Intro
In 2021, I was working at the Apple store as a Specialist. Eventually, I found out that Apple had something called a Career Experience, where they offered current employees the opportunity to experience different fields and professions with the company. Although I was barely learning what UI and UX even was at the time, I was selected to intern with the User Experience Design (UXD) team.
For the next 4 months, I worked on an app called SEED, which is a learning tool for Apple channel employees. Apple channels are companies that sell Apple products at their store like Best Buy, Target, etc. Furthermore, the employees specifically hired to sell Apple products use SEED for things such as training and product information. Safe to say, SEED was an imperative tool for success in their role.
Main Role
I and one other designer from the team, Julian, were tasked with designing a new "Self Service" feature for SEED. The new feature would allow channel employees themselves to update, add, or remove the current stores they work at.
For the next couple of weeks, Julian and I would attend various meetings where we analyzed constraints, determined which requirements were high and low priority. However, most meetings we showcased our designs to stakeholders for their buy in.
As the deadline drew closer, I was asked to present our designs to stakeholders. I made prototypes for each iteration and guided our stakeholders through the user flows.
Below is a prototype of the final design
Other responsibilities
Design
Design new account management feature called "Self Service"
Ideate a new experience for channel employee quizzes
In charge of mobile view designs
Stakeholder presentations
Explained design decisions to stakeholders
Achieve stakeholder buy in despite pushback
Guide stakeholders through user flows using prototypes
Behavioral specs
Create specs for developers to know how features should behave
Create specs for a non user facing section of SEED
Specs for all screen sizes
Takeaways
I was very fortunate to experience an introduction to UX of this caliber. Even though I was just learning about the field, I hit the ground running. Despite me being just a beginner, my team believed in me to, design a new feature, present designs to stakeholders and other things you wouldn't be able to replicate through a bootcamp, or online course. Yes, there were challenges but I had the help of my team throughout the way. I know this experience is invaluable and it will play a huge part in my next role. Again, thank you UXD team.
