Barnabas Nagy, senior UX/UI designer

Profile Link: https://www.liveedu.tv/barnabasnagy/profile/

Skills: Axure, Information Architecture, Sketch App, UI Design, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, User Interviews, UX design

Current Projects:

1. Mr. Nagy, please introduce yourself and tell us what you do

I’m a senior UX/UI designer with more than 12 years of experience. I help clients improve their websites and apps in a way that makes sense to users.

I’ve worked for various clients such as Budget, Land Rover, Lego, Monsoon, Carlsberg, Shell, Oracle, Orange, and Flora ProActive.

I spend a lot of time ensuring that what I design works, not just looks good. I use Axure for creating wireframes and clickable lo-fi prototypes.

Additionally, I use Sketch for final UI design and hi-fi prototypes.

My approach to creating compelling user journeys and personas has been featured in various publications, including UX Booth, Boxes and Arrows, UX Matters, and the Wireframes Magazine.

2. Why have you decided to create educational projects on LiveEdu.tv?

I like teaching, and perhaps this quirkiness has been inherited from my parents who are full-time elementary school teachers.

So, I thought I could use this talent for my benefit and combine it with what I do for a living.

Furthermore, the prospect of earning a good income while recording what I normally do was enticing, especially when considering the perpetual earnings that LiveEdu provides to creators.

3. How many projects have you created for LiveEdu.tv? Do you plan to continue creating more projects?

So far, I’ve created 9 projects and I plan to do more.

This is what I like about LiveEdu: I can pause and resume whenever I have some extra time.

It’s great for freelancers like me who want to utilize times between gigs or compensate for low-jobs during slower seasons.

4. What are your biggest challenges when recording new projects? Any lessons?

Storage and RAM!

I use Screenflow to record my screen and webcam to record my face. Recording projects create big source files and consumes lots of computer memory.

I have 16GB Memory in my Mac but it is easily consumed by up to 70% when using Sketch and Screenflow together.

Axure and Screenflow consume a bit less—about 45%.

I plan to buy a bigger hard drive because my 250GB SSD and my 500GB HD is becoming full very easily after completing 3-4 recordings. A source file of one session is around 20-25GB!

Fortunately, I found a workaround of using an external 1TB WD Passport HD for transferring the rendered source files for backup.

The other thing I want to mention is the time and CPU capacity the rendering requires. With my 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, a one-hour recording is usually done with 70%-80% CPU usage.

Usually, I just leave 3-4 recordings to render overnight and upload to Mega via Mega Sync automatically.

However, this leads to another challenge: the free account on Mega, which provides 50GB, gets full quickly after rendering one or two files.

Therefore, I have to delete the files of the projects already uploaded on LiveEdu regularly. In future, I’ll consider upgrading my Mega account.

5. How do you prepare for the next topic that you will cover?

I use my portfolio and feedback from users as a basis for most of my projects. For those topics I haven’t created projects on yet, I simply try to find inspiration on Behance or Dribbble.

For me, preparation is mainly about two aspects: technical preparation and psychological preparation.

Technical preparation involves preparing the computer and ensuring that every program I’ll use is working properly.

Psychological preparation involves preparing the mind before a new project by having enough sleep and doing some physical exercises.

Since explaining concepts when simultaneously completing designs is exhausting, I prefer going for a nap during the day.

6. Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

My other passion is in the music industry, and I would like to spend most of my time writing and recording music.

Right now, I’m focusing on saving up some money for studio equipment, and that’s what LiveEdu earnings also helps me to do.

So, in the next 5 years, I may be fully engrossed in the music industry. Be sure to check for my album, then!

7. Please explain the process of creating a project on LiveEdu, how long does it take?

I start by creating the resources folder and the source files for my designs. I also like to copy and paste the resource links on the text file from my previous project because, most of the time, only one or two links change.

I create a text file of all the links I use or reference in the project. I think it’s a good idea to create this text file so that students can find the references easily without having to search the Internet.

Thereafter, I record the sessions one by one and render them during my lunch break or overnight.

Simultaneously, I keep Mega Sync on so that my files can render into the folder that Mega syncs from—automatically.

I find that creating four sessions per day; two before lunch and two after lunch works best.

Basically, I need two days to create a whole project.

8. Do you have some tips for our future project creators?

I do not extensively edit my recordings because that takes a lot of time.

Instead, when I make a mistake, I stop the recording immediately and re-record or edit right there. This way, I do not have to re-watch the whole project before rendering.

For optimal energy levels and productivity, I use the Pomodoro method via Toggl.

I also have a Google sheet document where I write the number of minutes each session takes before tallying them using the in-built SUM formula.

This way, I always know how much longer I need to record to hit the 6-hour minimum per project length.

9.Is there anything to end with?

From my experience, to create projects on LiveEdu successfully, you need to have a lot of RAM and storage capacity on your computer as well as use the Pomodoro method and register the length of each recorded sessions.

You also need to render and upload overnight and have a few naps to make up for the high-energy consumption that the videos creation took.

That’s all and all the best!

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An Exclusive Interview with Barnabas Nagy, a Senior UX/UI Designer