UX Research and Design Intern

Pure UX - Summer 2020

The Project

Pure UX is a design consultancy that aims to create outstanding user experiences. In the summer of 2020, Pure UX started the development of a women’s health app. This health app would help professional women learn new skills, develop healthy habits, and connect them with mentors.

Note: Due to the proprietary nature of the project, I cannot share screenshots of my work

What I did

As a UX/UI Research Intern, I conducted market research to determine what kinds of health apps are currently on the market, their functionalities, and their target users, but I also looked into what types of services professional women want and the typical age range and experience level of these women. This information was later used to determine how our app would be different from the existing health apps, and our target users - professional women from the age range of mid-20s to late-40s. A few different features we planned to implement were a mentorship service between women for various skills, a dashboard for different habits the user wanted to learn, and a retrospective for their progress towards developing habits and skills.

A big part of my role was to conduct user interviews with our target users - professional women from the age range of mid-20s to late-40s. To do this, we created a set of questions to determine what professional women are looking to gain from our app, what they would actually use it for, and their experience with health apps and trackers. We also wanted to understand their thoughts on our Figma design prototype - aspects they liked, aspects they didn’t like. Elements they thought were confusing and elements that were intuitive. We also wanted to understand their thoughts on how the colors, fonts, and icons made them feel as a potential user. Since the duration of this internship was during shelter-in-place, we conducted our interviews on Zoom.

As the internship progressed and I was conducting more user interviews than market research, I felt there was a strong need to actually apply our findings from interviews and make changes to the design prototype. Due to the large number of tasks to complete, no one was able to work on the design prototype until I asked to take charge of the design changes. From my proactiveness to work on the design prototype, we were able to conduct multiple rounds of interviews with previous interviewees and received more feedback - some suggesting other changes while others were complementing the new design.

Another task I took on was creating the landing page for the health app. Using a template, I used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to make graphics and edit pictures to showcase the app. I used HTML and CSS to re-arrange elements of the page and also add new ones.

What I learned

This internship was my first real experience working at a company. In this internship, I worked as a part of the design and research team, separate from the development team. While working as a part of the design and research team, we worked in weekly sprints with Friday meetings to discuss and progress updates and task plans for the upcoming week. This was my first exposure to the sprint-style agile work method, a method I find effective and helpful for development.

Something else I learned was how to communicate with others in a professional manner. This means how to communicate my ideas and concerns in a clear but respectful manner so that my peers and supervisor can understand what I want or need from them. This may seem simple; however, at the time, as someone starting out in the industry, it was important for me to pay attention to the language I was using such as avoiding slang or texting shorthand.

I remember struggling with a market research task. I don’t remember what I needed to research but I remember becoming frustrated at not understanding what I was supposed to research because the task contained jargon that was unfamiliar to me. After attempting to decipher the task, I had an idea of what I needed to do only to run into the trouble of not being able to find the information I was looking for. I consulted my parents to see if they understood the task and when I wasn’t able to make any progress, I asked my supervisor to clarify. I then learned that I completely misunderstood the task. From this semi-brief recounting of my experience, I learned to ask clarifying questions if I don’t understand a task rather than beat around the bush and try to figure it out myself.

Another important takeaway from this internship was the skills. I learned how to use Figma, one of the most important prototype tools for UX/UI and design work. I also learned the agile method of sprints and how to organize our work according to sprints. We used Notion to map out tasks; however, the format is very similar to other agile method systems. I also learned how to conduct user interviews and what kind of questions to ask when doing so, such as establishing questions like the user’s experience with similar products or ensuring there are no leading questions that would sway a user’s answer one way or the other.

Why is this important?

This internship was my first experience in UX/UI research and design. Prior to this internship, I had only heard about the field briefly and in passing; however, I never thought I would become so passionate about this field. Over the years after my internship at Pure UX, my passion for UX/UI has only grown as I think about how I can apply user-centered design to my daily life and how I always strive to find a way to relate my work to target users. To this day, I pride myself on my user-centered thinking and my ability to put myself in others’ shoes.

In a similar sense, this internship showed me my love of talking to other people and learning about their experiences and views. This was important for me because I have always been very shy and never really talked too much, which is surprising for someone who enjoys talking to people. It was important to learn that I actually want to talk to others which was a crucial first step into growing into the person I am today - still shy to some extent but eager to talk to others. It was also important to learn in order to understand what kind of jobs I am looking for in the future. As someone who wants to talk to others, I cannot fathom working a job where interaction with people - users, stakeholders, co-workers, and superiors, is limited. Understanding the value I place in communication and learning about people was crucial to know not only for my career but for my personal and professional growth as a person.

To this day, I continue to love UX/UI and want to continue to learn more about the growing field.