For this installment of our People of Atypon series, we sat down with Dino Paravandis, Atypon’s Vice President of User Experience.
Fast Facts: Dino joined Atypon over 6 years ago and works out of our office in Athens, Greece. He has many favorite films including the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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Dino Paravandis was all set to pursue a degree in history when a friend pointed out his talent for technology and encouraged him to shift gears. After earning a bachelor’s degree in computer science, Dino says, he got interested in the field of human-computer interaction because it combines cognitive psychology, design, and user experience—and also because it adds a humanist element to technology, which he believes is both necessary and frequently missing.
Humanist design for human users
What does it mean for a technology team to take a humanist approach? It means starting from the premise that technology should be designed with the needs and wants of users in mind—that technology should serve humanity, rather than the other way around. This approach emphasizes the importance of understanding how people think, feel, and interact with technology, taking into account users’ perspectives, needs, and goals, in order to create more intuitive, user-friendly, and satisfying experiences with the user at the center.
A master’s degree in human-computer interaction—a field that studies the design, implementation, and evaluation of interactive systems for human use—led to a career focused on understanding both design and people, in order to design and deliver the kinds of experiences that people want.
Welcome to the Atypon Design Studio
As VP of User Experience, Dino heads up the Atypon Design Studio, a multi-award-winning digital design firm within Atypon. Having built hundreds of publishing websites over the past 25 years, the Design Studio staff understand how important it is for publishers to establish strong, long-term relationships with readers—as well as understanding exactly what those readers want: simple and efficient online experiences.
Empathy is useful not only in design but also in everyday life.
With a strong focus on scholarly products—journals, books, and all the other things researchers create as part of their work—the Design Studio works collaboratively with customers to address some of the world’s most complex and pressing issues. The team is able to create innovative solutions and products by combining disruptive design with fact-based analytics and a broad and deep expertise.
It’s this kind of collaborative work that Dino and his team are most proud of—in particular, their recent work for AAAS / Science, which was nominated for a Webby award and received several others, including the Ozzie Award for best website redesign.
Embracing the unexpected
A former manager was in the right place at the right time to deliver what Dino calls the most helpful piece of professional advice he’s received: to look at design and development issues from a wide range of perspectives. And of course empathy is useful not only in design, but also in everyday life.
At work, embracing empathy and others’ perspectives has helped Dino succeed as a UX designer; at home, it’s improved his life via Mario the cat, a former stray whom Dino’s daughter found and brought home from the island of Kythira.
“He came into our life unexpectedly,” says Dino, “and is now quite a big part of it.”
What’s now, what’s next
Dino is very excited for the Design Studio to start working with the new Wiley Partner Solutions team on holistic design for industry-positive experiences, products, and services.
A self-described history nerd, he’ll be up for trying out time travel if anyone ever invents it. Talk about a UX design challenge!
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Thank you, Dino, for sharing your insights with us!
Meet more People of Atypon!
Dina Abulfailat (Product Manager, Digital Objects) § Polivios Roussis (Program Manager) § Rob Posadas (VP, Solution Architecture) § Hannah Smith (Director of Account Management and Development)