Trickle
UI/UX Designer Work Expereince
July - Present, 2022
OVERVIEW
In summer 2022, I joined VisionVX’s Trickle Team as a UI/UX Design Intern. I am set to transition into a full-time role in January.
During the 6 months, I devised and analyzed over 200 user surveys to validate our assumptions and ensure products align with user needs.
I reorganized and unified the design system to create the standard of components, text, and layout and unify disjointed experiences.
I also worked with the front-end team to redesign the setting feature to form consistency throughout the products and smooth user experience flow. Our new design empowers users to collaborate and communicate better in their workflow.
Due to privacy concerns, I would be focusing on the high-level design process.
INTODUCING Trickle !!
Trickle is Saas company targeting the North America market for cross-functional collaboration. It is a web application that unifies workspaces where the team can collaborate, communicate and hang out. With features such as news feeds, embeds, live threads, and reactions, users can voice their ideas anytime, synchronically update information through multi-departments, form close cooperation between colleagues, create stronger teams, and have fun at work.
What I WORKED ON…
User Research
I coordinated and led user research studies to validate our assumptions and ensure products aligned with user needs. I Informed product design strategy by identifying target users and needs through user research; conducted stakeholder interviews with executive-level managers, designed and distributed user surveys through Pollfish, budgeted with the financial department, and established internal protocols for the survey research process.
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Identified research topic by communicating with product manager and engineering team.
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Designed qualitative and quantitative questions that address user behaviors and thoughts.
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Distributed, collected, and analyzed survey questions and provided research insights to update users' feedback.
User survey (pictures blurred for confidentiality)
Main Projects
Due to the time emergency, some of Trickle’s user interfaces were designed by the front-end team without the design being polished. The UI design system was unorganized and the prototypes were not aligned with the newest version.
Design System
I collaborated with front-end developers to create a new design system that consistently uses throughout the design prototypes and online version.
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Reorganized the style guides, such as typography, colors, shadow, blur, size…etc.
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Created new components, such as navigation, news feed cards, pinned…etc.
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Redesign some UI tokens, such as buttons, dropdown menus, input, avatar…etc.
Buttons
Typography
Design System (pictures blurred for confidentiality)
Hi-fi Prototypes
I recreated the hi-fi prototypes to the newest updated version, which is used in later iterations. I mainly constructed the news feed page, threads page, live threads page, people page, and settings, which are the main features of Trickle.
Hi-fi Prototypes (pictures blurred for confidentiality)
Redesigned Features...
After communicating with the front-end team and managers, based on user feedback, I made some iterations for several features:
1. Settings feature
Shipped the redesign of the setting feature end-to-end, coordinated with front-end and back-end teams to ensure smooth delivery, and eliminated inconsistency from rapid development at the early prototyping stage.
Settings Feature (pictures blurred for confidentiality)
2. Live thread feature
Shipped a redesign for the live thread feature and eliminated negative feedback by analyzing user feedback to identify root causes of issues, creating 8 different options with respective benefits and drawbacks, and consulting with C-level leadership to determine the best course of action.
Live Thread Feature (pictures blurred for confidentiality)
3. Reaction button
Shipped and Redesigned the Reaction button to make the button more obvious and intuitive for users to click and use.
Reaction Button (pictures blurred for confidentiality)
REFLECTION
1. Expand your scope of knowledge.
I learned lots of front-end knowledge to have a smoother conversation with the tech team. With some front-end coding knowledge, I know how to design and caption the design to make prototypes understandable. I also learned that to be a great designer, I need to not only take the design perspective but also stand in engineers’ and managers’ perspectives. This experience shaped me as a team player and sharpened my communication skills.
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2. A design System is essential for the team to unify design elements.
I have to admit that I have a very basic understanding of the design system before this project. I learned a lot from creating the design system and also improved my Figma skills. A good design system can make the iterations easier later and unify the design as a whole.