and its products
The elements of UX Design include Research, Visual Design, Interaction Design, Usability and Information Architecture.
Know your users for they are not you. Interviewing users can give you new insights about their needs
The best user experience is always when you do not notice the design.
Studying Information Technology and Computer Applications at college gives you a good foundation to explore a variety of careers in the technology and programming fields in the future.
Try completing additional certifications and building an interactive web portfolio to make you an appealing candidate for technology jobs.
Design is a combination of technology needs, business needs and user needs.
User experience designers cannot compromise on attention to detail.
Communication, collaboration and negotiation are important skills for UX designers to develop.
You have to really empathize and understand the user experience to be a good UX designer.
2. Learning from Ideas and Questions
Next month, I want to start a #30DaySubstackChallenge. I want to challenge myself to write a newsletter everyday for the next thirty days. I have really enjoyed writing this newsletter and this is a way for me to build my skill set as a newsletter writer. I will go back to writing a 2xWeekly Newsletter in January 2025.
3. Learning from Books, Websites and Blogs
In this 2018 piece, Joe Pinsker from The Atlantic stated that after a certain point more wealth does not equate to more happiness and satisfaction.
4. Learning from Films, Videos and Shows
I started a new videos series on TeacherTuber called #ADTalk. In each episode I share my reaction to popular Indian advertisements by talking about the 3 S’s which are:
Story being told (connection to a human story or need)
Service being provided (product or service details)
Strategy adopted (audio, video, branding, setting)
The first advertisement I talk about is from #NescafeCoffee by Nestlé (linked in the comments below). I love #Nescafe coffee and had a lot of positive thoughts and associations when I saw this ad. What was your reaction to this #Nescafe ad?
5. Learning from Podcasts and Music
Karthik Reddy, from Blume ventures hosts the Blume Podcast where he explores what it takes for homegrown innovators and changemakers to conquer the world. The podcast features diverse guests – from tech unicorn founders to sports icons – who share their inspiring journeys of global triumph and the strategies that propelled them beyond boundaries. In the 24+ episodes of this podcast you can discover how champion Indians leveraged their unique strengths to build world-class products, export innovation, and compete with the best globally.
This was a fascinating conversation with Nithin Kamath from Zerodha who spoke about his 20 year career in trading, why advertisements don’t work, raising capital and the role of leveraging technology.
Thank you for reading this edition of #EducationCoffee. I look forward to writing weekly editions of this newsletter this year. I hope to continue to share resources that will add value to your life. You can also review the archive of Education Coffee for free at this link (72 past newsletters).
Please do send me your thoughts and resources on any edition of this newsletter through email at abhishekashokshetty@gmail.com, Linkedin or on Twitter @AbhishekShetty_. You can find my work online at my website. If you would like to read pieces in the future please do consider subscribing to this newsletter by clicking the button below. I love taking these discussions forward on those platforms and look forward to hearing your feedback.
Abhishek Shetty