Interview with Youssef Abdel Zaher

It began as a hobby as I discovered in myself the passion and ability to design new banking products and services , then it turned to a lifetime dream to become a designer and design revolutionary innovative financial products and services to be used and sold around the world .

I decided absolutely to become a designer as I discovered in myself the passion and ability to design new banking products and services .

As I have more than 7 years different experiences in retail and corporate banking , I design banking products and services , what I want to design more are innovative banking products or services that are not made before in any place in the world , that represents a breakthrough and create new markets .

What distinguishes great designer from good designer is how big and great the effect of his design upon people lives for example Thomas Edison and Steve jobs are great designers as their designs or inventions have great effect upon people lives .

Good designs are ones that are useful to people , easy to use and innovative

Normally everyone will invest in good designs if it is profitable but what will be more important than that is the effect upon people lives , that is to say it positively and radically changes people lives for example Thomas Edison invention of electricity lamp that positively and radically changes people lives .

if I had the time , I want to design a product that remove any barriers of any kind either cultural , religious..etc among people of all nations around the world , a product that spread peace between nations and teach people to know each other culture .

I wish to find a financial institution that support achieving my dream project which is the " Touristic bank branch "

My secret recipe of success in design is " fall in love with your design " , I mean think at your design and how you will make it the best one all the time like thinking all the time at your beloved one , if you do that , I am dead sure you will succeed in your design .

I always dream to make innovative products that change the world like Steve jobs and his statements or quotes inspire me .

I follow up any innovative products in my field and in other fields , I practice regularly to design new products or services by using innovation techniques , I plan to make studies that will help me in the designing process .

At university phase , I wished to work at one of the biggest investment companies as i made studies at one of most renowned investment professional certificates

For me , Any design begins with identifying customer needs , so the product or service will be "designed" by formulating its features and process that cover expected uses of it based upon customers needs .

My family was always the biggest supporter to me especially my father and my mother who continuously motivate me to be the best in my field .

I presented my first banking product design to the bank to be turned to a banking project but it was not executed as i missed the projects pipeline deadline , then i made different trials with different institutions but in vein ,

then I discovered by coincidence the A design competition , so I decided to win in this competition after one year working on my project which is the " education currency " project , I presented it to the competition and then , thank God , I won the award at banking and financial instrument category

Designers should present their works in easy , understood and eye catching form

I have number of banking and non banking project ideas that I want to turn it to real projects , so I seek an institution that have interest in these ones like :

Banking projects :

Touristic Bank branch
Vehicle Banking
Smart Banking
umbrella banking
Football Banking
hidden words Loyalty program co brand bank card
Electricity rationalization program
Recycle bin ATM
Financial Camera service
Resident Building financial services
International fixed Deposit system
Bank Mobile
E-check card
Time Card
Fraction bank Account

Stock Exchange projects

Resident-Investor home equity plan
silver-gold-platinum stocks program

social network projects :

Online Rosca
Life Experiences social Network
Investment social network
Readers social network
Talents Social network

Touristic projects :

Touristic bank branch
Interactive Tourism
Touristic Railway
Touristic cafe
Other projects :
World Language
Car Mall
Business Mall
Delivery box system

My ultimate goal is to design revolutionary innovative banking products or services , that is useful to people in their lives and was not made before at any place in the world

More innovative banking projects in the future

As Design helps in making people lives more easier so that it helps creating better society .

My designs projects credit is just one winning project until now but I think no design will give me the most satisfaction as this means the ceiling of my dream and consequently I will stop dreaming to make better projects than this one to have more satisfaction .

I will talk about the banking industry , I wish that banking product and service designers make use of the latest technology like virtual reality ( VR) , Augmented reality ( AR) and Artificial intelligence , when designing their products and services .

According to high level officials statements in giant technology companies like facebook and Apple about the expected scale of latest technology use in our lives in the future like VR and AR technology , the design field will be headed toward heavily use of these latest technologies .

My life moto as a designer " Dream big because you will achieve it at End , if you achieve part of it , you still achieve a big one "

I think designs set the trends

The question I wish people ask to me is " how your design will makes our lives better " .

As a user of this design , I will ask my self " how this design will makes my life better and easier " and as a designer I will wish to make greater than that design or product .

until now i did not experience that , but I will say yes I believe in co design when my partner complements me and I think that one is the ideal partner , that is to say he has the skills i do not have to make that design more successful than if i work on it alone .

My bank customers have had the most influence on my winning project " education currency " as they provide me indirectly through interactions and through their feedback about their need to save to cover their kids future education expenses on which i based my project idea .

by practicing , by trial and error , by getting feedback from family members , friends and professionals about your design , by getting more education that helps me in the designing process , by following up continuously innovative products around the world in my field and other fields and latest technologies used in different fields .

I would want to talk and discuss with great designers and design influencers to learn from them

My favorite color is blue , my favorite place is Aswan city in Egypt , my favorite food is Kebab , my favorite season is winter , My favorite thing is watching movie in the cinema .

watching a movie that is based on new idea at the cinema or listening to new , different and energetic songs motivates me and gives me positive energy to design

I have a concern about 2 issues which I think will affect our lives in the future negatively :

climate changes and "extreme use" of technology in our lives

I wish all people interested and are fans of the design field to achieve their dreams and wish them best luck , thanks

For me , Any design begins with identifying customer needs , so the product or service will be "designed" by formulating its features and process based upon their expected use of it to cover their needs .

