In person · Saturday, 10 October 2026 · 12:00 – 2:00 PM IST
WTF is design engineering?
What ten years of designing taught me about building
An intro to native design engineering: from handing off mockups to building what you design, told through an iOS interaction that went viral.
Details
- When
- Saturday, 10 October 2026
- 12:00 – 2:00 PM IST
- Where
- In person
- Venue: to be announced
- Seats
- 40 seats · ₹1,000
- For designers who want to understand iOS deeply enough to direct the build, not just prompt it.
Why I’m doing this
It started as a necessity. I learned to build because handing off kept losing what made my designs good. Now everyone is looking for a design engineer, and the title means something different to everyone. So I want to draw the line clearly: what design engineering is, and what it isn’t.
What we’ll get into. Four parts, one afternoon.
2016: the designer who handed off
Mockups, specs, and watching the shipped app lose what made the design good. Every designer knows this feeling.
The turn: learning to build
Paytm, ET Money, Loop: from prototyping to Rive to SwiftUI, because handing off kept losing the feel.
The proof: the interaction that went viral
The iPhone Duo’s OS, emulated on an iPad in SwiftUI: 42K views in 30 seconds. Taken apart on screen: what was designed, what was built, and why people stopped scrolling.
What a design engineer is, and isn’t
What ten years taught me: it’s judgment, not tools. Knowing what to build, why something feels off, and which tool each piece needs.
What it is. And what it isn’t.
A design engineer is
- Someone who designs it and builds it, so the decisions survive
- Owning the feel: motion, touch and every state, not just the screen
- Choosing the right tool for each piece: SwiftUI, Rive or code
- Using AI to go faster, with the judgment to know when it’s wrong
- Shipping to real people, on real devices
A design engineer isn’t
- Someone who hands off a mockup and hopes
- Making a mockup move and calling it done
- Picking a favourite tool first and forcing everything through it
- Prompting until it looks okay
- Only making demos for Dribbble
Why Vikas. Ten years of designing interfaces and building them.
Vikas Raj Yadav
Staff Product Designer · Design Engineer · Rive Ambassador
Previously at Paytm, ET Money and Loop (YC). His iPhone Duo concept, built in SwiftUI on an iPad, reached 42K views in a YouTube collaboration with FavoriteTechX. This afternoon is the story behind it, and how you can build the same way.
- designing and engineering, since 2016
- 10 yrs
- views on the iPhone Duo concept, in 10 days
- 42K+
- followers on LinkedIn
- 13K+