UX Design Internship
Summer 2024
UX: Jon Rodz, PM: Anushee Sondhi, Dev: Nick Schaap, Manager: Valerie Tower
June 24’ - September 24’
Figma
Under NDA
In the summer of 2024, I completed a 12-week internship with Adobe as an Experience (UX) Design Intern, contributing to the Adobe Express org— making design easy for all. I was tasked with a broad challenge: mobile in-editor contextual feature discovery and guidance. Starting with initial documents, I focused on identifying a key problem. I identified a major issue with the potential to generate millions in revenue for Express and developed several innovative concepts utilizing learning through play and generative A.I., using approaches not yet seen in the industry. I collaborated closely with Product Managers, Engineers, Researchers, Experience Designers, and Growth Designers to design a new mobile video editor experience.
In my role as an Experience (UX) Design Intern, I took ownership of designing mobile contextual guidance and feature discovery for the video creation workflow. This involved designing user-centered workflows and innovative guidance solutions.
The Problem
The Solution
The Process
This process was 5 weeks research and 5 weeks design, identify the issue through usability and collaboration with key stakeholders. I had 2 guiding values throughout that whole process that helped my collaborators understand key decisions.
Genuineness
Adobe brand to users is intimidating and Express is a tool made for everyone. How can we design to be much more fun and true to the product and the marketing.
POV
Designing a tool for design is one thing but designing it for users with completely different culture and behavior is another. Seeing everything from the users POV.
Kicking off the summer with a broad problem and a vast product like Adobe Express meant I couldn’t rely on documentation alone to identify the an opportunity. Instead I met with numerous designers, researchers, and product managers over several weeks. They provided me with valuable leads, insights, and pain points. Adobe’s dedicated usability testing Fridays aligned perfectly with my project, as they tested on mobile for the first time. These connections not only expanded my knowledge but also built a supportive community. Later, when I began designing, this community provided rapid, invaluable feedback.
For Project 1, I gathered feedback from a single customer due to time and resource limitations. Despite interviewing only one customer, I recognized the value of their input. In Project 2, time constraints prevented interviews, but I always considered the customer's perspective. Their frustrations, when shared, became my guiding light for the redesign, rooted in data-driven decision-making to address customer problems.
As an intern tackling a broad problem, I needed to convince stakeholders that my approach was the best way forward. My designs challenged the norms for guidance practices, and the way I utilized AI was unlike anything they had seen before. To sell these unconventional ideas, I introduced a method I often use in client work when presenting something completely unexpected. I framed the concepts as "Mild" (the expected and most feasible), "Medium," and "Spicy" (the ideal but more ambitious). This approach allowed me to create a vision for what the feature could become while also acknowledging the limitations and constraints.
