‘The loading screen face’ is a term I coined back when I was working as a teacher and running a quizzing firm till 2020. It’s the face children make when they’re at the verge of a breakthrough or are almost finding an answer to a question. The few seconds that lead up to that moment is an incredible experience to be a part of and I often ask myself why as adults we don’t experience these moments. I’m Shakthivel, a 24-year-old user experience researcher who heads product experience at a start-up.

I graduated with an engineering degree but never pursued a role remotely related to it. I remember pursuing a quizzing gig because I wanted to have some cash as a student. Every day for a year I’d spend my day at schools quizzing kids and the nights at restaurants doing trivia nights for adults. I’ve witnessed bullies at schools and bar fights all within the span of 24 hours. The biggest realization I’ve come to is that we stop questioning a lot of things around us growing up. Kids are always jumping around asking “why” there is an answer to a certain quiz question but adults accept and ignore curiosity.

I’m also the kind of person who asks a million question. And every part of my journey begins with something that I pick on and question why something the way it is. So one day when I decided to binge watch a Netflix documentary series – Abstract: The Art of Design, Ian Spalter’s episode on Digital Product Design pretty much blew my mind away and left me with no questions! That’s when I realised I wanted to pursue UX Design and Research.
All the work I’ve done along my career has been in the field of education and movies, entertainment. Helping develop courses at the start up I work at sat perfectly within the overlapping Venn diagram that was my career. I believe education is the greatest social mobility accessory to ever exist, and documenting the journey, the struggles of India’s best in their careers helps democratize access to Genius.
To me LevelUp is a place that helps fuel one’s dream, dreams that everyone has had, about being an actor, director or a musician. I wish LevelUp becomes “The Netflix of following your passion” platform. There’s something I ask everyone I meet right now. Who would your dream levelUp course be with? Wildly interesting responses ranging from regional heroes to worldwide celebrities, something that tells us that there are so much possibilities, so much of a want to learn from the best and understand their secret sauce.”