2019
Elephant
UX design internship over Summer 2019
Role
UX Creative intern
Duration
10 weeks
Tool
_
Team
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THE INTERNSHIP
UX Creative intern at the Elephant, Brooklyn, NY.
Over the summer of 2019, I interned as a UX creative intern at Elephant. The internship program includes four weeks of the intern project and six weeks of the client project. I joined the creative team and worked for building a design system of a new upcoming OTT(Over-the-top media service) platform.
I worked closely with a team of UX designers, visual designers, art directors, and engineers. While collaborating with the team, I received constant feedback and learned about a design system.
Due to NDA, I am not able to share the project details until the product launch. However, I would love to share my experience If you would be interested in hearing more about what I have learned from the project.
Design
Design For A Cross-Platform Product
During the client project, I created a component library with a team of UX and visual designers. It was the best practice to mobilize components blocks for building a UI across platforms and devices. It was particularly instructive to compare the different UX strategies and design patterns for each breakpoint to enrich user experience. This exploration allowed me to range over the hallmarks of OTT UI and how to create a uniform experience across devices without curtailing users’ ability to understand tasks.
Creating A Design System
The growing size of the project manifests the need for a shared components library that embodies the brand identity to fluidify an agile development environment. By adopting a component library, we hoped to enhance design and development efficiency and offer a large-scale product in a more consistent manner. To build a single, useful library for the vastly complex components, we wanted to comply with the following.
Modularity
A set of default blocks in a position to override contents while the design remained intact.
Easy of use
The components must be arranged in a clear and approachable design system hierarchy.
Sustainability
The design system must be easy to add, edit, and maintain the components.
I read up on industry-leading design systems like Google's material design and Apple's human interface guideline to look into how they maintain the infrastructures to build a sustainable design system. Based on the study, I dissected UI into an atom level and made a set of replicas of them to create default component blocks. It was an excellent opportunity to delve into the conventions of design patterns and practice them thoroughly.
Communication
Share The Progress
A team is like a bunch of independent people working interdependently. Thus the importance of communication is difficult to overstate. The best way to start can be boiled down to one simple sentence. “Always share the progress.”
Sharing my progress and getting feedback is the fastest way to adapt to a new community. Also, in that way, it is easier for supervisors to manage the work, and they could help me immediately when I am going in the wrong direction.
In addition to that, sharing progress makes a perfect chance to ask questions and take a private lesson from other designers. What else can be better than this for an intern?
Working Efficiently And Effectively
I asked the designers," What is the key to be a good designer?". Out of many valuable lessons, one sentence especially fixed in my mind. – Know the difference between working efficiently and effectively.
From the time that I got this lesson from Roque Silva, who was my UX guru at Elephant, it soon became the thesis of my internship. In search of the answer to the advice, what I have learned is my reliability is determined by the level of my floor – which is the minimum quality that I can produce in any circumstance. Each project has a deadline and quality to meet. Things do not always work around me. Thus identifying the best pace possible while maintaining quality is the way to go long.
Efficiency is understanding my role and responsibility in the team and dovetail with the needs within a given time. Always think as a part of the team is the key to achieve efficiency.
Effectiveness would be raising my floor. I want to bring up one of my favorite quotes for this one – "We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training."
Writing a working journal always helps to scope out the capability. It helps me to assess the productivity level and cultivate better time management skills.
It was such a wonderful experience to work with, learn from, and be inspired by one of the most passionate and talented teams of creatives. I would like to appreciate to everyone in the Elephant for the unforgettable summer.
