Ripplink: Product Design
My 4 month experience working as a product design intern for Ripplink, a mobile platform that focuses on facilitating meaningful relationships between professionals.
Background
My Contribution
Being a part of a small tech startup at its seed stage, I had to wear multiple hats as the solo product designer. The majority of my time at Ripplink, I created user experience and UI design for the first beta app with sketches, wireframes, and hi-fi mockups ready to be presented to stakeholders and potential investors. I first took time to understand the company’s design system and philosophy, which I then used to rapidly iterate on the previous hi-fidelity wireframes that they had for their MVP, as well as to create completely new screens for features they wanted to add before the initial release.
I loved being able to work on screen designs as that is my main passion within UX designing; however, I also realized that more needed to be done with defining the user’s problem and conducting user research. I confronted my boss about it, advocating to have more research done before diving deeper into the designs; however, per business needs, he didn’t have more resources to allot towards thorough research. As a result, I decided to take on a secondary role as the UX Researcher and conducted more usability tests and user interviews so that both me and the company felt more secure in our design decisions, knowing that the mobile app we were producing was actually usable and REALLY getting to our users’ core networking problems. Eventually, these new, data-driven designs were translated from Figma to a working prototype app, which drew in 3 more investors and increased user sign up by 150%.
This being my first design internship, I was initially so nervous going into it. What if I wasn’t good enough? What if I didn’t know how to do something?
However, I soon realized that even though these kinds of worries are completely normal, there was nothing to be afraid of. The whole team at Ripplink was as welcoming as it could get. They proved to be valuable mentors for me to turn to when I was stuck on a problem, but they always encouraged me to take on challenges and jump head first into the realms of design that I was unfamiliar with. I’m so grateful that I got to have this experience so early in my ongoing journey to becoming a full-fledged designer. It taught me so much about so many things, like what it’s like working in the industry, embracing projects that push me beyond my current expertise, and designing effective, powerful products. Here are just a few things I learned…
My Experience and Takeaways
Communicate, communicate, communicate! Because of the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order, my team and I had to work remotely. Nonetheless, this didn’t stop us from being vocal about what needs to be done and who needs to be working on what. When I joined Ripplink in June, I definitely felt like I was just tossed into the middle of a whirlwind of events and deadlines. And while I did get swept up sometimes, what I learned over the months was that asking questions when I need clarification, communicating with my team about my progress, and understanding what other people are doing really helps you stay grounded in your work.
Being the only designer for the company during the duration of my internship, it definitely taught me to speak loud and advocate strongly for good UX practices! While others may push for business needs, I found it crucial not to sacrifice user-centered design. Never ignore the voice and needs of the user! As a designer, it is your duty to make sure that thorough user research is done before diving too deep into designs that might not even be addressing your users’ needs.
There is always more to learn. I feel so blessed to have worked on the Ripplink app with a wonderfully talented group of individuals from all kinds of backgrounds. From the most awesome CEO that guided me throughout my entire internship to the stellar PMs that worked with me to develop the latest feature of the mobile app, I loved collaborating with people across the country that offered up their own experiences and knowledge to expand my perspective beyond that of a designer’s. No matter who you are, there is always more you can learn from those around you, and I can’t wait for more experiences like this in the future! <3
