We are publishing an interview of Ms. Vaishali Verma, Information Designer, An architect by degree & Founder of Startups & Upstarts. She has a past experience of working with Startups.
What is the problem you are trying to solve? Can you share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
People have a problem reading long, monotonous, black and white paragraphs and making sense out of them. This may be due to lack of concentration or time or simply the desire of not taking the trouble. After all, content is everywhere, it is very easy to not notice it.
I use infographic designs to solve this problem. We all think in pictures. Even while we are reading we try to frame a picture about it in our mind. With icons and supporting text, it is easy to frame that image and appreciate it. Quite a high possibility that the reader gets inspired too.
What is the uniqueness about your Startup?
Startups and people always make news. There is a lot written about them for every little news they make. I try to collect this information (a little journalism), jigsaw it together such that it makes sense. So every detail – starting from what gave them birth, their infancy, the choices they had, the decisions they made and where do they stand now – are represented as the design, all in one place.
We try to cover many startups and people. Periodically, these are updated to keep the story up-to-date.
What is the revenue model?
Most of the info-graphics sheer created out of passion and curiosity. Business and startups approach me to create info-graphics for various purposes like business models, proposals, performance reports, marketing, etc – and hence money comes in.
Who are the consumers that you are targeting? How is this going to affect them?
Everyone who is looking for an inspiration to start on her own. Students who are fresh out of college, corporates who are looking for that one big idea.
Startup was never about starting a setup on your own to make money, it has always been a way of life.
What is the big picture of your startup?
The big picture is to have all notable startups mentioned on the website as time-lines.
What is the success story of your startup in your own words?
When I Started, my info-graphics were bite-size and did not contain much information, so much so that people need not spend more than a minute on them. They lacked the depth and the sufficient backup information and failed to strike the cord with people. They had to be more descriptive in nature. I later realized that info-graphics is not just about the icons, text and design – it has a lot to do with journalism and data crunching and making the design more effective and usable.
The data then needs to be matched to the right icon and I always fell short of them. Gradually, spending time on creating a few most-used icons I have created a small library which still keeps growing.
Having adapted these skills, I spend 30% less time on making my visuals and I plan to reduce it further.
Thanks Vaishali. Best of luck.