Design Meetup in Novi Sad

Design meetup returns to Novi Sad!

April 25 at 12:00 we're hosting the design meetup in Novi Sad again. Before this, for two years we ran meetups in Belgrade, but we're returning to the city where our design events started.

Meetup topic

Design is interface, storytelling, emotion, gamification, smart devices. All of these are at once tools of design and areas of its application. This time we've gathered speakers who are each experts in their field, and together they will show what modern design can be.

Our speakers

Elena Sakharova

"Socio-cultural design. How to build products using forecasting"
Head of Design at Zay Neobank, Ex-Art Director at Zvuk, Ex-Head of Design at Qfinds
Key points:

• We don't just make interfaces or brands; we take into account how people live, what they believe, what they fear and what they want.
• We look at signals today to understand what will be popular.
• How to build products using forecasting.
• A product is not just a function. It's a reflection of the time in which it was created.

Daulet Zhanaidarov

"How to retain audience attention while telling a story? The experience of Kinopoisk's video essays"
Video and podcast editor at Kinopoisk, host of the podcast 'Close-Up'. Lecturer at the Moscow Film School. Author and editor-compiler of the book 'History of Domestic Cinema'.
Key points:

• How do you make sure your video isn't turned off five seconds in? Why make viewers cry? And how can memes help? Daulet Zhanaidarov, editor of Kinopoisk's videos and podcasts, will answer all these questions in his talk.
• Kinopoisk's video essays are one of the most popular educational formats on Russian-language YouTube: over 10 years the team released several hundred analyses of films, series, directors and film movements and built an audience of 1.5 million.

Mikhail Goransky

What is the player's journey? How to build a player's journey in game design?
Lead game designer. In gamedev since 2015, working as a game and level designer. Ex-My Games, Ex-Nekki/Banzai, Ex-Nexters, Ex-Playflock, Ex-Gamegarden
Key points:

• What is the player's journey?
• Level design that helps to guide. A talk about level design techniques.
• Narrative guides. How to direct the player narratively, and statistics of decisions.
• How to guide the player systemically by indicating a path of progress. How to guide the player mechanically, not just through game completion.

Tatiana Andronova

“Digital Fatigue and Ways to Reduce It”
IC designer at an international fintech company, previously worked at Yandex and Tinkoff. Host of the DesignSisters podcast and owner of the DesignWarmups channel.
Key points:

• Why users struggle with interfaces — and how design itself creates fatigue
• UX patterns that actually reduce cognitive load (not just “make things look nice”)
• Why copywriting matters more than most people think
• How emotions shape user behavior
• How to understand in 5 minutes whether your interface is broken using AI

The meetup will be useful for product designers, game designers, and graphic designers.

We will have a great location: the gallery of the Serbian publishing house Prometej. It's a cozy hall in the old part of the city, with excellent acoustics, a warm atmosphere and a pleasant courtyard.

This time the event will take place "