ROLE: UX & UI DESIGNER (Freelance)
JUNE 2022 - ONGOING
Background:
interkom is a digital cloud service for businesses. It offers solutions for businesses that want to simplify and streamline their work, developing tailored solutions for telephony and switching services, electronic driver logs and digital signage.
Background
As product designer, user researcher, UX/UI designer, and I had the opportunity to be part of the entire design process of the product, including brainstorming, UX, project management, and business-related processes. This project spann for 7 months from user research to concept testing. I've been extremely fortunate to have part of this journey and still be part of the journey. Some key learnings of which I have listed below:
Big challenges require small steps
Take small steps, because big changes can not be brought overnight, especially not just by an application alone.
Be open to research and let ideas go.
I thought too digitally and approached the product with too concrete ideas about the result, thus failing to correctly take into account some needs and challenges of the target group and thus unfavorably defined the minimum viable product.
Expectations right away.
As a learning: Make sure to really (I mean, really really) get the expectations of the client right and to clearly communicate the exact goal of the business and by the shareholders – I thought I did so, but I felt a lack of understanding here and there.
Day-to-day responsibilities
UI Design
Designing UI elements and tools such as navigation menus, search boxes, tabs, and widgets for our digital assets in addition to testing UI elements such as CTAs, banners, page layouts, page designs, page flows, and target links for landing pages.
Coordinate with the team
Go through feedback on previous designs, and briefs for new design, and coordinate with the team, stakeholders and developers
Design system
Monitor and manage the design system while maintaining design consistency via the use of style guides and style sheets and ensure that established standards and best practices are followed.
Design strategy
Developing and conceptualizing a comprehensive UI/UX design strategy for the brand.
UX research
Providing advice and guidance on the implementation of UX research methodologies and testing activities in order to analyze and predict user behavior.
The sites included Homepage, Service pages, About us, How we work and contact us
The process
Discover, Define, Design, and Deliver
I followed HCD process by first conducting user research. After synthesizing inspiring insights from survey and interviews, I defined the problem and jumped right into the ideation phase. From sketches all the way into fidelity prototypes, I gradually created the first version of the application. Right now, we are conducting usability testings and will iterate more based on the feedback we receive.
Research
Since I wasn’t very familiar with the cloud service industry, I began with some secondary research to gain a better understanding of the market trends and demographics. I then conducted interviews to learn more about the different experiences people have had with cloud based services.
.Persona
To start getting an idea of who Interkom’s users are, I used everything that I have learned so far from my secondary research to create provisional personas. This helped me to determine the criteria for participants I would recruit for my user interviews and start understanding what their needs might be based on their gains and pains.
Pursuing the pixel-perfect craftmanship
By the end of the three-month project, I delivered the design specs of the first version product. My client and I are conducting usability tests and we will iterate based on the feedback we received.
Results and takeaways
It was the very first time for me working as the only designer in a startup team. I was able to have more space and flexibilities to explore design options and user interactions but I also needed to mock up every single screen for development. Although it was tons of work, I practiced designing flows that are usually ignored in short-term school projects, such as on-boarding, submenus, and subcategory. I've gained a holistic view of a web application in terms of end-to-end experience and product strategies.
I spent quite amount of time discussing and reviewing both visual and interaction designs with the client. I learned how to effectively convey my rationale and justify the design during the discussions back-and-forth, and I also realized that efficient and open internal communications would motivate the teammates and drive the entire project going towards a better direction.