The Best Summer Ever.
In summer 2019, I worked as a UX Design intern at Shutterfly’s Commerce team. Together with a Product Management intern, we led the redesign of the ‘My Account’ dashboard to help millions of users to quickly complete their tasks and better navigate through our platform.
Looking back at the past three months, I fell in love with my project and explored every possibility to learn and grow as a UX designer. I learned to utilize communication as the best design tool to deliver meaningful solutions and always strive to know a little bit more about our users. At the end of the internship, I presented this project with my fellow PM partner to our Chief Product Officer, our VP of Product Management and all the senior product managers and engineers from the Commerce team. It has been an extraordinary journey that I can proudly share as the best summer of my life.
Due to NDA, I’m not able to share more information about my project here until its official launch in Q1 2020. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any question about my internship experience. Stay tuned!
My Medium Publication: What I learned from my UX internship at Shutterfly
Check out My Project Presentation: Shutterfly Case Study
“Thoroughly enjoyed having you on our team this summer! You did a great job and we are working on bringing your designs to life soon!”
“It was a pleasure working with you and seeing the new account area unfold through your research and vision. I believe in you and your talent!”
Key Takeaways.
Know a Little More About Your Users
After talking to users face to face twice this summer, I was able to hear their voices, watch them interacting with our products and finally prove to them that we indeed input their voices into our design. As UX designers, we are the ones who should always strive to know a little more about our users. For me, it is learning from users that help me reinforce the value of UX design.
Communication — The Best Design Tool
The uniqueness of my project required me to constantly collaborate with different stakeholders throughout my design process. As I interacted with more and more stakeholders, I found myself gradually improving on tailoring my communication to the right audience and asking more questions regarding the product strategy. My understanding of the overall company business was refreshed and deepened every day.
Explore the World Beyond Design
By attending some scrum, sprint meetings and brown bag sessions with engineers and PMs, I was introduced to the agile workflow and the end-to-end product development process. Working closely with developers also allowed me to learn different ways to make their job easier. I learned to analyze the business performance of a product and incorporate data into my design decisions. By keeping myself updated with the cross-functional teams, I found myself more confident to get stakeholders involved in my design process and deliver more valuable solutions.