I like designing innovative banking products or services , that is useful to people in their lives and that was not made before at any place in the world .

As my winning project is my first design experience , so it will be my favourite one as it will remind me with my success , my winning design is named " co brand bank card credit hours rights loyalty program " or shortly " education currency" , it is co brand bank card loyalty program sponsored between partner issuing bank and partner education institution that rewards cardholders for their card transactions either at that partner education institution or other non partner commercial institutions ,

this reward will be in the form of education loyalty currencies ," learning hours rights" or LHRs and " credit hours rights"or CRHRs , the smaller loyalty currency LHRs will be accumulated to the bigger one CRHR which will be accumulated to the required ones to be redeemed for an education product taken at partner education institution premise ,

In return for the rewards given by that education institution , the partner issuing bank will make an agreement with that partner education institution to share interchange fees " profit " of every bank card transaction at a specified percentage .

Example

Bank X issue a co branded bank card with loyalty program named "credit hours rights loyalty program " sponsored between bank X and education institution Y , the reward structure according to the loyalty program :
Earning rates :
for Partner education institution card transactions , earning rate 7 dollars =1 LHR
For non partner institution card transactions , earning rate 10 dollars = 1 LHR
Accumulion and redemption rate
30 LHRs = 1 CRHR
60 CRHRs = 1 education year right
4 year Business studies course right at Education institution Y ( Required CRHRs ) = 4 education years course right = 4× 60 CRHRs=240 CRHRs

This project is filed for international patent application no. PCT/ IB2015/052766 Dated 16/04/2015

This project is published under name " credit hours rights loyalty program system and method of bank card with profit share scheme no.WO/2016/166573 dated 20/10/2016 at WIPO or World intellectual propert right website

I feel most creative while driving my car as many scenes coming across my eyes so one of these scenes could give me inspiration for new product or service idea

I focus on aspects that makes the product or design more easy to use , useful to customers and innovative while designing it .

Excitement , refreshment and challenge

happiness , proud and self achievement

successfull product must be useful to customers , easy to use and innovative

it must be useful to people life and easy to use .

The designer must design products that is useful to society and environment -friendly

I think any product or service design in every field will depend heavily on technology in the future to the extent that human intervention will be decreased to the minimal level as we hear nowadays about technologies that will prevail our lives in the future like Artificial intelligence , virtual reality VR , Augmented Reality AR and 3D printing .

The inspiration for my work come as a result of 3 things :

my previous banking experience , follow up of innovative products around the world not just in banking sector but in other sectors and follow up of latest technology used in different fields

I use a mix of 2 design approaches as follows :

customer needs -centered approach" which is designing new banking products or services that cover customer needs

a new financial products design approach I developed myself which is named “ financial intersection point" design approach “ which is designing new banking products or services by making mix between two sectors through finding financial aspects intersection point between the two sectors , that is to mean the possible common financial aspects used in both sectors

example

I designed my winning project “ co brand bank card credit hours rights loyalty program” or “ education currency “ shortly by using a mix of :

" customer needs – centered" design approach through designing the loyalty program based upon the customers needs to save to cover future education expenses through redeeming accumulated credit hours rights ( earned by doing bank card transactions ) for education course taken at partner education institution .

" financial intersection point" design approach through finding the financial intersection point or possible common financial aspects between the banking and education sector which are “ the learning and credit hours units used in Education sector “ which will be turned to the “ learning and credit hours rights “ That will used in the co brand bank card loyalty program sponsored between partner issuing bank and education institution .

Be very ambitious and make your dream big because you will reach it at the End , even if you achieved part of it , you still achieved big one .

a good and successful design must be useful to people , easy to use and innovative .

As for financial products or services designer , he must have analytical and creativity skills

. As my winning project is still in the concept stage , so no applied technologies are used until now to turn concept to final product form ,

but As for presenting my product or design in its concept stage , I used my laptop beside couple of software for writing and documentation like Word , PDF and Photoshop for the design drawings beside using google and youtube for researching and collecting required information and data

As I designed my winning project during searching for a job so I have free of time and I did not experience time limits problems to the extent I try to manage it .

I enjoy mostly the ideation or concept stage in the design work as it is the most challenging and entertaining stage in the design work .

I have a number of banking and non banking new product and service ideas that I want to turn it to real projects , so I am searching for an institution that have interest in these ones like :

Banking projects :

Touristic Bank branch
Vehicle Banking
Smart Banking
umbrella banking
Football Banking
hidden words Loyalty program co brand bank card
Electricity rationalization program
Recycle bin ATM
Financial Camera service
Resident Building financial services
International fixed Deposit system
Bank Mobile
E-check card
Time Card
Fraction bank Account

Stock Exchange projects

Resident-Investor home equity plan
silver-gold-platinum stocks program

social network projects :

Online Rosca
Life Experiences social Network
Investment social network
Readers social network
Talents Social network

Touristic projects :

Touristic bank branch
Interactive Tourism
Touristic Railway
Touristic cafe

Other projects :

World Language
Car Mall
Business Mall
Delivery box system

As for my winning project I design it myself but I get the assistance of two people , Mr.Shady Bahaa ( freelancer ) who made the product Advertising brochure and Mr.Amir Saqr who represents the Advertising agency which made the product Advertising video clip for me

Any one are welcomed to contact me by :

Call me : 002-01018010193

Email me : youazaher@gmail.com

No , thanks