#35 Rani Ilyas ~ Harmonizing design and development to elevate the user experience to new heights ~
Hi, I’m Momoka Uchida, a Public Relations representative at Beatrust. Whether you are a regular reader of “Beatrust on Note” or a newcomer, thank you for opening this article. With every employee with a unique background, passion, and commitment, today let me spotlight our UI/UX Designer Rani Ilyas
About Rani Ilyas
Can you briefly introduce yourself to the readers?
Hello! My name is Rani, but people usually call me Ran or Ran-chan here in Japan. I’m Indonesian, and I moved to Japan in March last year. My main responsibility at Beatrust is to be a UI/UX designer, but I have a huge interest in front-end development as well, so I create a lot of UI and fix bugs alongside designing new things for Beatrust!
Can you tell us more about what is UI/UX and what is Front-End Development?
UI/UX is the combination of user interface and user experience, where I try to make the design visually appealing but, at the same time user friendly. Front-end development Involves implementing the designs created by UI/UX designers into functional code, which they make into a functional product.
Growing up in Indonesia, how did you get interested in Japan?
I’ve been a fan of anime and Japanese culture for as long as I can remember. One of the very first anime I watched was Shugo Chara, which got me hooked into watching other anime during elementary school such as Bleach, Law of Ueki, and others. I started to have an affinity for drawing anime illustrations and ever since then, I’ve slowly honed my Japanese skills to have the chance to work and live in Japan someday. When I graduated from university, that dream came true!
I heard that you have a unique hobby that is related to Japanese culture! Can you tell us what it is?
I’ve been an avid Maimai player since I was in university. Maimai is a popular rhythm game machine that you can find in arcades all over Japan. Back when I was in Indonesia, I used to have a close group of friends that I always played together with and we met once every week to catch up and play together! I’m hoping to meet friends like that in Tokyo as well!
About Beatrust
How did you know Beatrust?
I knew about Beatrust when I was trying to look for a UI/UX designer job in Japan. I got contacted by a recruiter and was told that my experiences from working through various startups would be a perfect fit for Beatrust, and I decided to apply.
I heard you have worked in Indonesia and Denmark as well. Compared to working in Denmark, and Indonesia, how do you feel about working in Japan?
Indonesia and Denmark’s culture is similar, if not the same. They put a barrier between work and personal life, and once work hours are over, they would just close their laptops immediately and will continue work the next day. I feel like Japan is a bit strict on that where we need to have a strong sense of responsibility to finish a task given to us in a set amount of time, which can have its pluses and minuses. However, I like the sternness of Japanese company culture that we have to constantly better ourselves to succeed.
How about Beatrust specifically? Do you see any difference?
I see a huge difference in terms of motivation and working culture. First of all, the majority of members speak both English and Japanese so there are fewer communication issues. Also, in Beatrust everyone tries their best to cheer everyone else, and we have sessions each month to congratulate a member who tried hard that month, while also having lots of opportunities to express our opinions if we feel any sort of dissatisfaction, and I think that made my motivation to work and try harder really strong at Beatrust.
What do you think is your challenge at Beatrust?
While my main job is to be a UI/UX Designer, I am tasked with doing a lot of UI creation and code fixes for the platform since I showed interest in the company’s code structure as well as having a desire to also excel at the front-end. However, I still have ways to go in terms of front-end, and some people in the company are really easy to talk to in terms of asking for advice or to ask for peer programming sessions. That helped me learn a lot quicker compared to doing everything by myself. I’m grateful for the opportunity!
What kind of people do you think can be successful at Beatrust?
A person who would be successful at Beatrust is someone who has the ability and desire to push themselves even further. Beatrust is still in its early stages, and without proactiveness, I think it would be hard to excel in Beatrust. Beatrust is a company that won’t deny your opinions and ideas, and in fact, embraces it. So, let’s be brave and consult with the people in Beatrust if we want to improve features, or if we need new features. Proactiveness is key!
Post-interview notes
Rani Ilyas is a new UI/UX designer at Beatrust. Looking back at the interview, we can see her love for Japan and her strong passion for bringing better experiences to the users. I’m grateful for Rani’s time and discussion, and looking forward to her further success at Beatrust.
Founded in 2020, Beatrust is made up of people from diverse backgrounds who collaborate and improve each other every day. Stay tuned for more interviews.
If you are interested in Beatrust, please contact us at “ pr@beatrust.com”.
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